Hot Ice: A Novel by Cherry Adair

Author:Cherry Adair [Cherry Adair]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, General, Contemporary, Thrillers, Suspense, Fiction
ISBN: 0345476433
Google: i89ydbpzJmsC
Amazon: B000FCK9M2
Publisher: Random House LLC
Published: 2005-07-19T07:00:00+00:00

Twenty-six

ZURICH

Lisa Maki sat in the only chair in the room and crossed her legs. She lit a French cigarette, inhaled deeply, then let the acrid smoke curl from her nostrils. She picked a piece of tobacco off her tongue with short, unpainted nails before she spoke. “Which of you?” she asked, her voice thick with fury, and, Madre de Dios, fear, though she would never let them see it.

“Which of you,” she repeated to the three people standing before her, “will be fearless enough to tell her we have failed? That despite our brilliant and careful plan, Mano del Dios moved faster, intercepted us, and from beneath our very noses took our prize?”

Somehow, the Mano del Dios operatives had arrived in Zurich almost simultaneously with Lisa. How this was possible Lisa did not know. She hadn’t even seen that they were being followed from the airport until the big black truck overtook them and swooped in to take the prize.

Her man, driving the limo, had been killed first.

Marcos and Felicity were dead. Their bodies, stripped of identity, were still in the rental car parked behind the motel. Gregory was bleeding on the cheap hotel rug. Without proper medical care, he too would be dead come morning.

The only thing that had gone right was the three T-FLAC operatives’ deaths, as well as that of the woman. The XC11 gas she’d used was quick and lethal. The supplier had guaranteed his product with his life.

Half her job was done. But her brilliantly executed plan had, unfortunately, assisted Mano del Dios in retrieving the disks as easily as a mother plucked a teat from a baby’s mouth.

The ramifications of her failure made Lisa feel numb. She looked at her remaining three members through a veil of terror. “Well?”

Their silence was punctuated by the sound of rain hitting the windowpane.

“I will do it,” Stefan said when the quiet stretched unbearably. He had the body of a man and the mind of an adolescent. His accuracy with a pistol was nothing short of miraculous. His stamina in bed impressive.

“No.” Lisa stood. “It is I who bears the responsibility.” Taking her cell phone from her pocket, she nodded to Stefan as she flipped it open. Stefan removed a Ruger from the pack he carried. Before Christina or Gregory knew what he was about, the boy shot them. One shot each to the temple.

Pop. Pop. They hit the floor almost simultaneously and lay still. Dead still.

“Good boy.” Lisa smiled at him as she hit the speed-dial number for her own office in Barcelona. As the phone rang on the other end, she walked over and gently removed the gun from Stefan’s hand. “Good with a gun, but not a good driver, I’m afraid. Five minutes faster and we could’ve retrieved the disks and completed our task.” She raised his pistol. His innocent eyes widened and his mouth contorted with terror. Without hesitation she pulled the trigger.

Stefan stared at her blankly for a moment. His mouth moved. She wasn’t sure she’d hit him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.