Elektra Read Online Free Page B

brutal stepping-stones until guaranteeing himself a slot at the very top of the money web. And if he hadn’t been such a… nice person along the way, then so be it. He’d like to meet the person who could honestly say he’d gained his billions—yes, billions —by being “nice.”
    And therein was his trade-off.
    DeMarco took a drink of Macallan and couldn’t help wondering how long he would have lived had he chosen a different path in life. What if he and Claudette, that nearly forgotten first wife, had actually gotten along, and what if she hadn’t threatened to leave him if he cheated on her again? In fact, if he was really going to go the morality route, what if he hadn’t done exactly that—cheated on her and gotten caught? Claudette might still be alive, they might even have had a couple of children—ones who actually liked him—and done the whole happily-ever-after thing.
    Nah. That just wasn’t him.
    “How much longer do I have? Minutes? Hours?”
    DeMarco hadn’t realized he’d spoken aloud until the head of his security force, a middle-aged man named Warren Bauer, answered him from where he was stationed at a bank of security monitors. The bright green screens showed armed personnel in all the key places around the estate, and all were fit, alert, and ready for trouble. There were no slackers on Bauer’s crew. “You’re gonna be fine, Mr. DeMarco.”
    DeMarco glanced over at him and frowned slightly. Bauer was a nice enough–looking guy who took his job very seriously. He even dressed the part, sporting a crewcut above a heavy-duty flak jacket and double holsters crisscrossing his chest, with each side holding a no-screwing-around Llama 9mm Omni. He didn’t know what they were loaded with—he’d always had the money to leave the unpleasant things like that to paid employees—but with circumstances being what they were, DeMarco was sure Bauer had gone for something particularly nasty.
    Bauer adjusted the state-of-the-art headset pushed into his ear. “Perimeter, what’s your status?” There was only a one-or two-second delay before the security man received a half dozen crackling reassuring replies. With a slightly self-satisfied smile, Bauer settled back on his stool, then turned to study DeMarco. “You’re gonna be fine,” he repeated. “Just go easy on the sauce, sir.” The way Bauer raised his eyebrow made his boss wonder if he really believed there was going to be a problem at all. Some people, no matter how smart, could be spectacular fools. He himself knew about that. “In case we have to move you,” Bauer added.
    DeMarco almost chuckled. Instead of obeying, he lifted the glass and took a long, exaggerated sip of the buttery smooth scotch. He rolled the liquid over his tongue, wishing he could appreciate it, then swallowed. “Why bother?” he grated. “You can’t stop her. Nobody can stop her.”
    Bauer sat up a little straighter, all ears. Until now, his wealthy boss hadn’t said a word about why they were here, other than he was afraid he’d become the target of an assassination assignment. Bauer had assumed a corporate hit attempt, probably a couple of well-trained ex-soldiers turned mercenaries like himself. Now Mr. DeMarco’s words opened up a whole new arena of interesting possibilities. “Her?”
    DeMarco ground his teeth and stared at his glass for a long moment. What the hell—it was well past confession time. He’d done so many things wrong in his life that he ought to be able to own up on his last night. “I didn’t tell you,” he admitted. “I was afraid you wouldn’t take the job.” He paused, then ran his fingers through his carefully styled hair, leaving it shaggy and out of place. He didn’t care. Bauer almost didn’t catch the rich man’s next mumbled words. “I never should have hired you.”
    But Bauer was more interested than afraid. He’d taken a chance with DeMarco—under normal circumstances, he would have never hired on in an