Hitmen Triumph Read Online Free Page B

near a theater in the Kensington shopping district of Calgary. The weather had stayed nice, and on this evening a lot of people were walking the streets.
    Kensington is an older area of Calgary, across the Bow River from the downtown skyscrapers, with a lot of cool shops and restaurants. It was the kind of area Nate liked.Fancy people in fancy clothes driving fancy cars. Not my kind of place.
    I was wearing jeans and a beat-up leather jacket. Nate, who had already gone into the theater, had on some designer jeans and an expensive leather jacket. I knew this because I’d been following him down the street from a safe distance so he couldn’t see me. In the last few months, he’d spent a lot of money on clothes. Which made me wonder, of course, where the money had come from.
    It surprised me that he was going to see a movie. I’d expected something else when I’d driven to the house where he was billeted during the season.
    Nate had driven straight to Kensington in his late-model Ford pickup. I’d kept some cars between us, and it wasn’t a problem following him in my old Camry.
    My problem was wondering why two guys in a bright red Mustang had delivered a thousand dollars in cash for him. It seemed obvious that Nate was doing something illegal. Especially because he wasn’t talking about it to me.
    We’ll see you tomorrow night. Usual time. Usual place.
    That’s what the guys had said just before handing me the envelope.
We’ll see you tomorrow night. Usual time. Usual place.
    Since I didn’t know the time or place, the only way to find out was by watching Nate until he met them. Maybe then I’d learn what all this was about.
    A touch on my elbow broke through my thoughts.
    I turned to see who was holding my arm. I was surprised to see a girl—tall, like me. About my age too. With long, burnished copper hair. Freckles. And a very, very nice smile. Wearing jeans and a sweater and a leather jacket that wasn’t as beat up as mine.
    Yup. Mercedes.
    Surprised as I was to see her, I was even more surprised when she leaned close and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
    â€œGreat to see you,” she said. Her voice was velvet, even filtered through my cochlear implant.
    Wow, I thought, I must have really impressed her at the tournament when I gave away all the gambling money. I’d make sure to tell Nate that. Then he’d finally understand I had done the right thing.
    â€œGreat to see you too,” I said. I felt shy.
    In the street’s light, it was easy to see the frown on her face.
    What had I said wrong?
    â€œNolan?” she said slowly.
    I nodded. This suddenly seemed to be going in the wrong direction.
    â€œI am so sorry,” she said. “I thought you were Nate.”
    Oh. It wasn’t
what
I’d said that was wrong. It was
how
I’d said it. As in the way a guy with a hearing difficulty speaks. Instead of the way that a guy in designer jeans and an expensive leather jacket speaks.
    â€œDon’t worry about it,” I said. I wanted to crawl into a sewer grate. It would have been easy. I felt only a couple of inches tall. “It happens a lot.”
    She shook her head. “No, I should havenoticed quicker. Nate’s not as big in the chest as you are.”
    She looked down. Then up. She had a big purse, which she held as if to protect herself from me. “I didn’t mean it to sound that way. Like I’ve studied you or anything.”
    â€œDon’t worry about it,” I said. I’m sure what she meant is that she’d spent a lot of time studying Nate. He must have called her after the golf tournament. Not that I would have known, since he and I weren’t speaking to each other.
    â€œIt’s just that I was expecting to meet Nate at the theater,” she said. “I didn’t know you would be here. So I assumed it was Nate I saw on the street and that you hadn’t made it to the movie