Tara Read Online Free Page B

than a month’s salary to his family back then, or driving a car worth as much as a house, on his way to a luxury hotel known for its discretion and lack of cameras.
    Nope, this kind of life had never been in the cards for him. Not before Luca.
    His phone let off a bing from the messenger bag in the passenger seat. Pulling to a stop at an intersection he took it out and checked the message. It was from Luca, nothing more than an address to go to. Alaric rolled his eyes. When he was in work mode, Luca could be a real prick.
    It had taken Alaric about four hours to clear out of Toulouse, get on the plane and get to Milan, and he was coming up on hour five when he bought guns, ammo, and stealth gear from a local contact of Infinity Consulting. Always cash only, no names – and way too easy.
    He decided to do a test run by the target on his way to the hotel, so he could time it in heavy afternoon traffic to see a maximum time for transport that night. The villa he pulled up on was tan and butted up against a four story white building. It was old world pretty on the outside, but through an open curtain downstairs Alaric could see new world luxury on the inside as he drove by. Letting the Maserati take him towards the hotel he found it was about twenty minutes in traffic, not bad at all.
    When he got to the hotel he parked his own car, not wanting a valet messing with the clutch of the beautiful car before he even got a chance to test it out. Alaric got out and it was now two duffel bags that he walked into the luxury hotel with, and as he smiled at the front desk he was reminded of Luca’s comment to him when he was a kid – anyone with a smile like yours is dangerous, a smile like that isn’t real, but everyone wants to believe it is.
    The girl behind the front desk seemed to want to believe it, and he leaned casually on the desk to talk to her. When he asked for a quiet corner of the building in fluent Italian she blushed and obliged, telling him that they were doing construction on the floor below him, so it should be private. He winked at her as he walked away, replacing the sunglasses as he stepped into the elevator.
    Seven floors, turn left, luxury suite. Bedroom off to the right of the living room, separated by French doors. Huge bathroom that was bigger than the childhood bedroom he’d shared with his sister.
    If only he could show her all this – show her he wasn’t a screw up.
    Opening his duffel he took out something extra he’d bought from their contact, an electronic pressure lock for the inside of a door. Sealing it into place Alaric sat back and then yanked on it, when it didn’t budge he nodded.
    “Get through that, Luca.” Alaric mumbled to himself and checked the windows. They didn’t open anymore and there was a seven story vertical drop. As he fell onto the plush bed he knew he needed to reset before the job. Get himself centered. Focused.
    Taking out his phone he told it to wake him up in two hours and then he crashed.
     

     
    An electronic nuclear siren went off about six inches to the left of his ear and Alaric sat up straight holding one of the guns he’d purchased that afternoon, aiming at absolutely nothing through those delicate French doors. No one and nothing. He fell back against the pillows.
    There were benefits and drawbacks to being trained like he had. Benefits? You reacted without thinking, you could follow most orders without question, and your body generally didn’t really fail you. Your body would catch you, respond to you, protect you - even when you weren’t aware of it. The drawbacks were along the same lines though. Sometimes it reacted when you didn’t want it to, sometimes you did a duck and cover when you didn’t need to, and sometimes you woke up pointing a gun at a bad painting of flowers. If he’d ever been some kind of military he might have called it PTSD, but for his job he didn’t think any kind of workman’s comp covered what was wrong with him.
    But,