Page 46 of Assassin Daddy

‘We good?’ Matteo asked, his eyes scanning for threats. ‘All clear left and right. But there could be a ground patrol at any second.’

‘I need ten seconds,’ Steele replied, his ocean-blue eyes not once looking away from his satellite phone as it dialed in the code to gain access to the basement door. ‘Make that zero seconds.’

As the heavy electronic door unlocked and creaked open, Matteo knew that the moment was getting closer and closer. The pair of them walked into the basement and ensured to shut the door quietly but firmly behind them. After all, the longer they could go undetected, the better.

‘Up,’ Matteo whispered, motioning over toward the steps that would lead them into the lodge’s central lobby area.

‘One guard, likely by the door,’ Steele replied, his voice quiet and a look of controlled intent in his eyes. ‘Second guard, likely in the kitchen. The third will be outside whichever room Alphonso is in.’

‘Got it,’ Matteo said, carefully moving toward the steps. ‘Let’s do this.’

Matteo put his hand on the door handle and held it still for a moment. As he placed his ear up against the door, Matteo could make out two men talking over the sound of a radio playing in the background. That would mean two of the security men weretogether – and if he and Steele played it right, it could lead to quicker work all round.

Thinking back to his earliest missions as a Fendi hitman, Matteo remembered how hard it was to show restraint and wait for the perfect moment to strike. Such was Matteo’s determination to get the job done and show his worth to the family, he would often move too quickly and end up in way more trouble than was necessary.

As a veteran killer though, Matteo was wise to the errors of his youthful ways.

Matteo was more than happy to wait until everything felt right. His instinct had been honed over many years, and Matteo prided himself on being able to read a situation as and when it played out in front of him.

Stay three steps ahead of the game.

Listen. Feel. Judge.

Something’s not quite right…

Matteo didn’t know exactly what it was, but there was a doubt in his mind. It didn’t make sense to him that the two security guards were talking in the same room as one another. With Alphonso to protect, there would have been a strict protocol in place. And Matteo had been around the Fendi mansion enough to know that all orders were non-negotiable and any guards who made it to the top of their hierarchy did so by following every single rule to the absolute letter.

‘Maybe it’s a quick coffee?’ Steele whispered, evidently having picked up on the slightly unusual situation. ‘But we don’thave long to decide. And this might be our only chance to hit Alphonso.’

Matteo nodded.

Steele made a good point. Now that they were inside the lodge, they really had no other choice but to make the hit. They had decent odds of being able to leave undetected – but if they were spotted then that opened up a whole new scenario that made the pair of them dead men walking. No, the reality of the situation was that Matteo and Steele had no other option but to proceed with the plan and take whatever surprises came at them…

‘Three… two… one,’ Matteo whispered. ‘Go.’

With that, Matteo and Steele opened the basement door and moved into the house. Quickly and with little fuss, the pair of them crept up toward the kitchen and fired two silenced shots to take down the two henchmen with ruthless efficiency.

If it wasn’t for their coffee cups dropping to the floor and shattering, it might have been the quietest double kill ever.

‘I’ll take upstairs,’ Steele said. ‘You hit the rest of the ground floor.’

Matteo nodded and the pair of them went about completing the hit. It was now Matteo and Steele against Alphonso and his personal guard. In theory, it shouldn’t have been a problem…

‘Fuck. He must be upstairs,’ Matteo said, his eyes scanning the study, even checking for a false wall or panic room door.

But as Matteo ran up the stairs he was met with the sight of Steele looking just as frustrated as him.

‘Nowhere,’ Steele said, shaking his head. ‘And something tells me Alphonso was never here.’

‘Have we been…’ Matteo said, his words trailing off as he heard the sound of cars rolling up outside the lodge. ‘Fuck. It was all a set up. The whole damn thing was a trap to draw us here.’

‘It’s been nice knowing you,’ Steele said, his dark humor coming to the forefront as the pair of them realized that the odds were very suddenly stacked against them. ‘So what do you say that we go out all guns blazing?’

‘I’m thinking we try something a little different,’ Matteo replied, his mind whirring as he looked up at the vaulted loft door above his head. ‘We need to live to fight another day. There’s too much at stake. Alphonso might not even know it was us coming to kill him. This isn’t over yet. Not by a long fucking way. Now give me a boost and let’s get the hell out of here.’

Steele’s big, charismatic grin was suddenly back on his face as he duly provided Matteo with a leg up so that he could pop the latch to the attic. It was time for the pair of them to vanish into thin air.

Matteo Fendi hadn’t lasted as long as he had as a mafia assassin without knowing when to take a step backward. But he did know that if this close escape worked out for the best, his next move was going to be the most important one of his whole life – and likely to be his most dangerous too…

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