Page 82 of Erase Me
“Glad to see you’re not unemployed these days,” I said, stalling for time.“Your last boss must have given you a great recommendation.”
“He didn’t get the chance, actually.”
“You didn’t tell me you had friends on this yacht,” Avalie said to me.
“Oh, yeah,” the thug growled.“We’re old pals.Nowmoveit.”
As I considered my options, I felt a jolt of fear that this brute might kill her on the spot.It seemed apparent that these men had been instructed to do just that at my apartment.
“Okay.Where?”I asked.
The bodyguard pointed his pistol toward the stairs.As soon as he did, Avalie reached up and hit him in the neck with her immobilizer.
The man’s eyes opened up to the size of dinner plates, and as I grabbed the pistol from his hand, she gave him a sharp elbow in the face for good measure.He went down in a heap.It was all I could do to stop myself from stomping his face into mush.
Before I realized it, I had pulled her close, enveloping her in my embrace.We stood there in silence for a moment, and I felt her arms encircling me, as well.
But then, reality broke through the haze.Reluctantly, I let her go.
“I was careless there.He shouldn’t have gotten the upper hand on me,” she admitted.
“You did great,” I reassured her.“No second guessing yourself.”
“Guess my old immobilizer still does the job.”
“Definitely.Now, let’s go find Vaughn.”
It took only another minute to reach the stairs that led up to the row of cabins.We went straight up.Surprisingly, the stateroom door at the far end was open.
Moving cautiously past the closed doors, we were only a few feet from the main cabin when a voice called out to us.
“Come in,” Vaughn said.“I don’t want you bozos doing more damage.”
He was standing by the opening in the outer wall of the stateroom.The open-air balcony was empty of the furniture that had been there when I confronted Del Volpe.An MP5 machine gun lay on a side table.
“Time to behave, kids.Act civilized.”
My first thought at that moment waswhenhad he placed the weapon on the table andwhy.Was it because he believed he’d lost the battle?Or was he banking on my reluctance to harm an unarmed man, despite the havoc he’d wrought tonight?
“Civilized?You sent hired killers to my apartment,” I reminded him.
“I had to do that.You’re out of control.”He pointed a finger at me.“I’ve never seen a clusterfuck of a mission like this in all the time I’ve been working as a handler.And the whole disaster is in your court, buddy.”
This guy had all the brass of a classic narcissist, I thought.
“Look at you,” he continued.“You roll into town like it’s party city.Eat, drink, surf, repeat.What the fuck?You call that professional conduct?Did you even think about who might be trying to interfere with your assignment?You acted like a rookie, letting this one hook up with you.Worse than a rookie.Like a goddamn fifteen-year-old.”
“Looks likeyou’vegot a party going on here, Vaughn.”
“Don’t you worry about that, buster.I’m operating completely within my rights.According to the Division Procedures Manual, Protocol Section M, item 12C, the operations facilitator—that’s me—will liquidate and dispose of target assets in a timely and orderly manner, taking care not to create a negative historical disturbance.”
“So, there’s nothing in there about handlers plundering the treasury and enriching themselves.”
“When is this going to sink into your thick skull?It’smybusiness, not yours, dickhead.”
I gestured vaguely at the surroundings.“I’d say this mission hasn’t hurt you any.Volpe’s yacht.His fortune.For all I know, you could have those teenage girls locked in one of these cabins.No, I’d say it looks like you’re doing very well for yourself, in fact.”
“Let me make this crystal clear, cowboy.I’m following protocol...by the book.”
