Daniel by Kathi S. Barton Page A

stance.

Chapter 10
     
    “Well, find someone else. What the fuck
did you do, find the first person you came across and hired her? Mother fuck.
If she wasn’t ready for us before, she certainly will be now.” Berto wanted to
throw his phone across the room but didn’t want to go through the hassle of
buying a new one and having it programmed. He didn’t know a single number without
the speed dial on the stupid thing. “Get someone in there now and kill the
cunt. I want her dead.”
    “She’s got someone in there with her at
all times. And the way he took out the woman, the trained woman I had go
into her room, means he’s got some major training of his own. He took her out
in less than a minute. With a bullet in his gut.” He heard Jeannie laugh. “He
sounds like someone you should hire on instead of having me kill.”
    Berto decided that as soon as this was
over, Jeannie Whitney was dead. He didn’t like that someone tried to tell him
what to do, and even less that it was a woman. He took several deep breaths
before he said something that they’d both regret.
    “Where are you?” She told him that she
was in Nashport, Ohio, in a little hotel outside of a smaller town called
Dresden. “I’m coming there. Book me into something, and it had better be five-star
or I’m taking it out on your ass.”
    “Promises, promises,” she said in that
sultry voice that made his cock ache. “I don’t know what you expect in the five-star
range, but I’ll see what I can do. There are a couple of bed and breakfasts
that are nice. If you want something more, then you’ll have to travel a ways. Columbus
is the only place near here that has even a Radisson.”
    He told her to book the entire B&B
and hung up on her. She’d either do it or she’d be finished working for him a
lot sooner than either of them expected. He called for his butler to get him a
bag set up for several days and to get the jet ready. He hated to leave his hometown
right now; there were many things going on that he should be overseeing, but
this woman owed him. And he wanted to collect right now.
    He picked up the picture of the woman. It
was blurry and he couldn’t really make out more than it was a female, but it
was the best that could be found of her. He tossed it on his desk with a snort.
The stupid woman was harder to find than he was. He thought about taking lessons
from her the next time the Feds went looking for him, but decided he wouldn’t
stoop low enough to figure it out from a woman. Besides, she’d be dead in a few
days, and then they’d be focusing on her and not him and the upcoming trial.
    He was being indicted. Not unusual for
someone in the business like him, but still it was something he didn’t have
time for. He had a shipment coming in on a ship in a few days, and having to
leave now to go to Podunk, Ohio, wasn’t what he wanted to do right now. Plus there
was the arsenal that was always waiting at the end of his private drive ready
to take him in if he so much as walked out of the gates. Fucking bastards.
    Berto looked around his home. It was
lavish and rich, not only in money but in things he’d “collected” over the
years. Things that he’d wanted, and when he couldn’t buy or steal, he’d simply
claim. The house he was currently living in wasn’t really his, but had belonged
to someone he’d killed for their territory last year. The idiot had stupidly
decided that he wanted a bigger chunk of Berto’s territory, and well…he’d
objected. Quite harshly. His phone ringing again brought him to the present.
    “Sir, the plane is on standby, and your
luggage is on its way to the airstrip now. I have taken all the usual precautions
and have alerted the guard. Will there be anything else you require?” Berto
grinned. This was what paying for the best got you.
    “Yes. I’d like for you to make sure that
the household goes on as if I’m here.” He didn’t want his butler, whatever his
name was, to think he had