Amber Storm (Assassin In Paradise Book 1)

by Jack Stroke

  “Why? What did Joan say?”

  “Mum?” She burped again. “Nothing. Why would Mum say anything? What I don’t understand is why you came back.”

  “I came back because I wanted to tell you something. I needed to talk to you.”

  “Well, go on. Talk. I’m right here.”

  Amber studied her friend. “Maybe in the morning.”

  Maybe. Maybe not.

  Filling her glass once more, Megan emptied the bottle.

  “Where is Ben tonight?” Amber asked.

  “Who knows? Out. Why? Are you going to try and steal him away from me too? Joan always liked you better than me. My own Mum. Now Ben too. And Vaughan.”

  Vaughan?

  “Lucky I don’t know too many other people, ’ey?”

  Megan attempted to sit back in her kitchen chair and missed, stumbling and almost hitting the floor.

  Amber jumped up to help her.

  “I’m all right, I’m all right.” Megan held up both palms. “Don’t touch me.”

  She stumbled off towards the bathroom and gave Amber a glare, as if to suggest her clumsiness wasn’t a mistake. Vaughan? How had Amber stolen Vaughan?

  No sooner had the bathroom door shut than Megan’s phone rang, vibrating on the table. The screen indicated it was Ben, which brought a smile to Amber’s face. What was the go here? Would she have to hide the fact Megan was drunk from Ben in the same way she had hidden Ben’s drunkenness from Megan? Was this her life now? Hiding drinking secrets from her friend and her son?

  Should she let the phone go to voicemail? Or pick up in an attempt to cover for Megan? Something told her to answer.

  “Hello, Ben? It’s Amber.”

  “Amber?”

  The hairs on the back of Amber’s neck pricked up. His voice was consumed with terror.

  “Ben? What’s wrong?”

  The muffled sounds of the phone changing hands was followed by a female voice.

  “Who is this? The godmother? Good. Just who we were looking for.”

  “Who is this?”

  “I believe you have something which belongs to me.”

  The toilet flushed in the other room. Amber hurried outside. There was no way to explain this to Megan in her current state, or any state really.

  “What do you want?”

  “Return my drugs and you may live to see your godson again.”

  71

  Amber went straight into the zone, no time to think. She had to move fast, but also be smart about it. Remaining completely still, she stood for five minutes, breathing deeply to compose her thoughts. It was challenging, her body desperate to take action. Right now though, the correct move was more important than the fastest one. Figuring exactly what she needed to do and when.

  The voice on the phone had given her limited time, barely enough to get there, certainly not enough to do what was required. Too bad. She would have to miss the deadline despite their assurances they would kill Ben if she was even a minute late. Killing Ben now made no sense. If they did, they would have no bargaining power. So they would just have to wait. At the same time, Amber was dealing with the unknown here. Maybe they weren’t all there mentally and would get spooked waiting, so she couldn’t leave them hanging for too long.

  A plan formulated in her mind. Or bits of a plan. Enough to work with for the time being. She could improvise the rest. This is who she was. Why she existed.

  Running at full pace, she headed up to Hidden Beach, through the trees and to Bert’s shed. No time for finesse. She shot the lock off the door with her Sig. The padlock remained intact but the bullet did sufficient damage to the latch. Hurrying inside, Amber grabbed the shovel.

  Heading back out, concern oozed through her. She planned to retrieve the last of the drugs. The brick she had buried. Except, what if she couldn’t find the grave? She hadn’t marked it in any way. No intention of ever returning here. The darkness surrounding her didn’t help. She halted those thoughts immediately. It was of no help. She needed to get this done. Every second she delayed put Ben at increased risk.

  She found the tree, slight scrape marks from the metal ring on the trunk where the camera had been attached. It gave Amber her bearings. She dug where she estimated the bodies to be. Her estimation was off, but only marginally. She dug more than she required to simply remove the brick, exposing Lev and his associate’s bodies. With the brick in her hand, she made no effort to cover up the corpses, sticking the shovel upright in the dirt at the side of the grave.

  72

  The old scout hall was quiet and dark as Amber approached.

  Having sprinted the entire way back from Bert’s shed, she was quite out of breath. Rather than barge straight in, she took a moment to compose herself. One advantage of being fit, her breath quickly returned to normal.

  The scout hall door groaned, resistant to being opened, loudly announcing Amber’s presence.

  “Hello?”

  She found the lights. Ben sat in a chair in the middle of the empty space. Beside him, a young woman had a gun to his head. It was Ben’s girlfriend. Ava, the brunette.

  A crushing blow hit Amber in the back of the skull. She fell forward on to all fours, dropping the heroin brick on the floor, pain ringing throughout her brain. A set of hands frisked her roughly.

  “No gun,” said the hands’ owner.

  Amber got to her feet, rubbing the back of her head. “I could have told you that if you had asked. You didn’t have to whack me.”

  Ava appeared nervous yet okay. Not jumpy, which was good. Never great having a jumpy person holding a gun to someone’s head.

  “Where are my drugs?” Ava asked.

  Amber ignored her.

  “Hey, Ben,” Amber said. “You okay?”

  “Don’t talk to him.”

  “Why not? I need to see if he’s all right.”

  “Say another word and I’ll shoot him.”

  “Then you’re a fool. A fool who will never get their hands on the drugs.” Amber’s tone was calm, in total control.

  Ava wavered. She could shoot Ben in the leg or something, although she didn’t seem to think of that.

  “Ben, are you okay?” Amber repeated. “Have they hurt you?”

  He nodded, then shook his head. He didn’t appear hurt. More confused than anything.

  Amber turned. A man stood beside her, pointing a rifle at her. He was standing too close. She could easily grab it and wrench the weapon from him before he would be able to fire. He would almost certainly try and hold on to it, believing the weapon to be an advantage, except that would give Amber a free hand.

  The problem with this scenario was Ava would have to react in some way if Amber made a move, and Ben would almost certainly get shot. There was a chance the girl would leave Ben and focus her efforts on Amber. But the potential risk to Ben was too high, so Amber left the guy alone.

  Who were these guys? The B team, if Amber had to guess. Not as good at this stuff as the other two. Lev and the small guy. Vin. Probably nervous and uncertain.

  Amber focused on Ava. “Stop pointing your gun at Ben.”

  “Thanks for the suggestion,” Ava said. “But I’m fine where I am.”

  “It’s unnecessary. I’m co-operating. Ben is co-operating. We’re doing everything you ask.” Her tone firm, leaving no room for doubt. “I don’t want you to shoot him accidentally.”

  After pondering this, Ava allowed the gun to fall to her side. “Where are my drugs?”

  The brick Amber dropped as she entered lay in front of her. She kicked it along the floor.

  “That’s one. What about the other ten?”

  “Nine. Yeah? Basic math. Ten minus one.”

  “Where are they?”

  “This one is all I could carry.”

  “Where are the rest?”

  “Hidden.”

  Ava raised her weapon again, aiming at Ben’s skull. He barely flinched. “What makes you think I’m messing around here? I will shoot him and you
.”

  “Then you’ll never get the drugs. Unless you’re a very lucky person and somehow manage to guess where I’ve hidden them, which I doubt.”

  Ava cocked her weapon.

  “Again, not necessary. You’ll get your drugs. I buried them.”

  “Where?”

  “I can take you to them right now.”

  “No,” Ava said with a little head shake. “Tell us where they are, and we’ll go get them.”

  “I can tell you all you like. Even with specific instructions, you’ll never find them.”

  Uncertainty clouded Ava’s face. Ben’s eyes hadn’t left Amber. He appeared to be holding up quite well despite his predicament.

  “Look,” Amber said. “You have a hostage, and the two of you have weapons. We have nothing. If you want the drugs, I’ll have to take you to them. That’s how this is going to work. There is no other way.”

  Ava contemplated this. “Don’t try anything.”

  “What could I try? I’m not going to risk my godson’s life. Or my own.”

  “That’s right. Because I will kill him if you even so much as look like trying something. Then you.”

  “I don’t doubt it.”

  Ava thought some more. Finally, she nodded like Amber knew she would.

  Really, she had no other choice.

  73

  They walked in procession from the scout hall, Amber leading the way, the man and his rifle at her back. Behind them, Ava had her gun trained on Ben. This provided no opportunity for Amber. It was the same issue as earlier. Confident as she was she would have little difficulty overwhelming the guy with the rifle, any such move would leave Ben vulnerable.

  The upside was it did allow Amber plenty of time to think.

  “How far is this place?” the man grumbled.

  “You’ll see. Not too far.”

  They made it to Hidden Beach without seeing anyone. They wouldn’t from here on out.

  “So,” Amber said. “You’re a bit light on for people, aren’t you? Is it just the two of you?”

  “You tell us,” Ava said from behind.

  “How do you mean?”

  “What did you do with Lev and Vin?”

  “Vin? Who is Vin? The one who looks like a little kid?”

  “He’s just small.”

  “Are they the two guys who were shooting at me the other night? I didn’t do anything with them.”

  “Then where are they?”

  “How would I know? They’re your guys.… Actually, that’s right. I remember now. Lev said something about taking a holiday.”

  “Funny,” Ava said.

  Grass crunched under their feet as the beach gave way to foreshore.

  “We’re getting close,” she told them.

  They manoeuvred through the trees.

  “How does all this fit together? You needed somewhere to hide your drugs, so you used poor Ben here to find you a place?”

  “Something like that.”

  “You realise he’s only seventeen, right? I know, he looks older.”

  “Are you only seventeen?” Ava asked, genuine surprise in her voice. Amber couldn’t see if he nodded or not. “You said you were twenty-two.”

  They kept walking.

  “Why didn’t you keep the drugs on the sailboat?”

  “We were planning to, until you started nosing around. We had no choice but to move it.”

  “Lucky too, otherwise it would have all gone up in smoke.”

  “Yes. Lucky. I suppose you know nothing about that either?”

  “Your boat burning down? No, that was just plain unlucky.”

  No one said anything for a while, the sound of footsteps replacing voices.

  What was Ava’s next move? Get the drugs and kill Ben and Amber. She and her accomplice wouldn’t muck about either. They would shoot them the second they laid eyes on the bricks, if that were possible. If Amber hadn’t already destroyed them. Alternately they would kill them the second they knew there were no drugs. That meant this would all come to a head extremely quickly.

  “Wait… We’re back at the farm?” Ava said, her voice heavy with confusion. Clearly her sense of direction wasn’t that strong. Maybe Amber should cut her some slack. It was dark and night.

  “What the hell? I’ll shoot you right now.”

  The man stuck his rifle into Amber’s side.

  “Calm,” Amber said.

  “We’ve looked. The drugs aren’t here,” Ava went on.

  “They are,” Amber said. “Not in the shed, but close by. I told you. I hid them. Not far.”

  They followed her into the trees. Amber readied herself, firing up every cell in her body.

  “You just left them out here? In the trees?”

  “You’re not listening. I said before. I buried them.”

  The fact they didn’t remember her saying that was a good sign. Inability to process information suggested a high level of stress.

  As they passed the surveillance tree, the hole and the shovel came into view.

  “See? Just over here.”

  Amber had the distinct advantage of knowing this was happening right now. The others may have suspected they were close, yet not known this was the exact moment. She guessed they wouldn’t shoot until they actually saw the bricks in case it was all a trick. She sped up slightly and jumped into the hole.

  The man with the rifle looked into the grave. He was expecting to see the nine bricks, not the bodies of his two dead associates. Ava was a couple of steps behind.

  Before the man had a chance to react, Amber grabbed her Sig which she had left earlier. In her other hand she scooped up a fistful of dirt. Moving like lightning, she tossed the dirt in the man’s face, momentarily blinding him. In the same motion she spun, putting a bullet between Ava’s eyes. The young woman staggered, before falling to the ground.

  Taking only a fraction of a moment, Amber turned. She shot the man holding the rifle, putting two in his forehead before he had any chance to recover from the dirt in his eyes.

  The whole thing played out in around a second. Less. After the loud volley of rapid gunfire, the resulting silence seemed all the more quiet.

  Amber climbed out of the hole.

  “Are you okay?” she said to Ben.

  It took a moment or two but eventually he nodded.

  “Good.”

  Amber didn’t say anything else. There would be plenty of time to talk later. Up to him how he wanted to recover. She set about cleaning up. Ben was welcome to help or not. Entirely his choice. He had already been through a lot this evening.

  “See you soon,” Amber said as she added Ava and the man with the rifle to the hole. The man had a backpack with the brick in it, so that went back in the hole as well. Using the shovel she covered them up. The grave wasn’t as deep as she would have liked, especially with the extra bodies, but it would have to do.

  Finished, Amber returned the shovel to the shed. She felt bad about the damage to Bert’s door, but at least nothing had been stolen from the old farmer.

  74

  “I feel so, like, stupid, you know?” Ben said.

  He and Amber were sitting around the kitchen table in the owner’s cottage, Ben having a hot chocolate, Amber a water.

  “I really thought she liked me for me. There aren’t that many girls around here, and when you find one… So stupid.”

  Overall, Amber was impressed with how the kid was holding up. She presumed he thought his night would have consisted of having a few drinks and maybe getting lucky, not being kidnapped, held at gunpoint and seeing his prospective girlfriend shot in the head by his godmother.

  “She kept wanting me to find places we could be alone. I thought she was just, like, really horny. I should have guessed something was up when she claimed she found my keys.”

  “Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Amber said, feeling she should say something. “You don’t expect someone to be using you for your access to a neighbour’s shed.” />
  Ben shook his head, sipping his hot chocolate. He’d added around twenty miniature marshmallows. Comfort food. Amber struggled to imagine how impossibly sweet the chocolatey sludge must be.

  “They said something about a boat.”

  Amber nodded. “They were operating out of that sailboat that was sitting just off Hidden Beach.”

  “What happened to it?”

  “I burned it down.”

  Ben’s eyes went wide. “With what?”

  “Do you know what a Molotov Cocktail is?”

  He nodded disbelievingly. Amber shrugged.

  “So, what are you?” Ben asked. Amber knew the question was coming, yet tried to deflect it anyway.

  “What am I?”

  “Other than, you know, a total badass. What do you do? What is your job? You tell me logistics and I’ll hate you forever.”

  “Job is probably the wrong word.”

  “Just tell me. I don’t need the sugarcoating.”

  She sighed. “I do a range of things, but mostly I’m an assassin.”

  “I knew it. I knew it.” Ben almost jumped out of his chair with excitement.

  “Shhh. You’ll wake your Mum. Actually, there’s not much chance of that.”

  “What’s that mean?”

  “Oh… Never mind. Just keep your voice down. We don’t want to wake Joan.”

  Ben rolled his eyes. “Is Mum drunk again?”

  “What do you know about it?”

  “She drinks every night. It’s pretty hard to miss.”

  “Okay. Well, your Mum is doing her best. Cut her some slack.”

  “So… You get paid to kill people?”

  “Kind of. Yes. It’s more complicated than that.”

  “How?”

  “Umm, maybe it isn’t. Look, I don’t know how much you picked up. Those people tonight —”

  “They were drug smugglers.”