Amber Storm (Assassin In Paradise Book 1)

by Jack Stroke

She definitely looked the part. Well, except for her feet.

  The lack of shoes was somewhat of a giveaway.

  “Radio silence from now on unless necessary,” Mother’s voice whispered in her ear.

  Amber took a deep breath. She was ready to go.

  No one would notice her feet.

  3

  With the building’s layout memorised, Amber knew exactly where Gomez would be. Now she had to project the appropriate air of confidence. Carefully easing open the door, she strode into the corridor.

  The gentle thud of far off bass sounded from somewhere. The corridor was bathed in a dark red glow and smelled vaguely of artificial cinnamon. Keeping her head down, she took a left, moving purposefully around the corner. She was after the third door past the elevator.

  Good that she had taken the time to memorise the layout so thoroughly. Everywhere looked the same.

  There were plenty of women about but no one paid her any attention. Why would they? All were wearing similarly skimpy outfits and garish makeup.

  Finding the room, Amber paused. Was Gomez inside? Hopefully Mother’s information was correct, otherwise this could be problematic. Why was she even questioning it? When wasn’t Mother’s information right?

  Allowing herself a quick glance about, Amber opened the door.

  A man was lying face first on a massage table, naked save for a towel.

  Gomez.

  His broad shoulders glistened with oil.

  Two ladies attended to him. Still in the massage phase. Just as Mother had suggested.

  The women glanced up, confused by Amber’s presence. The target himself remained unaware of any change. Amber flashed her best friendly smile and nodded hello, like her presence here was the most natural thing in the world.

  She tiptoed across the room towards the pile of garments. Picking up Gomez’s clothes, Amber folded them neatly on a nearby chair.

  The ladies went back to work, not thinking anything of it.

  In the back pocket of his pants Amber located the hotel key, exactly where it was supposed to be. She switched it for the decoy.

  Neither of the ladies gave her another thought as she slipped back out the door. Amber couldn’t help but grin. Too easy. The hard part was done. It would all be simple from here.

  And it would have been, if it wasn’t for her damn feet.

  4

  “You have to wear appropriate footwear,” Mother had told Amber an hour earlier.

  “Appropriate for what?”

  “Very funny.”

  “I’m serious. I can’t rappel in heels.”

  “Carry them. You can’t parade around Kinki’s Gentleman’s Club without shoes.”

  “Sure I can. No one will notice. What I can’t do is carry a pair of heels with me while I descend the side of the building. It’s not the same as carrying the decoy hotel key and the glass cutter.”

  Mother’s expression didn’t alter, clearly not happy. Mother liked her orders followed, not questioned.

  “It will be dark in Kinki’s. I’ll be in and out. No one will ever see my feet,” she assured the older woman.

  Amber believed it too.

  Unfortunately, she was wrong.

  Striding along the corridor, her stockinged feet rubbing against the thick carpet, a voice rang out from behind her.

  “Hey. Hey, you.”

  Amber ignored whoever it was, careful not to react or increase speed.

  “Hey.”

  A hand grabbed her shoulder.

  “Where are your shoes?”

  Amber stopped and turned. She had little choice. The woman was tiny yet full of fire. Too old to work the rooms. Most likely management.

  Amber smiled. “I left them in my room.”

  Nope. No good. The woman screwed up her face. “Who are you?”

  “Sally,” Mother’s voice informed her.

  “Sally, I’m new,” Amber repeated to the woman.

  The woman wasn’t buying it, yet it was clear from her expression she couldn’t come up with any other explanation for Amber’s presence.

  “Where are your shoes?”

  “I had to… I can’t explain. I’ll show you,” Amber said. “I need to show you.”

  She grabbed the woman’s hand, pulling her along. Not giving her any time to think.

  Amber found the door where she had entered, hoping it was the right one.

  “What… What are we…” the woman protested.

  The billowing blind mystified the older woman, giving Amber a moment to cross the room. The glass cutter was where she’d had left it near the window. Hardly an ideal weapon and yet threatening enough. Amber snatched it from the floor and spun around, shoving the cutter in the woman’s face.

  “Make a sound and I’ll slice you up,” she hissed.

  It wasn’t clear if Mother actually sighed in Amber’s ear, or she imagined it.

  Amber pointed towards the bathroom. “Go, in there.”

  The woman backed in, her hands raised.

  The bathroom door was fairly standard. Lockable from the inside, which wasn’t a whole lot of help. Amber could have maybe kicked the handle off, if she was wearing shoes.

  “Who are you?” the woman said.

  “Shush. You step out that door, I swear I will cut you,” Amber said.

  She swiped the glass cutter towards the woman to emphasise her point. The woman backed up again.

  Amber closed her in. The stupid door opened inwards, so there was no way of blocking the thing.

  This wasn’t good.

  5

  Cursing silently, Amber dashed to the window. The plan had been to go out the same way she’d come in.

  “Amber? What your status?”

  “All good. On my way.”

  Except it wasn’t all good. She had been spotted and placed the woman in an easily escapable room. Would the woman stay in the bathroom? Why would she? There was nothing holding her there.

  The possibilities raced through Amber’s mind.

  Should she change plans and go out the front door? How quickly would the woman let herself free? How quickly could she raise the alarm? Quicker than Amber could get all the way to the ground floor and out.

  Stupid. Had Amber blown the whole job just because of a lack of shoes?

  The best bet was probably to ask Mother how to proceed, except she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear Mother’s answer.

  No, this was okay. She would still go out the window. Even if the woman would let herself out and raise the alarm. Would that matter? It depended how exactly she would raise the alarm. And then whomever she raised the alarm to would have to decide how to react. It would take time for word to reach Gomez, if it did at all. Even then, no one would have no reason to suspect he was the target. His hotel key was still in his pocket as far as he knew.

  No, Amber was good. She still had time. But she had to move fast.

  Her gloves and harness lay waiting on the floor. Making a split-second decision, Amber chose not to worry about the harness. Attaching it would take too much time.

  “Everything okay, Amber?” came Mother’s voice in her ear.

  Amber clambered out the window to the waiting rope.

  “Amber?”

  “Peachy,” Amber said. “Moving on to part two.”

  Climbing down the building, Amber proceeded with more care than she usually would, primarily because the lack of harness significantly increased the chance she could die.

  Two floors down, she felt the rope shake in her hand.

  Turning around, she shot a look back up. The woman had indeed let herself out of the bathroom and was half out the window, trying to shake Amber off the rope. Not ideal. Amber kept moving, picking up speed. The shaking rope merely added to the level of difficulty.

  Soon she felt the rope go slack again. Amber didn’t need to look up to know the woman had given up and gone back inside. At least, given up with the rope.

  Picking up speed, Amber made it the remainde
r of the way down the building without incident and without dying. Good result. Nearing the bottom she could see the black Jaguar waiting for her extraction. Perfect. She’d made it.

  But just as she let go of the rope, two burly security dudes emerged from the front of the building, yelling and pointing up. The woman upstairs must have raised the alarm in time.

  Crap. The two security guys stood between her and the black Jag.

  6

  Had Amber let go of the rope in time?

  Pulling her dress down her shoulder, she went into full pretend drunk mode, staggering about. She had no idea what the pair had been told or what they were looking for, but she guessed an intoxicated woman wasn’t high on their list.

  The two guards yelled at one another, rushing in Amber’s direction. They pointed at the rope hanging down the building.

  The first security dude went charging past her. Trouble was, beyond Amber the street was empty. They were looking for someone either coming down the rope or had just come down the rope, and as far as that went, Amber was the only choice.

  She couldn’t risk the second security guard drawing that conclusion. She stumbled towards him, calling him over. She faked a trip, appearing as though she was about to topple over. Instead she delivered an almighty kick, hitting him square in the testicles.

  With no chance to protect himself, he went down hard.

  “Hey!”

  Amber bolted for the black Jaguar. The door swung open. She dived in, just feeling the hands of the first security dude at her back. He was fast but not fast enough.

  The tyres squealed as the Jag sped away from the curb.

  Amber looked up to see Franz’s smiling face.

  “Cutting it fine, as always.”

  Franz was one of Mother’s regular drivers, one who Amber had worked with before.

  “Is there any other way?”

  Taking a hand off the wheel, Franz handed her a pair of leopardskin heels and matching pocketbook.

  “Mother thought you might need these.”

  Inside the pocketbook was a small SIG Sauer P238.

  “Thank you, Mother. You think of everything.”

  No response in Amber’s ear. Not a good sign.

  They were outside the hotel in minutes. Amber strutted through the lobby, heels clacking loudly against the stone floor. She was happy to have footwear now. Unlike the corridor in the club, the lobby was bright and her lack of footwear would have been much more obvious.

  She took the elevator to the 14th floor. The key she had lifted from Gomez opened room 14 C.

  “Wow, this guy is a pig,” she informed Mother.

  There was mess everywhere. The bed looked as though it had a football match played on it. All manner of food wrappers and drink bottles littered the floor.

  “I’m not even sure I’ll be able to find his laptop amongst all this.”

  Still nothing from Mother.

  After a quick search, Amber located what she was after, half-covered by his suitcase. She inserted the dongle, setting up the remote link to Mother’s server.

  “Right to go,” she told Mother, hitting the button to commence the file transfer. Now all she had to do was wait for the transfer to complete.

  She resisted the urge to make some comment about how it was all good and there was no need to stress.

  And it was fortunate that she did because right at that moment she heard the unmistakable growl of a very large dog.

  7

  The Doberman pinscher crept around the bed, its overly angular ears standing to attention. The beast had a growl like the low throb of a muscle car, its physique giving the impression the animal had just finished a weight session in the gym.

  Amber stared at it, not moving. She quite liked dogs generally. Less so the ones intent on ripping her limb from limb. She was really more of a cat person, although that probably wasn’t much use right now. This puppy could probably smell Lion on her.

  “Good work, Amber. Transmission coming through.”

  She remained still as a statue, staring the animal down. No sudden movements.

  “Amber?”

  “Dog,” Amber managed to croak despite the dryness of her mouth.

  “Dangerous?”

  “Looks like it.”

  The dog’s growl died away almost completely as it stopped, waiting for her to make the next move.

  “Shoot it,” Mother instructed.

  Amber’s fingers rubbed against the Sig’s cold metal in her pocketbook. The Doberman tilted its head slightly, watching her. It was kind of cute in its own terrifying way. Amber made a snap decision. Time to move.

  Backing up with extreme caution, she headed towards the bathroom, careful not to let her eyes leave the beast.

  The dog’s low growl increased again with movement, matching her pace step for step.

  The bathroom was only a yard or two behind, yet it took an eternity to cross. Once Amber sensed the doorway surrounding her, she darted, jumping inside.

  The Doberman pounced with more speed than any living animal should possess.

  Amber whipped a dirty towel from the floor and flung it in the dog’s face as it sprung towards her. The momentary distraction was enough. Disoriented, the dog careered into the side of the bath. Amber slipped out the door.

  The animal recovered fast, getting its snout between the door and the frame before Amber could get the door shut. A quick kick to the nose was enough to get it to withdraw and the door closed.

  Amber let out a large sigh. Two things locked in two bathrooms in around half an hour. The difference was, the Doberman couldn’t open the bathroom door to escape. At least, Amber hoped it couldn’t. She kept hold of the handle for a while, just make sure.

  “Amber? Report in. Did you kill it?” Mother asked.

  “Negative. All good.”

  Reluctant to let go of the door, Amber eventually snuck back to check on the file transfer. It was about halfway done.

  Good. She could relax a bit. That was until the dog started barking.

  “Crap.”

  Clearly the dog wasn’t too keen on the idea of being locked in the bathroom. Stupid animal.

  The barking became steadily louder, extremely noisy in the otherwise quiet hotel room. Heck, it was probably loud at reception, some 14 levels below.

  Amber willed the transfers to move faster, although it didn’t really do a whole lot of good. She probably needed some other sort of action. The barking was bound to attract someone’s attention sooner rather than later.

  “Hey, dog… Shut up!”

  That didn’t help. What was her best option here? She could ask Mother, except Mother wouldn’t be happy that she hadn’t shot the dog when told to earlier.

  Amber could leave. The file transfer would complete on its own, except then it would be obvious someone had been in Gomez’s room accessing his computer. Would that be an issue? Almost certainly, although Amber didn’t know enough about the job to be entirely sure.

  Maybe she should just shoot the dog after all. Except… that was a last resort. There had to be some alternative.

  What about … food? Surely they would have something here to feed the dog. Could she shove that through the door to keep the thing quiet?

  Foolishly, Amber placed her pocketbook down on the bench as she crossed to the fridge. The barking was so loud the very walls appeared to be shaking, which is probably why she didn’t hear the hotel room door open.

  By the time Amber realised she wasn’t alone, it was too late.

  8

  Ralph was a gym junkie who looked as though he could bench a small car. From what Amber could tell, his presence in the room was sheer bad luck (or good luck, depending on whose side you were on).

  Having eaten something that didn’t agree with him the night before, Ralph had spent the day in bed. The ailment was so bad he even had to forego the trip to Kinki’s with his boss and good friend, Gomez, something he was clearly cut up about.

  He had be
en somewhere between asleep and awake in his hotel room, trying to sleep off his upset tummy, when Rocky went bananas in the room next door. Strictly speaking, Rocky wasn’t supposed to be in the hotel with them, and given the painstaking lengths they had gone to sneak the animal in, his barking sparked Ralph into action.

  Like all good guard dogs, Rocky only barked at strangers. As such, Ralph thought it prudent to take his Desert Eagle pistol with him.

  He entered the suite to find Amber deep in the room’s small refrigerator looking for dog food. At least, that was how he told the story to Gomez when the boss made it back to the hotel, although, unaware of Amber’s name he referred to her as that ‘old, sexy chick’.

  By this point, Amber was sitting in the hotel room’s wicker chair with little chance of escape, hands tied behind her back.

  They had been so busy, neither Gomez nor Ralph had noticed the laptop as yet. They would though. It wasn’t clear if the file transfer was complete.

  Having heard enough from Ralph, Gomez turned his attention to Amber. “What are you doing here?”

  “Just visiting Rocky. I thought the poor thing might be lonely.”

  This elicited two responses from Gomez. First, a humourless smile. Second, a savage punch. The blow sent her tumbling to the floor. Pain exploded through her right eye and throbbed steadily after that.

  Gomez nodded to Ralph, who lifted Amber and the chair like they were nothing, placing Amber back in an upright position.

  “You think I’m playing here? Ralph, go get him.”

  Rocky the Doberman had been temporarily appeased by Ralph offering him a piece of meat the size of a small towel. Still, Amber wasn’t too keen on being confined to close quarters with the canine.

  Ralph brought the dog back out of the bathroom, one hand gripping its collar. The dog pulled at his restraint, Ralph stopping the canine just short of Amber’s face. She could smell the meat on his breath as the beast growled at her, yellow teeth inches from her eyeballs.