Assassin (32 page)

Case stood off to the side and slowly twisted the knob of the door. It opened onto the hallway where the men were most likely still waiting for her to make her move. She waited for the door to be blown to bits, but nothing happened, so she pulled it open a crack. She glanced around the door and saw the men trying to decide whether to take the chance of going around the corner to find out where Case was.

She recognized the three guards who had retreated a few minutes earlier, and she heard one of them talking about what a good shot she was. She smiled and opened the door a little wider so that she could take up a position using the doorframe as partial cover. She shot the first three in the back and took down the other three before they could aim their guns at her location half-hidden in the doorway.

By Case's calculations, there were still three maids, two cooks, two chauffeurs, and however many men Doc had brought with him. Though Case thought Doc would have probably kept his group all together, there was no way to be sure he hadn't split them up to search the house while he went to rescue Carlotti.

Case put away the hot guns and pulled out the two with silencers on them. It was time to stop giving away her location every time she fired her gun. She replaced the clips with fresh ones and took a deep breath to settle herself.

Case headed down the hall, moving in sudden bursts from one spot to the next so that she always had some kind of cover nearby in case she was ambushed. She made it all the way to the kitchen without meeting anyone else, but just as she was about to leave, two of the servants entered. They were both armed and they immediately pointed their guns at Case.

Case pulled the door open in front of her body and felt tiny shards of hot metal strike her fingers as the bullets impacted on the swinging steel door. She turned her head away as the glass from the round window shattered. Then she heard the clicking of their empty guns. Case let the door go and it swung away as she raised her hand and aimed her gun at the maid first. Case squeezed the trigger, sending bits of the woman's brain onto the wall. Then she moved her arm a few inches and shot the retreating cook in the back of the head. His body hit the floor with a thud. She stepped over him and moved on to the next room.

Rain went around the office and checked for survivors. She found a few weak pulses, but the blood was pumping out of their bodies too quickly. They needed to already be in a hospital if there was going to be any chance for them to live. Unfortunately, there was nothing Rain could do about that.

After a few minutes, the last man breathed his final breath.

"Fuck!" Rain swore to herself.

She turned away in disgust and paced back over to where Carlotti was still lying on the floor behind his desk. He was breathing and his pulse was regular. He appeared to still be unconscious. She stood up from her squatting position and looked around the room, as she ran shaky fingers through her hair.

What the hell had Case been thinking? Things had gotten so out of control. Rain was supposed to be gathering evidence against Carlotti and his criminal organization, not wiping them out herself. It had never even occurred to her that Case might try something like this.

"Damn it, Case," Rain muttered.

She knew she needed backup, and she needed it now. She pulled out her cell phone and prepared to dial the number for Ron's emergency cell. She got to the third number when an image of Case in a body bag made her hesitate. Visions of Ron and his team showing up flitted through her mind, as she considered what would happen if she finished dialing the number.

First, they'd arrest Carlotti, but he'd end up in the hospital rather than lock-down. They'd probably arrest her too, though it would mostly be for show until they could figure out what the hell had happened.

But they'd also try to bring in Case. That is, if they could take her alive, and Rain didn't have much faith that they'd be able to do it. It was good odds that Case would end up killing several agents before they finally managed to take her down permanently. Unless Rain could somehow convince her to give herself up, but Case would still be facing the death sentence, or at the very least, life in prison, for all the crimes she'd committed over the years.

Then Rain had a thought. Case had been Carlotti's most trusted assassin until recently. If she testified against him, she could request immunity for her own crimes. Antonio was the big fish, but with the knowledge Case had of the organization as a whole, they could bring in everyone, rather than just the higher-ups. The information Case had would be enough to get her into the witness protection program and possibly even free of all criminal charges.

Of course Rain wasn't blind. Her superiors might decide they didn't need Case's testimony. Case was an assassin, and she wouldn't exactly be the best witness with that kind of background.

Rain looked around the room again. The place was a total wreck and Carlotti could definitely use that to his advantage in a court of law. He could say Case attacked him and killed his employees, goaded by a rogue agent bent on revenge for the death of her brother.

"That'd make a great headline," Rain mumbled sarcastically.

In less than an hour, they'd managed to kill nearly two-dozen people. Most of it had been in self-defense, but they wouldn't have needed to defend themselves if Case hadn't put them in this position in the first place.

Maybe if she'd known what Case had been planning, she would have been able to take her in before all of this had happened. But Rain knew only a bullet would have been capable of stopping Case, and Rain just wasn't prepared to go that far to stop Case from killing the people she herself hoped to receive the death sentence in court.

Rain sighed. Regardless of any of that, she needed to stop Case from going any further. They had the perfect opportunity to bring in all the sub-bosses and their lieutenants, and Rain just couldn't pass that up. Maybe she could get Case to just run if she didn't want to take a chance on trusting the FBI.

"Anngghshhhit!" came a moan from behind the desk.

Rain looked over at Carlotti and found him groggily trying to orient himself in the room. Just as she came over, he was reaching up to his desk drawer.

"I don't think so," Rain told him, and she pushed his hand away from the desk.

"You fucking bitch!" Carlotti ground out. "You're a dead woman. No, I'm going to fuck you 'til you're begging me to kill you. Nobody fuck's me like this, you goddamn bitch!"

Carlotti continued to hurl invectives at the tall agent, but Rain ignored him. She put her phone away so that her hands were free and then slowly pulled Carlotti into his partially destroyed desk chair. The material had been shredded from the numerous impacts of bullets, but the chair itself was still intact, since it had been made from steel, probably as an added protection against the type of situation that had recently transpired.

Carlotti cried out as his knee was moved, but he wasn't so far gone that he didn't take the opportunity to reach for one of Rain's guns as she leaned over him to put him in the chair. Luckily, Rain had fast reflexes, and he didn't even get it out of its holster before she chopped at a nerve in his wrist to make it go numb. She took a few steps back.

"Nice try," she said smugly.

"Fucking cunt!" was his immediate reply.

There was no way he could outrun the long-legged woman, and he knew it, so he just sat there and glowered.

Rain considered tying him up, but decided it was a pointless exercise. He wasn't going anywhere. Instead, she removed the gun from the desk and stuffed it into the back of her jeans. Then she pushed Carlotti's chair into the middle of the room so that she could keep an eye on him.

Carlotti spit at her the way he had at Case, but Rain dodged the glob of saliva, and it hit the floor instead. Rain walked out of his range, but she kept him in sight, as she contemplated pulling out her phone again.

A few weeks ago, she wouldn't have hesitated. She would have followed procedure and done her job to the best of her ability. But she couldn't stop thinking about what would happen to Case. And for what? So that a few assholes could stand trial instead of being blown to bits?

Rain reached for her phone. There had been too much death already. It didn't matter how she felt about it. Her duty was to uphold the law.

"Hey, bitch," Carlotti called out.

Rain's hand paused in her pocket, and she looked over at him, waiting.

"You know when she comes back here, she's probably going to kill you, too. I don't know what she's paying you, but if you let me go, I'll triple it," Carlotti offered.

"She's not paying me anything," Rain said disdainfully, though she didn't know why she was even talking to him.

Understanding dawned in his eyes, and he grinned lewdly.

"Oh, I'd have paid to see that," he laughed.

Rain turned away and ignored him. He realized he was fucking up his best chance out of this mess, so with this new information, he tried to think what would get through to her.

"Hey, I'll make you a deal. You let me go, and I'll let Case leave the country alive, and you can go with her. I'll even throw in a bonus for you, say a couple hundred grand?" he tempted.

Thoughts of torturing them both to death once they were in another country made him grin even wider, though the pain in his knee turned it into more of a grimace.

Rain turned around and stared at the man incredulously.

"Do you really think I'm that stupid?"

His face fell, as he realized she wasn't going to agree quite as easily as he'd hoped, but he couldn't just give up, so he tried again.

CHAPTER 30

CASE SYSTEMATICALLY SWEPT through the entire place and executed everyone she met. It took her almost an hour, but she'd killed everyone she knew would be in the household, as well as several new faces she'd never seen before.

She couldn't say she was very upset to see them die. At this point, she wasn't sure she'd even be upset if she found Rain dead. She couldn't feel anything, except the most basic need to stay alive. It was what kept her moving through the house until she was sure she'd emptied it of everyone except herself, Rain, and Carlotti.

Finally, she entered the security room. There were several workstations and one wall full of monitors that showed every room of the mansion, except Carlotti's office. It included the surrounding countryside and the main front gate. She hadn't expected to see anyone at the guard station, since she'd shot Rick as he was coming into the entryway of the main lobby, and thankfully, she didn't.

She double-checked the grounds to make sure she hadn't missed anyone and then stepped back into the doorway. She removed the silencer from her gun and started shooting. She emptied the clip and several more after that until every single piece of equipment had at least several bullet holes in it.

She looked over the destroyed closed-circuit TVs and computers, including the two backup systems, and nodded in satisfaction. Antonio had gone digital shortly after the technology had been invented, so once she'd destroyed the computers, all records of the events in the mansion had been destroyed as well. She did one last sweep of the room to make sure she hadn't missed additional backups and then left.

It was a quick trip back to Antonio's office, and she made sure to yell out a quick identifier before entering the room. Antonio was awake and in his chair, and she calmly walked over to him. She raised her gun.

"Wait, you gave me your word," Antonio reminded her as he brought up his arms to shield his face, though he knew it was useless.

"I said I would let you go, not let you live," Case said and was about to shoot him point blank, but Rain's voice stopped her.

"Don't do it, Case," Rain said and was unprepared when Case whirled on her and pointed the gun at her instead.

"Don't think I won't kill you, Rebecca, because I will," Case said, her voice devoid of emotion.

It was a strange moment for both of them. Déjà vu didn't quite describe it, though there was definitely a feeling of having been in that particular situation before. Of course, any feelings of familiarity were quickly pushed aside as Rain realized two things. One, this was the first time she'd heard her name spoken, and liked it, since her mother had last called her Rebecca. And two, Case knew her real name.

"How long have you known?" Rain asked calmly.

"Since the night before your hit."

"Why didn't you kill me?"

"I already... I just didn't want to," Case said, as she faltered for a moment.

"What's going on?" Carlotti asked.

His voice broke the tension, and Case laughed, as she glanced at him for a moment, but not long enough for Rain to take advantage.

"The replacement you chose for me is an agent for the FBI, you idiot," she grinned sardonically.

His face registered surprise and then rage. Case turning traitor was one thing, but an FBI agent? He almost stood up to go after her, but the pain in his knee made him rethink that move, and he sat in impotent fury.

Case ignored him as she returned her attention to Rain. She took a gamble and slowly lowered her gun. The truth was, she could shoot Rain faster than Rain could get to her, but it was still a risk, and Case was trying to show that she trusted Rain, if only a little under these circumstances.

"So. What do you plan to do now?" Rain asked, trying to buy herself some time to think.

"Kill him, then kill the rest. Then get the fuck out of the country," Case said.

"What about me?"

"I won't kill you unless I don't have any other choice," Case said matter-of-factly.

"How comforting," Rain said sarcastically.

Case wanted to look away as Rain's eyes showed the betrayal she felt, but Case couldn't take the chance that Rain might try something and get herself killed.

"I'm sorry. But I can't just walk away from this."

"Neither can I," Rain replied.

Case turned her head to see Carlotti attempting to slowly inch his way back using his good leg to push the chair along the carpet. He'd been hoping they were so engrossed in their conversation that they wouldn't notice. Case pointed her gun at him again.