That condescending arse Cormac is heading for us, glaring at me like I’d just pissed on his shoes.
Laughing brightly, I pat Baird’s arm. “I’ll tell Papa’s secretary to contact yours with all the details. I can see that MacTavish is stomping over to us like a territorial bear, so I’ll leave ya’ to his tender mercies.”
I hear a low groan from him as he turns to flash a practiced smile at the eldest MacTavish and I slip away.
Where did my mark go? Ah… He’s smoothing back his hair, waiting to be called up on stage. The MC is about to begin the live auction.
Taking a deep breath, I wince internally as all that God gave me topside swells into view as I stroll toward the mark. It turns out that I don’t even need to do my patented stumble, giggle, and arm grab. His eyes never lift from my cleavage as I swap out the velvet box in his jacket pocket with an identical one.
As I daintily make my way down the front steps, I can hear the auctioneer’s voice boom out. “Up first, a one-of-a-kind necklace… the only diamond mined from the…”
Sliding into the back of the waiting SUV, I pat the hidden pocket under my skirt. The bidding on that particular piece of jewelry will top ten million pounds, but the new owner is going to be mighty upset when they discover it’s a big, shiny fake.
Chapter Two
In which this will not go down in the record books as an adorable "meet cute."
Dougal…
Two weeks later…
“Nice you could join us, Your Grace.”
Cameron loves taking the piss out of me because I have to live in an expensive suit as the face of our legitimate business interests. He knows I’m happy enough to get my hands dirty.
Like tonight, as a horde of suicidal cartel fecks think they’re going to hijack a shipment of weapons. “What’s the latest on these arseholes?” I ask, binoculars out and searching the little harbor.
“They’ve hit two other groups, one of the smaller mafias in Sicily got taken down pretty badly,” Cameron says. “It was a mistake for them to hit the Doyle Irish Mob next. They took a beating from them, and anyone the Doyles didn’t wipe out, we intend to. Our informant tells me they’re bringing everyone left in the cartel for this heist. We’ll wipe these thieving pricks off the face of the earth.”
“You picked the perfect port for an ambush,” I note, “the narrow mouth of the harbor, minimal traffic, multiple sniper points.”
“Thanks for your approval, Your Grace,” he grins.
“I know it’s wrong, but I think about punching you in the throat. Often.”
He leaves with a low chuckle and I put in my earpiece, listening to all our men check in. There are only two boat slips in this part of the harbor, serving six different warehouses. Most of them belong to us. The low-lying scent of rotting seaweed and fish guts is everywhere, but we keep our warehouses clean.
Cameron’s back. “Sync your watches, everyone. Counting down… now.”
It’s past midnight, closer to one am when our boat silently makes its way into one of the slips, and the men onboard start unloading the long wooden boxes containing a prime shipment of Accuracy International AXSR sniper rifles. It’s difficult to source these at all, much less the fifty boxes being unloaded from the boat.
The high beams on ten jeeps and trucks surrounding the warehouse suddenly turn on, blinding our men on board.
“Drop to the ground! Now!”
I adjust my rifle scope and watch the man’s head explode into a rain of blood and skull fragments. Everyone’s gun is up, including the men on board, each of the vehicles surrounded and no one stops firing until there’s nothing left of the cartel.
I can hear the hiss of mutilated radiators and the agonized moans of dying men, and I smile. Catching movement out of the corner of my eye, I swing my rifle scope in that direction. There’s a dark figure slipping into one of the warehouses, not ours. Did one of the cartel fecks escape?
“Checking movement in the Atlantic Shipping warehouse,” I say into my mic.
“You want backup?” Cameron asks.
“Finish the cleanup,” I’m already close to the warehouse entrance.
“You know the signal,” he says, “call if you need me.”
“I can kill this arsehole just fine without your help.”
