Exposed - A Thriller Novella (Chandler Series) by J.A. Konrath & Ann Voss Peterson
vacation homes in thearea and few suffered the inconvenience of traffic snarls on theirway back and forth to Manhattan. Around here, helipads were ascommon as tennis courts. But as much as I told myself all thesefacts, my gut said the arrival of this particular aircraft was nocoincidence. It was here for Julianne, and I was stuck modeling fornudie shots with this chubby Seymore Butts wannabe.He chose the last bedroom on the left.
The room was large, furnished only by a kingsize bed. It smelled of new paint and sheets that needed changing.Windows looked out on the Sound, and I spotted a purple Bellcorporate-type helicopter approaching the beach.
“Let’s try a few on the bed. Take off yourtop, show me those sweet tits again.”
I struggled to look unsure.
“Come on, all the famous bitches did nudes.Marilyn Monroe did nudes. You want to be famous like her,right?”
I chewed my lower lip and pretended to thinkit over. “Well, okay, I guess.”
I set my purse on the nightstand, perched onthe bed and untied the bikini top. I needed an opening, some way toescape my photographer without the men downstairs finding out andgreeting me with gunfire.
I let the top fall to the bed.
He snapped a few shots then paused,stretching his neck.
“Stiff neck?” I asked.
“It’s nothing. Arch your back more. Show mewhat a hot little slut you are.”
I’ll show you something else instead.
“I can help you with that,” I cooed. “Thestiff neck. I used to date a chiropractor.”
I climbed to my knees. Sitting back on myheels, I spread my thighs wide and patted the bed in front of me.“Why don’t you come over here.”
The smile spreading over his fat face hadnothing to do with spinal adjustment. He put down the camera andsat where I’d indicated.
I massaged his shoulders for a few seconds,then unbuttoned his shirt, revolted that his boobs were even largerthan mine.
“You really do want a modeling career, don’tyou?”
“More than anything.” I pressed myselfagainst his back, skin on skin. Circling my arms around hisshoulders, I snaked one hand down to his crotch.
He moaned, deep in his throat.
“I can adjust this, too,” I said.
“Oh, yeah, baby. Here I thought I was goingto have to slap you around. I still might. Horny bitch like youwould like that, I bet.”
Charming.
I cradled his head between my breasts thensmoothed my right hand around his shoulder and massaged up the backof his head to his scalp. I could feel him relax, goose bumpsrising on his back.
I collared his neck with my left arm, andthen before he realized what was happening, I grabbed my rightelbow, pushed his head downward into the V of my left arm andflexed my biceps, applying pressure to his carotid artery.
He tensed, but even though he had weight andstrength on me, it only took seconds before he was unconscious.Stopping the blood supply to the brain will do that.
I slipped out behind him and let his bodyfall back on the bed.
Breaking someone’s neck isn’t as easy as itlooks in the movies. It also isn’t lethal 100% of the time.
Breaking someone’s trachea and cutting oftheir air supply is simpler, and more effective. It’s possible tosurvive a broken neck. Survive not breathing? Not so much.
I chopped the sex-trafficking pig in thewindpipe, not sticking around to watch him suffocate. Grabbing myscrap of a bikini top, I slipped the memory card out of the cameraand into my purse and closed the door behind me.
I had finished tying the top around my backand slinging my purse across my chest by the time I reached thepatio. The whump whump whump of the helicopter blade pulsedin the air. The sun glared off the water, making me squint. Raisingmy hand to shield my eyes, I scanned the chairs surrounding thepool.
The other men were gone.
So was Julianne James.
“No operation is simple,” said TheInstructor. “Things can invariably go wrong, and like any goodsoldier, you have to be ready to improvise, adapt,overcome.”
I started down the steps, leaving the dooropen behind me. Once the helicopter left the ground, Julianne wouldbe lost, and I’d be damned if I was going to let that happen. Shehad taken up with some bad people, which made her more like me atthat age than I wanted to admit. But I’d been given anotherchance.
She deserved one, too.
“Where are you going?”
I hadn’t spotted Udelhoffer standing behind ahedge that separated pool from lawn, but now he stepped out fromthe right, coming at me fast for such a big man.
Adrenaline spiked my blood, making everythingslower, clearer. Udelhoffer’s movement. The drum of my heartbeat.The smell of the water and screech of the gulls. I stopped and heldup my hands. “I was just wondering where everyone went.”
“What happened to Ronnie?”
“He’s taking a breather.”
Udelhoffer’s eyes narrowed. His beefy fingerstwitched. I could see him thinking it over. Asking himself, is thisjust some dumb bimbo, or is something going on here?
His training kicked in.
His hand went for the Tec-9.
I anticipated the move and kicked to theside, my right foot striking just below his knee cap. I followedthe blow through, scraping the side of my shoe down his shin,drilling the stiletto heel into his instep.
He bellowed like a bull.
Without pause, I brought a knife hand blow tohis forearm, targeting his radial nerve just below the elbow.Localized strikes are hard to pull off on a moving target, but Iwas fast.
The Tec-9 fell from his grip and swung on itssling. I grabbed the strap, dropped, and jerked it off hisshoulder, twisting as I did. Then I released. The machine gunskittered across flagstones without going off.
I moved to follow-up with a chin jab, missingand hitting his chest. High heels were effective weapons, but theyalso made balancing trickier. By putting so much of my weightbehind the stab to his foot and the blow to his arm, I’d leftmyself unbalanced.
I saw him aim the palm of his hand for mychin, but I couldn’t reverse my momentum fast enough.
My head snapped backward, the blow clangingthrough my skull. My brain stuttered, overtaken with too muchstimuli at once. I staggered, almost going down. Motes of lightswirled in my vision just as the pain came.
He lunged