“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I sighed and lowered my shoulders, feeling my patience starting to dwindle.
Dr. Reynolds straightened in his seat and narrowed his eyes. “I don’t know who hired you, but you need to go. I don’t have time for this shit.” The sudden bass in his voice humored me. His body was shaking but he tried to stand his ground.
“I agree. This is pointless.” Wrapping my hand around the trigger, I pulled it. A whisper of a sound filled the room due to the silencer. The bullet went straight between the doctor’s eyes. One thing I always prided myself on was my aim. Whether it was a gun or blade, I hardly ever missed my target.
Dr. Reynolds’s head fell forward, hitting his desk with a hard thump and causing his glass to spill, the liquid scattering.
Walking toward him, I went into my pocket and pulled out a card that displayed the queen of hearts and tossed it on the table before grabbing my untraceable phone and taking a picture of the body, then stepping closer, grabbing his head and forcing it up to take one last picture. Once I was done, I quickly sent an encrypted message to my handler. His or her number was the only number this phone was able to receive and send texts. The line was secured and always erased after a certain amount of time. I never saw their face, only received my targets and an encrypted link that broke after the mission was completed, which gave details about the target.
A few seconds later a message of confirmation came through and I knew within the hour I would have the payout in my account.
Removing the silencer from the gun, I put the safety on before sliding both in my black hoodie pocket. I kept my black leather gloves on then headed out of the office, this time walking out of the front door, making sure to lift my hood over my face before leaving.
I was here longer than I would have liked and needed to hurry and get back to the motel room across town.
Once I was at my car, I removed my black leather gloves and quickly went to my trunk to put my things inside my duffle bag, keeping my gun on me.
I waited a couple of blocks to finally pull my main phone out of the glove compartment and turned it on, making sure I didn’t have any messages. My nerves were shaky and running wild as I drove as quickly as I could to the motel without bringing too much attention to myself. With everything going on around me, I couldn’t be too careless.
____
“Hey bud, I got you something to eat.” I walked over to the double beds and placed a paper bag on the table between them along with the cup holder that held sweet tea.
My ten year old brother Carson sat up and set his Nintendo Switch on the bed, smiling at me. It wasn’t as bright as I was used to and that made my heart ache. I hated that we had to hide out in this dingy motel, in the sketchy part of town. It was over the bridge in an area called The Sticks. A lot of shady shit went on here, so the front desk didn’t care about proper ID and accepted cash without asking questions. It was hard to complete jobs at times, knowing I had to leave my brother completely unprotected to make money for us. While I made sure he knew not to open the door and always had a weapon close by in case he needed it, I still didn’t feel right about leaving him. The past couple of weeks had been a shit show, but I was working on making everything better for us.
“Thank you,” he said quietly, making me smile softly.
Carson was the only person in this world I gave a fuck about and I would do whatever I had to, to make sure he was protected and taken care of.
I kicked my shoes off then went to the bag, removing the burger and fries and handing them over.
“You eat while I shower, okay?” I told him and he nodded quietly, grabbing the food from me.
Making sure I had my phone, I went to the couch on the wall, grabbed my bookbag, and headed for the bathroom. As soon as I closed the door, I pressed my back against it and pushed out a deep breath. Too many eyes were looking for me right now for me to put us in a safer environment, but I had a plan.
I lifted my phone and rolled my eyes, looking at the basic smartphone. It was a burner, and unable to be tracked, but functional. The notification came through about my deposit for the job, which was bittersweet. The money from the few jobs I’d done was collecting but I couldn’t use anything that would give my location away. So I had to be careful how I used and withdrew my money.
“Enough of this shit,” I scolded myself after a while. I was never the one to engage in self-pity and I wasn’t gonna start now. As soon as I took the threat against me out, I could go back to life as I knew it.
CHAPTER 3
NAZAI
Istood in front of the man currently tied to the chair with my arms crossed, waiting for him to wake up. My brothers—Emmet, who was the youngest, and Ezra, who fell right before him—stood on the side of me. The latest target had been knocked out and gagged in his kitchen, currently waiting for his final resting.
“Can we get this over with now? I’m bored.” Ezra yawned.
Cutting my eyes at him, I made eye contact with River, my best friend and the muscle in operation, and nodded.
River and I had been friends our whole lives. Our parents were close, his dad worked under mine. Unfortunately, his parents were murdered when he was fifteen and my family accepted him with open arms. Loyalty and family were big in the business; so taking in River was a no brainer.
Nodding back, he walked to where the guy was tied up with his head dropped and pulled a rag out of his pocket, putting it to the guy’s nose. The man’s head lifted and he blinked lazily before widening his eyes.
“What, what, what’s going on?” he stammered, bouncing his eyes around.
I smirked, stepping forward. “You know one thing I hate more than anything in the world is a pedophile,” I snarled.
“No, I was found innocent! I never touched that girl.” He quickly shook his head and wiggled, attempting to get free.
