After he left the nightclub, he headed to his house on the outskirts of the city. I had that address and even an aerial view of what the house looked like. Once I figured that was the direction he was headed, I backed off a little so he wouldn’t notice he was being followed.
I wondered if his wife knew what he did. It took a special kind of person to not, I guessed. Like how could you live with someone and not know there was some shady shit going on? Did she think about where all that money came from? Perhaps she didn’t care. I’d seen it enough before.
Look, I had no room to talk. I realized that. My sister and mother didn’t have a clue about what I got paid to do. But they weren’t in my life every day. They didn’t share a house with me. They weren’t around to see the horrible hours I was up and weird trips I randomly took at the last minute.
Yeah, it was probably a good thing I was still alone. While I might have been able to fool my mom and sister, I didn’t think I was smooth enough to pull it off with a partner. Plus, I felt like shit about it. Every time I talked to my family, I felt like the biggest asshole ever. I was lying to them. And while I got that it was something that had to be done, it didn’t sit right with my soul.
I left my target once most of the lights went off in the house. There was no sense sitting here all night waiting for nothing. If he was going to get some shut-eye, then I was too.
I was parking in front of his house right before dawn the next day. The house still seemed silent.
Damn, this guy had a huge house. No wonder he lived on the outer rim of the city. You couldn’t find something like that any closer. Shame he wouldn’t be around to enjoy it much longer. I mean, not really.
Then I was thinking about his wife again. Not in some weird, creepy way. I never gave much thought to people like her. I just always assumed they were part of it too and they got off easy in the end. But I supposed there were people out there that could love no matter what. Like it didn’t matter that he’d killed a shit-ton of people and whatever. Love surpassed all or something.
And yeah, I did realize that most of what ran through my head at times like these I could apply to myself too. I didn’t like to consider myself in the same category as most of the people I took out, but I knew I wasn’t far from it. I didn’t have some high-and-mighty attitude about what I did. I simply didn’t like to think about it most of the time.
This day was much of the same as yesterday. Same actions, different backgrounds. I was bored already.
But day three changed everything.
It wasn’t until later in the afternoon did it look like things were going to get interesting. And man, was I right.
I followed him to a warehouse. I would have said it was abandoned given the location and the fact that everything around it looked as if it hadn’t seen any kind of human life for ten years. However, the building he parked in front of stuck out like a sore thumb with its lack of crumbling walls, broken windows, and vine-covered siding. It looked new, in fact. I hung back so I wouldn’t be noticed. Honestly, I was a little surprised that I hadn’t been spotted already. It didn’t seem like a lot of people traveled this route.
Then again, there were a number of cars parked around the building and men walking around accessorized with automatic rifles. So, yeah. I’d hit jackpot, only it wasn’t really what I had been looking for. I knew what kind of man he was already. I knew he was the largest importer and supplier of heroin in the state.
I wasn’t here to find out what he did, I was here to kill him. Something I didn’t think I’d be able to do at this location, there were simply too many people around. But that didn’t mean that I got to leave. I had to study his movements and get to know him before I could make the right move.
I chose the closest abandoned building to hide my car behind. Fingers crossed that no one would be coming down the crumbled trail because if they did, they’d see it right away.
The only way for me to stay unseen was to find some high up position in this fucking falling down excuse for a building. And since there was no ladder anywhere, I had to climb the wall. Lucky for me, there were a bunch of holes in it already. I just had to worry about the loose cinder blocks giving way under my weight as I made my way up. The row of upper windows spanned the entire length of the building. Most importantly, there was a ledge that was barely big enough for me to lay on.
Awkwardly while laying on my side, I brought my binoculars up to my eyes. I couldn’t see much because the damn building across the way was all shut up. And no, there weren’t any windows. Convenient, right? I gave it about twenty minutes and when my target hadn’t walked out, I gave up on trying to see anything.
Deciding it was best to head back to my car and find a spot back closer to the main road that was less suspicious, I did just that.
An hour later, I saw his car drive by, followed by another one.
This should be fun.
But it wasn’t.
Both the cars headed in the same direction. I lost sight of them when they pulled into a private parking deck that belonged to what appeared to be an upscale building that I would have guessed held condos or apartments.
Knowing I couldn’t follow them, I found a spot a few blocks up on the side of the street.
This was going to suck.
I had no clue what this building was.
I scanned my notes again to see if it was one that he owned but I didn’t find it on my list. Maybe Dalton had missed it. But something was telling me that wasn’t it. Because Dalton was good and very thorough, he never half-assed shit, at least not for me. And with his connection to the FBI, I assumed I had as much as they had if not more.
There was something else here.
I just had to figure out what.
But first, I had to figure out where the hell he’d gone.
