I smiled and told her thank you. The lady was sweet but also had a sharpness about her that made me smile.
She grabbed a few bags and helped me get them onto the elevator and I told her I had it from here.
A few hours later, I had a glass of wine in my hand as I was looking over my not-so-horrible decorating. I mean, there were pops of color everywhere but I felt like it worked. I was suddenly excited for Ray to get home. I really hoped he didn’t hate it.
Only, I wouldn’t know that night. Because a few hours later, he sent me a text saying he wouldn’t be back for a few days.
I was disappointed but I knew that sometimes things were just that way. I figured he ended up having to leave the city to check on something, and that it had turned into an even bigger mess than he anticipated. It was clear that he knew he was headed into something that wouldn’t be easy. I’d hoped he’d be able to wrap it up quickly, and I could tell he was thinking the same thing as well. But sometimes things just didn’t work out the way you hoped they would.
My gut clenched tight and it was like something suddenly hit me hard.
A text.
It was always a text.
I couldn’t think of a single time that he’d actually called me. Not one time that I’d heard his voice over the phone. Texting was such a normal thing that I never really thought about it before now. But that boulder that was currently tumbling around in my stomach like it was in a washing machine was hard to ignore.
I’d survived by being in tune with my instincts.
So the last thing I should have done now was stop paying attention to it.
I just couldn’t put my finger on what was off.
But I knew there was something.
-5-
Silas
Life as a contract killer could be kind of lonely.
It wasn’t like I could go around telling people what I did for a living. And since I wasn’t one to hide the kind of money I made, the questions always came sooner rather than later.
I drove nice cars. I had decent houses all over. Though, I’d tell you my favorite was the cabin in the middle of nowhere. It was quiet. Perhaps I liked the quiet more than I’d like to admit. That wasn’t to say that being in the city didn’t have its perks. Maid service, for one. And the cooking thing, yeah, I could do it, but most of the time it was more like I just didn’t want to. And in the city, there wasn’t a chance to be bored and if you felt lonely, you could fix that real quick.
As nice as it was, I never lasted long in the city. It didn’t matter which one it was. Two weeks was usually my max and if I didn’t have a job, I was making my way to the cabin.
Standing in my downtown condo in Seattle, I stared out the window. I was resisting the urge to pack my bag and take off. Why have all of these things if I didn’t use them? Because I could. But that didn’t seem like a good enough answer.
I pulled out my phone and called the one asshole that I knew was just as lonely as me and just as likely to admit it out loud.
“What do you want?” he asked as a greeting.
“Something…” I said with a smirk. He couldn’t see it but I knew he heard it.
“I’m busy,” he grunted.
“Let me guess…huntingsomething?”
I could practically hear him rolling his eyes at me through the phone.
“Don’t you have someone to kill?”
“Not at the moment, no,” I said with a short laugh. Maybe I was a little bored. “Hey, you remember that time in—”
“No,” he said cutting me off. “No, I don’t remember that time in wherever and no, I don’t want to talk about it right now. Just spit it out, will you?”
I let out a long sigh.
