Called to Kill
Page 10
Insane or not, I couldn’t ignore the facts that now lay in front of me, no matter how crazy I thought it was. It was one of those scenarios where you think ‘its so crazy it just might work’ and I’d fallen for the act, hook line and sinker, brushing it off without a second thought. Now I felt like I had been played for a fool. A mistake I wouldn’t be making again.
We were in for a fun ride now, because the one we thought was the most unlikely, murdered our colleague meaning that they obviously had a whole other side, a much darker side. Caution was definitely going to be needed when it came to confronting her. We were quickly learning that everything we thought we knew about her, was a lie. The person she said she was, also a lie. She had played everyone and now, she was going to pay the price for her ultimate betrayal.
After spending more than an hour coming up with a game plan, we set out to carefully put our plan to action without drawing suspicion. Soon we would finally be able to go home. I couldn’t wait. I’d been gone so long, I was even starting to miss Mrs Harrison’s chicken paprika. First thing I’m going to do when I get home is invite the lonely old woman over so I could cook her dinner for a change as thanks for all the times she did so for me.
Chapter twenty-five
After making arrangements with the others to meet up later at the bar in the hotel lobby, each of us having our own set tasks that would help corner the bitch that had caused a stir, put Penelope in the hospital, brought us here and ripping us away from our own lives for the better part of four months and ripping Marcy away from her life completely, I called Daniel, asking him if I could come over to talk.
I couldn’t wait to get home but there was one thing keeping me here and it was him. I cared about him and would be sad to leave, knowing he would be left behind, but Melbourne was home. I needed a chance to say a proper goodbye face to face rather than him find out later once we revealed who was behind it all.
He greeted me with a warm embrace, placing a gentle kiss upon my lips before welcoming me in. As he closed the door behind me, he leaned in to kiss me again but this time I pushed back from his attempt, looking down to hide the hurt showing all over my face, which he picked up on almost instantly. I took a seat on the couch, patting my hand against the cushion beside me, instructing him to take a seat.
A look of concern showed in his eyes that encapsulated my soul. They made me want to surrender everything and run away with him, to a far off land where we could start over as anything but assassins and live happily ever after. As he sat down beside me, he placed his hand on my thigh, asking what it was that had me so upset.
I told him everything. It was liberating to get it all out at long last. I told him that we had finally discovered the person responsible, even telling him how we got to this point and what it was that gave them away, I even told him who it was. When he heard the name, he was more shocked than I had been, repeatedly asking if I was serious and if I was one hundred percent sure. I showed him the email with the photo and the birth name: Tiffany Reynolds. Even with the proof right in front of him, he still struggled to wrap his head around it. I knew exactly how he felt.
Then came the hard part; telling him our plan to capture her and get her on a plane back to Melbourne tonight. It was as if he didn’t quite hear me at first, stopping me a few moments later to clarify what I meant by that. I explained that if our plan worked, and unless someone tipped her off, causing her to run, this would be my last day in Sydney and I had come to say goodbye when out of nowhere and clearly without prolonged thought, Daniel blurted out four words that made me rethink everything I’ve ever known.
“I’ll come with you.”
I didn’t know what to say as pure shock took over. I’d never felt for anyone what I felt for him, but what he was suggesting was huge. It was a life changer. What we had here was just a fling, or at least that’s what I kept telling myself. Just something to do to combat the boredom until the time came to leave again but just how close we’d become over the last few months was something that neither of us had even begun to imagine but nevertheless, it was undeniable.
I didn’t know what love was but when I think about my love for Jackson and Penelope, I think about how I would take a bullet for them, I would kill for them and I knew they would do the same for me in return. From what I knew, that was what people called love and after all my attempts at denial, at calling it nothing more than casual sex, I couldn’t deny the simple fact that the thought of someone hurting him made me trigger happy. If I knew I would kill for him and I knew I would take a bullet for him, could I really continue to deny having feelings for him that could only be described as love?
Did that mean I wanted him to come back with me, instantly making us something so much more, making me have to confront my feelings? Having us both go out into the field and worrying whether today was the day we didn’t come home? Honestly, I wasn’t sure about that one at all. It was an awful lot of pressure and I can’t say it’s a concept I’ve ever had to deal with before. I had always just been me, myself and I and the idea of a happily ever after just wasn’t something I could have and I was ok with that. At least I thought I was. Now I wasn’t so sure.
In that moment, I couldn’t say no to him coming with me, but in the same breath I didn’t want to say yes and let him in completely, only to have him rip my heart out later. It was a concept I needed time to process. Was he worth the risk? Maybe. Would something go wrong? I was almost certain that it would. That was when I decided I was better off on my own. It was comfortable and familiar and it was how it should stay.
I repeatedly told myself that it was just fun to make my time here a little less boring. But it could never really work. I mean think about it, I’m a call girl. I get paid to sleep with anyone and everyone, sometimes multiple people at one time, sometimes girls, sometimes a mixture of boys and girls and even though I haven’t since Jackson took me in, I have been paid in the past to attend a bucks party and offer myself in every way, to every single guy in the room, – the groom-to-be included – I was not one to be loved in the way he wanted to love me. My heart felt like it was being ripped in two and I didn’t like it, but I knew what I had to do. It was for the best.
Wiping the moisture from my eyes and gathering composure, I turned to face Daniel, taking his hand in mine and looking into his eyes, knowing for certain, that I was about to rip both our hearts out and stomp on them until there was nothing left but mush.
“I’m sorry; I can’t let you do that. You were just a bit of fun to pass the time while I was here. Don’t get me wrong, you’re a really nice guy, but I don’t do the whole cozy couples thing, the very thought of it makes me want to gag.”
“What? Are you seriously trying to pull that high road shit with me?” He was less than impressed and saw straight through me. I hated that about him. I had to up the ante and make him believe me. I had to convince him that it wasn’t love, that I felt absolutely nothing for him and he was just another piece of meat for me to chew on while I was here.
“Look, if I lead you on, then I apologise, but you really don’t mean anywhere near enough to me for me to allow you to follow me to Melbourne like some pathetic love sick lap dog. If you thought I felt something for you more than just a physical attraction, then that’s your ego problem, not mine so get over yourself. I thought I would do the right thing by coming to say thanks for the memories and for being a good distraction during down time. Not to have you propose some lunatic Mary Poppins style happy ending!”
Ripping my hands from his desperate grasp, I turned on my heel and stormed out the door, slamming it behind me before running down the hall as fast as my legs could carry me. I had to get out of there as quickly as possible before I broke down completely. His face was so sullen when I lied through my teeth about my feelings and intentions. I hurt him and he would doubtfully ever speak to me again but it’s how it had to be. I’m not about to give up this life for a happily ever after. This is real life not some fantasy where everythin
g comes up roses in the end.
My intentions were to just have a bit of fun, to address the curiosity I felt when I met him, but I couldn’t deny the very simple fact that a lot had changed in the last few months and I had started to feel real feelings for him. I wanted to be able to believe that we could go back together to Melbourne and get married and have kids and have the whole happily ever after, but if my life has taught me anything it’s that life never works out that way. Least of all for someone like me and Marcy’s death served to further drive that point home. She tried to have happily ever after and now her son has no mother. I couldn’t do that to my future hypothetical children and I wouldn’t do it to Daniel. I’d rather have him hate me than have to mourn me.
I closed the door to my hotel room slowly, sinking down against the hard wood until I connected with the floor, curling my knees up to my chest and once I was away from everyone and everything, my emotions spilled out, tears flooding from my eyes as regret seeped in. I loved him. It was painfully clear but that was why I had to let him go. It was just easier that way.
Never in my life had I cried at the loss of another, the way I was crying for him. He cared about me, like really cared about me and wanted to take the chance at a life with me and what do I do? I call him crazy and walk away. I could have been happy and I probably would have been for a time, but it would have ended one way or another and I couldn’t put either one of us through it.
The guilt of my actions was a painful burden that I had to get rid of and the only way to do that would be to make this case my prime focus. My time in Sydney was almost over; it would soon be time to go home. Hopefully these rubbish feelings would go away as soon as I was back in my own world. That’s all I had left at this point; the hope that it was just a phase and getting home would make it go away. The sooner I get away from here, away from Daniel, the sooner things can begin to go back to normal.
Chapter twenty-six
Looking like garbage from spending an hour freeing my emotions, I fixed myself up a little and went downstairs for a drink to fill time and take my mind off everything before I had to meet everyone here later to execute our takedown plan.
The bar keep already knew my order, nodding in my direction as I sat down at the bar, a glass bottle of pre mixed Jack Daniel’s placed in front of me. Looking down at the glass bottle, I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry or throw it across the room. Jack Daniel’s. Even my choice of drink was a painful reminder. Maybe I should switch to Tequila. Never going to meet someone with that name now am I?
As if on cue, I felt a hand touch my shoulder as a soft voice tickled with vengeful humor rang out behind me,
“For someone who say’s she doesn’t care, you sure look like you’re drowning your sorrows.”
My heart began to beat in my throat as the voice both awoke and broke me at the same time. Turning to face him, my whole body screamed for him and keeping my emotions in check was not an easy task.
“Come to beg have we? How many times do I have to tell you, it wasn’t real” I sneered, trying to conceal my true feelings with cold tones and harsh words. I don’t know if I was trying to convince him or myself safe to say it wasn’t working either way. His eyes lit up as he smiled and the pain in my chest felt like a heart attack, which I would have welcomed if it got me out of this encounter.
“I don’t need to beg, Tamikah. I already know how you feel about me. No matter what comes out of your mouth, I can see it in your eyes. The war you are having with yourself. Trying to push me away so you can stay in your bubble all alone, only letting people in when you are disguised as someone else. I see you. The real you. The scared and insecure woman with a brutal past, hiding behind her combat and weapons training, with her wigs and her costumes so she never has to introduce herself with her real name.”
His words were true. Every single bleeding one of them. Four months we had been here. Four months was all it took for him to break down every wall, standing here trying to nuke the last remaining bricks that stood between my internal war and giving in to him and his fantasy of a happy ending. It was as if the last bricks were crumbling with every word he said. I could feel my temples warming up as my tear ducts started to betray me, shining light on my struggle.
Seeing my eyes well up must’ve been all the cue he needed because what he did next was enough to break me. He did the one thing that no one has ever done for as long as I can remember. He spun the chair so I faced him completely and drew my face into his chest, the sound of his beating heart soothing to my soul yet crippling to my resolve as he held me against him tightly.
“I’m coming back to Melbourne with you, I’ve already spoken to Jackson. You can’t walk away from this, I wont let you because I am completely in love with you and I’m not letting you go.” His tone was commanding yet soft. He was firm with his words but wanted me to know he wasn’t telling me, he was simply telling me that he was coming back to Melbourne so he could continue breaking down my walls from there.
It wasn’t the vow of coming with me that broke me. Hearing him say he loved me, that was what broke me. I tried to hold it back, tried to hold it in, but the heart of an unloved child, shattered from the stone casing I had built around it over the years. I knew I had fallen for him, but hearing him say the words was all it took to make me want to give in and give in I did.
We barely made it through the door before our clothes were thrown across the floor, consumed by a new wave of hunger, desperation and an emotional connection that made this time completely different. The tenderness of the first time in the shower together was nothing compared to this. I came to Sydney to catch a bad guy but I ended up catching something else entirely while I was here.
The sex didn’t last anywhere near as long this time, partly because we were time poor but mostly because as soon as our bodies connected, it was like a monsoon. Like an affirmation of our bond. It felt good. It felt right. As stupid as it sounds, I finally felt like I was home. Our naked bodies were intertwined as we held one another and if I didn’t have to catch a killer tonight, I could have stayed here forever, wrapped up in his arms and breathing him in. I was in love and it felt fantastic.
Chapter twenty-seven
Daniel and I walked back downstairs to the bar, finding James, Dimitri, Braxton and Mack all sitting in a group together, along with Penelope, Maxine, Camille, Melody and about half a dozen others from the Sydney office.
This was it. The person who hurt Penelope, hacked our systems and killed Marcy was in this room right now. The benefit of doing it here was that having so many people around meant that we could be certain that she didn’t get away easily once we vocalized to her colleagues that she was the one behind all this mess.
The best part of it all was that aside from Daniel, only the group from Melbourne knew who it was. Everyone else that came along today knew that we’d managed to find the bitch, but they didn’t know that we didn’t have her in custody. They just knew we were wrapping things up and getting ready to head back to Melbourne so as far as the people in this room – the killer included – knew, we were done here. It was the perfect plan because it drew her out into a public place and ensured that her guard would be down due to the misconception that we had actually caught someone else. It was a genius plan.
I was greeted with high fives and pats on the back as I walked in, coupled with expressions of gratitude and a general desperation to discover the name of the one who had been responsible. Every person in this room was relaxed and smiling. And by everyone, I mean everyone. The plan was running along perfectly.
Instructing everyone to follow me out into the beer garden, which was a single exit, sealed off space at the back of the bar. The only exit was a swing door which we entered through. Once everyone was in the beer garden, Braxton and James would stand by the door to make sure that if we had a runner, she didn’t get far.
Once everyone was in, James closed the door to separate us from the other patrons, mainly for their safety, just in ca
se this doesn’t go down as easily as we hope it will and a struggle breaks out. A lot of us were carrying so there was a number of ways this could go wrong so it was important that we isolate the threat as much as possible. Our biggest concern was for how Penelope would react when she found out which of her trusted employees put her in the hospital.
Everyone crowded around in a sort of semi-circle formation, eagerly awaiting me to tell them the one thing they were all dying to know. Who did it and why?
“Firstly, I just wanted to thank you all for your hospitality and for your patience. It cannot have been easy, or fun, to have six strangers poking around in your faces for the last few months, but I can assure you, it was not for nothing. I can confirm that yes, we have identified the person responsible for hacking into the system but we have yet to identify their reasons behind doing so.”
“So are they in custody?” Jason; a five foot nine, twenty-four year old hacker asked.
I shook my head, raising alarm in a number of people in the room.
“So, you have nothing? What are we doing here then? I was under the impression you had the son of a bitch who put Penny in the hospital.” Melody couldn’t contain her distaste for my revelation that we didn’t actually have the perpetrator in custody as she spoke, pointing her accusatory finger in my direction, demanding to know why I would bother to waste everyone’s time by getting them here in the first place only to tell them we had no answer.