In the darkness, I drag him behind a hedge and take his hat, overshirt, and badge. That’s all I need for the cameras inside.
Keeping my head down, I start making my way up the stairs of the fire escape.
Most office buildings at least leave their stairways mostly barren, but even the fire escape route in this office looks fancy, all a modern, sleek, black design with the occasional piece of art hanging on the wall.
I take the stairs up as high as I possibly can. If Blake Brighton keeps his office here, it’ll be at the top of the building.
“How’re things going in there?” I hear a cautious voice say over my earpiece after some time of climbing.
“Getting a workout,” I whisper back. “All clear out there?”
“I saw some movement by the building a while ago,” she says.
“That was me,” I say. “If you see something move there again, let me know.”
“Um... roger?” she says, and I crack a smile.
Finally, I get to the top floor and peer through the window to the main hallway. The light of a guard’s flashlight is shining on the walls for a few moments, but soon, he turns it away and walks the opposite direction. I take care not to make noise while opening the door, and I slip in.
Blake’s office is easy to locate. There’s an opening to a lobby with tiled floor and large plants decorating it, and a heavy door stands on the opposite end of the room.
There’s an empty receptionist’s desk next to it.
I make my way over to it, carrying myself as if I’m a regular security guard who belongs there. I know there are at least four camera angles on me.
Fortunately, I’ll never be seen here again after tonight.
At the receptionist’s desk, I hold my stolen badge over a little glass scanner, and it beeps softly. I press the button under it, and I hear the door to the main office to my left click open. I look up as I hear footsteps coming my way, and I slip into the office hurriedly.
The space inside is large and lavish. If I were a CEO, I wouldn’t mind a place like it. Black floors and ceilings, and my guess is the lights are a dull white. The big black desk in the middle of the room is curved and covered by papers, folders, and a few computer monitors. A few inconspicuous plants line the walls, and over them hang pieces of modern art.
I make my way to the desk and take out a small thumb drive from my pocket. Rather than dig through all the information by hand, I plan to take it all home and sort through it later, so to speak. His personal laptop is easy to spot, standing out from the rest of the office stylistically. What’s more, it’s still open.
I stick the thumb drive in, and the screen flickers on to show a personal email open. Blake is clearly not used to having to be smart in his work.
Still, I don’t touch anything—instead, the program I have on my thumb drive does the work of downloading everything I need for me.
Three minutes into the download, I hear the door click.
My heart doesn’t stop, and my face doesn’t go pale—I just act.
I drop to my knees and cram myself under the desk, and I remain perfectly still as the door swings open, and I hear footsteps entering the room. They walk slowly, and I see the light of a flashlight pass overhead.
There’s silence for a few seconds before I hear a voice.
“... Rob? You in here again? Told you your ass is fired if I catch you reading HR emails again.”
I nearly hold my breath as the guard waits for an answer, coming closer. His legs appear in front of me.
My hand is on my gun.
All he has to do is look down, and our eyes will meet.
I hold my breath and grip the pistol, finger sliding to the trigger.
The guard’s legs turn.
He walks back out the door, muttering to himself as the door slams shut behind him. I let out a breath, removing my hand from the gun and coming out of the desk.
The thumb drive has finished its work. I take the little piece of plastic full of terabytes of information, and I move to the door to make my escape.
On the drive home, Eva has said little to me. She was stunned when I got into the car as I left, having abandoned the guard’s items with the unconscious man. I just handed her the thumb drive and took off.
Finally, as we’re getting close to the driveway to the safe house, she takes in a breath and speaks.
“What was that?”
“A break-in,” I say simply.
“You know what I mean,” she says, her voice a little less patient than usual.
I arch an eyebrow at her.
She throws up her hands, rolling her eyes, and stammers a little. “You’re like, six and a half feet tall, wear all black, hardly say a word, and you just broke into one of the richest corporate offices in the state like you were stopping for dinner at a fast food place.”
“I don’t eat fast food.”
She lets out an exasperated sigh as we pull up to the house, and I get out of the car. I start to make my way casually to the house, but she jogs around the car to catch up to me, those brilliant blue eyes looking up at me defiantly.
“The more you shut me down, the more I’m going to ask, you know,” she says. “Who are you? I’m glad you found me, and I can’t believe I’m lucky enough that you’re willing to help me, but…”
I stop in my tracks, frowning down at her in silence for a few long moments. Her resolve doesn’t melt away. We just stare at each other, tense, searching each other’s eyes.
Finally, I break the silence, speaking slowly, each deep syllable pronounced carefully.
“I’m a man who bought a safe house, doesn’t go into town, wants you to stay out of sight, and was able to get the information you need to save your life.” I pause, letting that all sink in before continuing. “If that makes you nervous, perhaps you should think twice before prying too far into my life.”
I walk past her, nodding for her to follow me into the house.
“It’s late, you should get to bed,” I say once we’re inside. She follows me silently, but her searching eyes are on me—I can tell she’s hardly swayed by my words. That’s new.
“What are you going to do?” she asks.
“More work on the house,” I lie. “I don’t want to fall behind my schedule. I like to keep things timely.”
“At night?”
“If need be,” I say. We stare at each other for another few seconds before she turns on her heel and heads down the hallway, her feet stomping a little louder than necessary.
I roll my eyes and shake my head as I head outside.
She was right, of course. It would be stupid to do any kind of work in the darkness. But there is one thing that I need to take care of before I move ahead with the renovations, especially since there’s another set of eyes and hands prying around the house now.
I make my way down to the freezer after I hear Eva’s door close.
I open the lid and look down at the frozen remains of Geoffrey Mink.
Loading them into a sack, I make my way back out to the yard and head to the shed. There’s no quiet way of doing what I’m about to do, but out here in the woods where manual labor and woodworking is constantly happening, there’s much less risk involved than there would be anywhere else.
I have a wood chipper hooked up around the side of the shed.
Eva thinks I’m doing a little construction, so the noise shouldn’t worry her too much. I open the sack and look over the pieces of the horrible, evil old man, frozen solid. It’s a grizzly thing, disposing of a body, but I take pleasure in knowing that it means this man will never be able to hurt anyone ever again.
I put on some hearing protection, turn the wood chipper on, and hear the hellish noise it makes, muffled to my ears.
I pick up the first piece of Mink and slowly feed it into the machine.
As I work, my thoughts are distracted by Eva. Having her around is a definite risk, and I can tell that she’s smart. I’m sure she’s figured a fe
w things out about who I am and what I do, but I wonder how deep her curiosity will take her.
More importantly, I worry what she will do when she finds out who I really am.
The body parts I feed into the machine come out messily on the other side, but this will ensure Mink’s body is never a problem for me. They’re spraying out onto some of the wreckage we destroyed earlier, too, which we’ll burn as ordinary garbage later. Two birds, one stone, as long as I can keep the smoke under control.
With all that out of the way, maybe I can give this broken girl something close to a cozy home. And maybe then, between that and the strange and interesting turn of events her own life has taken, she’ll forget all about prying into me.
Wishful thinking, I tell myself with a smile.
But as I finish the dark deed and turn the wood chipper off to make sure everything is taken care of, something feels off. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
I feel watched.
I turn my head toward the house, and for the first time tonight, what I see makes my heart skip a beat.
Eva’s white face is watching me from the window.
She saw everything.
12
Eva
“What the hell?” My heart pounds mercilessly in my chest.
Sal has turned around, his eyes locking on me. His expression hardens and he starts running toward the house. I let out a little shriek of fear and bolt from the window, tripping over a box of tools and skidding across the floor. My eyes dart around, desperately searching for a place to hide. Where the hell do I go? What do I do? There’s nowhere to hide where he won’t find me!
And besides, why am I even bothering to hide?
Didn’t Sal make it abundantly clear that he would protect me? Keep me safe from harm? Doesn’t that include keeping me safe from himself?
The back door opens with a click and Sal comes lumbering in, snowflakes scattered over his clothing and his dark hair. I make a reflexive move as though to try and dart away from him, but I stop myself. Something in his expression stops me in my tracks. The look on his face is one of mingled worry and… hurt, perhaps? Like it causes him physical pain to see me backing away from him. Like it’s breaking his heart that I’m frightened of him.
But that’s the thing. I’m not frightened of him. I know I should be. Every shred of logic in my brain urges me to listen to it, to abide the rules. I just caught Sal doing something blatantly horrific, didn’t I? Wasn’t that a body he was destroying? Evidence? Evidence of some hideous, gritty crime that should shake me to my core?
In place of fear, I’m... intrigued. Drawn to him by the same magnetic force that has sparked between us since the first time we set eyes on each other. That little voice in the dark corner of my mind whispers again: I trust him. He won’t hurt me. Whoever it was that crossed him so violently as to deserve death must have earned it, because Sal is not a cruel man. A dangerous man, sure. A mysterious, dark figure whose past is shrouded in shadow, whose intentions and motivations are hidden from me? Yes. All of this is true.
And yet, I can’t drag myself away from him. At my own peril, I walk toward him. Toward the darkness that threatens to swallow me whole. I step up to face the shadows with my heart open and my eyes watching, yearning to understand.
“I don’t want to lie to you,” Sal says gravely.
“Then don’t,” I reply defiantly, refusing to break eye contact. To his credit, he doesn’t even try to look away. He doesn’t shy away from the inevitable questions. He knows full well he’s been caught and there’s no going back, no ducking out of this. Not now. Not with me.
“What you just saw… I never wanted you to see any of that,” he begins, haltingly.
“Well, I could have assumed that,” I respond, folding my arms over my chest. “I knew you were dangerous from the moment I saw you. I tried to deny it to myself, but I know it’s true. You wouldn’t tell me who you are, what you do. You’re not a builder. You’re not a cop. So what are you, Sal? Who the hell are you?”
He sighs. “Your first impression was correct. I am dangerous. But not to you. Never to you. Eva, you have to understand that I would never hurt you. I couldn’t.”
“Answer the question,” I press him, refusing to concede an inch.
His jaw tightens as he looks down at me, those dark eyes shining. “There is a reason I so quickly surmised the contents of that email your brother sent.”
“Explain,” I prompt.
“I have dealt with many men who wanted the same thing Blake Brighton asks for in that letter. I have carried out such orders myself,” he says slowly. At first, I’m confused.
Frowning, I ask, “What do you mean? What orders?”
“Eva, your brother wants you dead. Normally, when someone wants someone else dead, they turn to someone like me for help,” Sal explains, his tone flat and unaffected.
My heart skips a beat.
“What are you talking about?” I mutter, shaking my head in disbelief. “You can’t be— you don’t mean that—”
“Yes. Whatever you’re thinking, it is probably true,” he says softly.
I scoff, looking at him sideways. “You’re fucking with me, right?”
He shakes his head slowly, not a hint of humor on his face. “No.”
“You’re not really a—a hit man, right? Is that what you’re called? That’s not possible. That’s not a real thing,” I ramble, falling into denial. “There’s no way.”
“There is a way. It’s true. You guessed correctly,” he answers coolly.
“So your job is to kill people like me for a living?” I ask flat out.
Again, a flicker of pain crosses his face. “No. Not people like you. Bad people.”
“Bad people,” I repeat, still in shock. “I think normally we rely on the criminal justice system to punish the bad people, Sal.”
He takes a step forward. “The system fails. Justice is not always served.”
“Yeah, so the proper answer is to take matters into your own hands? Really?” I ask venomously. “That’s fucked up, Sal.”
“I admitted that I’m a dangerous man. What I do for a living— what I used to do— is dangerous. Most would probably consider it immoral, I suppose.”
“You suppose? Sal, you’re a contract killer! The guy who kidnapped me, the guy Blake hired, he didn’t even kill me! Is that why you’re here? To finish the job?” I burst out.
Sal steps up and grasps my shoulders in his huge hands. I don’t shy away, standing my ground as I gaze up at him. I know I’m doing it again: being too defensive. Too sharp. But Sal doesn’t turn away from me. He stays. Despite my cruel words. Despite everything, he is patient.
“Eva, if I had wanted to kill you, you would already be dead,” he says calmly.
“Oh, and that’s supposed to comfort me?” I shoot back.
“No. It’s supposed to inform you,” he continues. “Listen to me, Eva. That body— that filth you saw me disposing of out there— that is the man who brought you here. He was a bad person, Eva. A very bad man. He was hired to kill you, and believe me, he would have. But only after holding you hostage and torturing you. Watching you. Probably starving you. He has a reputation. Some consider it a reputation built entirely on whispers and rumors but I know the truth. It’s all correct. He was a menace to society. He hurt people. Women, young children. He was lecherous and sadistic and he would have made you his next victim. He loved to toy with his victims before killing them. He liked to watch the joy, the humanity disappear before his very eyes, and only then would he release his victim with the gift of death.”
I’m stunned into silence by the violence of his imagery. He goes on.
“That man— Geoffrey Mink, he was called— he would have done terrible things to you, Eva. Much worse things than he had done already. Your brother hired him no doubt because he was somehow aware of Mink’s dwindling connections to the mafia.”
“The mafia?” I repeat incredulously.
“Yes,” Sal says, nodding. “That is how I knew Mink, too.”
“Because you’re…” I trail off, my stomach turning.
“Involved with the mafia, as well, yes,” he admits readily. “And that is why I am in hiding just like you are. I betrayed the men I work for. I have made some very difficult, regrettable choices in my life, but I do not regret the path that led me here to you.”
“And what path was that?” I ask, barely above a whisper.
“I used to follow orders without question. I was brought into the mafia at a young age. That’s how they prefer their men. Young, with no better prospects. I was one of them, but I rose through the ranks quickly. I did what I had to do, and I questioned it as little as I could bear. I convinced myself I was killing bad people. And for the most part, I was. Until I realized that some of the worst men, the most deserving of death, were my superiors. The very men who brought me into the fold, who taught me everything I know. They were doing terrible things.”
“Like what?” I ask, horrified.
Sal sighs. “Using drugs to convince increasingly young people to join their ranks. These recruiters for the mafia, they would prey upon high school students. Give them drugs, talk to them, pretend to listen to them and bond with them. All to trick them into trusting the mafia, thinking of us as family. Once these kids are addicted to drugs, the mafia pulls the rug out from underneath them and impresses them into service. It’s worse than blackmail. They enslave every cell in these kids’ bodies. It’s disgusting.”
“And you… did you do this, too?” I ask, afraid of the answer. But Sal gives me a pained, offended look. He takes my hands in his.
“No. I would never do that. These men were recruiting children as young as fourteen, Eva. I could never do that to a kid. It’s unforgivable. The young men were forced into service as thugs, killers. And the young girls were taken advantage of,” he explains, disgust in his voice.
“Oh my god,” I murmur.
“Yes. Once I discovered their methods, I knew what I had to do.”
Abducted: A Mafia Hitman Romance Page 11
