HIS BABY: A Bad Boy Hitman Romance

by April Lust

  “Does Salvatore know where I am?” she asked, walking over to the crib she’d assembled earlier to put Alex down.

  The guy just stared at her for a second before opening his mouth to reply. “Hannah. That’s your name, right?”

  Hannah groaned. Did this guy actually think he was being slick, pretending to get to know her and acting all friendly? How dumb did he think she was?

  “Okay, let’s try again,” Hannah said, turning back to face the guy head-on. “Does Salvatore know where I am or not? It’s a simple yes or no.”

  “Look, listen to me. You wanna be smart in this situation, Hannah—”

  Hannah grabbed the frying pan off the coffee table and whacked it, firmly but not as hard as before, right onto the intruder’s knee. “Fuck!” the guy cried out, his face screwing up in pain.

  “Does. Salvatore. Know. Where. We are,” Hannah spat out, holding the pan above his legs.

  “Yes, fine, yes, he knows where you are, exactly where you are,” the intruder replied.

  “Shit!” Hannah hissed, smacking the coffee table with the frying pan. “Shit, shit, shit!”

  “Yeah, so you’re pretty much fucked,” the hitman said. “Unless…”

  “Shut up!” Hannah yelled at him. “Shut the fuck up. You speak when I tell you to!” She buried her head in her hands, her pulse pounding in her temples. “When were you supposed to have done it? Like, were you supposed to call him and tell him it’s done?”

  “Am I allowed to speak now?” the guy asked sarcastically.

  “Yes, fucking answer me,” Hannah shot back, picking up the frying pan again. She wasn’t intending to hit him again unless she needed to, but it felt better to hold onto something than to clench her hands into useless fists. She saw the guy flinch, like he was preparing himself to be hit again, and for a second she felt guilty, but then she snapped out of it. This guy had come here to kill her, after all. He didn’t deserve any of her pity.

  “No, there’s no signal. I’ve never failed before. As far as he’s concerned, you’re as good as dead.”

  Hannah nodded, more to herself than to the hitman, before kneeling down and yanking a suitcase out from under the bed. She’d only arrived here the other day, but it was time to go. She and Alex had to get out of here as soon as possible. They had to take the opportunity when hopefully no other eyes were on them to get out of the country, somewhere where Salvatore had no power. She sloppily tossed shirts and pants and packs of diapers into the suitcase.

  “Where are you going?” the hitman asked.

  “Yeah, like I’m gonna tell you,” Hannah scoffed, throwing bottles of baby formula into the bag before rushing over to the crib to grab a sleeping Alex. In truth, she didn’t know where she was going yet. She had to get out of the country, maybe go to Mexico first before heading further down south, but she’d have to sneak in. For all she knew Salvatore had people waiting at the border for her.

  “What are you—what are you gonna do with me?” the hitman asked, but for a weird reason he didn’t sound scared. He sounded…almost resigned. For some reason, it made Hannah feel sympathy for the poor bastard. He’s not a poor bastard, she argued silently to herself. He’s an evil murderous monster that does Salvatore’s bidding. He’s the enemy.

  Still, she felt enough pity for the guy to answer him. “I’m gonna hit you over the head again and leave you here. Eventually Salvatore’s other goons will show up and find you.”

  The hitman was silent a long moment, just watching her as she hurriedly changed Alex’s diaper. She glanced over at the crib, considering whether or not to take it in her stolen car. Hannah had more than enough room in her trunk for it, but it was a matter of time. She finally decided against it. She’d just have to steal another crib later. Hannah swung the strap of her bag over her shoulder and held onto Alex with her other arm. She was halfway to the door when the guy spoke again. “Wait. Stop. Please.”

  ***

  Evan

  Evan had to force the words out between clenched teeth. He’d never begged before in his life, but, hey, there’s a first time for everything, right? “Please. Just hear me out.”

  His heart was pounding so hard in his chest he thought it might break through his body and land on the floor next to Hannah. Was this what all his victims felt like, all these years? Was this what it was like, to know that you were about to die? “Just…wait. Please.”

  Miraculously, Hannah’s whole body turned to face him. “What? Talk.”

  “If you leave me here, they’ll kill me. If they don’t, Salvatore definitely will.”

  “You’re the best hitman he’s got, right?” Hannah said. “Never fucked up before. I’m sure he’ll forgive it just this once. Maybe even send you after me again.”

  Evan shook his head. “No, come on, you know you’re lying. He’s gonna put a bullet in my brain just to prove a point to the other guys in his employ. You know him.”

  Hannah nodded. “I do.”

  “So, please, just…just untie me. I won’t do anything to you, I promise.”

  She laughed and turned her face back to her son, staring down at him with warmth in her eyes. “Not a fucking chance. No way.”

  “Think about it,” Evan said. “If they come up here and find me, they’ll know you’re alive, and they’ll keep looking. But if we’re both gone, there’s a chance they’ll think I killed you and went off to enjoy my retirement.”

  Hannah shook her head. “No, they’re not that stupid. They’ll put it together soon enough.”

  “But at least it’ll give you time to get away. If you leave me here, they’ll demand to know what direction you drove off in, what car was in the parking lot that isn’t here now, before they kill me. And they’re better at torturing people than you are. They’ll get it out of me. You can be sure of that.”

  She didn’t say anything for a while, but she bit down on her lip, turning to stare at him as she considered her options. If he weren’t bound up, Evan would squirm uncomfortably under her piercing gaze. It was like she was trying to judge his soul, like she was weighing out all the good and bad and in-between things about him to determine if he deserved to live.

  “Right,” she finally whispered, tearing her eyes away from him. They’re beautiful eyes, Evan realized. They were multicolored when the light hit them, deep brown dissolving into deep greys and blues and greens and black. It was fitting, that someone so beautiful would put him to his death.

  Hannah walked out of the apartment, shutting the door behind her. Evan felt his heart fall. He was going to die. He was certain of it now. He weighed his options. Stay here and rot, waiting for however long it took Salvatore to get suspicious and send someone to check on him. Or, he could find a way to struggle out of his restraints and go after her. Maybe if he killed her quickly enough, Salvatore would call it even and Evan could still get away from all of this relatively unscathed. He was scratching at any edge of the duct tape he could touch with his fingers, desperately clawing at it, when Hannah walked back into the room.

  “You came back?”

  “I had to put Alex in his car seat,” Hannah explained. “Come on, I’ll help you up.” For a beautiful moment, Evan thought his restraints were about to be cut, but instead she just untangled the Christmas lights around his legs, tossing them off into a far corner of the room before forcing him to his feet. For a second he was tempted to kick her in the face, knock her down and then force her to take the duct tape off his wrists, but he hesitated too long. A second later, Hannah grabbed the duct tape and bound his feet together more securely than before. Dammit. Next, she lifted the frying pan off the coffee table, her fingers clenched so tightly around it that her knuckles shone white. The silent message to Evan was clear: obey or get hit.

  “Walk,” she ordered him.

  Evan complied as best as he could, hopping forward in the general direction of the door. It took all of the coordination he had not to fall over. He successfully crossed the threshold of the motel room,
hopping out into the cold parking lot. He considered, for a stupidly hopeful moment, whether he could just hop away, find someone to untie him and run out of the country as planned. But…in the back of his mind he was aware that Salvatore would never stop chasing him if he didn’t kill this girl. In South America, it wouldn’t be an issue. Salvatore didn’t have any power outside of the States, but it would take Evan a long time to make it down there.

  Hannah shoved the edge of the frying pan into his back, urging him to hop faster. “Get a move on,” she demanded.

  When they approached a blue SUV, he was left alone for another second while Hannah opened the door to the driver’s side. “How am I supposed to get in?” he asked.

  “Hold your fucking horses, Mr. Whiny,” she said before popping the trunk.

  The realization dawned on Evan ridiculously slowly, the way cold rain starts out as a sprinkle and transforms into a downpour. “Oh, shit, come on!” he complained. “I’m not going in the trunk.”

  “I’m not sure why you think you have any other option,” Hannah shot back, walking back around the car to grab at his elbow and shove him into the open trunk. “In. Get in.”

  Evan groaned but did as he was told. It made sense, after all. He had come here to kill the girl and take the boy. There wasn’t exactly a long list of reasons why she should trust him.

  He crammed his body into the trunk, which on the bright side opened out into the rest of the car, so he could breathe at the very least. On the not-so-bright-side, there was a cage, a fucking cage of metal blocking the trunk from the backseat. So there was no way he could slither up on his hands and knees and get to her from the back. It was like she had planned for this very scenario. Who the hell was this chick?

  Hannah shut the trunk’s door and walked around to the driver’s seat, quickly pulling out of the parking lot and onto the highway.

  For a minute, Evan just concentrated on breathing. On the one hand, he’d never felt this defeated in his entire life. Never before had anyone made him feel so vulnerable, so weak. Well, not since my dad…Evan admitted to himself, but he quickly shut off that train of thought before it went off the rails. On the other hand, he figured, he still had a chance here. He breathed deeply, trying to anchor himself and stay calm. The longer he was with her, the more opportunities he’d have at finishing the job. Sooner or later, she would get tired of making him hop around, and if he could get her to cut the restraints, it was game over. I just have to wait for the right moment, he told himself, and I can still fix this. I can make this right.

  Chapter Two

  Hannah

  Hannah knew it was risky to take the hitman with her. But she felt like she had no choice. If she left him to die, she was no better than Salvatore, was she? Doing whatever it took to survive, stomping on anyone and anything to make the process easier. Maybe that was necessary. Maybe to live on your own terms you had to be that way. Maybe you had to be selfish to survive.

  But Hannah wasn’t ready to believe that. Not yet. Not while there was still a single drop of hope left in her body.

  And besides, he was right. An empty motel room would create more questions than answers, and it’d buy her time. But still, she’d have to get rid of him at some point soon. I have to get rid of this car, too, she realized. I’ve had it for too long. The cops might be looking for stolen vehicles in this area.

  The cops. Hannah had this nagging feeling in the back of her mind that she should’ve just gone to them from the beginning, told them everything about Salvatore and his crime syndicate. Maybe they could have protected her and Alex. But Salvatore had at least some of the cops in the area in his pocket, and there was no way for her to tell which ones were trustworthy ahead of time. Better to just handle things on her own, the way she always had.

  Alex started whining, the kind of small little noises he’d always make before he started wailing. “Shit,” Hannah whispered under her breath. “Come on, Alex, don’t do this, please.” She couldn’t comfort him, get far enough away from the motel to shake off Salvatore’s goons, and find a new vehicle all at once. It was times like this that made her wish she wasn’t a single parent. Even when she’d lived with Salvatore, it was like this, always doing everything by herself. She loved Alex more than anything in the world, but she couldn’t deny that it got exhausting after a while.

  Alex started to whine louder and louder. “Shit, come on, please no,” Hannah quietly prayed. Maybe she could pull over and hold him for a bit until he calmed down.

  Out of the corner of her eye she spotted a black SUV in the lane next to her, trailing her by a few yards. Hannah felt her tongue go dry immediately. Maybe it’s nothing, she tried to reassure herself. But maybe it’s Salvatore’s men, using one of their cars to track you.

  The baby started crying louder, but Hannah had bigger fish to fry right now. Without turning on her blinker, she quickly made a sharp turn at the closest exit, speeding down the ramp until she hit the main road, then turned again, and again, and again, trying to make herself as hard to follow as possible. She’d stay on backroads for a bit, find another car, and then get back on the highway later. You’re not stealing my son today, she silently vowed. Not today.

  While Hannah was looking out the windows, scanning for parked cars, Alex began all-out wailing. Hannah sighed, wishing she could just snap her fingers and make Alex snap out of it. But there was no easy fix. Still, she tried one of her old tricks, one that used to work when he was a tiny little newborn.

  “Hello, my love, hello, my darling, my sweetheart,” Hannah sang. “Hello, my sweetie, my baby, my angel mine.”

  Alex went back to whining under his breath, whimpering a little instead of crying.

  “My love, my love, my darling love, don’t you know you’re safe? Don’t you know I’ve got you? My love, my little love, don’t you know you’re mine?” Hannah made up the lyrics and the melody as she went along, singing in the sweetest, most calming voice she could manage under the circumstances.

  Alex went silent. Hannah kept on singing, a little softer now, hoping to lull him back to sleep. “My little sweetheart, my little gumdrop, my little baby doll, don’t you know you’re mine?” She could hear Alex smack his lips a little, a telltale sign that he was about to fall asleep. “My little angel,” she finished, just in time to hear his breathing become deep and regular.

  Well, I’m still good at one thing, she told herself. Sometimes she felt like the shittiest mother in the entire world. She couldn’t protect Alex, let alone help him be happy and healthy. He deserved better than her.

  “You’ve got a nice voice.”

  For a second Hannah’s entire body tensed up, before she remembered the idiot in the trunk of her car. “Shut it,” she said back, clenching her hands harder on the steering wheel. He was probably trying to manipulate her, get her to let her guard down while he broke out of his restraints and choked the life out of her.

  “I’m just saying. It was nice,” the hitman said.

  “Yeah, well, it wasn’t for you, so can it,” Hannah shot back as they rode over a pothole.

  “Ow!” He must have hit his head or something.

  “Don’t be a little bitch,” Hannah taunted him. “Aren’t you supposed to be a big tough guy, Mr. Sal’s Best Hitman?”

  “My name is Evan,” the guy said.

  “Okay, Evan,” Hannah said. “New rule: no talking while the baby is asleep.”

  “You didn’t gag me, you know,” Evan said from the back. “You really should have done that.”

  The hairs on the back of Hannah’s neck prickled with irritation. “I can still pull over and do it, you know.”

  “Nah, can’t do that, can you?” Evan said. “You gotta put as many miles between this car and the motel as possible. You can’t stop yet.”

  “You know, you’re awfully fucking cocky for someone I’ve got tied up in the back of my car,” Hannah reminded him. His attitude was really grating on her nerves.

  But there was a long pau
se before the guy spoke again. “You’re right,” Evan said.

  “I am?” Hannah said back, feeling a little bit shocked that she had won the argument that quickly.

  “Yeah, I’m fucked,” Evan admitted. “But it could be worse.”

  “Oh, yeah? Enlighten me,” Hannah said. She really couldn’t imagine how things could get more fucked-up than they were right now.

  “Well, you’re not going to kill me. We’ve established that already.”