The Innocent Assassins

by Pema Donyo

  “Peace and quiet.” Marge’s face filled with compassion, and even a little sympathy. “A civilian life.”

  It’s funny, isn’t it? Something so normal—a calm, civilian life. It was what I wanted more than anything in the entire world. To me, everyone else seemed so lucky to have a chance of normalcy. Everyone else woke up every morning without worrying about how they’d organize the next assassination. Quiet lives were taken for granted.

  The car pulled up to a black-windowed building and slowed to a stop. Marge opened the door for me and gave me one last reassuring look. “Keep your goal in mind. Remember the life you want.”

  I stepped out of the car and strode toward the entrance. The details of the contract played inside my head again as I reminded myself about the questions I needed to ask my client. The revolving doors loomed closer. I pushed through them and stepped in to the lobby of the building.

  Odd, there was no receptionist. My eyes skimmed the lobby. There was no one else either. Weird.

  I settled down into one of the chairs and crossed one leg over the other. I’d wait then, until the receptionist came. I checked the time on my watch. The meeting was definitely supposed to be starting soon. Where was everyone?

  “We got her, boss!”

  Rough cloth slid across my face and pulled down against my shoulders. I screamed. Someone yanked my wrists behind my back and tied them together with coarse rope. Another set of hands bound my legs. How many were there?

  I struggled to make contact with a body, swerving from side to side with wild abandon in spite of my inability to see anything. What worried me most wasn’t the people trapping my body or the sudden needle injected into my neck which slowed my thoughts and faded away my consciousness.

  It was the voice next to my ear—cold, hard, and determined.

  “You’re right on time,” Adrian whispered.

  ****

  Freezing ice water snapped my eyes open.

  I blinked away the unconscious haze, my hair and face dripping from the unwelcome drench. The first thing I noticed was the boardroom, similar to the ones I negotiated contracts in. But there was no contract here—only a long, empty rectangular table and looming executives and agents on either side.

  In front of me stood Adrian, his expression unreadable as he studied me.

  “I tried to stop you.” His voice reminded me of the cold water dripping from my clothes. “I warned you.”

  “By hiring assassins to scare me? I thought you knew me better. Nothing scares me.”

  “Death should.”

  “You know I never wanted to be…” I swallowed hard. “This.”

  “I changed Covert Operatives for you.” Emotion leaked into his voice, brimming with frustration. “I developed the new structure around raising families within CO. That was what you wanted.”

  “And force them to work for CO their entire life?” I spat. “I think not.”

  “When did you switch sides?”

  “When I was arrested, Adrian. It was after our mission went wrong. The CIA gave me a choice. Go to prison and face the death sentence or work for them.”

  He gritted his teeth. “The CIA? You’re afraid of the CIA? You know as well as I do that CO can keep you away from them.”

  I glared at him. “And hide away for the rest of my life?”

  His shoulders stiffened. “No one would be hiding.”

  “I want a life removed from murder. The CO job was always temporary! It was never what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.” I averted my gaze from him. “Don’t you know there’s only one way this can end? Kill me or let me go.”

  “I thought the spying missions were over. I gave you those contracts. I thought if I built up your career, you wouldn’t want to leave. Then you stopped.”

  “I did.”

  “There was no activity or botched missions for an entire month. I thought you’d finally let it go and decided to be with me.” Adrian laughed. It sounded bitter and hopeless. “Then the missions started messing up again, and I knew you’d started spying again. After everything we’ve been through together, you betrayed me?”

  I held my chin up, blinking away the tears threatening to fall and weaken my resolve. “I’ve chosen my allegiance.”

  “Did you ever think about asking me where my allegiance lay?”

  “Stop it! You love power as much as your father does. No wonder you’re going to be CEO. Love doesn’t mean anything to you anymore.”

  Adrian ran a hand through his hair, his jaw clenched. “I shouldn’t even be surprised. So you’ve been spying on me, too.”

  “Emma told you, didn’t she?” The memory of her seeing the flash drive surfaced in my mind. “She told you I was the spy.”

  A look of genuine confusion crossed Adrian’s features. “Emma? Emma didn’t tell me anything.”

  I drew in a quick intake of breath. She hadn’t betrayed me; she hadn’t told Adrian about me being part of the CIA. It would have been so perfect; she could have spent more time with Adrian. But she’d chosen to keep my secret. I bit my lip.

  She’d stayed my friend after all.

  “What would Emma tell me? What else have you found out?”

  “Nothing. She knew nothing.”

  “Just cut it out!” Adrian slammed his fist against the table. I’d never seen him so angry before. “I gave you everything! I gave you marriage, a future, a career. Did all that mean nothing to you?”

  Pain and frustration contorted his features into a look of suffering. My heart ached, as much as I tried to tell it not to. I suppressed the urge to wrap my arms around him, to embrace him and go home and pretend we had never reached this place of unavoidable truth.

  “I want peace in my future, not murder. What Covert Operatives does is wrong, I know now. Maybe I was wrong for lying so much. But what you need to know is, I mean, I did, I lied about everything…” I paused and shook my head. “I didn’t lie about how much I loved you or how I felt about you.”

  He opened his mouth to reply.

  But the door suddenly burst open. Heavy boots stormed into the boardroom. In walked five bodyguards and the CEO himself.

  Adrian walked toward the CEO. “I need more time. Just five minutes!”

  “Time’s up.” Jack lowered his sunglasses to shoot a warning look at his son and made a dismissive hand gesture. “My turn.”

  Adrian stepped back, but not before he shot me a panicked look. My heart lurched.

  Jack grabbed my chin and turned my face toward him.

  “Our little spy, eh?” He smirked. “Thought you were so clever.” The CEO hitched a thumb to point back at Adrian. “My boy found out about you the night you kissed that CIA agent.”

  I wrenched my chin from Jack’s grip and focused my gaze on Adrian. “You heard my conversation with Tristan? Then why would you give me the contract for Croyden?”

  Jack answered for him, his bored voice in a complete deadpan. “Because my son actually gave a single worthless thought about you. He begged me to give you a second chance. Me? I’ve wanted you dead since December.”

  I saw Adrian flinch out of the corner of my eye. Dread settled over me as I watched Jack pull out a gun. But the gun wasn’t his to shoot.

  To my horror, he handed it over to Adrian.

  “My son, you have the honors.” Jack raised an eyebrow at me. “Clever girl, though. You found out the family secret. Adrian’s never been an orphan. He had the family photos. He recognized me as soon as he saw me.” He shrugged. “Gave me a nasty shock at first, but I need an heir.”

  “Why so soon?”

  His jaw clenched, and fear flickered on his face for a single moment. What was he afraid of? “A CEO won’t last forever. I need my blood to carry on the legacy of the company.”

  “Why admit all these secrets?”

  The sneer of a sociopath twisted on Jack’s face. “Dead agents tell no tales.”

  Adrian raised the gun, his finger on the trigger. There was no mask of unrea
dable emotion anymore. There was no wobbling of his hand and no tremor in his voice. He held the weapon with a firm grip while he entered the stance of a trained professional.

  My boyfriend’s next assignment? Murdering me.

  A steady beeping shattered the silence. Jack pulled out his phone and frowned. He put the phone away and headed for the door. “I’m late for an appointment. Finish her off.” One of his escorts opened the door for him and followed him out.

  As soon as the latch clicked shut behind them, I let out a bitter laugh. “A real great dad, isn’t he?”

  Adrian scowled. “You wouldn’t understand. He’s family. He’s all I have. At least he hasn’t betrayed me.”

  “I wasn’t trying to betray you.”

  “And what were you doing then? I kept giving you chances to quit!” He narrowed his eyes at me. “After I heard what Tristan said, even when I thought you’d cheated on me, I gave you a contract. I gave you a career; I gave you reasons to stay.”

  “Nothing could make me stay at CO.”

  “Especially not me.”

  I breathed out in short pants, working hard to suppress the threatening tears. “You were the only reason I considered staying.”

  “You’re lying!”

  The fierceness in his voice nearly caused the tears to stream down my cheeks. No, I couldn’t cry. I blinked them away. Better the bullet hit me than admit to Adrian how much I needed him in my life. “Seems like we were both lying to each other, weren’t we? We were great at secrets.”

  “What else could I have done?” His fury transformed to begging, and the gun in his hand lowered ever so slightly. “What would have made you stay?”

  “Nothing.” My voice broke. “I couldn’t have stayed. I was never supposed to stay.”

  “You were.” Adrian’s voice lowered. “You were supposed to stay with me.”

  “This is a tragedy.” I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing. I’d have done anything to make them stop. Through choked emotions, I managed to cry, “Do it! Kill me! You’re supposed to, aren’t you? This is what we've come to. Betrayal and murder.”

  A shot rang through the boardroom, and I braced myself for the bullet to puncture my flesh. I clenched my entire body, my eyes squeezed shut, my eyelashes pressed against my tear-drenched cheek…

  And no bullet hit me.

  Instead, one of the CO agents gasped, and then another shot rang out. Another gasp, another cry. There was a punch, a scream, a yell.

  When I opened my eyes, I saw unconscious CO agents slumped against the ground. Their heads lolled back to the wall, their bodies limp.

  I glanced back at Adrian. His fists were still clenched from the punches he’d thrown, and dark spots of blood stained his once immaculate suit and smeared his hair. He was beside me in a second. He pulled a knife from his pocket and cut the heavy-duty ropes on my hands and ankles.

  More CO agents busted open the door and attempted to thwart Adrian’s efforts. But the ropes slipped off my skin, and I was free.

  He tackled one of the guards to the floor. I hit one of them, not enough to kill but more than enough to knock him unconscious. I heard the blast of one guard’s gun as my fist connected to his chin, but his bullet went wide.

  Adrian remained locked in a struggle with a burly agent. His gun had been thrown to the other side of the room. I started forward to retrieve it and throw it back to him, but he yelled in protest.

  “Go, Jane! Just go!”

  “No!”

  But I paused in the doorway, my gaze flicking between the long hallway down which I could make my escape and back to Adrian pushing back the agent crushing him. Here’s my chance. I could call Marge and return to the safety of the CIA. I could leave now and never see him again.

  Adrian finally shoved back his adversary, and the agent’s body slammed against the wall. Then the agent launched himself back and threw his weight at Adrian with enough force to send him reeling a few steps backward.

  Adrian inclined his head, eyes on the agent but his words aimed at me. “Leave!”

  “Not without you.”

  I delivered a brutal chop to the back of the agent’s neck. His limp body slumped onto Adrian’s shoulders as his knees buckled beneath him.

  Adrian grabbed my hand as we both hurtled down the hallway and away from the scene. I raced down the stairs with him following close behind me. Before I could open the door to the first floor, he blocked me from the exit.

  “More agents are waiting there, take the basement.” He led me further down the stairs. He opened the door, and we ran through the abandoned lower floor and toward the rear of the building. My feet flew against the pavement faster than ever above. There wasn’t enough time to stop and distinguish the footsteps between guards chasing us and us making a desperate escape.

  After what seemed like years of running, we both spotted light shining through an open door at the end of the hall. We followed the light until we made it outside.

  Adrian slammed the metal door behind us. We both slumped against it, gasping for air to fill our collapsed lungs.

  “Scan the area,” I wheezed as I pulled out my phone. “I’ll call someone.”

  Marge answered my call on the first ring, and a car pulled up to the building within the next minute. I tumbled into the back seat and pulled Adrian in behind me. Tires squealing, the car sped away as soon as he shut the door.

  “This is crazy,” he panted. One hand held mine and his other ran through his golden hair. His shoulders tensed as he sat at the edge of the seat. “Covert Operatives is never going to stop looking for us.”

  “Let them look.” I squeezed his hand. “We’ll find them first. I’m just sorry your father…”

  “He’s my father in blood. A real father would never make his son kill his best friend.” He drew a shaky breath.

  I bit my lip. There was so much more when it came to his relationship with his father. There was love, need, admiration—all those emotions could not be wiped away in a split second. “It’s okay to miss him, you know.”

  “I think I already knew the truth, all along. I knew he’d place me in this position.”

  “What position?”

  His shoulders remained straight, thrown back into a rigid pose. “At some point, I was going to have to choose either you or CO. I’ve made my choice.”

  Warmth flooded my chest. “You don’t have to work for the CIA, you know.”

  “I don’t care about that.” He shook his head. “I just don’t know if you can forgive me for killing all those people for Covert Operatives.”

  “You’re not the only one at fault here. We’re both guilty.”

  “You said this all came down to betrayal and murder.” Adrian leaned in to kiss me. He paused right before brushing against my lips and whispered to me. “It doesn’t have to, and it won’t. Not anymore.”

  EPILOGUE

  Someone stepped in as the elevator doors opened. His up-and-down gaze gave me an appreciative look, and he edged closer.

  “I haven’t seen you here before.” He stuck out his hand. “I’m Nathan; I work on the third floor.”

  “Hi.” I nodded and placed my hand in his. “I’m Jane.”

  “Jane, huh? Plain name for such a pretty girl.” His voice trailed off as his gaze drifted downward.

  I followed his gaze and lifted up my hand. My eyes fell to the object he was looking at. “It’s nice, isn’t it?”

  “Congratulations.” His flirtatious smile crumbled. The elevator doors opened, and he stepped out without another look behind him.

  I watched his retreating form with relief and glanced back down at my engagement ring. The diamond managed to sparkle even in the fluorescent light of the elevator.

  The doors finally drew open, and I stepped out into the hallway. The receptionist waved at me while she held the phone with her other hand. She put her hand to the receiver. “They’re waiting for you in the back. Go right ahead.”

  I thanked her and strode f
orward to Marge’s office. I twisted the ring on my finger in anticipation. It had been nearly three months since I’d seen her. Since I’d seen both of them, actually.

  “And so the conclusion of our mission proved successful.” Marge’s kind reassurance drifted through the crack in her open door. “Central Intelligence is happy to accept you as the newest member of the CIA. The contract is conditional of course, depending on the amount of time you choose to commit. Jane Lu, as you know, chose to fulfill the three months and then quit being a CIA operative. Should you choose a more permanent route, however, we would be happy to evaluate your profile.”

  “I understand. Thank you.” There was a pause. “Janey?”

  I pushed open the door and rushed toward Adrian. He stood up from the seat, his arms outstretched. I embraced him. He held me tight as he lifted me off the ground and spun me in a half-circle. His forehead pressed against mine.

  “A-hem.” A short clearing of the throat interrupted our reunion.

  I couldn’t keep the corners of my mouth from turning upward as I faced Marge. She held her hand out and I drew away from Adrian to shake it. “Wonderful to see you again, Miss Lu. I was congratulating your fiancé on the successful conclusion to his mission. How is the college semester going?”

  “Great, thanks.” I felt Adrian’s arms snake around my waist as he pulled me closer. I giggled and stepped away from Marge. “I’m sorry, he’s misbehaving.”

  “I haven’t seen you in a year; I deserve some misbehaving.”

  I rolled my eyes. “It was three months.”

  “Felt like a year.” The huskiness in his voice sent a rush through my body.

  Marge cleared her throat again. “Right. Mr. King, the CIA will inform you of your next mission soon. Miss Lu, always a pleasure.”

  I let Adrian guide me out the door and toward the elevator. His hand remained in mine during the entire elevator ride down.

  “How is your internship here, anyway?”

  I kept my arms around him and leaned into his embrace. “I love it. I still decode CO’s messages and contracts we intercept, and inform the CIA of their actions. You’ll be doing the exciting work, though.”