by Hart, Eve R.
If I hadn’t come home early, I might not have ever known. I couldn’t fathom that. There had to be something I was overlooking. Some kind of clue that I missed. I’d been sleeping with this man for months now. I’d been living with him, working at his establishment. It baffled me that I’d been clueless.
My eyes closed once again but I knew I wouldn’t sleep. I had to play along until I saw an opening because there wasn’t even a decision to make here. I had to go. With as much as he traveled I didn’t think it would take long for me to have the opportunity to slip out. That was almost enough to start breathing again. I just had to make sure I didn’t take him off-guard again or say the wrong thing. I would be walking around on eggshells until I could escape. It was a small price to pay, I guessed.
As long as I got away with my life.
Because I wasn’t ready for it all to be over yet.
I still had hope that there was a happy ending out there for me.
This morning, I had woken up feeling like things were turning around for me. That I’d found my happy.
I should have known it was all wrong.
After all, you know what they say, if it seems too good to be true, then it probably is.
-7-
Jessica
The next morning I woke to an empty bed. For the first time since I’d moved in with Ray, I was happy about that.
My head still throbbed with a dull pain that was more annoying than anything. I didn’t need to look in the mirror to know that my eyes were bloodshot. They felt like sandpaper every time I blinked. A sickening remembrance to what had happened the day before and the reasons I’d barely slept.
Last night he had gone out and picked up dinner like any other night. We ate at the table like it was a normal meal we shared. But it wasn’t, and I hoped I was the only one that knew that.
Play the part.
That was what I kept telling myself.
My only saving grace was that I still had a headache and was able to pass off my odd mood using that as an excuse. He couldn’t know that I’d overheard him yesterday which meant that I couldn’t let on for a second how much I detested him after that.
And I would never admit it out loud, but I was terrified for my life right now.
A feeling that I was all too familiar with. One I’d had plenty of times over my lifetime.
Dwelling on it never did any good, so instead, I needed to figure a way out of this situation as gracefully and quietly as possible. Luckily, that was also something I was familiar with doing.
I just wondered how well I could pull it off because if there was one thing I’d quickly learned, it was that not only was Ray a monster, but he was a smart one as well. He had to have been to have hidden it all this time. So that left no choice other than to be smarter than him. I had to play his game but not let him know I was playing.
At the end of the night, I had no choice but to let him sleep in the bed with me. I’d even managed to hold back the cringe when he touched me. I quickly made it clear that I wasn’t in the mood, using my headache as an excuse even if it wasn’t a fake one. And he didn’t even seem unhappy as he simply kissed me on the head and told me to get some rest. I guess that was something.
How the hell I had fallen into bed with a man like him was beyond me. And by the looks of how he lived, whatever he was into was big.
I shut those thoughts down as I rolled out of bed. It was too late now. I was already in it and I had to get myself out of it as quickly as possible.
I searched for my phone, which I swore I left right beside the bed. It wasn’t there and when I got down on my hands and knees to see if it had somehow fallen under the bed, I got nothing. Well, shit. Maybe I hadn’t been as clever as I’d thought. I just had to hope that his paranoia made him overly cautious. I thought I had done a good job of covering but I was starting to wonder. I would just have to try harder to make him think that everything was okay. How the hell was I going to do that? I had stooped low at many points in my life, I could admit that, but the thought of sleeping with him now made me sick to my stomach. I told myself it was a cover. It wasn’t like I hadn’t done it before.
Maybe I could get out before it came to that.
If he was gone, then this might be my window of opportunity.
As I headed to the kitchen, I realized that was going to be even harder than I thought. And let me be real, it was already hard to begin with.
Right there sitting in the living room greeting me with a stern look on his face was Glen. I tried to wipe the shock off my face. I knew. I just fucking knew that he wasn’t here for Ray or because there was some sort of made up danger as Ray had indicated the night before. No, he was here to keep me from going anywhere.
“Where is Ray?” I asked as if nothing was unusual.
“He has some business to attend to. He’ll be back tomorrow,” he said to me in a bored tone. I took a moment to study him. There wasn’t anything memorable about him except for the scar across his nose. “And don’t even think about it. He said you are to stay here until he returns.”
No surprise there.
“Okay, but I need to call work and let them know I won’t be able to work my shift today.”
“It’s been taken care of.”
Right, of course, it has.
I backed off with a nod. Now was not the time to push.
“Coffee?” I asked as I turned and made my way to the kitchen.
I received an aggravated grunt as an answer and I took that to mean that he didn’t want any. Good, I didn’t want to make any for his ass anyway. Clearly, being nice wasn’t going to get me anywhere.
Though I didn’t have much of an appetite, I made a bagel and choked it down. It gave me something to do and a reason to stay in the kitchen. I mapped out where everything was. The knives in the block right next to the stove. The vases stored under the sink. The metal reusable straws in the first drawer on the right side of the island. Anything I could use as a weapon. Hell, if I could get him into the kitchen, one good slam of his head against the marble countertop should to it. But that was a last resort kind of thing because I knew I was no match for the big, bulky bodyguard. He’d have to be caught off-guard or stunned for me to even attempt that one. Then again, if the floor just happened to be slippery, it wouldn’t take much.
My mind worked overtime coming up with scenarios of how I could get him down.
But wait. What if Ray had this place wired with cameras? Fuck! I couldn’t believe that I didn’t think of that before. I had no fucking clue what to even look for as far as that went. My guess was that he didn’t have the obvious kinds that stuck out like ugly sore thumbs in the corner of the room. If that had been the case, I was sure I’d have noticed by now.
With that in mind, I started making my movements more natural. I made it seem like I wasn’t looking for anything that I could use as a weapon.
Think. Think.
I had lived here long enough that I didn’t need to search. I just had to calm down, take a minute, and let my mind work everything out.
Well, fuck it. If I was stuck with a bodyguard to keep me from going anywhere, then the fucker was going to be stuck with me too. Whatever that meant. Oh, yeah. I was going to go about my day like normal. And by that, I meant be annoying as fuck. I wondered how much he liked reality TV shows. I just had to find the right one. Cooking? No, that could be a hobby of his. He seemed like the type. Some kind of dancing one! I would have said one of those stupid romance ones, like the one with the rose, but I had a feeling he might drool over the women. And I knew enough to know that some of those pool scenes got a little sexy. So that was out for sure. But some kind of dancing one, yeah, that would do it.
I grabbed a bottle of nail polish from the bathroom and walked back into the living room. I sat down as if he wasn’t even there. Between the smell of the polish and the TV show, he should be hating this gig in about five minutes.
“That shit stinks,” he said with a hateful look in my
direction.
“Well, what else do you want me to do?” I asked him with a blank stare. “I can’t go anywhere and I’ve needed to fix my nails for like a week now. So I figured this was the perfect time to catch up on my shows and make myself pretty.”
He sucked in a furious breath through his nose but said nothing else.
After three episodes, I was done. How did people watch this shit? I mean the dancing wasn’t all that horrible even if it wasn’t really my thing, but all that shit in between each routine, it was only time filler. Three episodes were all it took for me to hate reality TV. Not that I could let it show.
“I’m going to take a nap,” I declared as I stood up.
After a minute of receiving no reply, I headed off to the bedroom.
As quietly as I could, I started pulling out all the important things I wanted to take with me, praying the whole time that there weren’t cameras to catch me. I made sure to keep it to a minimum. Some clothes. My box of pictures and mementos. Toothbrush. Yeah, that was about it. Now, I just needed something to put it all in.
Knowing I didn’t have anything, I started looking in Ray’s closet. As I searched, I happened to come upon some money hidden in the back of his dresser drawer. It wasn’t all that much, but what the hell, he owed me. Without even an ounce of regret, I swiped it and continued looking for something big enough to put all my shit in. The best I could come up with was a vinyl garment bag. It was better than nothing.
I unzipped it so slowly that I thought I was going to die. I didn’t want to take the chance that Glen could hear anything and get suspicious. Once I had everything tucked away, I zipped it up just as slowly. Then I stowed it under the bed for when the time came.
With nothing else to do, I took a nap. I had to make it look real after all. I also figured that if I gave it some time, then I’d know if someone was watching. There was no way that people like Ray could let that kind of thing slide. If he really didn’t trust me, then the first sign that I was disloyal would set him off and he’d make a move.
I just needed a little time to think, to come up with a plan. I’d find a way out because that was what I did best.
-8-
Silas
It was hard not to call The Hunter and demand an update. I’d known him for years and so I knew how he worked. There wouldn’t be any contact until he had “the package” and was ready to deliver it. Hell, most of the time he’d just show up without calling. However, things with me were a little different. Most of the time I wasn’t trying to recover someone. I was trying to track down someone to end them.
So with nothing to do and no contract at the moment, I was going a little out of my mind.
“Ah, fuck it,” I mumbled as I pulled out my phone and dialed the asshole.
“Just because you don’t have a job right now doesn’t mean that I got time for your shit,” he answered right away.
“I missed your sweet voice too,” I told him with humor in my tone.
“I know why you’re calling and I don’t have anything to tell you.”
“Nothing at all?”
His heavy sigh was so hard it sounded like he was in a tornado for a split second.
“She’s gone off the grid. It’s going to take a lot more digging and footwork. I’ll find her, it’s just going to take some time. And I can’t work if I’m having to answer stupid phone calls.”
He wasn’t a people person so I didn’t take his attitude and irritation to heart. I’d known him for years and was all too familiar with his attitude by now.
I was silent for a moment. I didn’t like his answer and I was fighting to keep my mouth shut about it. I reminded myself to be thankful that he was helping me, even if I was paying him to.
“I have a lead,” he finally said in a tone that sounded slightly resigned. “I’m on my way to check it out now. And don’t even think of asking, I’m not telling you a damn thing.”
Yeah, I knew better. But that didn’t stop the anger from trying to break free with its demand to know everything. It was a good thing that I had years of experience controlling my emotions. It sure came in handy at a time like this.
“I don’t need to tell you—” I started only to be cut off by him, no surprise there.
“Yeah, I got it. I really do. But if you want me to do this, then you need to let me do it my way. Have I ever let you down?”
“You really want me to answer that? This isn’t the first time I’ve had you search for her. And to think, she was right under your nose.” I was being a bit of an asshole but I was still angry about the whole thing.
Jessica had been right there. How did we miss that? But I really didn’t have any room to blame him. Hell, Nadya knew the highlights of the story and she had been right there too. She was living in the same town. Connected in ways that none of us even realized. Jessica was a common enough name and I couldn’t expect people to put two and two together. It didn’t help that she’d always been Little Jessie to me. Somehow that name didn’t fit anymore though.
“You gave me nothing to go on before. You had me searching for a ghost. A blonde haired girl named Jessica. Even you have to admit that was insanity.” He was calm as he spoke.
The Hunter was someone I could have consider a friend. But people like us didn’t really have friends. At best, we called to check in every now and then. And if we were lucky, we ran into one another when our jobs overlapped or whatnot. He knew me as well as I knew him, which wasn’t saying much. But it was clear that he knew me well enough to let my harsh words go.
My head hung down and I ran my hand through my hair.
“You’re right. I’m sorry,” I said. “Sitting around is getting to me. It’s been a long damn time I’ve been doing this. And maybe, in the back of my mind, I figured she was dead.” It only felt okay to admit that now that I knew she was alive. I hoped that I wasn’t somehow putting a curse on this situation by saying it.
“Now you have hope,” he said like he got it. “Just hold onto that and let me do my damn job.”
“Fine,” I said not too happily. He was right but it was pretty much like torture waiting.
“Take a vacation. Go see your sister and your mom. Something to keep you occupied.”
“Okay, I get it,” I said with a shake of my head. He wasn’t wrong but I was in no state to face my family right now. They’d see that something was up with me right away and I wasn’t going to let them know anything until I had something solid. It was bad enough that my hopes were up, I couldn’t do that to them only to break their hearts all over again.
Without a goodbye, he hung up. It didn’t bother me.
I sat there for a while trying to figure out my next move.
The next day, I had my thing to do. A contract came in and as much as killing people shouldn’t be exciting, it had me internally jumping for joy. It wasn’t so much the fact that I’d get to take someone out, it was more that I had something to put my focus on.
I pulled the heavy door to the bar open and as I stepped inside, my eyes took a moment to adjust to the dim lighting. Keeping stride, I headed to the booth in the back. This place was a shit-hole, but it was perfect for this type of thing. No one would think twice about what was going on in the corner and I didn’t have to look over my shoulder wondering if there was someone listening in.
“The beer is always warm here,” Dalton grumbled as I slid into the booth across from him.
“Then get something else,” I told him with a quick smile.
“Whatcha got?” he asked in a short tone, clearly, done with pleasantries and ready to get this whole thing over.
I pulled out my phone and handed over the info I had been sent on my newest target.
He took my phone and quickly read over the file.
“Where’d this one come from?” he asked once he was done.
“Hayes.”
He nodded and I could see his brain going already.
“Still getting work from him?”
; “Yeah,” I said with a sigh. I wasn’t a huge fan of the man and sometimes his contracts didn’t exactly line up with my morals. Which was why I was here, to get all the information I could before I proceeded. “I’m being cautious with this one.”
Hayes was more of a middle man. He worked the underground circuit and connected people to the services they were in need of. Killer for hire being one of them. He was just one of the many people I’d worked with him a few times over the years. It was not only easier that way, but it was also somehow safer. If it was a setup, he would be the one to take the fall in most cases. I tried to keep my hands as clean as possible in this whole thing. And I wasn’t worried about him giving me up if he did get caught, he would be dead before they’d be able to question him. You see, I wasn’t the only one that got my work from him, there were too many of us to simply be stopped.
“You that desperate for a job?” he asked and one of his brows went up as he took a swig of his beer. His face soured like he immediately regretted the action.
“I wouldn’t say desperate…”
“Sure you wouldn’t.” He grunted and pushed the bottle away as if it offended him. “Look, I don’t trust Hayes one bit, but if you need something to do then I’ll look into it. What’s your gut telling you?”
That was the thing, there was something prickling my spine about this one but it was a feeling I’d never felt before. It wasn’t hesitation or even an unsureness about it. It was like there was something else there that I couldn’t see.
“My gut is telling me to talk to you and get all the information on this guy I can get.” I pinned him with a blank stare.
“Got it,” he replied back as he reached for his wallet. After slapping his money down on the table he stood up. “Give me twenty-four hours.”
“Want to meet back here tomorrow?”
“Fuck no,” he grumbled with a disgusted look on his face. “Don’t know why it’s got to be here every time. This can’t be the only shady bar in the area.”
