by Kylie Parker
I had one more stop to make before running off into the sunset, planning a disappearing act was not easy. If I ever had to run away again, I would have to set up an emergency runway kit, where I would place everything I needed in an emergency vault.
It was growing colder as I drove on; I had to hit the gay bar to get a burner phone before heading off. I parked the car at a good distance from the bar’s entrance before heading in and plumed my hands into my pocket. Most of the illegal stuff I knew were run in the back rooms of bar’s. I do not know how they never got caught but to me that was a damn cliché.
Dave was waiting on me in the back, smoking a joint and accommodating a good looking stripper on his laps.
“Hey Dave”, I said as I greeted him and let out a smile. Dave was very good in technology, he would probably make very good and clean money working for the FBI or some shitty cooperate firm but he chose not to. Having connections and dealing with gangsters in the black market gave him a rush and tickled his fancy. He was very professional when it came to handling business, that was why he made the stripper get on her feet and shooed her away by slapping her ass before getting me my shit.
He walked to a table that was situated in the middle of the room and pulled at one of the drawers. I had already paid him earlier in cash and was only there to pick my order. He took out a transparent polythene bag with a seal at the top and threw it my way.
“It’s all in here?” I asked.
“Yes”, he answered “You can try them out”.
I thought about what Brad had earlier told me about the cops being hot on my ass and decided to try them out. Communication was important; I needed to completely disappear from the grid. I took them out and placed a call to Dave’s phone to see what it would display; Dave had seriously hooked me up.
“Thanks dude”, I said and started heading towards the door.
“Wait up”, Dave called back. I turned on my heel and saw the card that he had in his hand.
“If you ever need my services again, I have agents all over the world”, he said proudly “I will hook you up wherever you are”.
“Thank you”.
I answered and pocketed his card, not sure if I would ever use it in the near future. I didn’t plan on contacting anyone once I had left the city. I need a mental counter check of all the things I had acquired s I made it back to my car.
The feeling took over me again and this time I was sure that someone was watching me, I placed both hands on my waist and tried to scan the environment but nothing seemed conspicuous. I got into the driver’s seat, took in a deep sharp breathe and started my car. I had it all planned out, I would ditch the car at an unknown place where I would take the bus out of the city as I figured out my next move.
I adjusted my mirrors before taking off in the same high speed I had been moving with throughout the night. That was when I noticed, the silver Audi that had been with me at every stop in the night, someone was indeed following me. I stepped on the gas after trying to make out who it was but in vain, he kept following me and maintained the same speed as me.
His car did not hold a candle to mine but I admired his relentless spirit. I moved faster through the streets in the night as I kept my eyes both on the road ahead and the car trailing me. I couldn’t tell who it was but I had my suspicions, after moving through different turns in a faster speed than him, I lost the fool.
I drove with a mixture of both excitement and fear wrestling inside me. Whoever was following me could easily join the dots if he had been watching me through the night. I adjusted my rear view mirror again, he was nowhere in sight. I must have lost him; I was just about to beam with pride when a loud crashing sound almost deafened me. I held on tightly to my seat as I tried to comprehend what had just happened.
The fool had rammed into my car from the side from whichever hell hole he had crawled from. I couldn’t see so clearly through the smoke coming out from the side of my bonnet and the confusion of the crush. But the figure was familiar in the dark and when I had a closer look, I recognized the physique, broad shoulders, tall and slender body. Fuck! David had just hit my car, men was I in trouble now!
30
David
The loud screech threw me off my game at first and I tried to keep still, the airbag was not making things easier for me either. It was all over my face and blocking my vision. I pushed open the door and stepped out of it trying to make sense of what was going on around me. I could see Robbie in his car and our gazes locked. My hand did a frantic search all over my body in search of my gun and to also see if I was hurt. Robbie was however fast, he pushed opened his door and crawled out before making a run for it. It was not easy to tell which way he had gone in the moon lit sky but I had to run after him as fast as my thin feeble legs could carry me.
For a retired hit man he sure ran like the wind, I followed him through the streets and past a kid’s playground that was deserted in the night. Luck was on my side, he tripped on something I couldn’t really tell what and slowed his pace. This gave me, an added advantage and I closed in on him. Laying my hand on him had been a secret fantasy from the first day I met him and the much deserved punch that I gave him across his face gave me nothing but joy.
“You bastard!” I shouted and gave him another blow. I missed this time; he saw it coming and ducked.
The guy was strong he pushed me back and tried to ran off again but this gesture was futile. I pulled him from behind and made his sorry ass land on the ground after which, I gave him another blow which made my insides churn with glee.
“Did you really think you would get away?” I asked.
I was now boiling with anger as I gave him yet another blow and was more than happy that he did not fight back. He pushed me off him, something I had not anticipated and hurriedly got to his feet. I was just getting ready to pounce on him again but the noise of hard steel made me halt in my steps.
A gun was pointed at me along with a sinister glare from Robbie. I felt defeated and angry both at the same time but I however held my ground.
“Yes David, I knew I would get away”, he answered “What you do not feel brave now do you? Not with a gun pointed to your smug face?”
I wanted to kill him, I wanted to wrap my hands around his neck and strangle the life out of him but his gun got in the way.
“The only coward I see here is you Robbie; you are the one hiding behind the gun. Why don’t you put it aside and fight me like a man “.
“This is faster”, he answered.
“That’s because you don’t have any balls you scumbag”, I spitted out with disgust.
He lifted the gun higher in mid air and focused on my head, a shiver ran up my spine and the whole macho act suddenly disappeared. I thought of my promiscuous wife back at home and my lovely kids. This was not the way I wanted to die. He must have noticed the fear dancing in my eyes and let out a sinister smile. Not wanting to give him the pleasure, I decided to take a different angle with him.
“Did you really love my sister? Or was it all part of a show?”
I must have hit a nerve, the twitch in his brow confirmed this and he held on to the gun tighter.
“Sarah has got nothing to do with this”.
“She does”, I answered “She is after all pregnant for you”.
It worked, his grip on the gun grew soft and there was a feeling of guilt playing in his eyes. I didn’t know whether to be touched or offended by it, he was after all abandoning my sister. The cold night air bit into my skin and the moonlit sky shone down on us. I wondered what he would do next, I had already called for backup and it was only a matter of time before they traced my car. I only needed to keep him talking long enough for my team to get here and find him pointing a gun at me.
“Were you really going to abandon her? Leave her to raise your bastard kid by herself? Are you really that kind of a man?”
I do not expect you to understand, everything is black and white with you”.
These word
s struck a chord in me, he was not right. There was nothing in my life that was black and white, I was not a saint but I was not a hit man on the run either.
“Try me”, I answered.
“I needed the money back then; my mother had been diagnosed with cancer and her medication as burning a whole straight through my pockets”.
“So you decided to be a hit man? Pay a life with another life?” I sneered disgusted by his excuse “Tell me how that worked Robbie? Did your mother live long?”
“No sadly she passed on after a few months of chemotherapy”.
“So why did you continue with the job? Why not quit? The core reason had now been scraped out of the way, so why keep at it?”
I was aware of how much of a shrink I sounded like but I needed to keep him talking. The backup should get to me any time soon but Robbie had a more interesting look plastered on his face. It looked murderous and I secretly wondered whether he had the same look whenever he was about to end someone’s life.
I wanted to kill him without any ammunition aid. Bastards like him did not deserve to live or wait on a jail sentencing.
“I don’t know”, he answered me “Adrenaline rush but I stopped well not entirely”.
“You lied to my sister”, I spat out.
“I dint mean to”.
“So where were you running off to?”
“Why should I tell you”, Robbie was now curious with my line of questioning and I could see him eye me suspiciously.
He aimed the gun at me and the murderous look that was earlier on his face resurfaced. Where the hell was my back up? I didn’t want to die. Someone saved my arse though; a familiar voice sounded in the distance and gave me the time I needed to build a defense wall.
“Robbie?”
The voice was Sarah’s; I noticed her from a distance and pulled out my gun just in time to point it out at Robbie. He had turned his attention to her and was now shocked beyond words.
31
Robbie
Now this guy was relentless, he must have followed me through the streets at night and I wondered just how much he had witnesses thus far. After smashing into my car and engaging me in a nonsensical conversation the last person I expected to see on this earth showed up, Sarah. Shit had just gotten real, what the hell was she doing here. Her skin still glowed in the dark despite the circumstances.
“Robbie? I have been trying to call you the whole night”.
“Why? Are you okay? Is something wrong with the baby?’ I asked with genuine concern.
“Now you give a shit about her? I thought you were on your way to God knows where?”
I bit my lower lip, David sure did know how to burst my bubble, the gun was still held firmly in my hand but he had now gotten the opportunity to get his from the slight distraction.
“Is that true?” Sarah asked and moved closer to both of us.
It was a scene like no other, her lover and her brother holding a gun to each other in the moon lit night. I bit my lower lip again, I hated lying to Sarah but I now had no choice.
“Sarah this man is not who you think it is”, he just had to add in.
“Oh really? Who is he David? Enlighten me”.
“He is a hit man and has been on the FBI radar for the last eleven years”.
The tone in his voice made me sound so evil, I mean there were worse crimes in this world than being a hit man. At least that was what I always told myself to help me sleep at night. The hard searching stare that she gave me after this revelation was intruding. I felt like she was staring right through my soul but I stood my ground, held a gun to her brother and displayed no emotion.
“Robbie?” she asked. She did not need to finish the sentence for me to know what she wanted to hear. What would I tell her? That her brother was right? Fuck no!
“You know David has had it out for me from day one love”, I answered hoping that I sounded convincing. My voice was stern. Bereft of any fear and this left Sarah in a very confused state.
“I know that but is it true?” she inquired.
“Come on Sarah you have always been a smart girl”, the imbecile of a brother interrupted again “Until this fool came into your life, do the math, trust your gut, you know I am right”.
“Baby you know I love you”, I enjoyed the murderous look that David had on his face. He hated how I had decided to play it out and who could blame him? I would have gutted me if I was in his protective shoes.
“Why was your phone off?” she asked me.
“What do you mean?” I asked back.
“I have been trying to get in touch with you the whole night Robbie? Why was your phone off?”
“Valid question”, David butted in.
“I had a few errands to run”.
“In the middle of the night?” she asked back “Don’t lie to me Robbie”.
I was clutching at straws, I had given her a desperate answer and she knew it. This was not good; if it were not for David I would have been on my way to Brazil or Mexico right now. But this son of a bitch had to meddle into my business.
“You are rich Robbie, you never run your own errands”, David added “Fuck, you don’t even know when the price of milk has gone up”.
His words seem to have struck a chord in Sarah and made me feel numb all through my body. If the two of them decide to put up a united front then I would totally be fucked.
“He was running off Sarah, he was going to leave you to raise the baby all by yourself”, David went on to say. How I wanted to slap him across his mouth and make him shut the hell up. Sarah responded to this, took out a gun from behind her pajama pants and pointed it to the ground. I had to act fast; I needed to convince her that David was the bad guy.
“Sarah my love”, I started “Believe me when I tell you I had all the right intentions for us. I was not going to run away, I had a plan”.
“That is a load of bull shit Sarah and you know it”.
“What plan did you have in place?” she asked. Trying to ignore her brothers’ words.
“Come on Sarah, really?”
“Shut up David, I need to hear him out”.
“When did you get so stupid?” David asked disgustedly. His words almost made him point the gun at her sister but he did not.
“You are not one to speak when it comes to matters of the heart David. Not when you have a whore for a wife”.
“That is the mother of my kids!” David shouted in return, clearly vexed from the undercutting comment.
“And this is the father of mine”.
I wanted the two siblings to go on fighting so that I could get a clear escape route but David shockingly went silent. His gun was still in his hand and he had it pointed at me, from the look on his face, I would be long gone dancing on the flames of hell if it were not for Sarah. That meant I had to think fast, I had to come up with a convincing story before it all got out of hand.
32
Sarah
I had followed David from the bar through the GPS and watched as he intentionally slammed into Robbie’s car. I watched as they exchanged words from a distance and approached them carefully only to find Robbie pointing a gun at my brother. You do not walk into this kind of scene every other day and to be caught in such a shit storm is by far the craziest thing.
Robbie and David must have exchanged a few heated not to mention insulting words before I arrived at the scene. They both looked quite steamed up when I approached. Robbie must have thought I was damn fool for believing what he had to say to me and David must have thought I was very stupid for even listening to Robbie. After hitting David below the belt with words about his wife Marisol, they both went silent.
“You were saying”, I turned my attention to Robbie waiting for his explanation with my gun pointed to the ground.
“I had a plan for us”.
“Did the plan include running off in the middle of the night and letting me fend for our baby by myself?”
“No it included me providing for
us in the future”, he answered “I had to do this Sarah, for us”.
“Yeah right”. David sneered. He had his gun pointed a t my lover and I knew if given the chance he would pull the trigger without a thought.
On the other hand, this was the first time Robbie had lied to me, but he had also hidden the fact that he was a wanted man a well. Furthermore he was the father to my unborn baby; I needed him to be alive.
“Sarah”, he called out to me “I have a plan, trust me”.
“I can never trust you Robbie”, I answered. I could already see David smiling from my comment and could tell how happy he was with my words.
With my gun still pointed to the ground, I heard sirens in the far distance and that could only mean one thing, David had called for backup.
“Its’ over Robbie”, David shouted “You will go to jail for a very long time”.
I don’t know if it was the look of fear in Robbie’s face that made me pull the trigger or the thought of him in an orange jumpsuit behind bars. I couldn’t let him go to prison; I couldn’t let him be locked up. It must have been my love for him that made me turn the gun to David and pull the trigger.
“Get the fuck out of here”, I shouted to Robbie.
He hesitated for a split second but the staggering movements that David made in an attempt to reach for his gun that he had flown off his hand made him dash out in supersonic speed. He gave me a look that needed no words before he left; it reeked of remorse and regret.
I rushed over to David’s side as soon as Robbie had disappeared into thin air and looked at the gunshot wound. The desired result had been achieved; I had grazed him with the bullet from the gun but was grateful it had not caused a fatal wound.
