I got wind of the person tracking me about twenty minutes into my run and changed course immediately. Only a person following me would keep up with my pace and nonsensical directional changes. With that said, I wasn’t worried about the tail I had acquired, for I knew who it was.
I stopped to tie my shoelace. It didn’t need to be, but we were deep enough in the woods.
“When did you spot me?” Long asked as he appeared from behind a tree. He kept his distance from me, roughly fifteen feet. He wore a black tracksuit with a matching beanie and had a knife hanging from his side—no handgun. “About ten minutes after I left the cottage.” I stood up and brushed my hands.
“You’re rusty.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I arrived two days ago.”
I stopped brushing. Somehow I had missed his presence at the cottage. “Is that so…Tark?”
Even with all signs indicating Long was Tark, or at least the man behind him, I still had a hard time believing. But the signs painted a compelling picture: His ability to find me in the first place led me to believe he had found me earlier. The doctor’s claim that Tark had entered his apartment undetected, probably the same way I had. And that Tark had a similar speech impediment that plagued Long since he was a little boy. It was all too coincidental.
“Yes, I was Tark in the flesh, but not during our first online encounter, obviously because I was with you when you made contact with him.” Long took a few steps to the side. “I knew you’d figure it out eventually. You’re too smart.”
Hearing Long admit his guilt filled my insides with emptiness. The one person I thought I could always trust with my life had turned on me. We were inseparable when we were young. We shared our deepest secrets, dreamed big together, and vowed to protect one another until death. We were as close as a brother and sister could be, and yet there we were, at a crossroads. How could someone I loved and cared so much about have such a black heart? “Why, Long?”
“The short answer: I didn’t think you would escape prison. I misjudged Demir and his level of incompetence. If that idiot had done his part, we would not be standing here right now.”
“And the long answer?”
“You should already know it.”
I had a hunch, but I wanted Long to provide the answer and hear the words of betrayal leave his mouth.
“You killed Ma. And don’t you dare try to deny it.”
“That’s what this is all about?” I asked, shifting my weight to one leg while resting my hands on my hips. I knew Long had always held her in high regard, especially since she rescued us from the orphanage. I had no idea he would try and kill me over her death.
“Don’t trivialize it. She was the figurehead of our clan. She gave us a future and raised us as her own. She was the mother we never had!”
“She used us for her own psychopathic needs. You, of all people, should realize that. She took in orphans like us so she could turn us into loyal fighting machines. We were disposable.”
“Our brothers and sisters who died did so in loyal service. We all knew the risks.”
“But none of us chose this life. It was forced upon us.”
“You simply don’t get it do you? She was family. How could you?”
Long rushed toward me, closing the distance in seconds. His fist missed my face by inches as I stepped to the side and followed with open-palm blow to the back of his neck that sent him tumbling along the forest floor.
“You have that much hatred for me?” I shouted as I took a few steps away from him.
Long got back to his feet. His fists were clenched. “You have no idea.” He sprang forward with a series of punches.
I blocked each one and countered with a straight-arm punch that snapped his head back. A forward kick to his chest followed, backing him away from me.
Long fought to regain the breath I had knocked out of him.
“So you conjured up a plan to get back at me by kidnapping my daughter and then had me take the fall for the Wolf’s escape?” I continued. “Why not just come after me if you hated me so much? Seems a faster and much more efficient way of enacting revenge, doesn’t it?”
“You’re giving me too much credit,” Long said as we moved slowly in a circle, anticipating the other’s next move. “My original intention was to take something from you, something that would destroy you internally, emotionally. Just like you did to me. What would be better than to deny you of motherhood?” His mouth widened into a grin.
“Where is she?”
Long laughed. “Unfortunately, I have no idea.”
“What are you talking about? You took her.”
“You’ll have to ask the Wolf.”
“Why would he have her? I did nothing to him.”
“You’re right, but I had a debt to repay.”
Long told me he had killed one of the Wolf’s men in a bar fight. The penalty for doing so was two hundred thousand dollars, which he refused to pay. This prompted the Wolf to put a contract on his head. When Long heard the Turkish army had captured the Wolf, he said he saw an opportunity to not only repay his debt, but to gain entrance to the Wolf’s inner circle.
“So you approached him with a plan that would get him out of prison?”
“We figured it out jointly.”
“Really? I spent time in that place. I highly doubt he could pick up a phone and chat with you.”
“I posed as a diplomat from China, there to discuss extradition. I met with the Wolf more than once and convinced him that if he wanted to escape, he would have to trust me and hire you.”
“Why would he trust the man he had put a contract out on?”
“At first, he didn’t believe anything I said, but when I told him about your daughter, he changed his mind, although he didn’t think you could get him out on your own. It was his brilliant idea to use you as a decoy and have you take the fall.”
No sooner had those words left his mouth than he lurched forward, striking with both fists. The first one grazed the side of my chin, the second one missed. He wasn’t able throw a third because I caught him square in the face with an open palm. Long shook it off and removed his knife, as did I; our talk had come to an end.
We exchanged swipes. The ting of metal against metal rang out as we blocked the other’s strike. We moved in a circle, each looking for the opening needed to end it. Long found one. His blade cut deep above my left hip. He nearly finished me, but I jumped backward, avoiding a kill strike.
“So you’re not invincible,” Long said between heavy breaths before attacking again.
I allowed him to back me up until the smooth trunk of a birch tree appeared just to the left of us. I stepped right, then left, and leapt up, pushing off of the tree trunk and cartwheeling in the air. I passed directly over Long. He looked up, followed my path and exposed his neck in the process.
I landed on the other side of Long, spinning around quickly to face him. He had his left hand wrapped around his neck, and his right hand still gripped his blade. A river of red streamed through his fingers, coating his hand and wrist. He moved for another attack, but I easily avoided it with a sidestep. He made repeated attempts, each with a wild swipe of his knife, until his knees buckled.
He fell to his side, his eyes never leaving me. Birds sang in the treetops as I watched Long gasp his final breath. Even with all he had done to me, I still felt sad that it had come to this. I should have been spitting venom for what he had done. Instead, I felt pity. I imagined Long had lived a life wrought with envy and self-doubt. Sadly, what he hadn’t realized was that he had comparable skills. Our capabilities were more or less on par. But there was one thing Long lacked that I had in abundance: confidence. Belief is what held him back. And in the end, it finished him. I could only wonder if it was really Ma’s death that drove him to turn on me, or jealousy.
Chapter 68
Jak Berisha hadn’t forgotten about the assassin who showed up to his bar and slit the throat of his brother an
d other members of his organization. Not a single day went by that he didn’t think of flaying the skin from her body for what she had done. Berisha wasn’t the sort of man who forgot. Revenge ran thick in his blood. There would be no peace until he had it.
It didn’t take Berisha’s men very long to track down the taxi Sei had taken and the location she had been taken to: a lone cottage on the outskirts of Saint-Hubert.
Berisha gave his men detailed orders not to approach the home. She was deadly. He had no desire to lose any more men.
Amiti was ordered to make periodic checks on the single-lane dirt road that led to the cottage. Weeks had gone by without a single sighting of Sei, but Berisha remained patient. He knew eventually she would show. And she did.
“Are you sure she’s home?” Berisha asked as he glanced at his watch. It was a little after two in the morning when he, Amiti, and seven other men from his gang arrived at the entrance to the narrow dirt road leading to Sei’s cottage. It was cool with scattered clouds that dulled the intensity of the moonlight. They were all dressed in black, wore three-hole balaclavas, and carried assault rifles.
“I used a long-lens camera and saw her through the windows. No way she spotted me. I was one hundred yards out and well hidden in the forest.”
Berisha rechecked his AK-47, making sure the magazine was fully loaded and locked into place. “Shoot but don’t kill. I want her alive if possible,” Berisha said to his men as they quietly advanced on the cottage.
As they neared the property, Berisha motioned to three of his men to make their way to the rear of the cottage. He and the rest of the crew positioned themselves to cover the front of the house, about twenty-five yards out. The plan was to force her into the opening where she would be most vulnerable, and that would be possible with the help of Amiti’s newly acquired toy: a 40mm tear gas launcher.
Amiti positioned himself directly in front of a large window and took aim. He had six canisters and intended to fire every single one of them.
The first cartridge shattered the framed window with relative ease. Smoke poured from it as it bounced off a wall and rolled along the floor. Amiti quickly fired the remaining five into other windows before retreating to where Berisha and the other men stood.
“She should be choking,” Amiti said as he traded the grenade launcher for an AK-47. The four of them waited with rifles aimed at the front door. Clouds of tear gas continued to fill the small cottage, but there was no sign of movement. Berisha called out to his men behind the cabin, and they said they hadn’t seen her either. “We’re going inside,” he shouted.
Amiti removed gas masks from his duffle bag and handed them out. A minute later, Berisha shot the lock on the front door, and they filed inside. “Spread out. Find her!” he ordered.
There were signs that Sei had been there. The comforter on the bed was ruffled, and the pillow dented. Dirty dishes lay in the sink. A used mug sat on the desk in the office. Amiti had not been wrong when he told Berisha she had returned.
But a few minutes of searching confirmed what Berisha had wanted to avoid. He kicked the back door open and ripped his mask off. “Are you sure you didn’t see her?” he shouted to his men who were tasked with preventing Sei from escaping from the rear of the home.
“We saw no one.”
Berisha headed back inside. “Search again. Look everywhere!”
<><><>
I watched the debacle unfold from the security of the tree line, about fifty yards out from the rear of the cottage. I had purposely cleared the vegetation so, if need be, I would have an unobstructed view of my cottage from a safe distance. It also helped that I had a false bottom in my closet covering an underground tunnel that stretched to the forest. The exit door was hidden under a hollow plastic boulder. Had I not woken up to use the bathroom and change the bandages on my wound, their plan might have worked.
From a tiny window in the bathroom, I had heard the snap of a branch and the hushed voices speaking in Albanian. I took a peek and spotted three men walking behind the cottage. The gang had finally caught up with me.
I had left the bathroom and made my way to the front of the cottage and spied a larger group of men. I had barely enough time to grab my “go bag,” before escaping through the underground tunnel. Inside of it, I kept a change of clothes, a few select weapons, identification, and a stash of euros.
I eyed the cottage for a few more seconds. My safe house had been compromised. I had always hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but it had. I glanced at the timer on my watch. Any second now.
A moment later, there was a bright flash followed by a loud booming sound and then darkness. The trigger I had built to set off the C4 I had wired throughout the walls of the cottage worked. There was enough moonlight to see that the structure was obliterated along with any evidence of me having lived there.
Blowing up the gang. It was raw, unsophisticated, far from covert, and a little Kostas-like. I wasn’t above doing what I needed to do to finish a job. I had a new motivation in my life, one that would reflect in my decisions and actions from that point forward. If you asked me, the explosion was symbolic. It signified a new Sei. Locating and reuniting with my daughter had become my purpose in life. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I slung the backpack of gear over my shoulders and ran in the opposite direction. I wasn’t sure to where, but it would be far away from there. I was starting over again.
New identity.
New safe house.
New Sei.
Sei learns about an individual involved in the abduction of her daughter—a man so vile, so foul in every way, that the mere thought of him turns her stomach. To make matters worse, she realizes she must do the unthinkable. She must befriend him.
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The Novels of Ty Hutchinson
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Contract: Snatch
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Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the author, Ty Hutchinson.
Published by Ty Hutchinson
Copyright © 2015 by Ty Hutchinson
Cover Design: Damonza
Table of Contents
Title Page
Contract: Snatch
Description
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Contract: Sicko
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Contract: Snatch (Sei Assassin Thriller Book 1) Page 19
