"I love you," I tell her.
She sighs. "I love you too."
"Did you tell your dad about us?"
"Yeah," she admits. "I told him I fell in love last night with a man named Flynn. That he's my whole world now."
"And you meant it?" I ask her.
"I meant every last word," she says. "Now go do your job. If you get done early, maybe we can have a quickie before dinner?"
"I like the sound of that."
After we end the phone call, I get dressed, reach for my gun, put it in my vest. I work for Ruthless Corporation and I’ve got to do my job no matter what. Don’t I?
When I pull up to the house, I'm still debating what the fuck I'm going to do. One minute, I'm sure. The next, all I can do is think of Fiona's sweet cunt. The way she says "I love you." The look in her eyes when she came. Her smile when she told me she always keeps her promises.
She has me forgetting everything that's ever mattered. She became the center of my universe in one night. When I pull up to the estate, I'm reminded how glad I am she's out for the afternoon with her friend, but I immediately notice there's an unmarked car parked up the street.
I walk up to the house slowly, carefully, my head down, sunglasses on. I know how to walk quickly to get to my mark and I do. I got the blueprints of this house in my brief and I know that there is a side door right near the study where Cane is apparently working today.
When I reach for the knob, it opens. He should lock this place up, I think as I enter the hallway. It's quiet here. My brief told me that Cane O’Grady is home alone on Saturday afternoons and that's when he likes to catch up on his work. But there's a noise I'm not anticipating, a shouting match happening in the study. And as I round the corner, looking through the crack in the door, I see two guys I know. They work for a competing corporation, BloodHound. Hitmen who take less competitive offers. It's Teddy and Scowl, two men I've run across a few times internationally.
What the fuck are they doing here? Their guns are raised, ready to kill Cane.
Shit, just like that, every moment I've spent with Fiona flashes before my eyes and I know that even if Rogue has been like a father to me, this man is a father to her.
I can't let Fiona's dad die even if it means losing my job and the respect of the other hitmen. I kick open the door, my gun raised. Cane is wide-eyed, looking between us. He's a silver-haired man in a nice suit. And he looks stunned, standing behind his big mahogany desk, hands in the air.
"What the fuck?" Scowl turns to me, one second too late. I point and I shoot him straight in the chest. He falls fast.
Next to him, Teddy shouts, "What the fuck?"
"Taking care of business," I say, "sorry, man." I shoot him in the head. It's not a mark I like to make, but hell, it does the job. Two men gone in two seconds.
Yeah, I'm a motherfucking hitman. This is what I do for a living.
And usually, that's all the skin I have in the game—a job done well—but right now it feels like so much more. It feels like everything is about to change.
10
Fiona
I would be annoyed that Lucia has to leave right after we get our manis and pedis, but there are stars in her eyes that I have never seen before. "He's totally not my type," she tells me, "but he's kind of incredible."
I laugh, shocked at her change of heart. She's the kind of woman who's told me she's never going to let her guard down and fall in love, yet she canceled afternoon shopping to spend time with Tommy. Apparently, he's only in town for 24 more hours.
On the car ride back to my dad's estate, I think how funny life can be. Lucia falling for a stranger the same night I did. Maybe it's not so crazy. Maybe it's fate, just like I was thinking yesterday.
When I pull up to the house, I'm happy to see the staff cars are gone. Esmeralda always takes Saturday afternoons off and so does my dad's butler. It makes me happy knowing that they get some time with their families over the weekend and I'm glad that my dad gets a few hours when he can focus and get some work done.
I plan on being very quiet when I enter the house, not wanting to disturb him, but when I enter the front door, I hear a sound that's never entered my ears before.