I glance over at Grace, and see she is sitting with her arms crossed over her chest, still looking furious with me.
“Grace, it’s late, just drink your tea and try to get some sleep. I’ll explain more tomorrow.” I make my voice as soft as possible.
She sighs heavily but thankfully takes another sip of tea before turning away from me and lowering the back of her seat into a lying position. I keep my eyes trained on the building, specifically on the side door. I inhale and exhale deeply a few times, Grace’s floral scent filling my nostrils and fucking with my head. I’ve never done a hit with someone along.
I check the time, fifteen minutes have past already, and I notice Grace’s breathing has evened out next to me. I know she didn’t drink enough to be passed out like I had hoped but I think she’ll stay asleep long enough for me to do this job. I look over at her sleeping form, memorizing her delicate features. She’s so fragile, so sweet, and kind. She’s the opposite of everything that I am and still that’s what makes us perfect for each other.
Two more minutes pass and then the side door opens, Marco steps out into the alleyway. My muscles burn, and a darkness cloaks me from the inside out with the anticipation of what’s to come. With my gun already in my hand, I exit the car swiftly and quietly. I’m quick on my feet, making very little noise as I hurry toward him. Hiding in the shadows I sneak up behind Marco without him ever noticing me. A sinister grin pulls at my lips, excitement fills my veins as the adrenaline makes its way through my body. My heart should be racing inside my chest, but it doesn’t. This is the kind of thing that calms the beast inside me, the one that wants to claw its way out and rid the world of evil.
Right before he turns the corner to the back of the building, I raise my gun to his head and pull the trigger. Even with the suppressor, the dulled gunshot echoes through the otherwise silent alley.
Marco’s lifeless body hits the ground with a loud thud and the familiar feeling of euphoria flushes my system. Killing is a high you can’t get from anything else. A high I have grown accustomed to. A high I’m addicted to and one I’m not sure I can live without. I turn around to walk back to the car, my mind is reeling, questions fill my head, left and right. Can I keep doing this and be with Grace at the same time? Could I be better for her and stop working for the Rossi family? I want to think I could, but the blood, the killing, it makes me who I am. Could I give up all of this for a life of solitude? These were things I’d never thought about before, because I never expected Grace’s reaction to me to be quite so angry.
All these thoughts have me distracted, so distracted that I don’t hear the two guys coming up behind me until it’s too late. I feel the cold metal of the gun pushed into the back of my head and I freeze in my tracks. I’ve been here before, on the receiving end of the gun, so close to death I could feel it nipping at my heels.
“Who the fuck are you?” a heavily accented voice asks. Don’t these fuckers know you shoot first and ask questions later. Without any hesitation, I swing around, catching him by surprise, knocking the gun from his hand. At the same time, I raise my own gun and shoot the guy in the face. Blood goes everywhere, painting the dark alleyway. The second guy fires his gun and pain explodes across my side, my flesh burning where the bullet enters my side. I grit my teeth and swallow the pain down. I’ve endured far worse.
The fucker grins and raises his gun to my head a second before I raise my own gun and for a fraction of a second, I think I might actually die. But then something behind me distracts him and I use his hesitancy to my advantage. I fire my weapon and the bullet hits him right between the eyes. I watch as he falls back, his gun slipping from his hand and onto the cold ground.
The sound of the gun going off is still ringing in my ears when a loud scream pierces through the fog of blood, and mayhem. I spin around to find the owner of the scream, holding my gun up out of instinct, my finger on the trigger ready to shoot.
When I spot Grace standing only a few feet away from me, right next to Marco’s dead body my heart stills inside my chest. I’m taken back to that night where I was forced to kill a man right in front of her. Deja vu, that’s what this is, and I wonder if it will always be this way.