ENZO
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It’s the time of evening that looks like it came straight out of that Hopper painting. The sun’s gone and the only light is coming from inside the diner, streaming out onto the sidewalk and the parking lot out back.
Before I even step inside the building, I know I shouldn’t be here. I’m going way past what I need to do to get this job done.
Walter’s dug into her background for me, gave me the details when I showed up unannounced at the sheriff’s station. He looked shocked to see me, like he thought I was there to kill him. Luckily for him, I don’t kill at random. I kill when I have to and I don’t have to, as long as he does what I’m told him to.
He promised me he’d have the file and necklace ready for the next time I come in. I made it clear to him that he better not be bullshitting me. He gets one chance. No one ever gets a second.
I took the time to warn him about Chloe too. Told him she better not find anything out. If she does, the Don is not going to be happy. Which means I won’t be happy. Which means Walter might not get to go home again to his wife and kid. He’ll be buried in an unmarked grave, no one ever knowing what happened to him. Like so many of the people I deal with when I’m working.
Didn’t have to say that part out loud. All I had to tell him was to make sure he gives me the file and the necklace. I’m going back for them tomorrow.
I’m supposed to take them back to the city so she can never find out what happened. I don’t mind taking them. It’s the only way she’ll be safe. She finds out about all this and her life expectancy tanks. The Don will definitely want her dead if she knows anything.
It’s better this way. People say the truth will set you free but that’s bullshit. Most truths just open you up to a world of pain. When I found out what happened to my sister, it didn’t set me free. It turned me into a murderer. the first step to becoming the cold-hearted cruel bastard I am now.
Some truths are better off locked away, same as this one.
There’s another reason I need to keep the truth from her, a reason that I’ll never share with her, not if I hang around here until I’m a hundred and ten. Don’t even like to think about it. It was too long ago and I was a different person then. Back then I still had some morals left. Still thought I could maybe do some good.
I walk into the diner, sitting at a table by a mangy-looking stag’s head they stuck on the wall about two hundred years ago.
From where I am, I can see the exits and I can see when she walks in. I know she’s due soon because Walter’s already told me about her little date tonight. Wasn’t talking to me about it but I overheard him and one of the deputies discussing how Andy was going on a date with the freak. The name meant nothing to me but then they mentioned Chloe. She’s the freak? I almost broke their necks there and then for calling her that but I kept my cool.
Barely.
I couldn’t help coming along tonight. Told myself it was to get dinner but it’s not. It’s to watch out for her. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Jacob was a piece of shit, Walter’s little different. I can’t imagine Andy’s going to be a shining beacon of humanity.
I won’t let him hurt her.
Why is this getting so personal? Since when have I felt like I was invading the privacy of one of my targets? Never, that’s when. So what’s so different now?
I’m getting too involved, that’s what’s happening. I know why. I think I can atone for my past but what’s done is done. I can’t change what happened. No one can.
I should have turned the job down but you’ve got to obey the Don.
Got to admit as well, I was curious to see how she’d turned out. She’s become a firecracker. I better make sure I let go of her before she explodes or I’ll be left with a bloody stump where my hand used to be.
When she walks in, she’s not just a firecracker, she’s smoking. Wearing a crimson red dress tight to her bust with a hint of delicious cleavage. She’s done a much better job with her hair and natural look makeup. Lips that need no enhancement.
I picture those lips wrapped around my cock and I get a twitch in my cock while I watch her head for a table near the counter. She’s spotted someone there. Is that Walter’s boy? Must be, the same shit-eating grin and bushy eyebrows like two privet hedges.
As she walks, the split in the side of her dress reveals a flash of thigh and the twitch I’m getting turns into a hard on that could cut through diamonds.
I want to run my hands up that thigh, find what’s between her legs, open those soft sweet folds of hers, and see how wet she gets when she’s treated just right by my probing tongue.
She’s here for a date with Andrew and I’ve no right to be watching her. She can date who she wants. It’s got nothing to do with me.
Except maybe it has. Because maybe she’s here to see if she can find out from Andrew what Walter won’t tell her. Where her file is hiding.
I almost get my gun out when I see Andrew handing her a gift. I get a flare of jealousy like she already belongs to me. Want to break his neck for daring to think he’s got a shot with her. She needs a man, not a boy. She needs me.
I watch in stunned silence. It takes a lot to shock me but seeing him hand over the necklace that I’m here to collect is something else. He’s acting like it’s a gift he bought her. The balls on him to do that. Does he know what it is? How he’s about an inch from getting his father killed. How has Walter allowed this?
I can hear Andrew clearly from where I’m sitting, telling Chloe how expensive it was, how he saved up to get it for her.