The Hit-Man: The Protectors Book 2 Read online

  I processed as much information as I could before ringing off. I never asked why because I never really gave a fuck, but I had a few hard limits. As long as the shit didn’t violate any of those I wasn’t too shy about pulling the trigger. Thankfully I had yet to off an innocent, except for in the beginning when I didn’t do any digging of my own and ended up taking out a business rival for a fucking criminal. I’d ended his ass too when the truth had come to light, and it didn’t matter that the man was an asshole himself, I wasn’t down with that stupid schoolyard shit.

  He wanted me to leave out now but I told him he could wait the two days I had set aside for mom or find someone else to do his shit. He didn’t seem too pleased and my radar went off at the rush in his voice, the fuck was his hurry anyway? Maybe I should’ve asked more questions; I hate nervous ass people, there’s always some fuck wrong on their end.

  ***

  After spending the rest of the evening with mom I headed for my place in the back. It was only a few yards away from her door; on the same acreage I had bought her with the first money I’d made. The house had taken a while to build to her specifications, because I’d wanted her to have exactly what she wanted. At first she’d hemmed and hawed at the cost and the grandeur in our small town, but I’d had a point to prove.

  I knew that the idiots around us put a lot of stock in material wealth, something we’d never really had much of. And one of the reasons it had been so easy for the town’s big shot to get away with maligning my dad and having everyone on his side.

  I hadn’t cleared dad’s name fully as yet, though most people had since come to know the truth, but I was just biding my time to get all the players exactly where I wanted them before I struck. When I was through with them, they wouldn’t even know what hit them. I wasn’t about to spare anyone either, my dad’s blood was on all their hands. Although he’d been the one to take the rope and sling it around his neck, it was their actions that had led him to it.

  This is the reason I always dread coming home. As soon as I cross the county line all the old memories come flooding back, no matter how I tried to suppress them. I could still see my old man swinging from that beam in the old barn of the old house we used to live in. The memory was seared into my mind like it had been branded there with a hot iron. Some nights it was the only company I had, the events of that day that had changed everything that I was, into what I had become.

  Up until that day I had thought our lives were damn near perfect. I had the girl of my dreams, or so I thought, my grades weren’t too shabby, and I was kicking ass on the football field. But that was before my dad was accused of theft. A stain that had blemished an otherwise proud mans’ reputation. As a man now, I think of all the many ways he could’ve handled the situation, all the things he could’ve done instead of taking his own life. But I had my anger to fuel me.

  All my life I’d known my dad to be a proud, upstanding individual. Someone that even a hardheaded know-it-all teenager like I was could look up to. I’d never had cause to be ashamed of him, though I’d been a disappointment coming onto the end. Had I known what would transpire, I would’ve done things a lot differently, but hindsight as they say, is twenty-twenty.

  He’d never recovered from it, from the false accusations and finger pointing, the whispers from people who had once hailed his reputation. The shame and stigma had driven him to his death. I had no idea he had been that weak and I’d hated him for it for a long time, until I learned the real truth. Not that I had ever believed him guilty, but learning that the people involved pretty much knew the truth and still pointed the finger at him publicly to save face for one of their own, had been a wake up call.

  Mom had always warned me about the whites in our town, the whites and the wealthy. I thought it was just her upbringing, being raised down south as a young black girl, she had a lot of memories of things that most of the country thought were long dead. But though we lived in a small New England town in the Northeast, I never felt what she did; never saw it. I was too young to recognize the dividing lines I guess. I was dumb enough to believe that we were way beyond that ignorant shit.

  Learning that one of the reasons my dad had been used as a scapegoat was to teach me a lesson because I had the nerve to date the big man’s daughter, is what had marked them all for death. I’m sure they all believed themselves free from blame; they thought they had gotten away with it. I was just a kid then after all, and dad had no one to watch his back. No brothers or uncles to step up and say ‘what the fuck?’ Nothing could be farther from the truth! From then to now a fire has been burning in my gut.

  After checking out my place, which wasn’t a necessity because mom always made sure my place was kept right, I decided to do something I hadn’t done in a long time. I dug out my rigged laptop and ran a search on my new employer. He looked good on paper, but I’d been swimming with filth for so long now that I knew the signs.

  Reading between the lines told me a hell of a lot more than the media reports did. Drug dealing fuck! That alone was grounds for me to toss the job, but something about his demeanor over the phone compelled me to see what I see before making any moves. The man was willing to shell out a mil; it had to be something right?

  Chapter 3

  DRAKE

  Two days came and went like nothing, and I was soon on the road again. At times like these, I was just home long enough to eyeball mom and make sure everything was good with her, pad her account, and pay the bills. Next month I’ll take her away somewhere, because if I don’t insist, she’d never leave the house on the hill, or this damned town.

  As much as she knew what I was up to, she had no idea what I was doing in our own backyard. I had her convinced that I had left it alone for her sake. That all the threats I’d made in the heat of passion all those years ago were just the ramblings of an overheated youth. I was so good I had even the marked ones convinced. I wonder if any of them had started to connect the dots; if they had caught on to the pattern of the upheaval in their individual business legs of the corporation they own?

  I’ve been systematically buying up shares in their corporation for the past five years. Nothing major at first, just a few snippets here and there, along with the mineral rights that I knew they were dying to get their hands on. The people who had refused to deal with them, were only too happy to work with me when the time came. Apparently I wasn’t their only enemy. Lately though, I’d upped my game and had sent things into overdrive.

  No one knew who was behind the dummy corporation that I had set up to buy out everything, and they thought they were safe since they still owned the majority shares, but I had a way around that. The bitch who had sold me out at seventeen but was still on my dick, she was going to be my ticket to daddy’s company. It was only fair after all, he had destroyed my dad because I’d sullied his precious daughter, and when the chips were down she’d flaked, I could give a fuck about her or him.

  I’d already gotten what I wanted out of her, her shares in her family’s company had been mine for at least half a year now. It had taken some doing, and a lot of fancy footwork on my part, but I’d pulled it off. She was still trying to make up for her part in the shit that had gone down, and was stupid enough to trust me. I guess I was a better actor than I knew, because she had no idea just how deep my hatred of her went.

  It wasn’t enough that I had swindled her shares out of her; I wanted to destroy her along with the rest of them. They must all pay, and she didn’t get a free pass because she had a snatch, no matter how good she thought that shit was. I knew that she believed she’d drawn me back into her clutches, but nothing could be farther from the truth. I had stayed the fuck away from her for a few years after the shit went down. I couldn’t stand being around her, being reminded of my perfidy. But then I realized that I needed her to bring this thing full circle, not to mention what I knew it was doing to daddy dearest.

  She’d been set to marry someone of his choosing when I came back into her life like a thi
ef in the night. I made sure her intended found out all about our night in the sack in Technicolor. I don’t know how much money her old man had to shell out to keep that shit hushed, but I knew it had to be plenty. They still had no idea that I had done that shit, but I would be only too happy to lay it out for them in the end.

  I had no off switch when it came to this shit, didn’t care who got hurt or who lost their livelihoods, in fact, I hadn’t felt anything but anger in a long time, outside of the love I have for my mom. Everything else had been cauterized a long time ago and I like it that way. Now things were coming to a head and pretty soon I will be able to breathe again, because I would’ve done what any decent son should for his dad.

  ***

  I made it to New York in record time and holed up in a little rinky-dink place in Washington Heights. I always did my research so I’d know where I’d fit in best. I stashed the hog in a long-term garage in midtown, far away from the action and used the subway system. I wouldn’t stick out here; no one would give a shit other than to notice that I was new. Other than that I blended in perfectly with the Boricua. My light skin and hazel colored eyes, probably from the rape of some ancestor back in the day, pegged me as one of them. It would only take me opening my mouth to give that shit away though, because I didn’t know word one in Spanish, other than pendejo, and a few other choice words that is.

  Since New York isn’t one of my favorite places, I wanted in and out. When it comes to a hit these bustling metropolis could go either way. Either it’s too crowded for anyone to pay any attention to what the next man is doing, and you can move as you please, or there’re too many nosy fucks around with nothing better to do than stick their noses in other people’s shit.

  All I had was a name and an assumed location. This Sal person had a few hours tops to breathe. I made my way out of the decaying shell of a once prosperous neighborhood that had given way to crime and one too many drug deals gone south. The scents and sounds of old Spanish town were still prevalent, mixed in with the new cadence of the up and coming hustler that can be found on every corner.

  After a day on the hoof, of losing the scent and picking it up again, I knew where my prey was and it wasn’t here. It was getting way too easy to track human beings, all you needed these days was a computer and a working brain, and you were pretty much on your way to finding out all the pertinent details about a person’s life, down to their every move.

  My boy Sal was on the island, a little out of the way, but maybe better for crowd control. I wasn’t worried that he knew I was on his scent, how could he? I’m ghost.

  I rented a car in midtown for the ride out to Montauk and the Long Island sound. A ferry to the Hamptons should take about an hour tops and then it was back to the city and out. I could’ve found a place closer, but I liked to spread shit out, make it hard for anyone interested to catch my scent. So far no one had ever been able to trace me, though I was aware that a lot of the people who had hired me were more than a little bit curious as to my identity.

  They were most likely worried about being blackmailed at some later date, but I had no taste for such treachery. Unless a motherfucker crossed me, then I had no interest in his money anyway. I just put a hole in his ass and be done with it. That had only happened once so it wasn’t like it was a regular occurrence.

  By the time I was behind the wheel of the nice spider with half a mil in my Canary Island account, the rest to be paid upon completion, my face was set. Gone was the easy going presumably Hispanic male in the middle class attire of suit and tie. The tie was long gone and the first few buttons of the Brook’s Brothers cotton shirt was undone. The jacket probably wouldn’t see light of day again until my next job.

  The sun played havoc with the windshield as I hit the L.I.E. Even though it was only mid-week, traffic was a raging bitch even at this early hour. The rich and shameless didn’t answer to any clocks so they could afford to head to surf and sand in the middle of the workweek.

  My mind wasn’t on the coming job. I never over analyzed anything, not since I’d found my old man swinging from that beam. Something had died a harsh, quick death inside me that night, only to be finished off by the she-devil that still thought she had a hold on me.

  Instead I reveled in the thought that my plan was almost coming to fruition. It wouldn’t be long now before I had decimated my enemies once and for all. Just one more move on my part and I would have their precious company in my hands. It was only right after all, my dad should rightfully have been a full partner with these men, before they decided to double cross him, blacken his name and throw him to the wolves.

  If that were the worse of it maybe my vengeance would’ve died a swift death. My dad was a strong man. I had no doubt he would’ve found a way back from their betrayal, but they broke his spirit and made him less than a man in front of his woman, my mom. I can only imagine what that did to a man of his stature. I know what it would do to the man that I am today, and that shit just made the anger burn brighter within me. I knew now that they had seen him as expendable, he’d been nothing to them, just a black man of no account in their over privileged lives. Dead fucks!

  I was pretty sure that the destruction of their business would drive them to the same fate, or at the very least destroy their spirit, if they had one. The jury was still out on that. I wanted total annihilation, nothing else would do, and now it was almost in my hands. Years of plotting and scheming were finally about to pay off.

  Not even mom knew about my dealings there. I couldn’t trust anyone with that information. One wrong word spoken in the wrong ear and it would all come tumbling down. A sly sneer crossed my lips as I remembered a few days ago when I’d left Trisha’s bed and made sure her fuck of a dad knew it. I knew he hated the very thought of me, it had to gall him that the son of the man he’d robbed of his life was still soiling his daughter.

  She should’ve been married by now, he’d tried buying her more than one husband since the last fiasco, but her hope that I would one day relent and return to the feelings I once foolishly bore her, kept her waiting in the shadows. It was the only thing missing from my little payback. I needed to find me a woman to walk down the aisle to me.

  I had even played around with the idea of settling for someone who was at least passable, since I had no intentions on ever getting my heart involved in that love bullshit again in this lifetime. But somehow I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I had too much respect for what my parents had once had, though it wasn’t in the works for me, I couldn’t do that to mom.

  That left a void, a wide gaping hole in my future plans, but I’d be satisfied with whatever. Or I’d find someone that made me want to be around her for more than five minutes without wanting to shoot myself in the fucking throat. I’d settle for that I guess.

  My mind switched back to work mode the closer I got to my destination. The Intel was that this Sal Delgado was hiding out here in the Hamptons, a fucked up place to hide if I ever did hear of one. And I wondered what the hell this hump had done to warrant a million dollar bounty on his head. None of my business!

  I checked into the bungalow I had rented for the next few days while I did my groundwork. It wasn’t often I could just move in and do a hit one-two-three, and just move on out; sometimes shit got in the way. I moved smoothly from a Hispanic thug to vacationing businessman as easily as a snake sheds its skin, no problem.

  I couldn’t go around asking for this hump, so I had to use my eyes and ears. Carlos had given me the basics, as he knew them, and my digging had garnered me the rest. The target was here blending in with the idle rich. He was young, brown and black, brown eyes black hair. From the name I was guessing of Spanish descent and from the run I did on Carlos I’m guessing the shit is drug related. That too was none of my never-mind.

  I peeped who I thought might be my hit half an hour after hitting the poolside bar of the hotel I’d been given as a start. Young, nervous looking and somehow, not fitting in with the rest of the crowd. I did a doub
le take when he lifted his drink to his lips, my lips curling in distaste. I don’t give a fuck what the world says, I hate girly ass men, the fuck.

  Something about him seemed off to me. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but there was something. It was more than the fucked up hair, which on closer inspection looked like a really bad cut, or a very poor wig, huh! While all the other men were shirtless, myself included, he seemed to be wearing way more than was necessary, especially since it was a hundred and ten or there about.

  I let my eyes roam over the scenery not staying focused too long on any one thing lest I bring suspicion to myself, but behind the cover of my Cartier shades I kept him in my scope. The more I saw, the more perplexed I became. This kid seemed way younger than I’d been led to believe and there was a weird innocence emanating from him.

  Since I’d grown a semi-conscience when it came to work, and had started choosing my hits more carefully in the last couple of years, something was niggling at me to proceed with caution. I hate those damn danger signals that go off in my head. I was sure the danger wasn’t to myself, not physically anyway, but then what?

  I couldn’t sit there all day nursing the same Jack and coke, and since I had no plans on drinking anymore on the job lest I fuck around and off the wrong sap, I had to make tracks. My first order of business was getting the room info, which wasn’t too hard. With shit being the way it is these days all it took was a flirtatious word and a few well placed lies and the desperate housewife behind the check-in desk was only too happy to forward the info over the phone. If only people knew how easy it was they wouldn’t ever leave their front doors.