The Hit-Man: The Protectors Book 2 Read online

  I puttered around in the next town over, blending in with the hustle and bustle of the crowd. Nothing swayed suspicion like a handful of shopping bags, so I did some shopping for mom while I was there. No one would remember the handsome but reserved African American male who was buying Hermes scarves and sipping on snow cones as he traversed the sidewalks of one the country’s most elitist enclaves.

  ***

  I was killing time until darkness falls so that I could get to work. I wasn’t sure yet of Sal’s movements, so didn’t know if he hit the town at night or stayed in. It was too early yet to break into the room either way. The hotel he had chosen was family oriented and there was always someone coming and going in the hallways. I took up a spot on the beach with a direct view of the room and watched for any shadows.

  I wasn’t there long before one of my questions was answered. Sal might be effeminate as the day is long, but apparently he went for the opposite sex. Through the silhouette in the curtains that blew in the wind, I saw a female form with extremely long hair going back and forth. There was no sign of the boy as I had come to think of him in the last few hours, another thing that didn’t sit too well with me. The kid couldn’t be more than sixteen or seventeen, just what the fuck could he have done?

  As time went on I was finding more and more to dislike about this whole situation, but before I called Carlos again with any questions, I figured I’d see what I see. For all I know this Sal guy could be a lethal fuck, looks can be deceiving. I know that all too well. My frustration grew when the lone figure was the only one seen moving back and forth, no sign of the target. I could always wait until the lights went out, but I’d much rather not do shit with an unknown around.

  Damn, looks like I was going to be here a little longer than expected. The boy never left the room, and his guest had disappeared from view a while ago. Go ahead Sal enjoy your last hooray before lights out. Even the mere thought of offing the kid made me feel weird, like I was crossing some line that I myself had drawn in my head.

  Chapter 4

  DRAKE

  The next morning I was up and out with the birds. If I were someone else I might’ve taken the time to enjoy the breeze coming off the ocean, or the sweet sound of the seagulls as they fought for position while they nose-dived for scraps on the sand. Instead I was itchy as fuck. I hadn’t achieved anything the night before when usually I would’ve been on my way out by now.

  A quick scan of my surroundings didn’t turn up the kid, but it was early yet, and if he’d spent the night doing what I think he had, who knows what the hell time he’d be out and about. Had to give it to the kid though, from what I’d seen, his date of the night before was a hot one. Then again the body could be hot and she could still have the face of a horse’s ass.

  “Good morning.” I barely spared a smile for the hot young blonde that jogged past me on the sand as I strolled along. No point in glaring at her the way I wanted to. I hate mornings, unless I had something going on. Mornings were meant for sitting on my back deck with a hot cup of coffee, plotting my takeover and destruction of my enemies. I did my best thinking in the A.M. then.

  By twelve-noon I was all but ready to go drag the kid out of his room. I was starting to get twitchy, way too much exposure in one place, something I was never comfortable with. He didn’t make an appearance until well after noon and again, as soon as I saw him I got that strange feeling in my gut. I wasn’t quite sure what it was that was niggling at the edges of my mind, but my antenna was up and alarm bells were going off. Just who the fuck was this kid anyway? I didn’t see his company from the night before and had a sneaky suspicion that she might’ve been paid for. Figures.

  My lips curled in distaste once again as I observed his feminine movements. Too bad I was going to off the kid before he got the chance to man up. He was doing that nervous eyeballing thing again like he knew there was a mark on his back, waiting for my shot. I moved closer as I made my way from the poolside. I wasn’t going to get anything done hanging around here so I was going to try to make a pass at the room.

  Damn, this kid never stood a chance, those were the longest lashes I’ve ever seen on a man. He looked up just as I came in line with him and something strange happened to me. I felt a zap that went straight to the heart and the gut. What the fuck? I hightailed it out of there like my ass was on fire, not even a little bit amused at my reaction. I was confused and pissed the fuck off as I made my way back to my room. What the hell was that?

  I was so flustered I almost said fuck it. Making my way over to the sliding glass doors I pulled them open to get some fresh air. My mind was going in a million different directions as I tried to make sense of what had just happened. All that got me was a headache and a twitchy finger. I needed to get the fuck gone from here like yesterday.

  Maybe I was tired. I’d been on a collision course with destiny for the past ten years or so, never really taking the time to breathe, always on to the next one. I had a goal in mind and did everything to make that shit happen. Now coming onto the end I was losing my shit it looked like.

  I was pissed enough at myself, and him to say fuck it. There were more than enough hidden places where I could set up to take him out, as I’d learned on my early morning walk. Grabbing my duffle I slung it over my shoulder and pulled my cap low over my eyes, before donning my shades and heading back out the door. No need to toss the room, I’m just gonna get this shit over with and head out of dodge.

  I walked slowly and meticulously, taking the time to smell the sea air for those who were milling around. Nothing at all about me gave away the fact that I was carrying an arsenal, or that in a few short minutes I was going to end a life. I brushed aside the image of those lashes and those eyes that had flashed to mine. What is it that I had seen there that had jolted me? Even now the memory of it was disturbing.

  I reached the copse of trees that I’d found earlier, and making sure no one was paying too much attention, disappeared inside. I made short work of putting my piece together and for the first time since I’d pulled the trigger with an intended kill on the other end, I felt nervous energy course through me. “I really need to retire.” It’s a good thing I was drawing nearer to that day, because if I was going to act like a little bitch from now on I might as well hang it up.

  I found him easily enough through my scope, and held my breath as I waited for that unwanted jolt to shock my system again. He was still pretty much where I’d left him, still looking around as if expecting the boogie man to jump out at him any second.

  Something about his mannerisms brought me up short. It was almost as if I were looking for excuses. I searched my gut for the answers but there were none forthcoming. I adjusted the scope until I could see down to the length of his lashes and when he turned and looked directly into the lens as if he sensed me from all the way over there I almost dropped the shit.

  I listened to my body this time instead of shying away in fear. Something wasn’t right about this scenario. My mind and body were crying out for me to pay attention and I searched myself for the answers. I know I’m not attracted to men; that’s just not in me. After I reassured myself of that fact and my breathing went back to something approaching normal, I took things apart in my mind the way I always do, until I came to a conclusion that worked for me.

  It was right there at the back of my mind but was somehow eluding me, what was it? I watched him accept a drink from the waitress who was flirting. He didn’t even blink at her, in fact he didn’t seem to have any interest at all, choosing instead to gaze around the pool, totally ignoring the signals that I had picked up through my scope. Strange, he had that hot number in his room last night. Even if he were the monogamous type, he would still have given her some kind of play. Instead he seemed impervious, even a little bit uncomfortable by the attention.

  I watched as he took a sip of his drink and once again I couldn’t miss the feminine way he did everything. It was when he pulled at something under his shirt with a look of dis
comfort on his face that shit started to click in my head. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” I pulled my phone and hit redial. There was only one number stored in my phone when I was on a job and that was my hire’s. The shit was set to self-destruct if it fell into the wrong hands so I never worried about it.

  “Are you aware that you asked me to off a female of the species?” Even as I said it I was hoping that I was wrong, that my radar was off just this once. But my gut had already told me what I needed to know, and I never go against my natural instinct. If my suspicions proved to be true I was going to be beyond pissed. There was a slight pause on the other end of the line before I got an answer.

  “Yeah so, since when do guys like you have a conscience?” I took the phone away from my ear and looked at it. Is this fuck high or some fuck?

  “Are you also aware that she is about eighteen fucking years old?”

  “Nineteen, so what? I’m paying you to do a job not to give me an ethics evaluation.”

  I hung up the phone without answering his ass, pissed way the fuck off.

  One look back at her didn’t reveal anything that might be worthy of death, but what the hell do I know? Females are a fucked-up-breed to begin with. Still, something didn’t sit well with me about this one.

  I gave it some thought before breaking down my weapon. Looks like I’m going to have to do some more midnight recon.

  She didn’t look like someone who’d be marked for death. Sure was acting kind of off though, so maybe there was something there. What that something was I would soon find out hopefully. I especially needed to know why she’d been hiding all that unreal beauty under ugly men’s clothes and that grotesque wig. I was pretty sure that she’d been the one I’d seen the night before through the curtains. At least one good thing came of this, it was the woman she’d tried to hide that my body had reacted to thank fuck.

  I felt a lot lighter as I made my way back, lighter but no less confused. Just what the fuck had my little beauty done to warrant death? I had pretty much made up my mind to go against protocol on this one and find out more before pulling the trigger. It didn’t escape me that I only felt that way because she was gorgeous, and not for the first time in the last five minutes, I thanked heaven that she was a she.

  Chapter 5

  DRAKE

  It was torture biding my time until the sun went down. Now that I had a better handle on things I realized that she stayed in at night. I also put her strange behavior down to knowing that she was in some kind of trouble. Like they say, where there’s smoke there’s fire. I would hate to have to take her out after all was said and done, but the half a mil in my account was pretty much my John Hancock on the dotted line. I’m only as good as my rep, my last job. What a cluster fuck.

  I didn’t risk going back to the poolside. Knowing what I now knew, and remembering the way my body had reacted to her, that was a risk I wasn’t ready to take. I laid across the bed in my room putting things into perspective as I tossed a ball in the air. Somehow they segued into my life story. I didn’t see the correlation but went with it.

  Everything was coming together in my life finally. I was in a position to take down the men who had destroyed my dad when I was a teen, too young to protect him or myself. I won’t have to be doing this shit for much longer hopefully, since I’d have a business to run when the dust settled. I’d taken online classes over the years to learn how to run shit, and already knew where I wanted to take it.

  My mind balked when I tried going past that point in my head, where I’ve always come to a standstill. I had refused to let myself revisit certain things in all these years, but for some reason, today I felt compelled to. I saw a flash of brown eyes and wondered what the hell she had to do with anything, but I didn’t have long to linger on the question, since my mind seemed to have taken over.

  For the first time in a decade I let myself go back there, back to the time when I was free, fun loving, with not a care in the world. I saw that younger me with the winning smile. The cocky youth who thought he knew everything, who’d had the world by the balls, or so I thought.

  In the last year of my life between the age of sixteen and seventeen, I’d landed the coveted spot as starting quarterback on the local high school team; won the hottest girl in school for my own, and had a second hand truck that mom and dad had surprised me with.

  For a teenager I had the life. Good friends, excellent grades and an introduction to sex. My relationship with my parents was better than most, the only fly in the ointment being their distrust of my relationship with Trish. Mom and dad, to my mind, were still stuck in the past. They still held onto memories of cross burnings and midnight fears. Things I knew nothing about and stupidly thought to be unfounded.

  I’d never seen anything of the sort in the small town we lived in and thought they had brought their hang-ups with them from their birthplace in the Deep South. Had I not been so cocky and overconfident back then, maybe my dad would be here today.

  I rubbed away the pain in my gut that always came with that thought. My eyes stared at nothing as I saw the fiasco unfold, even as I tried to shy away from it.

  The day had started out like any other. Things had been looking up for the last little while, mom and dad were excited about some new formula dad had come up with that was supposed to eliminate the use for harmful chemicals on crops.

  For weeks all I heard was how rich we were going to be. How things were not going to be so hard in the future, and my college tuition would be set whether I get a scholarship or not. I was happy for them, but for selfish reasons too. I wasn’t constantly defending my love for Trish, wasn’t fighting with my old man, or seeing the disappointment in mom’s eyes that always cut me to the quick.

  I was young enough and dumb enough to believe that love conquers all, and that nothing and no one would ever come between Trish and I. Her dad had never said anything to me outright, but I had caught him more than once giving me less than favorable looks. I was naive enough back then not to care one way or the other. She’d convinced me that nothing and no one could tear us apart. It was for that reason that I wouldn’t let my own family tear us apart.

  She hadn’t been a virgin, which now that I look back on it should’ve been a red flag. We were both sixteen when we first hooked up, and though I’d heard whispers, I’d chosen to ignore them. That first taste of pussy would do that to you every time. I was in it as often as I breathed that year, totally addicted. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t see the forest for the trees, couldn’t see what a total destructive bitch she was.

  I’d just climbed out of her when I heard the commotion outside. We’d gotten into the habit of sneaking into the barn on her family’s land. It bothered me a little bit that my dad worked for hers, but I convinced myself that it wasn’t that big a deal. I hardly ever saw my dad when I came around anyway, since he worked way over on the other side.

  That day though, I heard his voice raised in anger; something that I wasn’t used to from him. There was a quality to it that set my pulse to racing, like I sensed the danger even before I saw it. Trish had moved towards the door but something made me hold her back. Up to this day I don’t know what it was.

  “You can’t do that, you have to put it back.”

  “I don’t have to do anything boy, and you’d do well to mind your own business and forget you ever saw anything.”

  “But…”

  “You heard what I said, now get back to work and don’t ever bring this up again.”

  Boy? I recognized the other man’s voice and knew it was Virgil Thompson. He worked for Trish’s family and was way younger than my dad, so why was he calling him boy? And what the hell had they been arguing about? A look through the space in the old wood showed dad moving away with slumped shoulders.

  After Virgil headed off in the opposite direction we left the barn, the excitement of breaking off a piece of the forbidden long gone. “Do you know what that was about?” She seemed a little scared, maybe fro
m the underlying anger in the exchange, but I didn’t know any more than she did.

  “No.” And I probably never would since I would have to explain to my dad how I even knew about the situation, and there was no way I was going to tell him that I’d been in the barn boning Trisha.

  It wasn’t until weeks later that anything came of it, that everything fell into place. In the ensuing time I had done everything I could to get to the bottom of what had happened, without giving myself away, but with no luck. It was only the night that I was once again alerted by raised voices that I knew the whole matter.

  Coming down the stairs after being awakened from a deep sleep, I found my mom crying on the couch and dad facing off with Virgil and Mr. Stewart. At first the words were confusing but I soon understood that there was some sort of accusation being thrown around.

  It was only as the cobwebs cleared that the words I’d overheard just a few short weeks before started to make sense. “You’re lying.” I tried putting myself between my dad and his accusers but he pulled me back and out of the way.

  “Stay out of it son.”

  “No dad, I was there, I heard you telling him he had to return the money only I didn’t know what you were talking about then.” My anger grew as I laid there and the old memory played through my head. I could see the young boy trying valiantly to defend his dad in vain, could taste the bitterness of defeat.

  “Why should I believe you, you’re his son. Virgil’s family and I has been friends for decades, our families have always been close. There’s no way I would believe that he would steal from me.”

  “Ask Trisha…”

  “You dare drag my daughter’s name into this?” I didn’t understand why my dad was just standing there not defending himself, didn’t have any idea that part of this was because of me and his daughter. Had no idea that no matter what had been said that night, he would lay the blame at my dad’s feet, because I’d soiled his daughter.