by Frankie Love
She laughs. "I'm here with Lucia right now."
"Are you? I bet you can get away for a moment so we can talk." I hear her say something to her friend and a moment later she tells me she's alone.
"I'm in the bathroom," she says. "What did you want to talk about?"
"I wanted to know what you're thinking when you think of me," I say. “Or maybe you should tell me what you’re wearing right now.”
I'm wrapped up in a towel after my shower and I let it fall to the floor. I began stroking my shaft up and down, nice and easy as she begins to tell me what she's doing right this second.
"I'm wearing a little white sundress dress with a pink belt," she tells me, "and I have on a pair of white panties, though they might be a little too innocent considering I'm not a virgin anymore."
"Fuck, that makes me hard."
"Yeah?" she asks. "Well, it makes me wet. I love your hard cock."
"You have a dirty mouth considering you just got laid for the first time."
"I know," she says, "but last night was everything, wasn't it? Except we didn't get to do one thing that I really, really wanted," she says, her voice low and sultry. The perfect hint of spice to her sweet.
My cock is hard, pulsing at the sound of her voice. I know she's touching herself and I can just imagine how it looks. Her back against the bathroom door, her leg propped on the top of the toilet lid, her thighs spread, her fingers running up and down her sweet, creamy slit.
"I want to suck you off," she tells me. "I want to get on my knees and I want to take your cock in my mouth and I want you to come inside me, on my chest, on my tits. I want your come to slide down my face."
"Damn, you're downright filthy," I tell her.
"Yeah, I'm a dirty girl. Your dirty girl."
"Here I thought you were nothing but sunshine and sprinkles."
"Oh, I'm that too," she says, "but I'm more than that."
"I know you are," I tell her, my cock so fucking hard, ready to come. I reach for the towel, my load exploding, my seed dripping. "I just came so fucking hard," I tell her.
"I’m jealous," she says. "I can't make myself come. I need you to do it," she tells me.
"Damn," I say, groaning, my head dropping back as I finish pumping my shaft. "I can't wait to make you come tonight, baby."
"Good," she says. "I'm waiting. Maybe I can suck your cock at the same time you lick my pussy. Could we do that?"
I grin. "Baby, we can do anything. Everything. All of it."
"Good," she says. "God, I'm so horny now. I wish you didn't have to work."
That makes my mood change instantly. Work. My mind was so easily consumed by Fiona I forgot what job I have to do. It was a nice five minutes of bliss, but now, fuck, now I’ve got to focus.
"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.
Gunshots.
I shriek, terrified, looking around, and I race down the hall toward the bullets. At least, toward the sound of them. Wherever they were going, they have already gone. I cover my mouth, terrified, but also desperate to know what's happened.
If my father... No. I shake my head. He'd never hurt himself and everybody loves him. He's one of the good guys.
As I round the corner into my father's study, I see the profile of a man I know, who knows me, who knows every single inch of me, who, a few hours ago, I was whispering dirty words to in the bathroom of the spa.
I see the man who took my virginity, the man who says I belong to him, the man I want to belong to.
He's holding a gun in his hands. I'm scared to see where it's pointed.
I'm scared to see where the bullets fell.
I walk, still, with my back straight, my eyes wide open, scared, helpless, hopeless. "Flynn," I gasp.
He turns, gun in his hand. "I'm sorry," he tells me. "I'm so fucking sorry."
Sorry
? I think as I step into the study, tears falling down my cheeks, my heart pounding with terror. There are two men dead on the floor of my father's study, but neither of them are my daddy.
They’re two men I've never seen before, blood-splattered, lifeless, gone in the blink of an eye. I look up. My dad looks back at me.
"Oh sweetheart," he says.
"I thought you'd..." I swallow. "I thought you were gone," I say.
"I'm right here," Dad tells me, but I shake my head, covering my mouth as a sob takes hold of me.
Flynn killed these men, but why?
11
Flynn
I take in the scene, trying to put myself in Fiona's shoes. Tears streak her cheeks. She's covering her mouth. Near hysterics. I don't blame her. She walked into her father's home hearing a gunshot. Now two men are lying dead on the floor of her father's study.
She must be terrified. I'd be lying to say I'm not scared myself, scared of the phone call I have to have with my boss letting him know what I've just done, about the choice I made. But it's a choice I'm proud of. Yes, I'm a killer, but there was no way in hell I was going to kill Fiona's father. Or let him be killed.
"Who are you?" she says, looking at me walking toward her father, wrapping her arms around him. "Daddy, how do you know Flynn? And..." She swallows trying to find words. They're not coming. I step closer. She puts up a hand telling me not to take another step.
"Who are those men?” she asks. “Why are you here with a gun? What are you doing in my father's home? I thought we... I thought what we shared… was real."
Her father, Cane, looks at me and then his little girl. "This is the man you met last night?"
She nods. "Yes, and I thought he was a bodyguard, not a killer. There's got to be a difference, doesn't there?"
I run a hand through my hair, shaking my head, knowing I need to come clean because losing Fiona after all of this is not an option. "I'm a hitman. I had a target and that was Cane O'Grady. That's why I'm here in Vegas."
Cane shakes his head, stunned. "Who hired you to kill me?"
"I don't know," I say, "I don't ask those questions. But someone else was hired too. These men," I say, pointing to the men on the ground, "they work for BloodHound and they're even less interested in doing the right thing than I am."
Fiona scoffs. Her eyes pierce my soul. "I thought you were a good man. Salt of the earth, true. And what do you mean, they're even less interested in doing the right thing? As if there's some hierarchy in murdering people for a living?"
I swallow. "My life isn't easy. I've made choices and not all of them are ones I'm proud of. But my boss, he's had my back since I was a kid. I fell into this business, honestly. And I tell myself that I'm trying to make sure the good guys win. But sometimes, yeah, I bury my head in the sand because the morality of all of this, hell, it's complicated on good days. It's downright messy on bad. This, this is messy, but I'll tell you what, Fiona, and Cane, you too, I knew I couldn't kill the father of the woman I loved."
I step closer and Fiona doesn't resist this time. "I love you, Fiona. Those words were true this morning when you told me who your father was and I knew the reality of the situation. I came here not sure how I was going to handle this. But the moment I saw someone raise a gun toward your dad I knew I would never stand by and let it happen. So, yes, I killed those men, but I did it for you. I did it for your father. I did it for your family and I would do it again."
"You could have called the cops,” Fiona says.
This innocent girl of mine has no goddamn clue. “The cops, hell, in this town they’re shady as fuck. But so am I. And it doesn't matter, BloodHound sent these guys here hoping they'd get the hit before I did."
"Who's paying them?” Cane asks. "Who do you think hired them?"
"I'm not sure," I say, "but I can call my boss and ask. I need to let him know what's going on anyways, because a hell of a lot's changed in a few minutes."
Fiona wipes her eyes. "I thought I lost you," she says to her father. "And I thought I could trust you," she says to me. "How can I trust you now? You didn't tell me the truth."
"What was I supposed to say?" I ask her. "Considering what you now know, would you have ever spent the night with me?"
Her eyes darken. "Probably not."
"I am who I say I am. Who I am inside, that's real. The man you were with last night, he's real and he's yours."
"But how can I trust you?"
"You don't have to trust me. Trust our love."
"Love," she says. "You really think you can fall in love at first sight?"
"What, are you doubting this now?"
She shakes her head. "Is it crazy if I say I'm not?"
I shrug. "Fiona, there's crazier things than falling in love at first sight."
Cane clears his throat. "I know you guys have some things to figure out, but so do I. I need to talk to my brother and you need to talk to your boss, Flynn."
"Your brother?" Fiona asks. "Why do you need to talk to Uncle Liam?"
"O'Malley?" I say, voice raised. "I know the O'Malleys in Vegas. They are Irish mobsters and if I've got blood on my hands, so do they. I didn't realize they were family."
"Fiona, you're not going to like this," Cane tells his daughter, "but your uncle, well, I've been in business with him the last few years. That's why I wanted to stick around in Vegas even though my little girl moved to the ocean. This is where I'm working because I'm working with the O'Malleys in the family business now."
"So you're a gangster?" she asks her father. She looks at me. "A gangster and a hitman, what am I supposed to do with that?" She's stunned and I understand. The idea of who I am and who her dad is, it’s a different picture than what she'd painted for herself.
"Nothing's changed," Cane tells Fiona. "I'm still your father. I still support you and love you, but I support the family too."
She wipes her eyes. "I don't want anything to happen to you, to either of you. And today when I walked into this study, I thought maybe I'd lost the two men who mean the world to me."
"I'm sorry," Cane says, "but I love you and I don't want anything to happen to either of us either." He pulls his daughter in for a hug and I walk from the study to the front porch to make the call to Rogue.
I know he's going to be unhappy, but I've got to do what I’ve got to do. He picks up, probably expecting to hear that I made my kill. But when I explain what's gone down, I can hear the tension in his voice.
"BloodHound, huh? Why am I not surprised? Those motherfuckers have always been intent on messing things up."
"Who hired them?" I ask Rogue. "Who hired them to kill Cane?"
"It's the Italian mob. They're trying to take over that town. The O'Malleys aren't having it."
"I'm sorry I let you down," I tell Rogue. "I've never messed up like this before."
"So what happens next?" Rogue asks. "You sticking around in Vegas?"
"I don't know, but I think maybe you're right, maybe I'm done being a hitman. Your little pep talk before I left yesterday, hell, it got me thinking. I am a family man and I want to settle down."
Rogue chuckles. "You really fell for this girl, huh? One night is all it took?"
"She's everything," I tell him. "I can't wait for you to meet her."
"It would be my honor," he says. "Hell, I've always wanted the best for you, son."
"Thanks, Rogue," I tell him, meaning it. "And I'm sorry if I fucked things up."
"You didn't. Not really. You took out two of the guys we've been after anyways. You know I hate BloodHound. You keep me posted on your plans."
I smile, looking up at the sky. It's bright. The sky is blue. "Oh, I already know my plans," I tell him.
"And what are they?" Rogue asks, wanting to clarify.
"I need to get back in that house and ask for Fiona's father to give me his blessing."
"Blessing for what?"
I smile. "I intend to make Fiona my wife."
12
Fiona
My dad lifts his eyebrows. "Good," he says, "because I need to make you an offer."
"An offer?" Flynn asks. "What kind?"
"One I hope you can't refuse. You told my daughter you were a bodyguard. Let's make it official. Sure as hell seems like I need some protection. Right now, I have none. Sure, I work for the O'Malleys, but I don't carry a gun when I do their dealings. I work big picture, use my shipping business to bring supplies where they're needed. I don't walk the streets of Vegas, doing the dirty work. I thought that kept me safe enough, out of the limelight, away from the danger. But I'm realizing... hell, more than realizing. I know I need someone who has my back. You told my daughter you were a bodyguard. So become mine."
"You mean it?" Flynn asks my dad.
My father takes his hand, shakes with Flynn. "I mean it. Work for me."
"I don't know if I can do that, sir," Flynn says, surprising me.
"Why not?" I ask, indignant.
"Because Fiona lives in Los Angeles. She loves the beach. I'm not going to leave her there," he says, turning to me. "I love you, Fiona. If you'll have me, I'm yours, and I'm sure as hell not having you hundreds of miles away."
Cane runs a hand over his jaw. "I hadn't thought about that."
I light up. "It's okay," I say, meaning it. "I can change plans. I love the beach, but we can always go there for vacation, can't we?"
I smile at Flynn, knowing my words surprise him, but I mean them wholeheartedly. Sure, I had an idea of what I wanted my life to be, but what if it could be so much better than I ever imagined?
"So you're not kicking me out?" he asks.
I shake my head. "Never."
My dad laughs. "Sure didn't think this was how the day was going to go. Here I was, planning on catching up on some paperwork."
"That paperwork is going to have to wait," Flynn says, "because I have something I need to ask you."