by Skye Stone
These fights were personal.
My parents rarely did personal. In fact, it amazed me that they hadn’t divorced when my brother and I left the house because it was clear that there was no love lost between them.
Curiosity had gotten the best of me the last time they fought and I’d finally discovered the truth behind the fights.
“Barbara what the fuck did you do?”
“I did what had to be done Scott. You were fucking with our future.”
“Her mother is dead and she believes that she’s alone in the world. I want to meet her.”
“Go ahead motherfucker. Go and meet your bastard. But, if you do, I will do everything that I can to destroy you.”
“When did you become such a bitch Barbara?”
“The minute that you fell in love with that whore Scott. I’m like this because of you.”
“You’re an alcoholic bitch because you can’t handle your shit.”
“Neither could you. You didn’t even use protection. I hate you, I really do.”
“You still love me even though I will never love you again after what you did.”
“Scott, I protected our family and our future. I did what was necessary. You’re Governor of the great state of California on track to be the President of the United States. Don’t fuck this up.”
“I’ll wait for now, but don’t you ever threaten me again Barbara. You won’t like the consequences.”
I hid behind the door as my dad rushed out of the study. My mom was sobbing in the background and eased away from the door as she made a call.
“It’s time to do the job that I asked about.” What in the hell was she talking about?
All I knew was that I had a sister.
He had a daughter and he’d paid our private investigator to find her and discovered that she was currently living in Colorado.
This explained so much. Their marriage had been a marriage of convenience as was typical for people in their circles. My mom said that they’d loved each other, until they didn’t.
My mom was a bitch and my dad was distant. It didn’t matter I just wanted to meet this girl, my sister.
Mom left the study 30 minutes later, stumbling as she made her way back to her room. Closing the door behind me, I moved a panel on the lowest level of the bookshelf, exposing the safe. Dad had no idea that I knew about the safe and the “secret” code.
There were 5 huge files filled to the brim with pictures, school projects, and letters from her mother sent to a p.o. box that I bet he kept secret from mom. It looked like the letters began when my sister Amara was four, the year that dad found out about her.
I’m surprised by how much we look alike even though she seems to be a little more delicate than me and obviously a little bit darker. We had similar enough features that people would be able to tell that we were closely related.
For the next hour I looked through the files and plotted how I would meet her. My goal was to meet her as soon as possible.
In a move that was unusual for me, I decided to take a commercial flight instead of our private jet. I wanted to keep this trip off of my parents’ radar.
Normally I went to Colorado for ski trips. And even though I was a grown adult, my parents still asked way too many questions. Especially since dad was now Governor of California.
I found a nice short-term rental near Amara’s place and figured out my plan. I decided to stake out the front of her place and wait for her to come home. Then, I would knock on the door an introduce myself.
For the next three days I spent several hours sitting in the car until a neighbor knocked on my window scaring the shit out of me.
She was a kindly looking older woman holding a puppy in her arms. “Who are you and why are you parked in front of the building?”
“I’m waiting for Amara…I’m a relative of hers and I’m hoping to surprise her.”
“Well, you might as well knock on the door. She’s at home.”
“But, I didn’t see her go inside?”
“Trust me, she’s home.”
Ok. That was strange. The puppy licked my hand as I continued to pet it.
“Rocket likes you. He’s a good judge of character for a puppy.”
“Be kind to Amara, she’s had a hard time recently.”
Maybe it was time for some transparency. “I’m her half-sister.”
The woman nodded. “You do look similar. Is this your first time meeting her?”
“Yes…”
“She’s a wonderful girl. Have a good rest of your day. And enjoy your visit.”
Getting out of the car, I am filled with excitement and dread. What would she be like? Walking up the small flight of stairs, I take a deep breath and knock on the door. It feels like an eternity waiting for the door to open.
The door opens just a crack and I see her peering out from just above the chain keeping the door locked.
“May I help you?” Amara looked at me with confusion in her eyes.
“My name is Bianca Anderson and I’m your older sister.”
Amara
I knew who she was the minute that I opened my door. What I couldn’t figure out was how she knew who I was and where I lived. It was painful to admit that after mom died I began following the Anderson family in some kind of sick game where I wondered “What could have been?”
There was no point pretending that I didn’t know who she was.
“I know who you are…I just don’t understand what you’re doing here and how did you find out about me?”
“May I come in?” Bianca looked at me with hope in her eyes.
“Yes, could you take off your shoes though?”
“Sure, no problem.”
“I have slippers that you can use over there.”
I wondered what she wanted from me and was shocked that anyone from that family had bothered to contact me.
“Would you like something to drink? Coffee or tea?”
“Coffee would be great.”
For the next couple of minutes I quickly brewed a batch of coffee and used the time to gather my thoughts. I needed to prepare myself mentally for the conversation that I never expected to have.
Finally, I finished delaying the inevitable and sat down.
“There’s cream and sugar if you take it.”
“Thanks.” By the time she was done there was more cream than coffee but she seemed to be enjoying her drink.
“You’re probably wondering why I am here.”
No shit. But, I kept that thought to myself. “I must admit that I’m a little confused.”
“I wanted to meet you.”
“Why? My mom and I did what your parents wanted and disappeared. I planned on never contacting anyone in your family.”
“Our family.” Bianca corrected me gently.
“What could you possibly gain by contacting me?”
Bianca smiled a small, sad smile. “Isn’t it obvious? I wanted to meet my sister.”
Amara
I was caught off guard by her honesty. Of all of the things I expected her to say, that wasn’t on my list.
“How did you find out about me? I can’t imagine that your dad would share this secret.”
Taking another sip of her drink, her cheeks darkened as she blushed. “I may have overheard my parents arguing about you and then I may have looked through my dad’s office for your information.”
“Well hello Veronica Mars.”
Bianca started laughing. “I love that show.”
“So do I.”
“What has your life been like? I know it’s a lot to ask, but I want to know everything about you.”
“Why?”
“Have you ever wished for something and lost hope that it would ever happen?”
“Yes.”
“I used to wish for a happy family. I’d never had one. My parents’ lives were an endless tale of secrets and lies. Mom was always doing whatever she could to help dad position himself towards the
Presidency. Nothing in our lives was ever natural, unplanned or real.”
Tilting my head, I continued to listen.
“Family pictures had to be perfect, their kids had to be perfect, and if we didn’t do what they asked shit hit the fan. My parents are two of the unhappiest people that I’ve ever met. But, that didn’t keep me from wanting family. Our brother Jason is currently serving in the Peace Corps with the goal of staying as far away from home as possible.”
“Why would meeting me change that?” That was the thing that I couldn’t figure out. How could I change this for her?
“Because we could start fresh and decide how are friendship, our sisterhood, could be.”
“That was a risk. What if I wanted nothing to do with you?”
“I had to take that risk and hope that you would at least give me the opportunity to meet.”
The honesty behind her words showed in her eyes as she looked at me with a fierceness that I didn’t expect. But I didn’t want anything to do with her parents and honestly they definitely wouldn’t want to hear from me.
For the next two hours we talked, drank wine, and ate dinner. Bianca was so kind and it felt like we’d known each other forever.
“Could you do me a favor Bianca?”
“Absolutely.” She smiled as she danced drunkenly in the living room.
“Please don’t tell your parents that you’ve contacted me.”
Bianca stopped dancing and walked unsteadily over to me.
“I promise that I won’t. It will be our secret.”
Soon she left and I found myself missing her energy. I never expected that I would wake up this morning and go to bed having discovered a new sister.
I was no longer alone in the world and it felt pretty great.
After that we began emailing each other and would hangout via Zoom or Skype once a week.
Every once in a while she would ask me why I was always home when we hung out. Each time I would like and just say that I was a homebody.
Hopefully, she would never find out the truth.
Now-The Assassin
When I was initially contracted for this job, I couldn’t believe my luck. Governor Scott Anderson was the one asshole that I would have killed for free. Technically, the scope of work was to kill his illegitimate daughter, but I’d decided to expand my scope of work to killing the entire family.
The person who contracted me hadn’t expected the change in plans and was frantically trying to get me to stop.
What they didn’t know was that I was already a multi-millionaire many times over. That Scott Anderson had dicked me over more times than I could count. In fact, I had him to thank for inspiring me to start this side-gig. Assassinations were surprisingly lucrative.
Scott and I went way back and I couldn’t wait to burn everything that he loved and built into the ground.
Karma is a bitch.
Governor Scott Anderson
I’ve had few regrets in my life. But, the one regret that I do have was losing Jasmine and consequently losing my daughter Amara.
Now, I had a death sentence hanging over my head. The doctor had confirmed that I was dying from cancer. I went in for a physical and left with months to live if I’m lucky.
For the last hour I’ve sat on the beach staring at the ocean and wondering what in the hell am I going to do?
I have a wife who hates me, one daughter who adores me, a son who ran across the world to get away from us, and a daughter who doesn’t know me.
Jasmine used to ask me about the legacy I wanted to leave behind. Well, it wasn’t this.
And life, being what it was, now someone was out to kill us all. I wasn’t worried about myself but I was worried about everyone else.
What in the hell am I going to do? Unseen enemies are always the hardest ones to fight because you never know when they’re going to strike next.
Thank God I knew where Amara lived. I was on my way home to tell Barbara and Bianca that we were about to be moved to a safe house.
I just had to make sure that Amara would be safe too. Pulling out my phone, I dialed the one number that was always on speed dial: DW Security Systems.
Jaxon Price
“Guys, wheels up in 30 minutes.”
“Where are we heading?” Liam always had to ask so many questions.
“Colorado.”
“What’s the job?” Dante was already grabbing his bag and heading up the stairs.
“Well tell you when we’re in the air.”
The guys began methodically packing up and made their way to the car. The hangar that we used was in a private facility that the company owned about 5 minutes from the compound.
Sweat trickled down my back as the stifling heat made me second-guess my personal choices. I might love Caribbean women, but I hated the humidity.
The team was down here to extract a well-known political leader and was taking a break after working with another team to get her outside of the country safely.
I hated dealing with the Governor because of his shady dealings, but this time I’d heard something in his voice that surprised me.
Fear.
He truly was afraid that something was going to happen to his family, including the daughter that no one knew about.
Liam looked at me curiously “What are you waiting for?”
“Nothing. Just thinking.”
Dante grabbed the last of his weapons and we walked out the door.
Dante DeSilva
I’d hoped to be deep in some pussy right now relieving the stress from this mission. We’d made some good money, but I was beginning to tire of the constant travel even though I did love the action.
DW Security Systems was a high security defense company that dealt in the protection or elimination of people.
We did have ethics and only took contracts that we all agreed on. Liam was the softy out of the three of us.
Jaxon was a cold-blooded son-of-a-bitch.
And, then, there was me.
We all served as soldiers in a black ops Marine Special Operations Command team. And our team was completely off the books.
It took a mission that went horribly wrong that left half our team dead and us permanently scared for life.
Scott Anderson was able to get us quietly discharged as he was a friend of my father’s both of them dealing in favors ranging from intel to cash.
Jaxon, Liam and I decided that we would deal in secrets and protection details. Both of which were a lucrative business to be in. And, we would always have leverage over our clients because we knew where their literal and metaphorical skeletons were buried.
Liam O’Sullivan
The last thing that I want to do right now is another job. For the past couple of months I’ve considered telling the guys that I want out. There are things that I want in my life, a wife, a kid or two, and crazy as it sounds, boredom.
I’m tired of all the action.
Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat and wonder if the next mission would be my last?
We’d lived for years seeking the thrill of action and now, I was wanting stability, a family, and sex with the same woman every night.
Fuck.
This couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Jaxon
The team was looking at me expectantly. “Here are the details that you need. As usual, read the file, memorize everything, we’ll shred and incinerate the folders.”
Walking over to Liam and Dante, I handed them their folders. For the next thirty minutes we sat quietly as they reviewed the information.
Sipping on a glass of whiskey, I focused on calming my nerves. Assassins were always tricky to deal with especially when we didn’t know who’d arranged the hit.
“So, Governor Anderson got caught with his pants down.” Dante smirked.
“It’s interesting to me that he’s sending us to pick up the girl and that we’re supposed to rendezvous with the other team.”