Killing You Softly

by Khara Campbell

  I tell him what I know.

  “Five wives? Most men can’t handle one.” Cage releases me from his hold. I sit back on the bench in front of the mirror. “And all of you are his personal assassins?” He asks with distaste.

  I nod.

  “Damn, Cass, you’ve got to get out of this. The only reason I’m still on payroll for Vic is because of you. The first time I saw you eight years ago, wearing a long blonde wig, black dress, and four inch heels, I knew I was a goner. And seeing the way you handle a knife – was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. I should’ve given up this gig years ago. I stayed because I wanted to always protect you. I always wanted to be your bodyguard.”

  My throat feels like the Sahara. And those darn butterflies are wreaking havoc in my stomach again. Why does he make me feel this way? Why are his words melting my ice cold heart? I remember the first day we met too. He’s right, I was wearing a blonde wig. And if I am really, truly honest with myself, when he was introduced as my new bodyguard, I had to repeatedly tell myself that I’m a married woman and had no right looking at another man the way I was looking at Cage. My attraction to him was instantaneous. It was like a light bulb clicked in my head and heart and told me that he’s the man of my dreams I didn’t ever remember having. But he was it. Is it. I’d suppressed those feelings eight years ago and now I’m being forced to face them.

  “I’m working on leaving Vic for good.” Is all I can bring myself to say. All of this is way too much for me right now. “It’s not as simple as walking away.” And I’ve never thought of leaving Vic until recently.

  Cage squats down in front of me, wedging himself between my bare thighs, since I’m wearing shorts and a tank top. His thumb caresses my cheek and I lean comfortably into it. “I will make a way. This life isn’t you. You’re better than this. I’ve kept my peace for too long. Eight miserable years watching you with him. Watching you get your hands bloody for him. He’s a coward having his women do his dirty work.” I feel wetness on my cheek. What the heck, am I crying? Cage brushes the tears away. I cast my eyes down. I can’t look at him. He’s making me feel. He’s making me vulnerable. I’m an assassin. I’m Vic’s wife. I can’t ever be weak. A mantra that was drilled into my head during my rigorous two years of training: weakness gets you hurt, weakness gets you killed.

  “Look at me, Cass.” His fingers tilt my head up to look into his eyes. “These tears don’t make you weak. They make you human.” God, how is he able to know what I’m feeling? It’s like he can see right to my soul just by looking into my eyes. Can he see how black my soul is? How damaged I am. How I’ve allowed Vic to make me into a killing machine, a beautiful monster; all because he was the one to rescue me? Vic saved me from poisoning myself with drugs and becoming worthless just like my mama and father told me I would become. But I’m coming to realize that Vic didn't rescue me from hell, he pushed me further into the depths of it. “You’re not the trained animal he wants you to be. You’re so much more, Cass. So beautiful. So smart…”

  I feel myself leaning forward, as if I’m being pulled by a magnet, then the next thing I know, my lips are locked onto Cage’s full, kissable lips. My hands are clasped at the back of his head with my fingers enjoying the feel of his low-cut wavy hair, drawing him closer. My body shudders. He tastes like coffee and mint. The best thing I’ve ever tasted in my life. I moan, giving him access to my open mouth. His thick eager tongue snakes in, our tongues clash, mating sensually. Oh my, this is what heaven must feel like. Peace. Joy. L…? I dare not say the L word. My emotions are frayed. Yeah, that’s it. I’m not thinking clearly. But having his mouth on mine, is like I’m finally home. That feeling is certainly undeniable.

  Cage reluctantly pulls back. His lips are swollen and smudged with my red lipstick and all I want to do is devour them again. Feel his granite chest pressed up against my sensitive nipples. Never have I felt this need so strongly for a man. Not even for my husband. My savior.

  “Baby, I want you bad!” He grunts. I look down and sure enough his need is magnificently evident. He smirks when he sees my eyes lustfully travel downward. “Up here, sweetheart.” He draws my attention back to his eyes. “I want you, Cass. I’ve wanted you for years. But right now is not the time. When I have you, I want you to be all mine.”

  I nod. Something about the way he wants to claim me – not in a possessive way, like I’m now realizing Vic wants me. Cage wants me to willingly want him, and to claim me the way a man is supposed to claim the woman he wants. The woman he adores. And I can see in Cage’s dark eyes that he adores me.

  I want to be his…only his.

  I clear my throat, now that my body has calmed down. “I need to finish getting dressed.” I try to turn so I can touch-up my makeup.

  Cage’s hands slide up my thick thighs, halting at my waist. The butterflies in my stomach flutter. His touch on my skin is enticing. “You still want to go through with his gig?”

  I lick my lips. “I have no choice. I have to.” If I want to leave Vic, I have to go about it smartly. I can’t just leave him. His reach is too wide. And even though I’m starting to entertain thoughts of Cage and I together – Vic will kill one of us first before he allows that to happen. I need an exit strategy. Something thoughtfully planned out.

  “You always have a choice, Cass. Always. Do you want to go through with this ghost today? Getting your hands bloody for a man that’s only using you?”

  When he puts it like that, I guess I am only a pawn in Vic’s greedy game. For so many years I didn’t see myself as that. I was the luckiest woman in the world to have a man like Vic want to marry me and take me out of the depressing way I lived. He brought me into a lavish lifestyle. Everything I could want or need at my disposal – and all I had to do to obtain and sustain it was kill. Kill to keep the ten thousand square feet mansion over my head. Kill to drive my luxurious, tricked out Audi. Kill to wear nothing but high end designers. Every life I took – my soul got darker and darker until it’s now an abyss. Nothingness.

  Do I want to add Jack Stenson to my list of kills? His mortgage brokerage firm invested in Vic’s scheme and he’s demanding returns on investment. Jack is probably feeling the heat because he’s under fire from the Feds for inflating mortgage buyer’s income and creating bogus employment information in an effort to qualify these individuals for loans that they otherwise were unqualified to secure. He pretty much stole commission for bogus loan applications, among other fraudulent acts he’s committed. He invested with Vic – now Jack’s the one who’s been had. And, subsequently, if he goes down, he’s going to try to take Vic with him.

  “I have to.”

  Cage moves his hands away from my waist and allows me to turn around to face the mirror. He stands behind me. “I will find a way for you to get out, Cass.” He seals his promise with a kiss on my forehead. “I will be back in a bit to set you up with your earpiece.”

  Cage glances in the mirror, spotting the smudge of lipstick on his mouth, he wipes it away with his fingers before turning away and walking to the door. As I watch him leave, a feeling comes over me for the first time since perhaps when I was a little kid, I feel alive. Cage makes me feel alive. And wanted. Needed. Cherished.

  ***

  That uneasy feeling stirs in the pit of my stomach again but I push it aside as I step onto the elevator of the hotel, fully disguised, ready to get this ghost over and done with. I’m supposed to report to Jack’s office at eight-thirty to start as his temporary secretary. Cage came back to set me up with my earpiece, so he and Drake can hear and communicate with me throughout the day. Drake is in the parking garage, in a separate vehicle from the one I will be driving, he will follow me and be nearby all day. Drake won’t make his way to the firm, disguised as one of the cleaning crew, until later this evening when I’ve successfully ended Jack’s life. Men like Jack, I don’t mind watching the life slip out of their bodies. He’s a snake. Just like the man that has me on this mission.

  The
elevator slides closed. I’m on the tenth floor. Moments later, the doors ding open again on the eighth floor and a woman, looks to be my height, walks on with her head down, shielding her face from my view. She mumbles good morning and I reply in turn. The elevator doors slide close again, then jolts slightly as it descends.

  I’m standing at the back of the cab, mentally preparing myself for today. Suddenly the elevator cab jolts to a halt and the lights go out. I’m surrounded in blackness. I open my eyes wide, trying to seep in some form of light. Nothing. Out of nowhere, something snakes forward and yanks my purse off of my shoulder before I’m able to retrieve my blade out of it. I hear my purse hitting the floor to the left of me. Since my vision is not useful I have to rely on my other senses. My arms shoot up, in a defensive pose, ready to defend myself. I can hear the woman breathing.

  “Mrs. Cassandra Hamilton. How nice to finally meet you.” Her voice gives no hint of a foreign accent but I’m positive it’s one of Vic’s wives. The one behind the email no less. My gut feeling was right. I knew something was off about this day. Instead of it being about the ghost, it was the feeling of being followed. “Sorry you’re not able to see me. But I can see you very clearly.”

  Night vision googles.

  I say nothing. My vulnerability in this moment is astounding. Fear is knocking rapidly on my consciousness but I refuse to answer. Weakness gets you hurt, weakness gets you killed.

  “I do recall in your email stating for us to meet face to face.”

  And you’re still a coward.

  I feel something sharp on my right cheek. I swipe my arm out forcefully shoving her arm away from me and the object away from my face.

  “I really don’t see what he sees in you. Why he spends so many months in your bed and only a few weeks in mine when I’m the one that truly loves him and am the mother of his children. With you gone, he will see that I’m the one he needs to be with. That I’m the one deserving of all his love and affection.”

  His children?

  The punch in my gut sends me backward, hitting my back sharply against the cab paneling.

  “Cass, Cass! What the hell is happening?” I hear Cage frantically yelling in my ear. “Dammit. Drake, code red!”

  I feel arms coming toward me, striking me in my face. The blow is hard, if I wasn’t already in blackness, I’m sure my sight would be impaired. But I can’t think of the pain. I kick my leg forward, hitting her somewhere on her upper body. She grunts, letting me know I got a good shot.

  “Stupid, bitch!” She snarls.

  I quickly feel for my right thigh to detach my secondary blade. As I do so, something pierces the flesh in my shoulder, sending a shooting pain throughout my body. I try my best to ignore the pain, pulling my blade free from my thigh and jabbing forcefully forward. I stab everywhere the blade lands, some in her flesh, some in the open air between us. I kick, I punch, doing everything I can in the complete darkness to protect myself from this deranged woman.

  The elevator cab jolts then starts to descend. There’s still blackness. I’m still flailing my arms and legs protecting myself from her blows to my body. My hand hits cold metal, and I for the first time in my life, I sense my own death. I hear the click, the boom, then I fall into complete darkness.

  Chapter 8

  CAGE

  I’m sprinting through the hotel lobby like a damn maniac. Cass is in danger. I heard the psycho in the elevator with her. I heard the fighting. I heard the gun shot. Dread is trying to consume me but I won’t let it. I need Cass to be alright. God, please let her be alright. She was just to meet me down in the parking garage, nothing seemed amiss. She said she had a bad feeling about today. I should’ve surveyed the area more. I should’ve had my tech girl send info on every hotel employee and on everyone that checked into the hotel. I should’ve been in the elevator with her instead of waiting in the parking garage.

  “Sixth floor. Report of blood trailing on the carpet and elevator. Hotel security was dispatched,” Drake says into my earpiece.

  “Any sign of which direction the woman went? She’s got to still be in the hotel. Check upper stairwell, I’m coming up from below. I need you to find her while I head up to Cass.”

  I take the steps four at a time. Within seconds I’m busting through the steel door for the sixth floor. A deafening scream tells me the direction I need to go to find the elevator. I sprint toward it. Blood directs my path as I near the opened elevator door, with security personnel standing nearby. I push my way forward but I’m not ready for what I see. My knees buckle and, for the first time in my adult life, tears sprout from my eyes.

  Cass’s bloody body lay motionless in the elevator. Because of my line of work, the sight and smell of blood never bothered me before. But seeing the woman I’ve loved from afar for eight years, laying lifeless is too much for me to take. My heart shatters. A crippling pain strikes me right to the core. I punch my hand into the wall. I berate myself for allowing this to happen. I was supposed to protect her.

  Ignoring the security guards, I fall on my knees in the elevator, pulling Cass’s body against me and applying pressure to the wounds to stop the bleeding. I cry like I never did before. Then I pray for God’s forgiveness for the destruction that will be unleashed from my hands.

  Chapter 9

  CAGE

  I envision my hands wrapping tightly around his neck, having him beg for mercy and me not giving him any as I squeeze the life out of his green eyes.

  “That’s my wife in there! Tell me something NOW!” Vic roars at a nurse at the reception desk in the Accident and Emergency area of the hospital. The nurse with individual braids in her hair is clearly unintimidated by Vic as she smacks on her chewing gum. I’m sure she’s dealt with angry people like him often. Just another part of her job working in the A&E department.

  But I’m with Vic on this one – I need to know Cass’s status – NOW. It’s been hours. Eight agonizingly long hours. My nerves are so fried I could snap at any second. My hands are still soaked with her blood, along with my dark jeans and shirt. I must look a sight standing here in the hospital. Several nurses have come up to me throughout the hours asking if I needed to be examined and treated for injuries. I have none. Though my heart is bleeding out from the pain of possibly losing the love of my life. And knowing that I never got a chance to tell her how I really feel.

  I've been attracted to Cass since the first day I met her. Vic had sought out my business to provide security and personal bodyguard for his wife. Initially I was just going to send one of the guys on my payroll to handle the gig, Vic insisted he wanted the best, considering my extensive military experience, that was me. Extreme confidentiality was required, considering I will be covering an assassin. Needless to say, I took the gig. I never expected to fall for the woman I was hired to protect. I'm not one to push up on another man's woman, so I forced any intimate thoughts of Cass out of my mind. But try as I might, there is just this pull to her that I couldn't suppress. And when my shadowing her on jobs, turned into us also hanging out as friends, my desire and need for her grew even more. Then one day I found myself in love with her. Eight years I suffered through seeing her with another man. A man that was only using her. A man that doesn't deserve her. And now, knowing that Cass is not legally Vic's wife, it's time for her to be mine! God, I hope it’s not too late.

  “Sir, like I’ve told the gentleman over there,” the nurse points in my direction. Vic’s cold stare sets on me. “We will update you as soon as we receive more information. Mrs. Hamilton is in emergency surgery and should be out soon.”

  I watch Vic, and his lackey right behind him, make their way over to me. It’s been eight hours since Cass was shot and they just got here ten minutes ago. “Why weren’t you protecting her?” Spit shoots out of Vic’s mouth as he shouts at me. “Your only job was to make sure she stays safe! Now she’s in surgery fighting for her life.” Surprisingly, he looks genuinely concerned. But nothing he says can make me feel worse than I already
am. “And that prick, Jack, is still breathing, dammit I needed that job done. He should be the one in there, not her.”

  Is he really concerned about Cass not killing her target today?

  It takes every cell in my body to halt me from pulling out my gun, strapped discreetly behind my back, and blowing Vic’s miserable brains out then turning the trigger on this puss he has as a bodyguard.

  “Why do you have her doing your dirty work? And not this mute dipstick to do your killings?” I jerk my head toward Neil, he sneers and I mean mug him back. “Why didn’t you deal with that deranged wife you have on the loose, before she attacked Cass? So, if you want to blame someone, blame yourself. And I swear to God, if she dies, you will be next!”

  Vic smirks. “You’re threatening me? You should know I take threats very seriously.”

  “Good, because that’s a signed, sealed, and will be delivered guarantee that I will kill you and your dog too!” I look from Vic to Neil.

  “You’ve got guts,” Vic remarks. “I’d sensed you had feelings for my wife, you hid them well until now. So, listen clearly. The only reason I’m allowing you to breathe right now is because I don’t feel like dealing with the headache of splattering your insides all over this rubber floor. But when you step outside those doors I may not give a damn. And my trigger happy men standing guard outside won’t either.”

  I glare at him then smile before stepping away. Red laser dots dance on his and Neil’s faces. Realization dawns on them when a dot stops, illuminating right in their eyes. I triumphantly watch the blood drain from Vic’s face.

  “Checkmate!”

  I had a team of ten of my best guys fly in. Five are outside the hospital with sniper rifles. The other five are out canvasing the areas around the hotel trying to find Vic’s deranged wife. I demanded the hotel to be shut down and did a head to toe search in every nook and cranny, but came up empty trying to find a seriously wounded woman. Cass went down fighting, like the trained assassin she is. We know her attacker is hurt, judging by the blood trail by the elevator where she got off. The woman is a trained assassin too. And her plan of escape was expertly executed. I’m almost positive she escaped before the cops got there fifteen minutes after I found Cass in the elevator.