Killing You Softly

by Khara Campbell

  We walk into a bridal store and are immediately greeted by an eager sales person. “Welcome to Empress Bridal, how can I assist you today?” She has a genuine smile on her freckled face.

  “We’re looking for a purple shade maid of honor gown,” Cherese tells the woman.

  “I’ll be happy to assist you with that. We have a few options to choose from. Right this way ladies.” She turns and leads the way toward a vast collection of gowns, lined, color coded on racks against the walls and middle of aisles. “Do you have a price range for the gown?” She asks us looking over her shoulder.

  “No more than four hundred,” Cherese tells her. “We may be spending Cage’s money, well, your money too, and I do want to look good for your wedding, but there’s no need to spend more than that for my gown,” Cherese says to me. And I agree. Just because we have money doesn’t mean we need to over spend.

  About an hour later, Cherese is trying on her fourth gown in a shade of purple. The last three were – yuck! I’m not one of those brides that would be okay with her wedding party looking like crap just so I’m not outshined in my gown on my wedding day. I want Cherese to look fabulous too.

  Cherese steps out of the dressing area and makes her way to stand on the platform in front of me and the sales host, Laura.

  “You look beautiful,” comes a compliment spoken in broken English. And I have to agree with the woman that voiced her opinion.

  “That’s the one!” I squeal. Cherese is in a grape, trumpet, mermaid designed V-neck dress, with a lace sweep train. It accentuates her curvy body and the color looks great against her skin tone.

  “You think so?” Cherese asks. She’s busy checking herself out in the three-way mirrors.

  “Beautiful on you,” comes the voice spoken in broken English. I turn around in my seat to see the face of the voice. I quickly turn back with my eyes on Cherese. She looks at me, reading my facial expression. I watch her eyes move up to look at the woman standing by the entrance of our fitting area.

  Cherese mouths a cuss word to me after she recognizes the face of woman.

  “Is this the one?” Laura our sales assistant asks.

  “Yes!” Both Cherese and I answer her in unison.

  Laura claps her hands, obviously excited about the sale. The gown and shoes will total almost six hundred dollars. She won’t be getting a huge commission, but it would be good for only working with us for an hour.

  “Do you have a back entrance?” I ask Laura quietly after Cherese hurriedly went back to the dressing room to change.

  “Ahh, yeah. It’s near the bathrooms.”

  I nod. “Thanks!”

  Laura leaves our private fitting room to ring up our sale. I hear the door to the fitting room click close, then I hear the lock engaged.

  Vic’s Japanese wife is behind me. I can hear her breathing. Cage has had eyes on Vic’s property since I’ve been back. We’ve been biding our time, waiting for the right opportunity for me to take him out. I hope you didn’t think that I wasn’t going after Vic anymore. No, Cage and I’s engagement and pending wedding will not distract me from taking care of Vic. He will be dealt with before I say my “I dos.” Cherese and I recognized the face of the woman standing behind me because of the surveillance pictures of her entering the property yesterday evening.

  Her thick accent and broken English are a dead giveaway. Her Asian features are hard to miss, even with the red wig she’s wearing now to cover her natural black hair and the green contacts in her eyes, I know she’s Vic’s Japanese wife. I studied her features long and hard yesterday, committing them to memory. The small mole on her chin that she decided not to cover-up, let’s me know I’m right. I will play naïve to the fact that I know who she is and see how she wants this played out.

  I casually turn in my seat to face the woman at the door. Vic’s deception cuts deep. He actually sent her here to kill me after he’d thrown me to the wolf, Lucius. Damn you, Vic! I know why she’s here because she has the same look in her eyes that I’ve had whenever I’m on a mission. A ghost. Determination to get my mark. To kill and get the hell out before getting caught. I wonder who is her shadow and who is supposed to clean up the mess afterwards.

  The mess won’t be of mine or Cherese’s blood, I can assure you that. And she’s very bold to be doing this in such a public place when the chances of getting caught is great. Knowing Vic, however, this plan is fool-proof, which I will use to my advantage.

  “Are you lost?” I ask her, I’m already annoyed of having to deal with her.

  “I just love her dress, are you the bride?” She walks further into the room.

  “Yes I am.”

  “Oh, me too. I hope you don’t mind, I may change my bridesmaids color to purple. That dress was just beautiful.”

  I internally roll my eyes. This small talk is killing me. Just then, Cherese walks out of the dressing room.

  “Hey, why don’t you go up front to finalize the sale,” I tell Cherese verbally. Non-verbally, I’m assuring her that I’ve got this. I’m positive she called Cage already and he and his crew are en route and she needs to be my diversion outside this fitting room.

  Cherese looks at me with a smidgen of doubt before she does as I requested and exits the room, turning the knob for the lock before shutting the door behind her.

  I quickly do a sweep with my eyes for any signs of security cameras, which I doubt would be in a fitting area. I find none. Perfect. I mentally try to figure out the best way to take this woman out. There needs to be minimal or no blood. I don’t have Drake at my disposal right now to do a clean.

  “He asked me to kill you…” My eyes flash to her at the sound of her speaking. She pulls the hidden ear piece from her ears. “…I don’t want to. I want out. You help me get out.”

  Well dang! I didn’t expect that. I guess Vic isn’t laying the pipe as well as he thought. Which would be difficult for him considering he’s divided between multiply women living in different continents.

  I thread my fingers together and place my hands in my lap. I purposely don’t respond to her right away. I’m watching her body language; I need to know if this is part of her plan to distract me then try to kill me. Like her, I’ve been trained well in fooling victims into letting their guards down then going in for the kill. The sincerity in her eyes however, lets me know that she really doesn’t want to kill me. She wants to be free of Vic too. My mind instantly thinks of Serafina. She wanted out of Lucius’s grasp – I failed her. Maybe I will get my redemption with helping this woman out.

  “Why?” I finally speak.

  “I don’t want this life anymore. Even with Evan…” Of course, Vic has an alias with her. “…Living miles away here in states, I no have much freedom. I want a man to love me, be with me, only me. And I no want kill bad men no more.” She comes and takes a seat next to me. “Help me get away from him like you did.”

  “Why haven’t you just killed him then?”

  “I…I,” she shakes her head. The hair of the red wig gets in her eyes and she pushes it away. “I don’t want him dead. I…I mean I would kill him if I had to. I just want out. I don’t want any more blood on my hands.”

  That I can understand. Vic’s will be the last that stains my brown skin.

  “He sent you here to kill me. Does he want Cage dead too?”

  She nods.

  “All he’s waiting for is for you to confirm my death?”

  “Yes.”

  “Who’s your bodyguard and cleaner?”

  “Brit, he flew to the states with me. He’s my personal bodyguard. He and I…” she blushes. “We’re together.”

  I bet Vic would be livid. Two wives run off with bodyguards he personally hired to protect us. Classic.

  This info would work in our favor.

  “And the cleaner?”

  “None. My killings usually don’t involve blood. And we were to move your body to a warehouse where the cleaner would come to dispose.”

  Both of ou
r eyes flash to the closed door as the handle rattles. “Open up!” I can hear Cage’s voice on the other side. I quickly get up and go to the door to unlock it. Cage bursts through followed by two of his guys, Rick and one I’m not familiar with. A tall brut of a man with Asian features enters the room also. I assume he’s the bodyguard.

  “What’s your name?” I turn and ask the woman, now realizing that I don’t know her name.

  “Akira.”

  “You alright?” Cage asks. His eyes rake over my body to ensure I don’t have any injuries.

  I nod my head. “I’m fine. But we all need to get out of there. I’m sure we’ve made much of a scene already with you guys storming in here like G. I. Joes.”

  Cage looks over to Akira still sitting in the seat. Her bodyguard and lover now standing by her side. “You sure?” Cage asks me.

  I step into him, pressing my body against the steel of his frame, I give him a quick peck on the lips. “Positive. Let’s go somewhere we can talk privately.”

  ***

  “And we are to trust you, why?” Cage demands from Akira and Brit.

  We’re all sitting in the conference room in Cage’s office. After Cherese paid the bill for the dress and accessories we all quickly left the bridal shop to head here.

  Cage thinks Akira and Brit are trying to set us up, but I believe her when she said she wants out. And after all the crap I’ve endured these past months, I understand why Cage doesn’t want to take any chances.

  “I want be free of Vic, as you call him, and live my life as I choose. I do anything to get out. Trust me. If I want kill Cass I no hesitated to break her neck. I expert at what I do. I no want do this anymore.”

  Cage nods his head, as if he’s finally believing her. “Okay. You need to call Vic and let him know the job is done. That…that Cass is dead.” Even though it’s not true, I know those words pained him to say by the look on his face when they were spoken. “We will find a body to stage as Cass, that way the cleaner will also report back to Vic that the body is taken care of.” Cage looks over at Rick who is also sitting at the large conference table. “Rick, we need a black female body closely matching Cass’s description. No outward injuries. Have our guy at the morgue or funeral parlor give us a body to use. We need one ASAP.”

  I look over at Cherese and she looks just about ready to vomit with the mention of transporting dead bodies.

  Rick quickly leaves the conference room to go find a dead body to stage.

  “Do you really think he can find a body to use? Like damn, that’s not like going to the store to buy a pair of black shoes,” Cherese voices her opinion.

  “If we’re to convince Vic that Cass is dead we need a body. Either that or take out the cleaner, that would only raise Vic’s suspicion. This will work,” Cage affirms.

  I hope so, but I’m just as skeptical as Cherese.

  “After killing Cass, when were you to target me?” Cage asks Akira.

  “He wants you to suffer in the loss of Cass for a while before I was to come and kill you.”

  “That son-of-a-bitch!” I can see Cage’s jaw ticking and the veins on the side of his neck throbbing. He’s pissed. So am I. That devil Vic has no bounds.

  Visibly, I’m cool as a cucumber. But I’m sitting with my hands in my lap with my nails digging into my palms because I have them balled too tight. I’m ready to rip Vic limb by limb.

  “This plan will work. Because I want us to attack Vic with his pants down. The element of surprise will be best in taking him down,” Cage says. His eyes are focused on an object against the wall. He seems to have zoned out. Probably envisioning all the hell he wants to rain down on Vic.

  Not before I rain down my own form of hell on him first. Hell has no fury like a woman scorned. Vic’s about to find out.

  Miraculously, about an hour later Rick walks back into the conference room stating he got a body. “Got an unidentified African American female body, she doesn’t fully fit Cass’s description, but that’s all we’ve got.”

  Cage runs his hand over the waves of his hair. “It’s got to do. Cleaner will probably just burn the body to ashes anyway. Typical style for Vic’s cleanups.”

  I nod my head agreeing.

  “Get everything set up,” Cage says to Rick, then he turns his gaze to Akira. “We’ll get the body ready. You two deliver it to the warehouse, then call Vic and let him know job’s done. Cass will lay low. I obviously have to act as if Cass is dead. I know Vic will be expecting me to make a scene. Which I will. Then we wait for our perfect moment to strike.”

  “Yes,” I silently reply, clasping my hands together. My body tingles with anticipation. Payback is a dish well served with an element of surprise. A wide grin spreads across my face.

  Chapter 35

  VIC

  “It’s done,” Akira says over the phone. Usually I asks for details on these jobs, I just can’t now. I don’t want to know how she killed Cass. Where it was done or how much of a fight there was? Cass is dead and instead of having satisfaction in knowing she’s no longer a threat, the hole where my heart should be, aches a little. I absentmindedly place the palm of my free hand against my chest. My head slinks back against the headrest of my leather desk chair. A feeling comes over me that I don’t recognize.

  “Good. In a month, Cage will be next. Jet will be ready in a few hours to fly you and Brit out,” I say before ending the call.

  Cass is dead. My ebony goddess. My favorite…is dead. I press the heel of my palm hard against my chest. A pain…an ache I don’t recall ever feeling is trying to get the best of me. Damn you, Lucius! Damn you, Cage! Both men are the reason she’s dead. The reason Cass became a threat to my empire. If I didn’t get her, I know she would’ve come after me, and quite frankly, I have no desire of seeing Lucifer anytime soon. Things were perfect with Cass and me before them. If I could love – Cass would’ve been it. I chose her above the other wives. Her beauty was undeniable. Lucius and Cage, among many men, were privy to her regalness.

  The blaring sound of the security alarm jolts me out of my reprieve. Sten, bursts into my office. “We’ve got a situation at the main gate, sir.”

  I nod my head for him to continue. I’m already standing up buttoning my suit jacket.

  “Cage is demanding to see you. He wants in or he’s going to force his way in. There’s only him and five other men, sir. How do you want us to handle this?”

  “He don’t want no problem with me. Advise him to vacate or be forced to leave.” I expected this. Cage wasn’t going to let Cass’s death go easy. The knowledge of his misery suddenly places a smirk on my face. You’re gonna die next madre stronzo.

  I watch Sten leave my office to carry out my instructions, then I head to the kitchen to find out what the chef has prepared for dinner. I’m suddenly famished. I’m confident my men will take care of Cage. He’s pulled the wool over my eyes one time too many – I’ve ensured there won’t be any more of that. Especially after his stunt at Lucius’s estate. My security was upgraded to the highest degree. It’s going to cost me a bit more than I like – but you can’t quite put value on a life – can you? Not mine at least. I’m priceless.

  ***

  CAGE

  I mutter the foulest of cuss words under my breath. I never knew I could hate a human being as much as I hate that spineless prick – Vic. God, I want to go Rambo on his ass. Blood, guts, everywhere. No one deserves to die as much as he does. Not even the insurgents I’ve fought against in war. And those scumbags needed to go to the afterlife because of the sick things they did to innocent people.

  “Get it together, man. We’re not ready to charge in there. Dude got that high-grade; lasers and all kinds of swanky security shit. We need just a little more time before we can break the codes to get on the inside,” Rick says, standing behind me. We’re two of six men standing in front of the main gate to Vic’s property. Our guns at our sides. With the sky already dark around six in the evening, I’m not worried about drawing too
much attention from the handful of neighbors. Our purpose is to make Vic think we’re here to retaliate because of Cass’s death. But I’m done with playing – I’m ready to kill. The need has me on a high that only the scent of Vic’s slain blood can bring me down from.

  Rick’s right, though. We’re not ready yet. Cherese and the rest of the computer geeks at the office are close to infiltrating Vic’s new security measures.

  I watch as Vic’s lackey, Sten, makes his way towards the gates. “Leave or die, your choice,” he says, coming to a stop five feet away. Dressed in their uniform of dark suits and white dress shirts, a herd of other security detail are standing next to and behind him. Guns drawn.

  My trigger finger is twitching. But I’m not here on a suicide mission. Vic just secured himself just a few more days. That’s it. I step closer to the gate. “Let your wanker of a boss know – tick fekking tock!” With that, I turn and leave, my crew right behind me.

  Chapter 36

  CASS

  I hear a loud groan from behind me. I look over my shoulder and see Cage standing at the door of the bedroom I’m sleeping in. The temptation to ravish each other’s bodies is too strong for us to trust ourselves sleeping in the same bed together. We agreed that I would sleep in the guest bedroom until our wedding night, which is fast approaching.

  I’m currently hunched over, with one leg on the edge of the bed as I roll up my black pantyhose.

  “Jesus, you’re trying to make me sin, Cass,” He hisses from behind me. His eyes are hooded and the huskiness in his voice tells me he’s hanging on by a thread.

  I quickly roll the stocking all the way up my thick thighs, put my leg down, then tighten the belt to my long terry robe, fully covering myself. “I wasn’t trying to. Maybe you should knock before you open the door next time.” I raise my brow, teasing.