The Assassin’s Heart

by Alexis Abbott

  “Gabe,” I say slowly, sincerely. “If you had any idea...any idea what kind of man your father was, you wouldn’t be fighting for him right now.”

  “Shut up!” he shouts, and my mother shudders in his grasp, trembling. “I didn’t come here to bargain with you. I came here to let you watch me cut your mother down the way you cut down my dad.”

  “Maude is innocent, Gabe!” Charity shouts, stepping forward and surprising both me and Gabe. “She’s had nothing to do with any of this. She’s just as much of a victim as you!”

  Gabe stares at Charity, mouth gaping as he struggles to find words. He seems to falter, and in that moment...my mother acts.

  In the split second that Gabe is distracted, Mom twists away from him, scrambling to the ground and trying to crawl away. Gabe shouts as she breaks loose, and he raises his knife to bring it down on her while she’s on the ground.

  I’m faster.

  It took about a second to clear the space between us, and I catch Gabe around the hips in a tackle just in time for him to plunge the knife into my shoulder. He hits the asphalt hard, and I don’t even feel the knife. I knock his hands out of the way and punch him across the jaw so hard that I hear teeth scatter across the pavement. Reaching over my shoulder, I grip the handle of the knife still buried in my muscle, and I yank it out.

  I raise the knife, still dripping with my own blood, ready to plunge it down into Gabe’s face.

  “Jake!”

  It’s Charity’s voice.

  I freeze.

  In the headlight behind me, I can see Gabe in my shadow. His face is sheet-white, and his hands are back. I have him completely in my power, trembling in pain as blood pools in his mouth and he waits for death. He’s a miserable rat I helped create, even if it was his own twisted mind that pushed him this far. A drop of blood falls from the knife onto his forehead.

  Charity knows all that just as much as I do.

  And if I want her...I have to be better than him. I have to be above my base instincts.

  I don’t lower the knife. I turn it, pointing it at him in a more level, controlled manner, locking eyes with this monster for a few painfully tense moments.

  “Charity,” I say in a low tone. “Call the police. Tell them there’s been an attempted murder and kidnapping. I have him restrained.”

  Charity

  “Sir, I understand that you want to go in and see your mother, but I do have just a few more questions I need to ask you first,” insists one of the police officers who was called to the scene.

  We are all at the hospital now, after having followed the ambulance here on Jake’s motorcycle. When Jake called the police on Gabe, rather than killing him, the cops were adamant about taking Maude to the hospital to make sure she was unharmed and that the stress of the situation hasn’t caused any complications with her illness.

  Jake was resistant to the idea, wanting to just take her home and look after her himself, but I gently agreed with the police and urged him to let them take her. At my encouragement, he finally gave in and allowed the ambulance to take his mother to the hospital, but only on the condition that we be allowed to tag along and for the cops to go to the hospital for our interviews.

  Of course, the cops are frustrated, too, by the fact that the doctors took some time to patch up Jake’s shoulder before turning us loose to the police again. By now, they’re all pretty exasperated and impatient.

  “There’s no way in hell she’s going to that hospital without me, so if you want to interrogate me, you’ll have to do it there,” Jake had insisted. His stubbornness flustered the cops, but it kind of makes me smile, to be honest. He loves his mother and will gladly piss off the police to stay by her side. That kind of commitment and loyalty is something I find utterly beautiful about him. There are few people in this world Jake cares about so deeply, but once you’re in that tight-knit circle, he will bend over backwards to help you.

  “You already have the perpetrator in custody,” Jake says to the cop flatly. “Why don’t you just ask him these questions? I need to see my mother.”

  “They’re just trying to help,” I remind him gently. I look at the cop and fix him with a stern expression, one I must have picked up from my own mother over time. It works, to my surprise, and the cop swallows hard, looking intimidated. I could almost giggle at his reaction, but I manage to maintain my composure.

  I straighten up and force a polite smile instead. “Any chance I could help fill in the gaps in our testimony so that Jake here can see his mom? I was there, too, and I have no problem answering questions on his behalf.”

  The cop looks back and forth between us, unconvinced at first. I can tell he has a sense about Jake, like he can just feel the aggression and danger simmering just under the surface. I get it. Between the two of us, Jake is definitely the more interesting figure in the eyes of the law. A tall, muscular, powerful-looking man is more likely to set off alarm bells than a petite, polite young woman like me.

  “Come on, man. She’s really sick and she’s got to be traumatized by this whole situation. Why can’t I just go see her? She needs to see a familiar face. My mother gets nervous in the hospital. Too many bad memories over the years, you know?” Jake explains, his voice softening as he speaks from the heart. The police officer seems to soften, as well, finally hearing the humanity in Jake’s pleas. The genuine concern. He heaves a sigh and nods, waving his hand to dismiss Jake from the interrogation.

  “Alright, alright. You wore me down. Go see your mother,” the rookie cop relents. Then he seems to remember that he’s supposed to seem tough, and he stiffens up, puffing out his chest and narrowing his eyes at Jake. He wags a finger warningly and adds, “But I’ll have more questions for you later, okay?”

  “Got it. Fully understood,” Jake replies over his shoulder, already heading down the hall in a hurry to his mother’s hospital room. He gives me a quick, subtle smile, too.

  I nod in response, silently assuring him that I won’t give away any incriminating information. I’m on Jake’s side, no matter what.

  He may be a killer, but he’s a good man, and if there’s anyone who deserves to get a second chance, it’s him.

  His methods are cold, but his intentions are warm. I know that. I understand it. Jake lives within a shade of gray, and his actions reflect that. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and I can’t hold it against him that he’s willing to sacrifice the lives of terrible, evil men, and risk his own life in the process, to save his beloved mother.

  It’s more than just understanding, though; I admire him for it. Few men in this world would go so far to protect the ones they love, but Jake? He doesn’t even hesitate. He sees the best option and jumps for it without a second thought.

  I turn back to the cop with a bright, cheery smile, ready to lie through my teeth to protect the one I love, even if it means putting myself at risk.

  “So, what do you want to know?” I ask helpfully. A flicker of a smile crosses his face, and I can tell he’s already bought and sold and wrapped around my finger. There is a definite upside to being small and innocent-looking. Men don’t fear me. They trust me. They believe me, thinking I’m too naive and too sweet to lie.

  That’s a mistake on their part, but I am certainly going to use it to my advantage. I weave a lush, detailed story about how Gabe has been stalking and threatening Jake and his mother, about how he’s been trying to blackmail and extort Jake into carrying out darker and darker deeds. But that Jake has been strong and steadfast, trying to take the noble path and keep right.

  The cop scribbles down my tale frantically, trying to keep up. I even manage to summon up some Oscar-worthy tears to add flavor to my story. Before long, the rookie officer is eating out of my hand, wide-eyed and slack-jawed as he listens to my testimony, almost forgetting to write it down, he’s so enraptured.

  When I’m done, he says, “Uh. Thank you, ma’am. That was… a lot of detail. You know, you’re a good storyteller. And you have a good m
emory.”

  I smile and shrug through my sort-of-fake-tears. “Thanks. Do you have everything you need? I’d really like to join Jake and see what the doctors have to say about his mother’s condition, if that’s okay,” I suggest.

  He nods. “Sure. Go ahead. Thanks again for your time.”

  I smile and swivel around, walking away with my heart racing. I can’t believe I just lied to the cops. But I know that for Jake, I would do it again. And again.

  Hours later, the doctors finally let us to release Maude from the hospital. Not wanting to put her on the motorcycle in her fragile condition, we hire a car to take us home. I ride along with Maude while Jake drives the bike along behind us.

  When we get back to his mother’s house, we ease her into her bedroom, helping her into bed. She looks pale and exhausted, but her eyes are bright and shining with relief. Jake takes some time to cook her a bowl of soup and a sandwich, along with some sleepy time tea to help calm her addled nerves. While he cooks, I sit next to her in bed, the two of us chatting and watching a soap opera.

  Once Jake comes in with the food tray, he kisses her on the forehead and leaves her to it, urging her to eat before taking a nap. She hardly slept at all last night, and in her condition, it’s important that she keep up her strength and give her body time to recover from the trauma.

  So we close the bedroom door and go back downstairs to the basement where we won’t interrupt her nap. I walk over and collapse onto the bed with a heavy sigh, my whole body feeling like an anchor is dragging me down. I’m so tired, and yet wide awake at the same time. Just having Jake in the room is enough to set my nerves on fire. But he only sits on the edge of the bed, looking wan and overwhelmed with worry. I scoot over to perch next to him, concerned.

  “What’s wrong? The doctors said she’s physically unharmed. Gabe didn’t hurt her,” I remind him. Jake looks at me with those beautiful green eyes and I can see unfathomable sorrow.

  “It’s the money I’m worried about. Even just the ambulance ride and her hospital stay today will put us in the red,” he explains softly. “And if Gabe was just setting me up, then that means there will be no more payoff from the work he hired me to do. I was counting on that just to get us through, Charity. Now we have nothing. How am I going to pay for her treatments? What if I have to take her off the transplant list? She needs bone marrow, but we can’t afford it.”

  I bite my lip, feeling my heart break. And here I thought we were finally out of the woods. “Bone marrow?” I repeat quietly. “Jake, does she have cancer?”

  He nods. “Yes. For years now. It would come and go, into remission and back into danger again. But this time it’s bad. Really bad. And it’s so expensive. I don’t know what to do.”

  I’ve never seen him so vulnerable before, and yet so strong and resolved. I know he would walk on glass to the ends of the earth to help his mother, but it’s looking hopeless. Then, a bizarre idea comes to me and I’m not sure if it’s worth mentioning, but Jake looks so downtrodden I feel like I have to.

  I mumble, “Well, my father—he’s an oncologist. I never think much about it because he doesn’t talk about work when he’s at home with my family. But I’ve overheard him mention something about a clinical trial before to my mom. Sometimes they talk about serious stuff when they think nobody is listening.”

  Jake looks at me with an expression of mingled confusion and interest. I go on. “What if—hear me out—I try to get your mom in on that trial?” I suggest.

  Those green eyes widen. “You would ask that? Do you think he would go for it?” Jake asks, the slightest twinge of hope in his voice.

  I shrug, smiling softly. “I could try!”

  “After all I’ve put you through, you would do that for someone like me?” he inquires, his dark brows furrowed. He looks utterly bewildered by such kindness. I get the sense he hasn’t seen a lot of unprovoked kindness in his life. Perhaps that’s why he’s so dead set on saving his mother. She’s one of the few bright spots in his whole universe.

  “You never meant to involve me in all this, Jake. I know that. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And you could’ve killed me. You could’ve abandoned me in the woods. There were so many points... I know it was a huge risk to take me along with you. I was a liability. I still am, probably. But you took care of me. You’ve shown me things—beautiful things—I never would’ve seen otherwise. You’re a good man in a terrible predicament. I get that. And besides, you stopped yourself from killing Gabe. You could have. He deserved it every bit as much as those other evil men you eliminated. But you didn’t. You took the high road. That shows me something important. That shows me you’re reformed. You can be… good,” I conclude.

  “You believe in me,” he says, and it’s so full of awe that it’s almost a question. I giggle and lean into him.

  “Yes. I do. But you have to promise me that your old life, the dangerous one, is over. You have to be better. For your mother’s sake, for my sake, but most of all, for your own sake. Promise me that, and I’m yours. Forever,” I tell him.

  He grins mischievously and replies, “Now look who’s throwing out an ultimatum.”

  I laugh. “Yep. My turn now. So, what’ll it be, Jake?”

  He leans in and kisses me passionately, then breaks away to murmur, “As if there was any question. I will do whatever it takes to keep you, Charity. I never thought I could feel this way about anyone. Ever. I thought I was doomed to a life alone in the shadows. But you’ve proved to me that there’s so much more. That even a man like me could find peace. Even a man like me could have an amazing, beautiful, pure-hearted girl like you. And this probably goes without saying, Charity, but I love you. I do.”

  My whole body tingles and I can’t help but grin, throwing my arms around him as he reaches to pull off my shirt. He kisses me as I climb on top to straddle him, rolling my hips against the growing bulge between his legs.

  “I love you, too. More than anything. I never want to be apart from you, Jake. Come what may, you’re mine and I’m yours,” I promise him fervently.

  “Good. Because I’m going to claim you either way,” he replies, his voice trying husky with need. I want it hard and fast this time, the adrenaline ramping up despite how tired we are. Just being near him is like a jolt of energy straight to my soul.

  He slips off my clothes and his, then positions the head of his cock at my glistening hole. I’m already slick and eager for him as he pushes inside, both of us moaning and clutching one another. Even though I’m on top, I follow his lead. He grabs my hips and starts to move me back and forth, up and down, riding his cock. His large hands slide up to cup my breasts, rolling my sensitive, perky nipples between his fingertips as I writhe and whimper on top of him.

  Jake leans in to kiss my ticklish neck, sucking delicate purple bruises under my skin, his hips thrusting up to match my rhythm. We move together faster and harder, losing ourselves to the crashing waves of lust and need. We want to be as close as possible, unified in every moan, every movement. He grabs my ass, kissing me on the lips as we mount closer and closer to orgasm. His cock is spearing into my g-spot repeatedly, giving me goosebumps and making me cry out in desperation.

  “I love you, I love you,” he whispers against the shell of my ear, the two of us rocking together in tandem.

  “I’m so close,” I gasp, my fingernails digging into his strong back.

  “Give it to me, Charity. I want to feel you come all over my cock,” he hisses. The ticklish, delicious sensation of his warm breath on my neck is enough to push me over the edge and I whimper through my climax.

  Jake slams up into my pussy, coming only seconds after me. As I feel his hot seed explode inside my twitching cunny, he cradles me close. Jake rests his forehead against mine while we come down from the high, both of us so caught up in the moment and full of love. I don’t know what the future holds, but I know I won’t go it alone. Not anymore. I have no fear, not with Jake by my side. Together, we can do anythi
ng.

  Jake

  “Oh my god, five of them!”

  The sound of my mother’s endless gushing paired with Charity hovering around us taking a dozen pictures a minute keeps the goofy smile plastered on my face as I help deliver yet another big, healthy puppy from the newly non-pregnant dog’s belly, I’m sitting cross-legged in the living room of my mother’s house, and Sampson—the proud father of the litter—hovers around anxiously, panting, but trusting me to handle the mother of his new puppies.

  “Sampson,” I chuckle, picking up the last of the bunch and beckoning my dog to my side, petting him as he sniffs his newborn. “Look at him! He looks just like your papa, doesn’t he?” Sampson’s tongue lolls out to the side as he smiles up at me, and I feel my heart swelling to the point of bursting as Charity kneels down beside the rest of the pups with tears in her eyes.

  Charity’s parents sit on the couch across from us while the three of us dote over the pups, and even they can’t keep their usual stodgy faces. The whole room is full of smiles and loving comments as we photograph the puppies to no end.

  This has been what life has been like the past few months—at long last, nothing but smiles.

  Gabe went to prison for multiple accounts of murder, kidnapping, and attempted murder, thanks to our efforts. The evidence against him was overwhelming, and I was able to clear myself of all connections to him before the investigation started in earnest. The police are looking for a mysterious hitman, or several hitman, but they’ll never find me. I’ve made sure of that. I have to put that life behind me, and I’m glad to see it go.