by Nicole Fox
Jess giggled, her eyes flashing. “I'd say that sounds like a pretty fair challenge,” she said. “Anyway, we do have to christen the place ... start things off on the right foot.”
I shook my head and kissed her again. “I love you,” I told her.
She grinned, a little of her former shyness coming over her again. “I love you, too.”
THE END
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The Hitman’s Child: A Dark Bad Boy Baby Romance
By Nicole Fox
She can have her choice: my baby in her belly, or my bullet in her brain.
My clients want people dead.
And if this man is to be believed, his ex-wife deserves her fate more than most.
But I’m not so sure. Maybe she’s earned the sweet kiss of death…
Or maybe all she needs is a hard, sweaty f*ck.
She thought she was finally safe.
But she didn’t know that I was coming to kill her.
It was nothing personal.
I’m a hitman, not a judge or jury.
I don’t ask questions…
I just pull the trigger and hide the bodies.
But there’s something different about this one.
Something innocent.
Something pure.
Is she really the monster her husband claims she is?
Or is there another story hidden behind those pretty eyes?
Only one way to know for sure:
Force her to her knees and spread that mouth wide open.
Chapter One
Vanessa
Vanessa Powers bent down to her daughter’s level and unzipped her light jacket. She glanced down the hall of the elementary school. Kids wove in and out of classrooms, yanking off rain boots and sweaters and jackets, and hanging them haphazardly on the hooks that lined the wall. No one was paying attention to them.
“You’re going to do great,” Vanessa said, straightening Opal’s shirt. “I know it’s scary going into a new school, but you’ll make friends fast. You always do.”
“What if no one likes me?”
“There’s no way that will happen. Just be yourself.” Except she couldn’t fully do that. She hated to remind her daughter, hated that this was necessary, but she had no choice. Vanessa dropped her voice to just above a whisper. “Don’t forget to use your new name, though, okay?”
Opal nodded. “Katrin. I know.”
“Right. You got it.” Vanessa kissed her nose and helped her take off her jacket.
“When will I get to tell people my real name?”
“I don’t know. It’s not forever, though. I promise.”
“But how will this hide me?”
Vanessa pressed her lips together. She’d explained this in full detail to Opal more than once. When they were alone. Explaining it again in the busy school hall was not something she wanted to do. Too many people could overhear. She kept her voice as low as she could and leaned in, so that her lips were just inches from Opal’s.
“I’ve told you, honey. We have pretend names so that people won’t know who we really are. If they find us, they will try to take you away from me, and I can’t let that happen.”
“Well, I won’t let them take me.” Opal said it with such determination that Vanessa wanted to believer her daughter would have a chance if someone showed up and snatched her. But an eight year old against a grown man would surely not stand a chance.
“I know you won’t,” Vanessa said, “but we can’t let it even get to that point, okay?”
Opal nodded. “Okay. It’s like playing pretend all the time. I like pretend.”
“I know you do.” Vanessa got to her feet and checked her watch. They would be late if they didn’t hurry. “That’s why I know you’ll do such a good job.”
She took Opal’s hand and led her to the door.
With her hand on her shoulder, she said in a fairly loud voice, “Okay, Katrin, this is your new classroom.”
They walked to the front of the room and Vanessa caught the teacher’s attention.
“Oh, good morning,” the woman said with a glowing smile. “This must by Katrin, our new student.”
“It is.” Vanessa returned the smile and gave Opal a quick hug. She bent down one more time. “I have to get going. You know where I’ll be, and I’ll come right back here after school to take you home, okay? Don’t leave the room without me.”
“I won’t.” Opal ran walked slowly over to the corner of the room where the book shelf was. Several other kids sat on a small piece of carpet, reading. Other kids were at their desks or the white board, busying themselves before class started.
“You’re the new nurse, is that right?” the teacher asked.
“Right,” Vanessa said. “And I’m late for my first day. I’ll be back to pick her up at the end of the day.”
“Well, good luck, and we’ll see you then.”
With a final exchange of smiles, Vanessa hurried from the room. Down one hall, then after a right turn, she found the nurse’s office.
In the office, she found things as she’d expected. There was a cabinet with student medications on one side, a cot with a paper covering on the other. A desk sat against another wall, by the filing cabinets. After being hired, Vanessa had come to get an overview from the previous nurse. Where things were, the school policies, that sort of thing. Today, she’d be on her own, but after years of being a school nurse, she had plenty of experience. She was more worried about Opal and how she’d do as “Katrin” in a new school.
The morning started slow and gave Vanessa a chance to review the policies again and to file some paperwork. There was a steady stream of children who came in to take medications throughout the day, and she tried to memorize as many names and faces as she could, since these kids would be regulars.
Throughout the day, there were several tummy aches, a fever, which was also her first time sending a child home from school sick, and a sore throat. In the afternoon, as she waited for her student with the fever to be picked up, another student walked in. A boy in a dirty t-shirt and jeans.
“My head hurts,” he said when Vanessa asked him what was wrong. “And my arm and shoulder.”
“Okay, let’s take a look then to make sure your arm is okay.” Vanessa pushed up his sleeve to check his arm. “Where does it hurt?”
He pointed to his elbow, then a spot on his shoulder. The elbow looked fine, but on his shoulder was a deep purple bruise.
“How did you get the bruise?” she asked.
He glanced over at it and mumbled, “I fell at recess.”
Something in the way he said it put her on alert. “Fell doing what?” she probed.
“Umm, just running around.”
It sounded like a cover up, for sure. She’d have to make a note of it in his chart. If she had serious suspicions, there were people she had to contact about it.
Her mind wandered for a moment, back to LA. Sitting in a hospital, watching the doctor look at the bruises on Opal. He’d given her a stern look and asked, “Did you do this to her?”
Vanessa flushed and pulled the boy’s shirt sleeve back into place. “Some Tylenol should help the pain. Be more careful out there, okay?”
The boy nodded, took the pills, and left the office.
# # #
Hunter walked down the hall in the five-star hotel and stopped in front of room 319. He knocked and waited.
“Hunter Perrin?” came a voice from inside.
“Yes,” Hunter said. The door opened and Hunter stepped inside. He shook the man’s outstretched hand. “Jeremy Beale?”
“Yes.”
The man was dressed in a nice suit. Must have money, this guy. To choose this hotel and be wearing that outfit? He could ce
rtainly charge him full price without hesitating.
“Let’s get down to it, then,” Hunter said. He sat in the office chair and spun it to face Jeremy, who sat in the other chair. “A few things you need to know up front. My rate is $50k, and I’m worth every dollar, but I don’t kill just anyone. I guess I’m a kind of a hit man with a conscience. I only kill people who deserve to die.”
“Well, no worries there,” Jeremy said. “My ex-wife certainly deserves to die.”
“Ex-wife?” Hunter stood to leave. “I don’t kill women. Sorry.”
“Wait. Can I explain?”
Hunter looked into Jeremy’s pleading eyes. It was worth hearing him out. He’d come all this way, after all. Might as well see why the guy thought his ex shouldn’t live.
Hunter sat back down. “Let’s hear it.”
“We have an eight-year-old daughter, Opal. My ex-wife abused her. It’s been a horrible few years. I can’t tell you how many times I came home from working all day to find Opal curled up in a ball, crying. I’d talk to her and she would tell me things like ‘Mommy got mad and hit me.’ One time she said she threw her phone at her. She yelled at her constantly. You can’t imagine what it was like. At first, I just thought Opal was clumsy. She’d tell me she fell or banged into something. But when I saw Opal flinch when my ex raised her hand to brush her hair, I started to think something else was going on. And I was right.”
Hunter leaned back in the chair. “How often did you find bruises on her?”
“Seemed like every day there was a new one. Sometimes a cut. Opal blamed the neighbor’s cat, but I think it was from her mother’s fingernails. That wasn’t even the half of it, though. My ex is just mean. She was always ordering Opal around, telling her she didn’t do something right or that she was no good. I tried to stop it, but she’d threaten me, too. Said I’d never see my little girl again. So I just had to sit there and watch her treat my daughter horribly until the divorce went through.”
“And now?” Hunter asked. “Why don’t you use the court system to get her?”
“I am. But they take too long. And now my ex has disappeared with my daughter. I’m afraid that she’s going to take all of this out on Opal. That she’ll go too far or get into the wrong circles. I wouldn’t put anything past her. She’s used to living a nice life. I make good money, and I provided for them well. And now she has nothing. She threatened to sell Opal on the streets before when she wasn’t listening. What if she turns around and does something that horrible now to get money? Her coke habit isn’t cheap.”
“She’s on drugs, too?”
“Of course. She was almost always drunk. Then she got her wisdom teeth pulled and came back with fewer teeth, but a new addiction to pain pills. When the pills and the booze weren’t enough, she turned to the harder stuff.”
Hunter shook his head. “Sounds like a nightmare.”
“She’s a complete monster. That’s why I need your help. I have to save my daughter, get her away from her mother before something awful happens. I can’t wait on the courts, and there’s nothing saying my ex won’t just kidnap her and take off again even if I have custody. The only way I can really end this abuse is to have Vanessa killed. Then Opal will be safe once and for all, and will be with me, the parent who loves and treasures her. I miss her so much.” Jeremy’s voice shook as he said it.
He still didn’t like the idea of killing a woman. But this woman wasn’t worth his usual restraint. When Hunter was a kid, being hit by his drunk father every night, there was no one to save him. No one took his parents away or got him out of there. This was a chance for him to save this little girl. To do what he prayed for every night when he was a kid—for the abuse to stop. He could make a difference in Opal’s life. And he’d even get paid for it.
“I think I can make an exception this time,” Hunter said. “You pay me half up front. I find her, I take her out, you pay me the rest. Got it?”
Jeremy didn’t hesitate. He unzipped a duffle bag that had been sitting on the floor by the bed. He counted out $25,000 in large bills, then handed the bag to Hunter.
“How long do you think it will take?” Jeremy asked.
“You have no idea where she is?”
Jeremy shook his head.
“Could take a while then. Give me everything you have to go on.”
Jeremy handed him a folder. Inside were photos of Opal and Vanessa. But that was it.
“Only photos?”
“That’s all I have. If I had any idea where they were, I would have gone there myself to get Opal.”
Hunter nodded. “Then I’ll get to work. I’ll keep you updated on my progress.”
Chapter Two
Vanessa
Vanessa took Opal’s hand. She paused in the front of the school and looked around before walking on down the road. She was always checking, always looking, terrified that one of these days, she’d turn and see Jeremy coming after them.
“Mommy, what are you always looking for?” Opal asked.
“Oh, just to make sure I know what’s around us.”
Opal was quiet for a moment, then asked, “Are you looking for Daddy?”
“Sometimes.”
“What would happen if he found us?”
Vanessa squeezed her hand. “I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“But what if it does? What if I mess up and use the wrong name?” Fear shook her little voice.
“It’ll be okay. You can just say you were playing pretend. Or that you have an imaginary friend named Opal.”
“I want to see my old friends, though. When will I be able to play with Eva again?”
“I don’t know, honey. Are there nice kids in your new school?” She hated that she had to take Opal out of her old school. But what choice did she have? They couldn’t stay where they were.
Opal shrugged. “I guess. I don’t know them.”
“You’ll get to know them.” Vanessa stopped on the corner, waited for the light to change, and continued on. “You’ll make lots of new friends.”
“But I can’t tell them about where we used to live?”
“No. Remember what I said. We came from Georgia where we lived with your grandma until she died.”
Opal nodded. “Grandma Hill.”
“Right. And we came here because we wanted to make a new life in a place that didn’t have sad memories.”
“Maybe I could say that I had a doggy!”
“Okay… What kind of dog?”
“Mmm.” Opal tapped her finger to her lips. “A golden lab. Named Goldie.”
“That sounds nice. Where is he now?”
“Well, maybe he ran away.”
“So, a golden lab named Goldie.”
“Or maybe Sadie. I like the name Sadie, too.”
“Well, pick one. When you make things up like that, you don’t want to change it too many times, or you might mix up your lie.”
Opal swung their hands back and forth between them. “Mommy?”
“Yes, sweetie?”
“How come it’s not wrong when we lie like this? Because you said lying is always bad, and I should never do it.”
“Right. You should never ever tell me a lie. We have to say these things for now to keep us safe. But you’re right; lying is bad. This is only okay because we have to do it to keep us safe.”
“Okay.”
Opal seemed to accept this, but Vanessa’s stomach tightened. She hated having to constantly coach Opal to lie, to remind her of the story instead of the truth. What sort of a mother encouraged her child to lie and make things up? Even if it was true that they had to do to stay safe. This was no way to parent.
She worried, too, that her constant anxiety would affect Opal somehow. The always looking around, the way she jumped at loud sounds. Would Opal grow up being paranoid like Vanessa was becoming?
She opened the door to their apartment and stopped inside to listen, like she always did. Not that if someone was in the apartment
, he would make noise and be heard, but it had become a habit for her now. Opal ran to the kitchen and yanked open the refrigerator door. While she sucked juice from a box, Vanessa stared at the front of the refrigerator.
A flyer printed on bright yellow paper hung there, advertising a local fair. She had initially blown it off. No way could they go to something like that and be out in the public and in the open like that. But maybe Opal needed some normalcy. Something they would have done in their lives before they fled.