“That’s good to know it wasn’t terrorists,” Mary Jo said. “Did they catch him?”
“They got him coming out of a love nest not far from here.”
“Perfect,” Mary Jo said, laughing. “Couldn’t have happened to a nicer man.”
“Got that right,” Jean said.
They ate and laughed and talked and Mary Jo knew that wonderful breakfast was the start of their new life together.
Then, two months later, on the anniversary of what they called The Event, when Mary Jo killed both Jean’s and her own husband, Mary Jo and Jean put a bid in on Stanton’s love nest. A bid so high, they knew they would get it.
After all, they were using Stanton’s own money.
Then at exactly three-ten in the afternoon, while standing on the sidewalk outside what they hoped would be their new condo, they used a burner phone to put in a call to Stanton where he was being held on suicide watch in a prison upstate.
Mary Jo had sent money through channels to make sure one of the guards gave Stanton a burner phone as well at exactly the right time.
And she gave the guard enough money also for after the phone call, to make Stanton hurt a little without killing him.
Mary Jo stood close to Jean against a stone wall of one building, holding the phone out on speaker so Jean could hear.
“Yes,” Stanton said.
The sound of Stanton’s voice just made Mary Jo shudder.
“You should have paid us the six million,” Mary Jo said.
Then she clicked off the phone and dropped it into a bag of bagels she had just bought. Then ten steps later she dropped the entire bag into a garbage can. She had rigged the phone to melt into a pool in two minutes after she used it.
Then the two of them walked hand-in-hand back toward their penthouse.
“Wow, that felt wonderful,” Jean said. “Just flat wonderful.”
Mary Jo had to agree. It did feel fantastic. Usually killing a target didn’t feel this good. But they hadn’t actually killed their target.
At least not in a way that would make it easy on him.
But they had made sure he knew who had done all this to him. And having him know felt perfect.
Three months later, she and Jean were looking over the empty condo and the recently cleaned hot tub of Stanton’s former love nest. They had just bought the place and the two of them were planning furniture and acting like excited schoolgirls getting ready for the first day of school, especially around the wonderful rooftop hot tub.
Mary Jo loved the city.
Mary Jo loved Jean.
And they both loved the condo.
And surprisingly also important, Mary Jo had realized that she loved vodka and orange juice even more when she had someone to enjoy it with.
PART SEVEN
A Disturbance
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
THEY HAD A stalker.
Mary Jo needed to tell Jean. But she didn’t want to. She knew what she had to say would change everything.
And the last year had been wonderful. They even had planned a night on the town for the second anniversary of The Event. Mary Jo had never imagined herself being so happy, so content with a life.
Both of them in the last year had turned down offers for targets. Both of them just wanted to enjoy the time for as long as they could.
But Mary Jo had no doubt what she had seen would change that and change everything.
So that morning, while they were both eating a light breakfast of eggs and toast around their small, but cozy, kitchen table that looked out at the rooftop garden, Mary Jo just blurted it out.
“We’re being followed. Maybe targeted.”
Jean glanced up from her iPad, her toast halfway to her mouth. Mary Jo could see instant worry in Jean’s wonderful green eyes.
“It’s a pro, I’m sure,” Mary Jo said. “Maybe from the order.”
“Why would anyone hire an assassin against one of us?” Jean asked.
Mary Jo shook her head. “I have no idea. Maybe our last client decided to finish the job before we finished him and the assassin was never called off. You know how patient we can all be.”
Jean put her toast down and sat back, staring at Mary Jo with her intense green eyes.
Mary Jo hated to ruin such a perfectly good day, but they had to work together now to solve whatever was happening. That was one of the hardest things Mary Jo was trying to adapt to, that there was two of them now. She had a partner and she actually loved that fact, something she never would have thought possible before.
“Describe what you saw, exactly,” Jean said.
Mary Jo nodded and went carefully through the details of spotting the stalker three different times. The woman following them was as short as they were, with short black hair and a dark skin. The woman had all the traits of an assassin of the order.
Jean listened until Mary Jo was done, then said simply, “I’ve seen her as well. But didn’t realize she was following us. Very good observation.”
That shocked and worried Mary Jo even more.
“You ever targeted another order member?” Jean asked. “I haven’t.”
Mary Jo shook her head. “Never. Can’t imagine it ever happening.”
Jean nodded. “So first we find out if this person following us is an order member.”
Mary Jo watched as Jean stood and vanished into the side room where she kept what little personal things she had kept from their last job. She came back a moment later.
Mary Jo couldn’t imagine calling the order for anything, but clearly Jean didn’t have that problem at all. Mary Jo had a phone with a direct link to the order just as Jean did, but she always kept it turned off and in a heavy metal box.
Jean smiled, but the smile didn’t reach her green eyes. Then she punched one key.
After a tense moment of silence she said, “Freyia Mist.”
Mary Jo knew that was Jean’s order name. Mary Jo’s order name at the moment was Angela Sea. It had been numbers of others over the centuries.
“I am with another order member,” Jean said into the phone. “Angela Sea. Are we being targeted by an order member?”
Jean listened for a moment, then said simply, “Understood.”
She hung up and put the phone on the table.
Mary Jo just sat, waiting as Jean took a deep breath.
“We are not being targeted by another order member and it is against order rules for one member to turn on another for any reason.”
Mary Jo felt a huge sense of relief.
“Thank you,” she said to Jean.
“So any suggestions?” Jean asked, smiling and this time the smile reached her eyes.
“Now that we know that critical fact,” Mary Jo said, “I think we need to invite our stalker to the party.”
“We’re throwing a party?”
“I think we should,” Mary Jo said, smiling. “A very intimate party with just you and me and our stalker.”
Jean laughed. “Think she’ll like vodka and orange juice?”
“If not,” Mary Jo said, “she won’t be allowed to stay.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
THE FALL DAY was perfect in the city, with temperatures just over sixty and a slight breeze. The trees in the city hadn’t started losing their leaves yet, but Jean had no doubt it wouldn’t be long now.
Today, she was in disguise. She had on a red-haired wig and wore older jeans and a T-shirt with a denim jacket. She would never go out like this normally, but today she and Mary Jo had what they called “Invite Day.” Their stalker was going to join them even if she didn’t want to.
After that morning, they had double-checked their condo’s security for any unwanted bugs and also checked other apartments for line-of-sight watching, just as Mary Jo had done when good old Stanton had used this condo to meet his mistress.
They found nothing, so their stalker was depending on following them in routines.
This morning Jean had gone out the back in the dark and ci
rcled around to where they had a Jeep SUV parked two blocks from their condo. Jean moved the SUV into position and then left it.
Mary Jo’s morning routine three days a week was to walk along this street to the market, do some shopping and then carry the groceries back. She liked getting out and meeting people, while Jean had her groceries delivered for the meals she cooked.
Jean sat on the ground in a recessed doorway, hidden, as Mary Jo walked by right on time.
As she did, Mary Jo touched her hair on the right side, indicating the stalker was behind her. The plan was for Mary Jo to go another half block, let the stalker get past Jean, then turn suddenly and start back, as if forgetting something.
Jean was going to be interested in seeing how the stalker woman reacted when that happened.
Jean kept her head down enough for the hair to cover most of her face and make it look as if she was a junkie sleeping. But with one eye she could see the street and those passing by.
Following Mary Jo at about one block distance, the stalker passed.
Jean had out her small pistol that contained a dart with enough drug to stop a horse in its tracks.
She stood and stepped into the street just behind the stalker, keeping the pistol hidden.
The woman was dressed in jeans, tennis shoes, and a very fashionable blouse that Jean could see the sports bra under. Her pitch-black hair almost shone in the morning sun and her face looked freshly scrubbed and radiant.
The woman was a stunner, of that there was no doubt. Jean hoped they didn’t have to kill her. It would be such a waste of beauty.
The stalker also had the walk of a member of the order. Even though she was just strolling down the sidewalk, Jean could tell she made not one sound.
Suddenly one block ahead, Mary Jo turned and started back, as if she had forgotten something.
The stalker did exactly as Jean would have done. She just kept walking at Mary Jo. The stalker was going to be looking at something else purposely when she passed Mary Jo.
There was no sign of the stalker carrying a weapon, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have one.
As Mary Jo got ten paces away, Jean put the dart into the beautiful skin of the stalker’s neck, right above her blouse collar.
The stalker spun instantly, seeing Jean, but at that point the stalker was already heading for the ground.
Mary Jo caught her and lowered her down on the edge of the sidewalk, out of the path of others.
Jean joined her.
“Looks like she fainted,” Mary Jo said, pretending to check the woman’s pulse and breathing while making sure the dart in the woman’s neck vanished from sight.
“What do we do?” Jean asked, playing her part in the little drama play.
“We need to get her to a hospital,” Mary Jo said. “Her heart is beating irregularly.”
Around them a group of five or six had gathered. Jean was paying close attention to all of them in case the woman had a partner. The lookers all seemed to be just lookers.
“I’ve got a car right here,” Jean said, playing the script they had planned for the broad daylight takedown. “I’ll drive you. We can have here there in minutes.”
Mary Jo nodded, being very serious. “Thank you.”
Mary Jo picked up the woman and Jean ran ahead and got the back door to the SUV open.
No one on the sidewalk objected, but instead just nodded at how two good Samaritans were taking care of the poor woman who had passed out on the sidewalk.
Mary Jo got into the back seat with the woman while Jean ran around and got behind the wheel.
Four minutes later they had circled around and were down into the underground parking under their condo building.
And ten minutes later they had the woman on their spare bed in their penthouse condo.
Jean was amazed at how she and Mary Jo worked together so easily to make something very difficult seem almost simple. She liked being Mary Jo’s partner.
And she liked having her as a friend and a lover even more.
CHAPTER THIRTY
MARY JO SAT in a desk chair across the room from the black-haired woman. They had brought her into the apartment, stripped her and found no weapons, put her underwear back on and then put zip-ties on her hands and legs. She was on the bed in their guest room, looking almost radiant against the tan spread.
Sun from the one window in the room beamed through the closed blinds, warming the room a little.
As a trained assassin, the woman was still dangerous, but Mary Jo wasn’t worried about her at all. If she had wanted them dead, chances are they would already be dead.
No, this woman had allowed herself to be seen for some reason and Mary Jo was dying to find out why.
“Awake yet,” Jean asked as she came into the room and handed Mary Jo a screwdriver, then took the other chair facing the bed.
“Yeah, she’s been awake for about ten minutes now, but pretending to still be out.”
“Tricky,” Jean said.
“Why did you take me?” the woman on the bed asked, opening her eyes and staring first at Jean, then at Mary Jo.
Mary Jo was stunned at the intensity of the woman’s dark eyes. She was built almost exactly the same as Mary Jo and Jean, but seemed to have an energy that felt slightly different.
Independent, actually, and a little feeling of being a trapped animal. Mary Jo wouldn’t have liked being tied up as she was either.
“She speaks,” Jean said, tipping her glass in a toast to Mary Jo.
“Why were you shadowing us?” Mary Jo asked.
“You would not believe me if I told you,” the woman said.
“Give us a try,” Jean said. “Amazing what we might believe.”
“I wanted to ask for your help.”
Mary Jo glanced at Jean, then back at the woman on the bed. Of all the things she might have said, that wasn’t one that Mary Jo had expected.
“Start at the beginning,” Jean said, sitting forward. “Your name and your order name.”
“I go by Susan at the moment. My order name is Leila Dark.”
Jean nodded and stood. “I’ll check with the order to make sure you exist.”
Jean left and the woman looked at Mary Jo. “She talks with the order?”
“She does,” Mary Jo said, smiling.
“I was hoping she would,” Susan said. “Even though I seldom do.”
Mary Jo said nothing. She sat sipping her screwdriver in silence as the two waited for Jean to return.
Mary Jo didn’t know what to think of this assassin they had captured. But at the moment Mary Jo wasn’t getting a bad feeling about Susan. And since no one had paid to target either Mary Jo or Jean, there had to be another reason Susan had shown herself as she did.
Jean came back into the room after just a minute, walked across the room to the bed and sliced the bindings, then returned to sit next to Mary Jo, taking another sip of her drink as she did.
“She checks out with the order,” Jean said.
Susan sat up in the bed and put her back against the wall, propping herself up with a pillow but not bothering to ask for her clothes.
Mary Jo wouldn’t have either in Susan’s position.
“I assume,” Mary Jo said, “that you let us see you so you would get this meeting. Correct?”
Susan nodded.
“Took a chance we wouldn’t kill you,” Jean said.
“No order assassin kills without cause and you had no cause with me,” Susan said.
“She has a point,” Mary Jo said. “But you could have just knocked on our door and introduced yourself.”
“No fun in that,” Susan said, smiling. “But besides, I still wasn’t sure you two were who I was looking for. It is not often you find two assassins living together.”
Jean shook her head and Mary Jo decided right then that she was going to like this woman.
“So how did you find us, first off?” Jean asked.
“I have been looking for you, M
ary Jo,” Susan said, “for almost three years.”
Mary Jo was stunned at that. She started to ask why, but Susan held up her hand so she could finish her story.
“When I heard about the killings in the northern part of the state, I knew that had the markings of an assassin. So I started looking at the victims and it became clear that your target had been the sheriff. He was the only one who made sense out of all the ones who died, including the writer.”
Mary Jo was impressed.
Susan went on. “So I next researched the sheriff’s wife and the other victim’s families first. Learned about both of you, but honestly didn’t suspect either of you at that point.”
“Good to know,” Jean said.
Susan nodded. “Then I backtracked who would have hired any assassin to kill the sheriff and found a piece of trash named Stanton Cobble the Third. So I staked him out until I noticed the sheriff’s wife also staking him out. I wasn’t surprised when I discovered it was you, Mary Jo. That hit on the sheriff was so perfectly done.”
Mary Jo nodded and let Susan continue. But it wasn’t often an assassin got complimented on a job. In fact, for Mary Jo, that was the first time in centuries.
“And then I was even more surprised,” Susan said, “to find that Jean was also helping. So I figured the idiot Stanton had hired two assassins for the job and then shorted you both. Right?”
“Got that exactly,” Jean said.
“I loved what you both did to Stanton,” Susan said. “Elegant. Completely elegant. It was a joy to watch.”
“Thank you,” Jean said, smiling.
Mary Jo toasted Susan and nodded her thanks as well. But the story still hadn’t gotten to why this woman had been looking for years for Mary Jo. And what help did she need.
“So for the last year I stayed out of sight, occasionally tracking your movements. Finally, this last week I decided it was time to show myself. I am running out of time, it seems.”
“Time for what?” Mary Jo asked.
“Time to kill my target,” Susan said. “What else?”
With that, the three of them just sat there in silence.
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