by Silk White
“Back in the kitchen,” Angela ordered as she reached down and picked up the .45 and cell phone. She hated to have to do what she was doing, but what other choice did she have?
James walked back over to his seat at the kitchen table and poured himself another drink with his eyes locked on Angela. He sipped his drink with a mean scowl on his face as he continued to stare a hole through Angela. “Kill me!”
Angela looked down at James with a confused look on her face. “What?”
“You here to kill me right?” James said unbuttoning his dress shirt revealing his slightly hairy chest. “Well go ahead and get it over with.”
“James you have to listen to me,” Angela began. “I never meant for none of this to happen…”
“You never meant for none of this to happen?” James echoed. “You tried to kill me Angela, murder me and leave me dead in the streets and you got the nerve to say that you never meant for this to happen?”
“It’s not like that James,” Angela tried to explain.
“Then what’s it like? Huh? You tell me what it’s like… Matter of fact, I don’t wanna talk no more. Just do what you came here to do and get it over with.” James was done talking to Angela. The more he talked to her, the more he wanted to kill her.
“I’m not here to kill you James. I’m here to protect you.”
“Here to protect me?” James laughed. “Protect me from who; yourself? Here I am thinking I found the perfect woman to spend the rest of my life with then you turn out to be a fucking assassin; one of the top assassins in the world might I add,” he said giving her a disgusting look as he sipped his drink. “You murder people for a living and now you show up at our… I mean my house talking about you here to protect me. Fuck Outta Here!”
“Please James, just hear me out,” Angela said removing her dark shades from her face so James could look in her eyes and see that she was sincere.
“How dare you come to my home after what you’ve done to me and have the nerve to ask me to hear you out?” James growled. His face showed that he was more than angry; he was hurt, but the more Angela spoke his anger was beginning to overlap the hurt. As Angela stood before him, James wanted to make love to Angela and kill her all at the same time. He had mixed emotions and mixed feelings. He didn’t know if he was coming or going. He wanted an explanation, but he didn’t want an explanation.
“Just hear me out James, please!” Angela shouted finally able to get James full attention. “I’m sorry about everything that happened, but we don’t have much time. We have to get going. The White Shadow is on his way over here to kill you.”
“The White Shadow?” James face crumbled up with confusion. “What’s a White Shadow?”
“I don’t have time to explain…we have to get going,” Angela said nervously.
“I’m not going anywhere with you until you explain everything.” James sipped his drink and leaned back in his chair.
“I work for some very important people James,” she explained. “I was paid to kill you. At first I thought I would be able to, but when the time came I just couldn’t do it. I love you James and I’m sorry and since I didn’t kill you, my employers have now hired the best assassin in the world to hunt me down and kill me,” Angela said with a hurt look on her face. “And now my employers have put a contract out on you to get to me… And I refuse to let you die because of me James. If they want you, then they’re going to have to go through me.”
James stared at Angela for a second not saying a word. He took a moment to let her words sink in and digest. “And you expect me to believe that?”
“James it’s the truth!”
James asked, “So you want me to believe that you’re here to save and protect me when you were the one who tried to kill me… Who are you here to protect me from; yourself?”
“No James, I told you they hired an assassin that calls himself The White Shadow to kill you and…”
“Enough with your fucking lies,” James barked. He was ready to jump up and strangle Angela with his bare hands, rip her heart out, and put his foot up her ass. He wasn’t buying the bullshit story she gave him. She was going to have to come better than that. “Everything you’ve told me from day one has been a lie.”
“James, I’m not lying,” Angela pleaded. “I never meant for none of this to happen…I swear I didn’t.”
“You may not have meant for it to happen, but it did happen.” James sipped some more of his drink. “And it happened because YOU let it happen.”
“Well I’m not going to let YOU die and I’m not going to just leave YOU for dead,” she said drawing out a few of her words for extra emphasis. “I know you might not trust me, but we only have a little bit of time before shit hits the fan.”
“Well if you’re so worried about my well being then give me my gun back so that I can protect myself,” James suggested.
Angela thought about it for a second. She weighed the pros and cons in her head. She knew that there was a fifty percent chance of James taking the gun and putting a bullet right between her eyes, but with time working against her she had to make a quick decision. Angela holstered her .380, grabbed James’ .45 by the barrel, and held it out towards him. “Here”
James grabbed the handle of his .45 and quickly aimed it at Angela’s head. “Down on the floor! Now!” he barked. The fun and games were over. He was tired of playing with Angela and most of all; he was tired of hearing all of her lies. James cocked a round in the chamber. “I said now!”
Angela gave him a sad look. “James, I’m not getting down on the floor. We don’t have much time…Please let me help you.”
“You’ve helped enough already.” James backed up to the house phone that rested on the wall. With one hand, he kept the .45 pointed at Angela’s head and with the other hand he picked up the phone and spoke a few words into the receiver then hung up. “You’re going under the jail where you belong.”
“If you don’t want my help, then fine,” Angela said then turned towards the door. “If you want to bring me in, then you going to have to shoot me in the back.” Just as the words left Angela’s mouth, all the lights in the house went out turning the entire place pitch black. All of a sudden, suppressed rounds tore through the living room windows. All that could be heard was the small crackle of glass raining down on the living room floor. Immediately Angela and James hit the deck and army crawled over towards the stairs. James was seeing first hand that shit could get real, real fast. Once the gun fire stopped, two canisters came crashing through what was left of the living room window. Angela looked back and stared at the two canisters. “Shit!” she cursed as she watched a grenade land on the living room floor. Before she had a chance to do anything else, the two canisters exploded filling the entire house with teargas. Angela grabbed a hold of James and rushed him up the stairs. Angela and James made it halfway up the stairs when a loud blast erupted. The force from the explosion tossed both of them up the remainder of the stairs crashing into a wall.
“Fuck!” Angela winced in pain. She stared up at the ceiling dazed. A cloudy fog of smoke burned her eyes. For a second she couldn’t recollect what had happened or where she was. Angela turned to her left and saw James laying face down on the floor. He too was just now coming back around. The explosion had left Angela and James ears ringing and disoriented.
The sound of the front door being kicked open, followed by broken glass being crushed under someone’s feet snapped Angela back into the right frame of mind. She struggled to her feet and removed her Tech-9 that was strapped down to the small of her back. Angela coughed and wiped the tears from her eyes as she struggled to help James up to his feet. The teargas was quickly taking its toll on the two. As Angela struggled to get James up to his feet she could hear the sound of the glass crunching getting louder and louder.
“Come on baby, get up! We have to go!” Angela said in a harsh whisper.
Chapter 5
After the front door came crashing open, The Whit
e Shadow stepped inside with a gas mask covering his face and an assault rifle with a suppressor attached to the end in his hands. The gas that filled the house made it hard for The White Shadow to see through the fog. He took cautious calculated steps as he moved through the living room. In the back of his mind he wondered if Angela was in the house along with James. If so that would make his job easier. “Two birds with one stone,” he thought out loud. With each step he took, glass crunched under his boots. All the smoke from the two canisters of teargas had caused the smoke alarm to go off. The White Shadow ignored the smoke alarm. He kept a tight grip on his rifle while he inched further and further into the house. The sound of a window being broken coming from upstairs grabbed The White Shadow’s attention. Before he could make it up the stairs he saw a muzzle flash followed by a loud series of automatic gun fire. Rat, Tat, Tat, Tat, Tat!!! The White Shadow hit the ground, rolled, and came up in an attack posture. He aimed his assault rifle and let it bang. The White Shadow squeezed down on the trigger swaying his arms back and forth. He couldn’t see his target, but he knew the type of weapon he had was powerful enough to shoot through the thin walls in the house. The White Shadow aimed the assault rifle up the stairs hoping to pick his intended target off. He grunted when he saw another flash followed by the loud sound of machine gun fire. The shots hit the floor and lodged in the wall inches away from The White Shadow’s head. Immediately The White Shadow figured the shots had to come from no other than The Teflon Queen.
Angela rested low with her back up against the wall. She blindly stuck her arm down the stairs and fired the Tech-9. The machine gun rattled in her hand as shell after shell popped out of the top of the gun. Angela had a handkerchief wrapped over her nose and mouth. Her eyes stung and burned as tears streamed down her face. The teargas was finally beginning to take its toll on Angela. Her lungs felt like they were closing up on her making it hard for her to breathe. Angela looked over to her left and saw James climbing out of the window. She took a deep breath and stuck her arm around the corner again and squeezed down on the trigger. Again the gun rattled in her hand. Angela quickly shot to her feet and ran down the hall towards the bedroom as bullets ripped through the walls. Drywall, dust, and plaster rained down on top of Angela’s head. She reached the bedroom and stuck her head out the window checking to see how far the distance was from the window down to the ground. She looked and saw James down below on the ground with his gun aimed at the house.
Angela climbed up on the window seal and jumped down to the ground landing perfectly on her feet.
Angela grabbed James wrist and jerked him towards her. “Come on! We have to go!” Angela quickly rushed James over towards the stolen Ford Explorer. The two hopped in the truck with urgency. Angela placed the Explorer in drive as the back glass exploded in a spray of glass. First the back glass went and then the back seat windows were next to go.
“Keep your head down!” Angela barked. She roughly grabbed James’ head pulling it down towards her crotch as she recklessly pulled out onto the street. The tires on the Ford Explorer squealed as the smell of burning rubber filled the air.
Angela swerved as bullets exploded through the front windshield leaving holes the size of tennis balls.
* * * *
The White Shadow flew up the stairs skipping two at a time. He moved at an aggressive place until he reached the top landing, waiving the business end of his rifle towards the bedroom. The first thing that caught his eye was the window that was left wide open. The White Shadow took hurried steps over towards the window, looked out, and saw Angela and James hopping inside of a White Ford Explorer. With no hesitation, The White Shadow stuck his assault rifle out the window and held down on the trigger. Fire spit out the barrel as empty shell cases hit the floor sounding like a ton of quarters raining down from the sky. The White Shadow waved the rifle back and forth and watched the bullets from the rifle destroy the Ford Explorer as it recklessly pulled out into the street. Smoke swirled out of the barrel of the assault rifle while The White Shadow quickly headed back downstairs. He removed the spent magazine and replaced it with a fresh one.
With a gas mask still covering his face and an assault rifle in his hands The White Shadow exited the house and jogged over towards his B.M.W. He reached the luxury car and heard the sound of tires coming to a skidding stop. The White Shadow spun around and saw two police cars sitting idle. Before the officers could even get out of their cars, The White Shadow opened fire on the two police cruisers. The assault rifle bullets ripped through the cars killing both officers as well as destroying the two police cruisers in the process. The White Shadow let the empty clip fall from the base of the rifle and quickly replaced it with a fresh one just as another cop car pulled up to the scene. The White Shadow walked towards the third and final cop car and opened fire. If it was one thing The White Shadow couldn’t stand, it was police officers. In his eyes they were cowards that hid behind a badge and without that badge they were nothing.
The officer in the third car threw his cruiser in reverse and tried to get as far away from the mad man with the assault rifle as possible, but a couple of rounds from the assault rifle found a home in the officer’s body silencing him forever.
The White Shadow then smoothly walked over to his B.M.W. and opened the door. He sat his smoking hot rifle down in the passenger seat, got behind the wheel, and threw the gear in drive and continued his hunt. The Teflon Queen was starting to get on his nerves. She was beginning to become that pesky fly that never seemed to go away no matter how many times you tried to swat it away, but The White Shadow had the perfect flyswatter sitting right in the passenger seat.
Chapter 6
Angela weaved from lane to lane trying to put as much distance as she could between the Ford Explorer and James’ house. She knew The White Shadow was the best in the business, knew that time wasn’t on her side, and knew that when dealing with a man like him it was either kill or be killed. Angela checked her rearview mirror every few seconds. It was only natural to be nervous and paranoid when the number one assassin in the world was after you.
“What kind of shit are you involved in?” James asked looking at Angela from the passenger seat. This was his first time really seeing her in action and to say he was impressed was an understatement. James had been through all types of training courses and was considered one of the best agents in the world, but compared to Angela his training seemed like child’s play.
“I told you I work for some very important people,” Angela spoke keeping her eyes on the road.
“Why does this crazy man want to kill you so bad?”
Angela said, “Because I didn’t kill you.”
“Who hired you to kill me?” James asked curiously.
“Wayne paid my handler and then I was hired to fulfill the contract,” she answered. Her eyes were diverting back and forth from the rearview mirror to the road.
“Why didn’t you kill me?”
“Because I love you James,” Angela replied in a serious tone. James was the first man she had ever loved in her entire life and the first man she had ever let get close to her. This was the first and only contact that she didn’t fulfill.
“So you shoot everyone you love?” James asked sarcastically.
“James I said that I was sorry.” Angela glanced over at James for a second. “I could have been killed you if I wanted to James, but I didn’t because I…. couldn’t.”
James nodded his head up and down. “I feel you.”
“Do you really?”
James said, “Of course I do…. You said you love me right?”
“More than anything in this world,” Angela said with her voice full of love and passion. “Why don’t we just leave the country and start a new life,” she suggested. “I mean I have more than enough money saved away to last us a lifetime.”
“Where would you like to move to?”
“You pick,” Angela smiled. “Where ever you wanna go,” she said excitedly.
“Sorry Angela, but I can’t go with you,” James said with a hurt look on his face.
“Why not?”
“Bitch cause you going to jail, that’s why,” James barked aiming his .45 at Angela’s head. “Pull over! You are under arrest!”
“James….”
“James nothing,” James barked. “I said pull this motherfucker over now!”
Through the rearview mirror Angela noticed a pair of headlights weaving from lane to lane at a high speed. These same headlights began getting brighter and brighter in the rearview mirror. Whoever was in the car behind them was closing the distance between the two at a fast pace.
“We got company,” Angela stated. “Hold on!” She gunned the engine and watched the speedometer rise while the engine roared. Street lamps passed by in a blur and car horns blared as the Explorer zipped by.
“I said pull over now!” James repeated.
“Not now James,” was Angela’s only response. She vowed to keep James alive by any means necessary and she didn’t plan on stopping now. If James wanted to bring Angela in, he was going to have to shoot her. “Roll your window down and get this guy off of our ass.”
James turned around and looked out the broken back window. He saw a shiny black on black B.M.W. moving at a fast pace. “Is that him?”
“Yes!”
James hung half his body out the window and pointed his .45 at the B.M.W. He tried to steady his aim, but before he could even get off a shot, the B.M.W. quickly jumped two lanes over.
The White Shadow jerked the steering wheel to the left and jumped over two lanes cutting off other drivers in the process. He snatched the gas mask away from his face and tossed it in the back seat. He locked his eyes on the white Explorer. The White Shadow held the steering wheel steady with his knees, grabbed his assault rifle, aimed it at the Explorer, and squeezed down on the trigger sending bullets flying through his own front windshield.