Dating A Hitman (The Dating Series Book 4)

by Love, B. T.

  “Look at me,” he said calmly, turning my head to see him. “Your hair is a mess. There is blood splattered all over your face. You look like hell. And you’re still the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.”

  I stared blankly back at him. “Is that supposed to be some sort of a compliment or something?”

  “It’s supposed to be.” His blood-stained thumb stroked my cheek that matched it in color. “I’m not about to let you go back home without me.”

  “What, what do you mean? Are you wanting to quit what you do?”

  “No. It’s like I’ve said before, this is what I was made to do, Scarlett. But Vladimir has offered to send me other places around the country to do work for him, so I can pretty much go anywhere I want.”

  “Vladimir? Vladimir was going to buy me!”

  “Vladimir was going to help you,” he corrected me. “He never said anything about buying you; Dimitri did.”

  “Well if he wanted to help me that bad he would have given my dad all of the money to save me!”

  “I know,” he hushed me gently. “But Vladimir is still a businessman. And he barely has a heart as it is. I’m surprised he even offered your dad what he did.”

  My shoulders slumped as I relaxed my face against his palm. “You would move away from here? From my family?”

  “I’ll still be with family,” he said, his lips pulling back with a faint smile.

  I sighed as I smiled back. “You don’t want to be without me?”

  He took his hand away from my face and stared down at it. “Look at my hand. Do you see something wrong with this picture?”

  “No. I mean, there’s blood on it.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “But there’s something else that’s not on it.”

  “Uh, well, do you mean a ring?”

  “Yeah,” he chuckled happily. “That’s a good answer, but it wasn’t quite what I was thinking. There’s no glove on my hand, Scarlett.”

  After pushing my embarrassment aside from thinking he was talking about his hand missing a wedding ring, I focused on what he had said. “You’re right; I didn’t even notice that you weren’t wearing gloves. Aren’t you worried about covering your tracks?”

  “Yeah, I am. But when you’re around I just keep reminding myself that you’ll be leaving me soon and I, I just can’t think straight. Just like when I wrote the wrong name on that letter . . . You’ve got my head all messed up. And I can’t have that; it’s too dangerous for me. So the only thing I know to do is to either send you back home and spend the rest of my life missing you, or keep you with me and move somewhere where we’ll both get what we want, which is our careers and each other.”

  It was the best thing he had ever said to me. “Is that really what you want?” I asked.

  He took my hand in his and brought it to his lips, placing a tender kiss against my knuckles. “Baby,” he said with a handsome smile, “I’ve wanted it ever since your finger first touched that doorbell.”

  What Troy Saw

  I stood beside a large tree and stared directly into Jimmy’s living room window. The moon was just a sliver in the night sky, the absence of natural light making it even easier to blend into my surroundings so he wouldn’t see me. My fist clenched as I watched him sitting relaxed in his recliner, laughing at something on TV; he didn’t deserve to be happy.

  The cabin was small but I knew I would find some way to get in unnoticed. I crept around the back and saw that the idiot had left his bedroom window open. I quietly took off the screen and climbed inside, being careful not to knock over the cans of beer that were left in random places. The room was a mess; garbage was thrown all over the place. It was a fitting environment for the pig that he was.

  Taking one slow step at a time, I left the bedroom and rounded the corner, planting myself directly behind his recliner. Wheel of Fortune was playing loudly on the TV and the puzzle they were trying to solve was still missing a few letters. It was easy to see that the answer was bucket list. I laughed inside at the uniqueness of the puzzle that was being solved right as I was about to kill the man in front of me, because killing Jimmy Rolofo was definitely the first thing on my bucket list. It was all meant to be.

  I pulled the machete quietly from the sheath that was fastened to my belt and prepared myself for what I was about to do. At first I thought about choosing a different weapon to use on him, but there was just something about a knife that was just more personal. And this hit was definitely personal. And besides that, throat splitting was my specialty. It was quiet; it didn’t draw much attention. I could slice someone’s throat in the middle of a crowded room and no one would even notice. I was just that good.

  I brought the large blade up in front of me and thought about Scarlett. I had waited so long to get revenge for that little girl in the picture wearing that red velvet dress. Her life was turned upside down because of this man in front of me. It was an honor to take him out on her behalf.

  Stepping forward, I brought the blade over him and lowered it down, quickly placing it against his neck and ripping my arm back. He screamed in agony as he flew up from his chair while gripping the open wound.

  I was a seasoned killer, and I knew the exact amount of pressure to apply to obtain what I wanted. And I didn’t want him to die right away, because I had a few things I needed to get off my chest. So when he turned around and stared wide-eyed at me as he gurgled past the blood, I pulled the picture of Scarlett in her red dress from my pocket and held it out in his direction.

  “Remember her you piece of shit?”

  He stumbled backward and crashed into the TV, his blood spilling all over the soiled carpet.

  I stayed right where I was. “Maybe I can refresh your memory.” I pulled out another picture of Scarlett, the one from the hospital with the tubes down her throat. “How about this?” I asked as I held it out for him to see.

  He backed against the wall with both hands to his neck and slid down to the floor.

  I walked slowly over to him and stood over his trembling body. “You were always such a happy-looking son-of-a-bitch, even now. But that ends tonight. My only regret is that I didn’t find you sooner.”

  His hands finally fell from his neck and landed lifelessly to his sides. As the spark left the kindness of his eyes he was finally quiet; he was finally dead.

  I looked around the cabin and surveyed the area, taking note of what I would have to clean up. The closed door in the room had to be the bathroom, so I went over and pushed it open to see what was in there. I wasn’t at all expecting to see the puppy that was being strangled by a rope that was tied to a hook in the ceiling. The rope was tight around his neck and only gave him enough slack for his hind legs to barely touch the floor. “What the hell,” I said as with a newly-found anger as I sliced through the woven cord with the bloody machete, sending the poor thing collapsing to the floor. I bent down and stroked his tired body before picking him up with one gloved hand and holding him against me. “Let’s get you outta here, little guy.”

  * * *

  I always knew she would end up at her brother’s door one day. But I was completely caught off guard when I opened the door and saw her. She looked just like her pictures, those of which I had spent years collecting as they came available. It had been a few years since I had a recent one though, and she had matured quite a bit more. She was absolutely beautiful.

  She assumed I was Eli and she hugged me tightly. I lifted my arms above me to keep from touching her, but in reality all I wanted to do was hold on. Once I told her she was mistaken I revealed to her that I knew who she was and invited her inside. I literally couldn’t keep my eyes off of her. This girl who I had known about for so long was an adult and was standing right in front of me. All I wanted to do was tell her right then and there that Jimmy was dead, that I got revenge on her behalf. But I couldn’t do that.

  When I showed her the photo album her face lit up and it made it even harder for me to not watch her. And when she spoke, I hu
ng on her every word, especially when she spoke of what happened to her as a child. She actually remembered Jimmy’s face when he shot her. If only I could tell her I made it to where he would never look at anyone again with those jolly eyes of his.

  When Eli came home and they were reunited, I offered to take her bag upstairs. Besides wanting to do that for her, I also wanted to lock the door to my office. The last thing I needed was to have her walk into it and see all the photos on the walls.

  Before leaving I raided my safe for a weapon to use for the hit I was getting ready to perform. It was going to be easy; he was a middle-aged man named Bill Winsty who had a lot of money but not a lot of strength. He had crossed Vladimir one too many times for his liking and decided it was time for me to take out the trash. Bill screwing over Vladimir wasn’t the reason I agreed to do the job for him though. This guy was a well-known sex trafficker, focusing mostly on troubled teen girls who had been kicked out of their homes and had nowhere to go. I’d been dying to get my hands on Bill for a while, so I was in a pretty good mood from knowing he was about to see his last day on earth taking advantage of those young girls.

  I looked over my array of weapons and tried to weigh the options in my head but all I could think about was the fact that Scarlett was downstairs. She made it hard for me to concentrate. “Screw it,” I said as I shut the safe and locked it back into place. “I’ll just suffocate the bastard.”

  After going back downstairs and saying my goodbyes, Machete and I got in my car and drove over to Bill’s. He lived in a nice house downtown, and usually parked his ritzy car on the street right in front. I looked around, noticing it was gone. “Damn,” I said to my sidekick, “he’s not home. I guess we’ll have to come back. You wanna get something to eat?” Machete wagged his tail at my words. “Alright,” I said, shifting the car into drive. “Let’s go get something.”

  I waited a couple of hours until going back. That was probably better anyway, because otherwise I would have to wait out in his house until dark so I could carry his body out to dispose of it. This way I wouldn’t have to wait as long.

  Seeing that he was back home and his car was where it was usually at, I parked up the street in some shade and cracked the windows before killing the engine. I took my laptop out from underneath the passenger seat and took a few minutes to hack into Bill’s security system and disable his cameras, which was a pretty easy task. “There,” I said, closing it and sliding it back beneath the seat. “What do you think?” I said, looking over at the cute little wiener dog next to me. “You wanna stay or go?”

  He turned around a few times and then laid down, silently giving me his answer.

  “That’s probably a good idea,” I agreed. “Don’t worry; this won’t take too long.”

  I got out and went around to my trunk to get my faded leather gloves. It was probably time for a new pair, but I was sentimental when it came to stuff so it was hard to retire them. After all, I wore them when I took out Mike Latrell and Jimmy Rolofo, two of the most disgusting human beings on the earth.

  I closed my trunk and stuck my keys in my pocket as I crossed the street. Once I was at his front door I pulled on my gloves and then banged my fist hard against the wood before covering the peephole with my gloved finger.

  “Who is it?” I stayed silent as I heard him approach. “Who is it?” he asked again.

  After my continued silence he unlocked the deadbolt and pulled the door open just enough to look around it to see me.

  “Hi Bill.”

  His eyes widened and he tried to close the door, but before he could I slammed against it and pushed inside. He stumbled backward and I closed it gently behind me, locking it back into place.

  “What do you want, Troy?” he asked nervously, his eyes focusing on my gloved hands.

  I shrugged nonchalantly. “I don’t know, Bill. Why don’t you tell me why I’m here?”

  “Did Vladimir send you?”

  “Yep.”

  He walked backward onto the white carpet of the living room. “Whatever he’s paying you, I’ll pay you more.”

  I moved my aviator sunglasses from my face to the top of my head. “You got any garbage bags?”

  “I, I’ll give you fifty thousand,” he stuttered. “No, how, how about eighty thousand?”

  I went into the kitchen and began rummaging through his lower cabinets. “Anything will do,” I said.

  He let out a breath of relief. “Oh good. I’ll pay you in all cash; I have enough in my safe in my bedroom to pay you with.”

  “No no,” I said with a laugh as I stood back up. “Anything will do, as in anything plastic. But I just don’t see any garbage bags anywhere in your cabinets.”

  “Troy,” he pleaded, “Vladimir is a bad man too, you know. What makes him any different from me?”

  I opened an upper cabinet and pulled out a box of plastic wrap. “Well, I agree that Vladimir isn’t the greatest person on the earth. But the one thing that makes him very different from you is that he doesn’t sell underage girls on the street.” I pulled an extra-long strand of the plastic wrap out of its box and tore it off. “This is some good stuff,” I said down at it as I tugged it tightly between my hands. “Nice and thick.”

  “Oh god,” he moaned behind me. He stumbled backward as I turned around and approached him. “Help!” he yelled at the top of his lungs.

  “Oh don’t you do that,” I warned him. “I’m doing you a favor by making this as painless as possible. If you start yelling I’ll have to change that.”

  He spun around staggered around his furniture. I rolled my eyes and went after him, laughing lightly at what a pansy he was.

  His foot caught the leg of his coffee table and he fell down and rolled onto his back. “One hundred thousand!” he pleaded up at me.

  “No thanks,” I said as I stood over him.

  “I’ll, I’ll give you a girl! You can keep her!”

  My blood began to boil. “That was the wrong thing to say to me, asshole.”

  Realizing his detrimental mistake, he spun around and began to crawl away from me. I flew down over him and put the plastic wrap over his face, pulling his head back with it and securing it behind him with my clenched fists. I stayed silent as he struggled beneath me, fighting for air. It took a bit before his movements stilled, but once he did I released my grip on the plastic and let his head fall to the floor.

  I stood up and looked down at him, moving my glasses back down to shield my eyes. “No one’s going to care that you’re gone, Bill. The police won’t even waste their time looking for you.”

  * * *

  I laid my head back against the concrete and stared up at the stars, taking a puff of my cigar. Performing hits took a lot out of me, and this one was no exception. Even though it was one of my easier ones, it still took a lot of planning and preparation to make sure I didn’t blow my cover or leave behind any evidence. It was a pain getting Bill out of his house unnoticed—I had to wait for it to get a little darker outside—but I finally did it and drove him out to the usual spot where I buried the bodies, which was about an hour out of town in a very remote area. Now that I was back I just wanted to relax and unwind from all the stress of the day.

  “Oh my god!” a woman shouted as she approached the hot tub.

  I sat up quickly. “Scarlett? Is that you?”

  Her hand flew to her chest as she tried to calm herself. “God, you scared me!”

  “I’m sorry I scared you,” I said after turning on the hot tub’s light. “I come out here to relax; the lights make it hard to do that.”

  “That’s okay,” she assured me. “I can go back inside if you want; I don’t want to bother you.”

  “No,” I stopped her. “You don’t have to go. There’s room for one more. Or eight more, technically.”

  She smiled and stepped down in the water across from me. I tried to keep from obviously staring at the three bullet-wound scars on the front of her body, but I couldn’t help myself. To he
ar so much about her story and see the after-effects in person was just so unreal. It made me angry. She didn’t deserve to be left with the scars from that piece of garbage.

  I brought my hand back to my mouth and stuck the cigar between my lips, sliding back down more comfortably in the water. After a moment of puffing I took the cigar away and held it out in her direction. I didn’t take her for a smoker, but I thought I’d offer anyway.

  “Oh, no thank you,” she said quickly. “I don’t smoke.”

  “Yeah, I didn’t think you did.”

  “Easy to tell, huh?”

  “A little,” I smiled. “You’re probably not much of a drinker either.”

  She held her glass up and smiled. “I’m drinking wine.”

  “You ever drink the hard stuff or are you a lightweight?”

  “I can hold my own,” she chuckled. “I’ve attended plenty of parties in my college career.”

  I put my cigar between my teeth. “Really now?” I spoke around it. “We’ve got ourselves a college girl.” Of course, I already knew she went to college, but I couldn’t let her know that.

  “Yep.”

  “What are you going to school for?”

  “To be a teacher, I guess.”

  I took the cigar back into my fingers and leaned to the side, snuffing it out on the concrete. “What do you mean, you guess?”

  “Well, I’m not so sure that’s what I want to be. My mom kind of pressured me into quickly choosing a career path.”

  I picked up one of my throwing knives. “Is there something else that interests you more than being a teacher?” I looked at her only to see a pair of wide eyes focused on the weapon in my hand. “Oh, sorry; it’s just another way I relax.” I sat up straighter in the tub and brought the knife in front of me, aiming it at the tree behind her. As I flicked my wrist and sent it flying past her, she shrieked and looked behind her at my target and then back at me.