by Love, B. T.
“I’m good at what I do,” I told her.
“I know you are.”
“And, and I enjoy it.” I sighed and stepped forward, placing my hands on her arms. “No one can make me change the way that I am. This is just me. This is the only way I know how to deal with the things I saw when I was young. The only way I can survive in this world is to do the job that I do. Everyone copes in their own way; doing what I do is a coping mechanism for me. And if you can’t handle that about me then, then I guess we can’t be—”
“Can’t be what?” she interrupted. “Can’t be together? Are you breaking up with me?”
“Scarlett,” I shrugged lightly, “were we even together?”
Her eyes closed tightly with visible pain. “No,” she said as she opened them again and stared up at me. “I guess we weren’t.” She shrugged my hands off of her and turned around, going back inside.
It was done. I defeated her heart and saw it written so plainly on her lovely face. The sight crushed me. It was one of the worst days of my life.
* * *
She didn’t know I was in my room down the hall from her. I was going to go home but I felt I needed to be close to her until I knew she was safely on her way to the airport. After Eli had texted me that she was leaving in the morning I felt a mixture of both relief and excruciating pain. I didn’t want her to go.
I swiveled in my chair and leaned back, staring at my wall of pictures. I shouldn’t have ever let her see them; I should have secured the room better. That’s what a professional would have done. But this house was the most secure place for me to even have this room in the first place. Well, besides my own house of course. But I couldn’t take having all of this around me twenty-four-seven. It would drive me insane. And this house was secure in itself and no one intruded. No one until Scarlett.
I sighed heavily through my nose and took my phone in my hand. Opening my photos, I went to the picture of her I took at the pool. She was so beautiful and radiant in the glowing of the setting sun. I would keep that picture for the rest of my life, and maybe I would even add it to my photo album. I found myself forlorn as I became aware that I would be watching her from a distance yet again.
A sound broke my concentration: her bedroom door quietly opening. My ears were trained well to pick up on even the quietest of sounds, and I could hear her careful footsteps make the floors quietly creak beneath her weight. When I heard the beep from her disarming the alarm downstairs, I stood up from my chair and turned off the light, and then proceeded to the window to peek through the closed blinds. There she was, walking barefoot across the grass.
“What the hell are you doing outside at this time of night?” I whispered to myself as I watched her sit down on the edge of the lawn. I had already set up a meeting for the next day to deliver the two hundred thousand to Nicoli Sabatini, but I still didn’t feel like she was any safer because of it. After finding out how much money Mitch actually owed other powerful people in the city I was on high alert; anyone could come for what was owed to them at any moment.
She put her face in the palms of her hands and I sighed heavily at the sight; I needed to bring her in. But before I could make another move, someone else did first. My eyes burned with wrath as I watched a man put his knife to her neck and drag her away from safety, the safety she was supposed to be feeling in the protection of my arms.
I immediately left the window and went to my closet, changing into my solid black clothes, beginning the process I was accustomed to doing before performing a hit. This time was much different, though. I knew about the man who pulled Scarlett away. His name was David, and he was an extremely violent man who worked for Dimitri Bardin. He would be rough on her with no remorse whatsoever.
As my pulse raced I went to my safe and retrieved the machete. If there was ever a time to take it out of retirement, it was now, to protect the same woman it did once before. It was another fitting moment to put it to use; I was going to kill the men responsible for hurting her. Taking extra precaution, I skipped over the guns and decided to take my smaller knife as well. I wanted to be quiet when I took care of these two.
Before leaving my room I went back to my closet and took the duffel bag full of money into my hand. I didn’t know if it would be enough to pay off whatever Mitch owed him, but it was better than nothing. Nicoli would have to wait another day to get what was owed to him.
I went to Eli’s door and banged against it with my fist. “Get up!” I yelled. “Dimitri Bardin has Scarlett!”
Seconds later his door swung open. “What?”
“I just saw her go outside; David Pilonto put a knife to her neck and threw her into a limo.”
His face fell even more. “David Pilonto . . .”
“I know.” I flipped around and headed down the hall as he followed after me. “How much does your dad owe him?”
“Uh, I think three hundred.”
“Three hundred thousand?” I asked as we hurried down the stairs. “I don’t have that much.” I went to Mitch’s bedroom door and pounded against it. “Mitch!” I tried the handle but it was locked. “Open the damn door,” I yelled, pounding on it again.
He opened it with wide eyes. “What the hell’s going on?”
“Scarlett’s been taken by Dimitri.”
“What?” he asked in disbelief. “Are you sure?”
“What kind of a question is that?” I asked, getting closer to his face. “This is your damn fault. Now how much do you owe him?”
His eyes closed tightly with regret. “Three hundred and fifty thousand.”
My lips pursed with rage. “You better hope you can figure out how to get the other one hundred and fifty thousand to pay him with, because David’s the one that put a knife to her neck and took her away.”
His hand came to his mouth. “Lord, no, please.” The sound of his cell phone chiming pierced the tense air. He ran back into his room and retrieved it, bringing it back with him. “It’s a video.” He pressed the button to play it and up popped the image of Scarlett with David’s fist wrapped in her hair. We all watched as he put his knife to her neck while Dimitri voiced his orders. “Oh my god,” Mitch sobbed. “What will I do!”
“Where’s his cabin?” I asked.
“It, it’s way out past the Miller’s property line. Do you know where that is?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Drive down along their property and continue to follow the dirt road about ten miles out. There’ll be a large rock off to the right that sticks out like a sore thumb; that marks another dirt path that’s hard to see from the road. That’ll lead you to it.”
“How far down that path until I hit the cabin?”
“About a mile.”
“What’s going on?” Rebecca cut in as she came down the stairs.
“I gotta go.” I flipped around and hurried out, passing her on the way. “Ask Mitch. It’s his fault this all happened in the first place.”
* * *
I stood beside a large tree and stared directly into Dimitri’s cabin 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 no one would see me. It was a complete déjà vu. I found myself once again watching a man responsible for hurting Scarlett, the setting the same, the cabin similar to Jimmy’s.
My fists clenched as David opened the door and stepped outside; I couldn’t wait to get my hands on that piece of garbage. I held my knife in my palm and raked my thumb over the sharp blade. All I wanted to do was throw it at him and lodge it into his eye, but doing that would make him scream and I needed him to stay quiet so Dimitri wouldn’t be alerted to my arrival. I slid it back into my pocket, deciding to go with my trusted machete instead.
He walked down the steps and surveyed the dark woods as he pulled his pack of cigarettes from his back pocket. “Come on out, Troy,” he said as he slid one out and put it between his lips.
I stayed still and continued to watch him. At
first I thought he was smart enough to realize I was there, but as he flicked his thumb over his lighter and held it to his cigarette I realized that he was just talking to the trees.
He took the cigarette out from between his lips and blew a stream of smoke into the air. “Come get your little whore of a girlfriend. What’s taking you so long, huh? You better hurry or I’ll be forced to sample the goods myself, if you know what I mean.”
My breaths grew heavier. I stepped away from the tree, carefully placing one boot in front of the other. One by one my steps took me closer behind him as I readied my hand on the handle of my machete, preparing to attack. When I was just a few feet away, my boot settled on a twig that was too dry to hold up beneath the heaviness of my weight. It snapped.
David went for his gun and spun around. I acted quickly and grabbed a hold of it with one hand while laying into his face with my opposite elbow. My hit barely phased him as he growled and lunged forward, slamming his head against my face. It hurt like hell but I returned the gesture, knocking him back with a harder blow than his. He faltered for a quick moment and I tackled him to the ground. He struggled beneath me, punching up at me with his free hand while I pinned my knee down on his hand holding the gun. My other hand went to his neck and I strangled him as he reached over and took a large rock into his grasp. I dodged his attack as he tried to knock me across the face with it. I wasn’t a lefty, but I had no choice. I reached across my other side and pulled the machete from its sheath, taking it out and quickly dragging it across his neck. “It was a pleasure, David,” I said down at him as his face panicked from the intense pain. I stayed on top of him until his gurgling eventually subsided and he dropped the rock. It wasn’t my finest work, but it got the job done.
I stood up and tried to compose myself from the sharp blows to the head I had just suffered. Looking over at the cabin window, I could see Scarlett spit in Dimitri’s face. “Shit,” I said to myself as I spit some remnants of blood out of my mouth that was brought on from my little scuffle with David. He towered above her and brought his hand back, slapping her firmly across her cheek. I saw red. With my machete in my right hand, I dug in my pocket and retrieved my smaller knife and then hurried up the steps and slowly opened the door.
“David, we’re having an issue with this little Nicoletti bitch,” Dimitri said as he fisted Scarlett’s hair and pushed her head back up from slumping down at her chest. “I think you’ll need to put the fear of god into her for me.”
My silence prompted Dimitri to look over his shoulder. When he saw it was me he chuckled and slowly moved next to Scarlett, cranking her head all the way back with the pulling of her hair.
“Let her go,” I warned him. “You know me, Dimitri. I’m not gonna ask you again.”
A chuckle rumbled from Dimitri’s chest as he unraveled his fingers from her hair. “I see you’ve found David. It’s a shame, I really liked him.”
“We’re done here,” I said, taking a step forward.
“Ah ah ah,” he replied as he pulled a knife from his pants pocket and flicked it open, placing the blade against Scarlett’s neck. “You know me, Mr. Valenti. I don’t give up that easily.”
I took another step forward, and then another, all while calculating my plan to safely get Scarlett away from him.
Dimitri dug the knife deeper into the side of her neck. “Don’t test the waters, Troy.”
I took another step. “I have two hundred thousand.”
“Really?” he said with amusement. He leaned down to the side of Scarlett’s face. “See?” he said, patting her harshly on her cheek with his free hand. “I told you your dad would come through for you.”
“Mitch didn’t come through for her; I did.”
“Really,” Dimitri said, standing back up. “Hmm. Well, all that matters is that I get what’s owed to me; I don’t care whose pocket it came from. If we add that to what Vladimir is willing to contribute, then we’re only fifty thousand away.”
My eyes bored into him. “Take the knife away from her neck.”
“I’ll take it away when I have the cash in my hand. All of the cash in my hand.”
“I’ll get you what I have when you remove the knife.”
“Oh, come on Troy,” he chuckled. “You can trust me. You used to work for me, remember?”
“That was a long time ago,” I replied calmly.
“Well, David’s position just opened up, as you already know, and I would love to offer it to you.”
“No thanks.”
“What, you wouldn’t work for me again?” he asked, his voice unusually cheerful.
“Not on my life.”
He glanced down at Scarlett. “But what about on her life?
My eyes burned into him. “Take the knife away from her neck.”
Dimitri chuckled. “Oh, Troy. Well I guess it looks as though we’re at a standstill. Because I think I’ve changed my mind about all this. I don’t want the money anymore, I want you. I can really use your services.”
“That’s not gonna happen.”
“Oh, come on.” He took the knife away from her neck and held his arm out to his side as he shrugged. “We’re like family.”
I took advantage of the short opportunity I had. I brought my arm up and flicked my wrist, quickly sending my knife into Dimitri’s gut. He doubled over, screaming in agony. I hurried to his side and wrapped my arm around his head and pulled it back, placing the bloody machete up against the front of his neck. “I don’t think there’s a way this can end any differently,” I said calmly next to his ear. “Now drop the knife.”
“I’m just an old man, Troy,” he said with a smile in his voice. “Surely we can come to an agreement.”
“Any opportunity we had to agree on something passed when you put your hand on Scarlett. Drop your knife.”
“If you say so.” He swung his arm down and back in an attempt to connect with my body. I moved as I held him, trying to dodge the attack, but when he swung a second time he stuck it in my side.
I growled from the pain. “Close your eyes, Scarlett,” I ordered her after realizing I had no choice but to take him out.
“No,” she shouted.
“Close your eyes!” I begged her.
“Just do it, Troy!”
I didn’t know why she insisted on watching, but what I did know was that I was in pain, and I just wanted to get everything over with. I pulled my arm back swiftly, slicing through the delicate flesh of his neck in one smooth motion, the action sending speckles of his blood spraying across her face as the machete cut through his veins. Dimitri gurgled something incomprehensible as his blood poured out of his mouth and spilled down from the deep gouge I had made. Once his body felt lifeless I dropped him to the floor, completing the job.
Poor Scarlett was shaking uncontrollably. I sat the bloody machete on the table and then crouched down in front of her. “Are you okay?” I asked gently.
“I, I don’t know.”
I leaned over and took Dimitri’s knife from off the ground and used it to slice through the zip ties on her ankles. “I told you not to watch,” I spoke calmly down at her feet which were bare and covered in dirt.
“I know.”
I stood up and went around to her back, cutting through the ties to release her hands. “Why didn’t you want to look away?” I asked.
“Because he hurt me.” She pulled her arms around to the front of her and massaged her wrists. “He told me he was going to kill me if my dad didn’t bring him the money. And then he said he was going to sell me to Vladimir, and that Vladimir was rough in the bedroom.”
My eyes narrowed; I didn’t like hearing that. “He said that?”
She nodded as a tear made a trail in the dirt on her cheek. “Yes.”
I sighed and tossed Dimitri’s knife on the table. “I’m sorry.”
Her eyes went to the bloody blade. “Are you okay?” she asked. “He stabbed you.”
I was so caught up in everything that I wasn’
t even focusing on my own pain. “I’m fine.” I offered her my blood-smeared hand. “Come here, baby.” She took my hand and stood up from the chair. I pulled her against me, wrapping my arms tightly around her; I finally felt like she was safe. “I didn’t mean what I said about whether or not we were even together, I want you to know that.”
She sobbed against my shoulder. “Don’t lie to me, Troy. Just because this happened to me it doesn’t mean you have to feel sorry for me or something.”
“No, baby,” I shushed her while running a hand down the back of her hair. “When Vladimir showed up at my house yesterday morning he warned me that a man named Nicoli Sabatini had been heard discussing some kind of retribution against your dad for the money he owed him. He said Nicoli was having the house watched and that we needed to keep an eye out. My main focus was on keeping you safe at that point, and the only way I knew how to do that was to convince you to leave.”
“Then why didn’t you just tell me Troy?” she said, looking up at me with frustration. “I’m not a little kid; I could have handled it.”
“I know, Scarlett. But I didn’t want to explain everything to you. And your dad, he doesn’t want you knowing that he owes so many of these people money.”
She pushed away from me and turned her back on me, putting her blood-splattered face into the palms of her hands; I missed her instantly. “I can’t even think right now. So much has happened, so much . . .”
I came up behind her and pressed my body against her back while my hands came to rest of the sides of her arms. “I know; I know it’s a lot to process.”
“Get off of me,” she said as she shrugged me away. “I can’t even look at you right now; I can’t look at anyone right now. Everyone I know lies to me.” She went over to the window and looked off at the distant glow of the sun beginning its rise. “Even my brother lied to me. He told me they were going to help me with college, with becoming a biologist. But how could that even be possible if my dad owes everyone money? And apparently he owes people hundreds of thousands of dollars. And these are dangerous people, Troy.” She shook her head and turned back around to see me. “I mean, the guy you were worried about coming for my family wasn’t even the one that took me.”