Violet Ends

by Jisa Dean

  Me? I'm the brother they call when they want shit done the other two old farts won't do. I'm an equal opportunity killer. Doesn't matter if it's a man or a woman to me. If they're a douche, and they have done bad shit they need killing for, I am more than happy to put a bullet in them. They call me Hades. I stop for no man and no amount of tears can sway me once I have you locked in my sights.

  There are a few things we won't do. Children. We never kill children and innocents. Very seldom do we even try to use innocents to get to our target. We screen our clients and we screen our hits. We have a handler who makes sure we won't be held up by politics - Kronos. But he's not one of us. We are just three guys who got tired of the bullshit at work and started our own business. It just so happens we kill people for a living.

  I know what you're thinking. How the hell did we come up with our names but they make a difference in the communities we run in? We had to take code names because what the fuck were we going to do, walk by and go 'hey Henry you watch the game last night, shit dude you missed one, BANG.' Our code names are what keep the guaranteed distance between our normal lives and our work lives. Hades just felt right and I ran with it.

  Hell, the name of my club is Blue Venus and I had it open for a year before I found these guys. Not a real far stroll for me. I opened The UnderWorld about six months after I met the guys. It just seemed fitting somehow, to call the darker side of the club that after I got stuck with the name Hades. I'm just glad they didn't try to call me fucking Pluto. That would not have been okay with me. All I can hear when I think of Pluto is a happy cartoon dog chasing his own tail. Not something that is going to inspire fear and terror in your colleagues and marks.

  Underneath the lights and the music of Blue Venus is the 'other' club. You have to be a part of an exclusive group of men and women to even hear about it, and then you have to pay the annual fee. You also need a member to vouch for you before you can even pass through the little black door leading down to the club. It's a kink club with privacy and professionalism in mind.

  Instead of everything being blue, down below everything is red and black. Private rooms are set off from the other areas of the club, a fully stocked bar and staging areas for those who like to watch and those that like to be watched are all down below. There's a fully functioning doctor's room for those into medical play and finally, there are cooling off rooms for after. I've thought about putting a pool or tank for water play but my insurance would go through the roof. Do you know how many people I would have to kill to pay that a year?

  I am king of all I see and yet I am bored out of my ever-loving mind. It’s the same thing day in and day out. I look at horny twenty-year-olds trying to fuck on the dance floor above and down below 30-year-olds are trying to fuck and get their rocks off but in a different way. All the sex must be burning me out or maybe because I see it every day I've become desensitized. My dick hasn't been hard in months, maybe years, and I can't tell you the last time I fucked.

  This club used to be my escape from all the death and destruction I caused but here lately it seems to be sending me towards that life again. That's the only explanation I have for sitting here on a Monday night looking at my computer screen waiting to confirm or pass up this latest target. Otherwise, I'm just sad and pathetic, and at thirty-two I am way too damned young to be sad and pathetic.

  My hand hovers over the keys as I speak into the hands-free device so I can stay in touch with the other two Brothers. We've been batting around who would go and off this poor sucker who had the bad misfortune of stumbling upon government secrets. No photo, no address, just a hacker name, and the last IP address used.

  According to Kronos, the kid hacked into the personal computer of a senator or congressman or something and the bastard wants the files destroyed and the problem eliminated. Otherwise, we are looking at a national security mess when it hits the media, weakening our place in world politics enough to cause widespread panic, foreign attack, and general fuckery.

  "Man, how old is this guy again? I mean are we sure we're not killing a really talented fourteen-year-old?" Neptune won't kill a kid.

  "That's why you put the time in and stalk your prey before you go off half-cocked and shoot everything in the room." Zeus is always thinking and planning. It may take him twice as long to get the job done but he'll be thorough and there won't be a mess to clean up after.

  "Let Hades have this one. He doesn't mind killing anything over the age of thirteen."

  You shoot one sixteen-year-old in the ass and it follows you around for the rest of your life.

  "That kid was a complete douche and deserved worse than what I gave him." Bastard was trolling middle schools looking for his next victim, counting on daddy's money to get him off without a record. After I had a chat with him he won't be looking for love for a long, long time and that's if they were able to fix him back well enough.

  "I think Neptune is onto something though. It does have to do with hacking and Neptune doesn't know how to turn a computer on," a 'fuck you' interrupts Zeus. "And I don't have the patience to go that slow while trying to verify if this kid is, in fact, a kid."

  "Sure why the hell not. What the fuck else do I have going on right?"

  "Dude, is the club doing okay?" Neptune asks with concern in his voice or as much concern as we can show anyways. "Cause you sound like someone shot your grandmother, Man"

  Funny considering I was the orphan out of the three of them.

  "Fuck man, you do realize which one of us you are talking to don't you?"

  Complete silence for once and I would pay good money to see Neptune's face right about now.

  "Uh, I'm sorry, dude. You know I'm a complete asshole..." even though having Neptune grovel for me is the highlight of my night I stop him.

  "No worries. You can't miss something you never had." I hit the confirmation button and the chat window pops up immediately linking me to Kronos.

  "You are one more hardcore bastard, you know that. You got fucking ice for blood. Tell him how fucking hardcore he is Zeus."

  "Yes, Zeus, do tell me how I have 'ice for blood'."

  K: No confirmed age, which is troublesome. Were there not the matter of

  national security involved I wouldn't have fooled with it myself.

  Guy wants it over fast and clean. Says to make it look like an accident. I listen to the two of them go back and forth on the three-way. They are the closest thing I have to a family but I'm not going to tell them that. They already give me enough shit.

  H: Price?

  Nothing is for free. One of the first lessons you learn on the streets.

  K: ...

  Don't play dumb mother fucker. Even though I had never met Kronos I knew he wasn't a stupid man. He knew what I was asking but, like the three of us, he had an issue with being the alpha in the room. Even through a fucking computer message.

  H: How much?

  K: Whatever you ask for he's willing to pay.

  The reply was almost instantaneous. Damn. I might get that water tank this year after all.

  H: I'll confirm age and tell you when I make first contact.

  If I have a problem I'll let you know. I wait to see the information I'll need downloaded into the files we use.

  K: As always, happy hunting.

  I’m not one to judge somebody. I am, after all a fucking killer, but the way Kronos always signs off is kind of fucked-up. I lean my head back against the sofa I'm on and think about how different life would be if I had something to lose. Would I stop then?

  "Dude. Are you dead?" shit I forgot we were still connected. "I mean, I know you were typing 'cause we could hear it over the line, but you stopped and if your ass is dead I'm hanging up. I got horses that need taking care of." Ah, Neptune. You got to love the bastard because he was way too hard to kill.

  "Go be with your horses, water boy. I've got work to do as well," he fucking hated when I called him water boy.

  "Told you the son of a bitch would take it,
" he didn't take the bait this time. Neptune cackled before hanging up.

  "No joke, you sure you're okay buddy?"

  "Yes, Dad. I'm okay," even though I was the youngest and Neptune was the oldest Zeus was the one parenting the both of us.

  "I'm just asking as a friend. You don't have to get all bitchy. But if you do need help let us know. And I mean with more than the case. Till next time brother," Zeus hangs up and I am left with silence in my ear for the first time in hours.

  I'm not sure if they worry about me putting a bullet through my own brain, or hiring someone to take me out, but I can tell they're worried. If I did need them they wouldn't hesitate to drop everything and come to help me. I can’t begin to imagine what they would do if they knew how close I was to ending it all out of nothing more than boredom. They'd be like a bunch of old women running around up in here.

  For assassins, they were a bunch of pussies. But I dare anyone else but me to say it. They are my brothers. They are the reason I don't put an end to it all. They might need me one day and I have to stay around for that if for nothing else.

  If I were a young hacker on a Monday night where would I be? I go back to the scene of the crime and easily hack into this guy's system. For someone with so much government clearance, he doesn't know shit about keeping his files safe online. Dumbass.

  I look for anything, a digital fingerprint or signature the guy might have left. Once I find what I’m looking for, I pull out and go deep to find where the guy is now. I find DarkKore on a gaming site trying to fend off orcs or some shit. I sit and wait for the opportune time to engage.

  H: Nice one. How long have you been playing?

  DK: Who is this? You don't have an avatar?

  H: Nope. Not yet. I'm new.

  Only on level five but I hope to be as good as you one day.

  DK: As flattering as that is,

  I don't talk to people I don't know.

  You could be a pedophile or something.

  H: Wow how old are you if you're worried about that?

  DK: Old enough.

  She, and the only reason I say she is because her avatar was a female, which doesn't mean shit, but for now she is a she, signs off. But not before I can track her ass down and follow her when she enters another site. It looks like she is typing a message to someone in a chat group now.

  DK: You know that thing we talked about this morning. It's really starting to freak me out and I don't know what I should do. Someone just tried to creep on me in my game and I went right to the worst-case scenario. I can't even play my stupid game anymore. I can't live this way.

  I wait for the response. And wait and wait. Eventually, she goes offline and I realize they either communicated some other way other than online or they met somewhere to talk. I close my computer and sit back. There's always tomorrow.

  Available on Amazon.com or continue reading on Kindle Unlimited

  Blue Venus

  Also by Jisa Dean:

  The Lake Series

  Lake House

  Lakeside Daddy

  Down by the Lake

  The Librarian Series

  Booked

  Overdue

  Late Notice

  The Brothers Series

  Blue Venus

  Crimson Deep

  Violet Ends

  The Within Series

  The Animal Within

  Coming Soon!

  Dark Redemption (The Black Star Series: Book One)

  Code Blue (The Hospital Series: Book Two)

  Lakefront Property (The Lake Series: Book Four)

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