Several minutes later, he sends me a text, and I press the text-to-speech button, listening to the message out loud. “Thanks for your service.”
Moments later, fourteen million hits my account.
I turn the key in the ignition and head into traffic, leaving my mask on just in case the street cameras are around. As soon as I get to the under ground garage parking area, I remove my mask, get out of the beat-up car, and hand the mask, gun, and keys to Ronny. He puts the mask on his face and gets into the rusty car. I pay him to get rid of the evidence, and he’s going to take the car to the junkyard so it can get scrapped. A sports car pulls up, and I get inside to greet Fox, my longtime friend who’s a hitman as well.
“You sure get uglier every time I see you.”
“Shut the fuck up,” he tells me, punching me in the arm.
I met him through the organization I used to work for, and I asked him to sit at the bookstore to protect Autumn.
“You owe me a lot for sitting at the bookstore.”
“I’ll send you three million dollars. So what happened? How was my angel?”
“Angel, huh?” He shakes his head. “No, she played on her phone when customers weren’t around and asked me if I needed anything and got me fantasy novels. She’s pretty and standoffish. Her friend is interested in fucking, though. She gave me her number.”
“Are you going to fuck her?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know.”
“Take me to the bookstore.”
He does what I say, puts the car in gear, and drives into traffic.
“What’s your deal with Autumn?”
I tap the button on the door, and the window automatically rolls down. “What do you mean?”
“Are you serious about her?”
I hang my arm out the door, and the night breeze hits my face. “Hell yeah, I am.”
He turns right at the light, getting on the highway, and worry lines crease at the corners of his mouth. “Are we still up for poker night next Tuesday?”
Every two weeks, our friends get together and have game night. Working as a hitman, I don’t have many friends, so we try to be as tight-knit as possible.
“Of course. We’ll have it at my place.”
An hour later, he parks the car in the middle of the street, and I open the car door.
“Be careful, Demonte. I don’t want you to get hurt. You know how our lifestyle is.”
Our lifestyle isn’t built for marriage.
I nod before shutting the door. Cars honk their horns, and he zooms off.
I stand against a street post and watch her as she sweeps the floors and hits the lights. I send a message to my driver to drop off my car in front of Autumn’s apartment building.
The urge to be around her is growing. I’ve never been this obsessed with anyone, not even the last person I dated. My lifestyle is lonely. Yes, I do one-night stands, but it doesn’t fill the void in my heart, and I never thought about pursuing anything with them.
She shuts the glass door and begins to walk to the left, so I follow her and keep my distance. There is no reason for my angel to be walking alone in the dark. There are predators out here lurking, ready to snatch her. That alone makes me want to rip someone’s head off.
She gets to a seedy apartment complex, where crackheads hang outside the brick stairs as she runs past them, clutching her purse tightly.
I follow her up the stairs to the third floor and watch her unlock her door, and she walks inside.
I need to get her away from this dump. There is no way I’m allowing her to stay here, and I’m going to convince her to fall in love with me. I rush up to her door, and I knock.
