Nathan
I triedto keep up as Vincent spoke, but the deeper he got into his story, the harder it was for me to understand what he was telling me. It was the shit that didn’t exist in real life, only on the big screen in high octane action movies. But as he told me about the first man he’d killed when he’d been sent out on his own for his first solo operation, I knew it was true.
He was an assassin.
There was just no other way to describe what he was telling me. He’d been given a target with orders to pull the trigger, and he’d done it.
That simple.
Except that it wasn’t, because I knew this man. I knew in my bones that he wasn’t capable of cold-blooded murder.
“How many?” I interjected.
“How many what?” he asked, his voice solemn.
“How many people have you killed?”
Vincent straightened and hardened his jaw. “I lost track after the first twenty or so.”
I managed a nod. “Go on,” I said, because I knew in my gutthere was more to his story. He was a hard man, but he wouldn’t just pull the trigger and end a life for no reason.
“About three years into the job, I knew something had changed. I’d trusted the man in charge of the unit, so we’d always had really good intel about our targets and why they were being terminated. But when the guy retired, the unit got a new director, and I knew pretty much right away that things were different. I was assigned to take out this twenty-something-year-old grad student, but something about the whole thing was wrong to me. So instead of completing the job, I followed the kid and tried to learn as much about him as I could. Turned out he was this genius who was designing a guidance system that he was hoping to present to NASA for their space program. Only, the government decided they could put the guidance system to better use on their ICBMs.”
“ICBMs…those are intercontinental ballistic missiles,” I murmured. “They carry nuclear warheads.”
Vincent nodded. “The kid wasn’t interested in giving his technology to the government, so they took it. When he discovered the theft, he threatened to go to the press. That was when I was called in.”
“They wanted you to silence him.”
“Only they didn’t sell it that way. The kid’s parents were Middle Eastern, so they sold me on the angle that the kid was trying to sell the guidance system to the highest bidder.”
“What happened to him?” I asked. “Were you able to save him?”
Vincent stiffened and sat back a little. “You’re so certain I didn’t do it?” he asked in confusion.
I shook my head in disbelief. “Vincent, I know you,” I whispered. “You’re…you’re not like that. Whatever you did early on, you did it because you believed it was the right thing. And because you had proof.”
He studied me for a long time before continuing. “I didn’t do it, but I knew my handler would just send someone along who would do the job without question. I helped get the kid and his parents setup in another country with new identities. But doing that painted a target on my back.”
“They came after you,” I said softly as things began to make sense.
“The team they sent found Pierce instead of me that night.”
I swallowed hard as I remembered the gruesome details he’d shared with me about his brother’s murder.
“What did you do?” I asked.
“I became the hunted,” Vincent responded. “So I got smart. It was that or face a lifetime of running.” He settled back against the cushions. “Three years of killing people for the government taught me who the power players were. So, while they played cat and mouse with me, I did the same with them. I convinced those in power that killing me wouldn’t safeguard their precious secrets.”
“That worked?” I asked.
“Not at first. I had to prove that I was in the game until the end. Every team they sent after me I sent back in body bags. And every time they tried to take me down, I leaked some of their secrets. Not enough to bring any one person down, but enough to make them uncomfortable. I became known asThe Ghost.”Vincent waved his hand. “I know, it’s a stupid nickname, but I was more interested in what it meant.”
“What did it mean?”
“It meant anyone who came into contact with me should be scared. That I could appear and disappear whenever and however I wanted. That I could take someone down as easily with information as I could with my gun. Eventually the powers that be figured it was safer just to leave me be.”
“But…you still live like this,” I murmured as I motioned to the house.
