“We’re hit men, Rue.”
I hear him, but for some reason the words bounce around my head searching for a meaning that makes sense in this context, but landing on the only definition that makes sense.
“You kill people?”
“Yes. When hired to do so.”
“You… You’re…” I pause, letting that sink in. I left one criminal only to be kidnapped by another one. Wow, my decision-making skills are on point lately.
“We’re part of an organization,” Carnage explains. “We’re hired to take care of problems that can’t be taken care of in other ways.”
“Like, when a husband doesn’t want to pay alimony or child support? You kill his wife? I watch true crime.”
“Not that kind of hit man. We don’t work for the public and we’re selective about our clients.”
“Like, um, like the Mafia? You only kill other people in the Mafia?”
“No, not the Mafia. We kill people like Leon, and others like him who are into bad shit and get in over their heads or fuck with the wrong people. The Mafia takes care of itself. We take care of the rest.”
“You only kill bad guys?”
He tilts his head back and forth, his lips pressed tight in a look that reads as “mostly” to me. “That’s the goal. We have an intensive vetting process we rely on before we take a job.”
“That’s how you have a tracking app you can install?”
“Yes.”
“Is it just you and Whisper?”
“Oh no. There’s a lot of us. You’ll meet them all.”
Swallowing hard, I nod. I’m hardly in a position to be picky, but I literally just jumped out of the frying pan into the fire.
“You’re safe, Rue.” Carnage’s voice is soft and comforting, as if he can read my mind. “None of us will hurt you. We don’t hurt anyone unless we’re paid to or they cross us.” He rubs my arm. “You don’t need to worry.”
“You had a plan to kidnap me?”
He nods. “We could’ve killed everyone, but that’s dangerous. You might have been caught in the crossfire. If we couldn’t get to you today, our plan was to follow you to your house and break in tonight.”
“Oh. That would’ve been hard. Leon keeps me with him at night and he has guards outside his bedroom door.”
“Is he that paranoid or is he that much of a criminal?”
“Both. Mostly drugs, from what I can tell, but he deals with some pretty shady people.”
“You sleep with him?”
“Literally sleep. When I can. He doesn’t, well, he…” I huff a breath. “It’s complicated.”
“Does he hurt you, Rue?”
I nod, shifting my eyes to hands in my lap. “That just started. I mean, he’s always been kind of rough, but he smacked me for the first time a few days ago.”
I’m not looking at Carnage, but I feel his body tense, drawing my gaze to his face. He looks pissed, his brow furrowed, eyes narrowed, jaw set tight.
“He, um, he has a plan for me,” I continue. Maybe if Carnage understands what’s at stake, he’ll be motivated to help me get out of town. “For his birthday, he’s having a party, and um, from what I overheard, he was planning to, um…” I can’t say it.
“Planning to what?”
