Page 9 of April's Fool (Northarbor Coven Book 2)

A Hitman's Work is Never Done

Damon

As I walked away from my best friend and his mate, I brought my phone to my ear, already dialing the only other number saved.

“‘Bout fucking time you called! Where the hell have you been?” Parker’s voice was a low, rumbling growl of agitation. “You’ve been gone for hours! I’ve not heard from you since that last text.”

“You know where. Don’t tell me you haven’t been keeping tabs on me. Or did I find the last tracer you put on me, hmm?”

“Fuck you, Damon, you know you got them all. So I’ve been wondering where the fuck you disappeared off to for hours. All I knew was that you needed my help to track down Basil.” Parker spat the name out. “Then it was radio silence for literal hours. Not even a thank you, Parks.”

“I’m sorry… it was… Parks, I was so helpless. There were all these witches and other shifters. The situation was a mess.”

Silence fell between us before he spoke. “Damon… I get it, okay? I worried, but you needed your focus on what was happening. What do we do now?”

“Well, Basil is in the wind. That’s going to take some time and careful digging to scare him out of hiding.”

“I can practically sense the mental cogs turning. Do you have a plan?”

“How do you feel about ending Austin?”

Parker’s rich laughter warmed my soul. This is why he was my family. We were of the same mind most of the time.

“Austin, huh? I feel quite good about it. Like it’s necessary, y’know. How do you want to do this?”

Laughter bubbled up, pushing away the last of my melancholy from watching Cody with Toth, the demons, and the shifters. All of them had a place. There was nowhere for me. I shoved that last trace of sadness away.

“I think our friend is going to have a terrible accident.”

Home, sweet, home. Or rather, temporary base, sweet… yada yada. I had this feeling that prickled under my skin, that we needed to be moving bases soon. We had spent weeks in this place, more than we usually did, and there were too many threats.

Parker’s face filled with relief as I walked through the door. He stood from his desk, crossed the room in a few steps, and had his arms around me for a crushing hug.

“Overreaction much?” I huffed into his neck.

“Shut up,” he muttered against my head.

He was about half a foot taller than me. He had the alpha height, just not the alpha designation. I’d wished for it, for Parker to have been born an alpha. Prayed to Parker’s goddess, when he had fallen to the beta sickness. Parker had shaved years off my life when he became ill and slipped into a coma within a day like all the betas in the Sweetwater pack had. For an entire month, I’d watched him. I’d paid private nurses, all kinds of healers, even approached a witch for my brother, but nothing except time had done the trick.

The beta sickness was still a mystery, yet it had affected vast amounts of betas. It affected the Sweetwater pack disproportionately. The Northarbor pride had a few betas affected and the Northarbor aviary had none. They were the strongest indicator that there was an outside force at work there. Perhaps Parker’s beloved goddess, The Luna.

Parker had taken weeks to recover and still hadn’t gained all of his former muscle tone back. Partly because I had been reluctant to let him back into the field with me. But I would need him for my plan.

We broke from our hug, both looking away in our embarrassment. I loved Parker. He was my family, but we didn’t hug and do feelings.

“So I have a plan. I’ll need your help on this one.” Then I launched into how I was going to end Austin’s life for all that he had done to Cody.

Bonus was, it would damage the company that had fired my best friend for being half demon, too.

There wasn’t a lot of time for us to plan it. We talked into the night before crashing for a few hours’ sleep. If we wanted to get this done, Parker needed to be in Austin’s building before the lunch orders went out. I had to be there all freaking day, to not stand out.

Worse still, I had to wear a poorly fitting suit! A cheap one that I might have stolen from Cody’s closet. What? Now he had no need for it. He was going to be a freaking prince! He shouldn’t be seen dead in that ghastly poly-blend suit!

Parker got into the building easily under the guise of doing maintenance. He had already hacked into the security system earlier, but Parker also had a physical part to play in our plan. He was lucky and got access to Austin’s office after looping the cameras, so his presence would go undetected. With his quarry in hand, he went to the break room for the next part of the plan.

Job done with no one noticing he wasn’t there to actually work, Parker left the building just as the order for the food went through.

Austin was easy to anticipate. He liked things on a schedule and only ever ate from the building’s cafeteria. They were used to his demands, however ludicrous, and catered to him with only muttered complaints.

The building was vast, and they served breakfasts and lunches to many of the employees for a subsidized fee. Yeah, the company was so greedy that they didn’t even provide free meals. This worked in Austin’s favor, as he had very particular dietary requirements. His meals were prepared especially for him under strict controls. Really, it worked for me too. My job was to get my hands on Austin’s lunch and switch them out.

I completed the trade quickly and easily. No one really noticed me and I knew that Parker would have my back and scrub any trace of me, switching them on the cameras in the cafeteria. They needed to be able to see me collect the food and take it to Austin.

Prize in hand, I took the elevator to Austin’s floor, whistling a jaunty tune as I stood alone for the car to get to the correct level .

“Don’t celebrate just yet. We need this to go off without a hitch. Get ready to give an Oscar worthy performance, Damon.” Parker’s voice came from the tiny monitor in my ear.

Most places of business had wards that prevented most spells from working. They always forgot about technology. I shook my head, but stopped whistling. I didn’t reply, not needing to be seen talking to myself.

At her desk, Austin’s assistant was looking harassed. “Oh, hey. I’ve not seen you before.”

“Intern,” I explained. I’d used clever make-up and prosthetics to look younger than my thirty years. “Got lunch for… Austin?”

She lit up. “Fab. He’s in a bear of a mood. Would you mind going in?” I would not feel bad for her later. She was willing to throw an intern into the lion’s den, knowing that I was going to get the brunt of Austin’s foul mood.

Maybe I’d had Parker play with some of their systems while he was in the building. It was child’s play for him to access their system. Really, for such a powerful company, their security was shocking. If I fancied being legit, I could consult with them to fill those holes. If they took Cody back first, though.

Frankly, I didn’t see that happening after we were done with them. Plus, a prince was far too important to be working for a shitty company like this. Maybe I could convince him to sue them for the last of their worth later on. I’m sure Cody had dreams that needed funding.

Maybe Mori could help with that. Those suits… the man wasn’t hurting for cash. He was impeccably dressed and seemed to be used to money. Hadn’t he said something about owning hotels?

I often found my thoughts drifting back to the demon. What it was about him that had caught my attention, I didn’t know. There was something aside from the perfect fashion sense, hot body, and charming personality. Perhaps it was just how clearly he loved my friend. He was so accepting that I couldn’t help but feel jealous. I’d found myself wanting some of Mori’s attention on me. My skin buzzed when he made eye contact or we touched.

Austin made me wait a full minute in the corridor outside his office after I knocked. This was a power play on his part. Pretending he was much too busy working to deal with an underling. He knew it was his lunch because I heard his assistant call him. I’d also heard her curse his name after she hung up. Yeah, she wouldn’t last in this job for long with that attitude.

“Come in,” Austin finally called.

I entered the large corner office that was supposed to be Cody’s, finding that Austin had already put a bunch of tacky personal touches to the space. The decor was nineties wall-street, flashy and fake.

Austin looked me up and down, then dismissed me, immediately snatching the tray from my hands and uncovering the dishes.

Nothing that he ordered was that extravagant. A simple salad and tomato soup, which looked like it was going cold. There was a fruit compote with greek yogurt for dessert.

“Dismissed,” Austin muttered as he lifted a spoonful of soup to his lips. He slurped it off the spoon and grimaced with distaste. He tried another few before pushing the bowl away. “Fucking cold.”

He must have sensed my continued presence because he looked up at me. “You can go.”

“No, sorry, sir. I have to check that it is to your liking. The kitchen said they’ve had complaints and want to fix them.”

No word of a lie there. Austin’s list of complaints was long and varied. He huffed, but ignored me and picked up his fork to try his salad.

I had paid little attention to what was in the salad, only that it was going to have an extra ingredient this time.

It must have passed muster, or he was starving because he devoured it. Within minutes, he was tossing his fork down and reaching for his dessert .

Worry filled my gut the longer he went on eating his food. I was glad that there was little to no trace in the salad, but I began to doubt that I’d picked up the right one when it started.

Austin’s eyes went wide, his spoon halted halfway to his mouth. He scratched at his throat with one hand. The spoon fell and clattered on his glass desk. His eyes went wide, then bulging.

He fumbled for his desk and opened it violently. I knew he wouldn’t find what he wanted in there.

“Sir?” I asked, faux concern filling my tone. “Are you okay?”

“Allergic. Help!” Austin got out.

Playing the role perfectly, I rushed to the door. “Help! He’s having an allergic reaction!” I yelled.

The assistant stood. “There’s a pen in his desk!”

I turned to look at Austin. His lips seemed to be going blue. It was a good look on him. His face was red and sweaty. He shook his head.

“It’s not there!” I shouted at her. Hiding my glee was hard. Never in my time as a hitman had I enjoyed my job so much. Time to get out of the business , I thought vaguely to myself.

“Shit!” She got up and ran to the break room. In a matter of seconds, she was back with an epi-pen. I knew that the company had a stock of them on each floor since Austin wasn’t the only one with a serious allergy that worked there. They were also practical enough to know that having a healer on staff was expensive and this place was cheap.

The assistant dashed into Austin’s office and went to use the pen herself. Austin snatched it out of her hand, un-capped it, and sank it into his upper thigh while she called for an ambulance.

We waited, Austin’s lips getting more and more blue, his eyes bloodshot, his tongue thick.

Nothing happened.

In front of me, Austin died. I was sure he caught my smirk before he passed out.

“Oh, my god! Fuck! Is he—?” The assistant went into a panic. The phone slipped from her hand, the call still connected, as I stood stock still.

“I think he’s dead.” I infused my voice with shock.

“Oh, shit.”

The ambulance and what seemed like half of the management team arrived minutes later. Just after them, the police arrived and allowed the body to be taken away.

Someone steered me into a seat in the break room and pressed a cup of weak tea into my hands.

“I think he’s in shock. Can this wait?” someone said from nearby. A hand rested on my shoulder.

“We need to get the details of what happened now before anything is missed.”

Distantly, I heard a muttering of a “tragic accident.” Parker laughed in my ear and my lips twitched.

Eventually, I let them know that this was my first day, and I had the responsibility of picking up Austin’s lunch and bringing it to him. They would examine the camera footage later and not find anything suspicious. Austin’s allergic reaction to the peanut oil in his salad would be chalked up to careless cross contamination in the kitchen.

It was just so tragic that Austin’s epi-pen was missing. It must have gotten lost in the move to the new office. In fact, they would find it in his old desk if they looked.

The epi-pen in the break room, though? That was negligent on behalf of the company. Out of date and damaged? There was no way for the epinephrine to work. It had gone bad. Austin had basically injected himself with water for all that it had helped.

Hours later, I was let go from the company with a glowing letter of recommendation, a hefty check for my troubles, and a number for a therapist.

I felt no remorse then. Just for a second, which worried me .

“He deserved it,” Parker said when I returned to the apartment.

“Maybe so. Didn’t mean we had to do it.” Regret filled me. I worried Cody would be upset when he found out what I’d done.

Parker clicked a few things on his screen. “Want to feel better?”

“Sure.”

With a couple of clicks, Parker pulled up another hit ordered by Austin.

This one was on me.

“Better?”

“Much.”