Page 11 of Mine to Keep (Bloody Desires #10)

Snarling, I push away the thought of my friend and stalk over to the mini bar, my orgasm-high long faded.

I grab a mini bottle of vodka and chug it. It might not be three-thousand-dollar wine, but it’ll keep me from spiraling. After this job, I can drink myself into a stupor and finally get some sleep.

The woman walks briskly with dumbbells in her hands, sweat dripping down her forehead. Her face is set in a mask of concentration, the fifteen-pound weights moving quickly with her fast pace and rapid arm swings.

I jog behind her at a safe distance, ensuring I don’t look suspicious. The weather is shit, a mist in the air, speaking of incoming rain. I wish I had worn longer sleeves, but it is what it is.

Even though we’re in a residential area, the streets are already alive with people heading to the work or working out, or whatever the fuck.

It’s a good thing I decided to wear a disguise today; too many people around that could identify me.

The most they could say is they saw a Black guy running, but that’s not an anomaly.

Plenty of people are out early this morning, running or walking, living their lives.

I have a ball cap on today that hides my light brown eyes so I didn’t have to put contacts in my already-itchy eyes.

I applied two artificial tattoos to my neck and the backs of my hands, as well as popped in removable veneers that mold to my teeth.

The veneers protrude slightly from my mouth, giving me a distinct overbite.

If anyone notices me, they’d see the tattoos first, then the overbite.

When Uria gets to her apartment, she stays outside to stretch, placing her leg on top of a small brick wall. I jog past her, not wanting to do the kill out in the open. Besides, I have to set it up as a home invasion gone wrong.

Ten minutes later, I circle the block and see that Uria is no longer there. I slow from my jog and walk leisurely to her building as if I belong there. The door opens without anyone having to buzz me in, making this kill easier.

I take the stairs to her second floor apartment, making sure not to move too quickly.

When I’m standing outside her door, I jimmy the lock with a credit card and it pops open. On light feet, I head to her bedroom, pulling my hunting knife from the holster that’s strapped to my hip.

Uria is humming a song off-key, without a care in the world. Too bad for her, she’s marked for death.

Her back is to me when I advance on her, placing my hand over her mouth to muffle her screams. Uria immediately fights against me, but I have the element of surprise and I’m stronger than her.

Without pause, I jab the knife under her ribs, puncturing her diaphragm, and up into her heart. Uria’s body spasms, a faint groan of pain escaping her lips.

To ensure she’s dead, I twist the knife before pulling it free and letting her body drop to the floor.

“Wait!” I hear from behind me, and I don’t think; I just turn and throw the knife at the person that snuck up on me.

The woman with my knife embedded in her chest looks familiar. Her wide eyes meet mine, a look of shock and surprise on her face. Blood flows from her mouth as her clumsy hands try to pull the knife out.

Fuck! It’s the wife that ordered the hit. Did she come to try to stop me, or warn Uria she paid close to three hundred thousand dollars to have her offed?

Another.

Fuck.

Up.

“Fucking dammit!” I seethe, watching the woman topple over, landing on her chest, impaling the knife deeper.

This was supposed to be a quick, in and out job. If there were ever a textbook kill, it would have been this one.

So why is there a second body on the floor? How did she get in? I closed the door behind me, even locked it just in case.

Using my booted foot, I kick the newcomer over to her back. She flops over, a set of keys right beside her. Her husband must have had access to his mistress’s place, and she stole the keys.

“Wrong day to have a conscience,” I murmur as I bend down and yank my knife free.

I whisper all kinds of curses into the air, aimed at The Void for putting me into another fucking botched job. My first fucked up job was in my early days as a contract killer. The second, not even a month ago.

Third time is the fucking charm.

I’m done.

Moving quickly, I go to Uria’s kitchen and grab a butcher’s knife. I go back to the room to set the scene. I make it look like my newcomer came in to attack Uria with my knife, and Uria fought back, stabbing her just as she was stabbed.

I make the living room and kitchen look as if there was a struggle, knocking things over and adding some of their blood to the hallway.

It’s risky, since someone could call the cops, but I’m banking on someone hearing the noise.

It would be suspicious if two women were found murdered in an apartment of a crowded building and no one heard anything out of the norm.

After I’m satisfied with the scene, I make sure the knife only has the newcomer’s prints on it before I leave.

I’m more thankful now for the latex skin than I’ve ever been, as I can’t wipe anything down without it looking like a job.

If the house is dusted for prints and none of Uria’s are found, there will be a much larger investigation than this cut-and-dry scene.

Before I step out of the apartment, I listen at the door to make sure no one is in the hallway. Then I slip out quickly, jogging down the stairs as I pull out my phone.

I call my handler to tell her this latest round of bullshit.

“Sunshine?” she says, a hint of a question in her tone.

“It happened again,” I say in a thick country accent with a smile as two people walk up the stairs beside me. I keep my head down, hoping they only see the veneers and the huge tattoo on my neck.

It takes Peggy a bit to understand with my accent. “Like Adelane?”

“Just like that,” I say and chuckle, hating that I seem incompetent after so many years in the game.

“Shit, Knox,” Peggy whispers. “What happened?”

I give her a rundown, speaking more carefully since I have the accent working against me. I tell her how I staged the scene with hope that it’ll look like two women fighting over a man.

Peggy tsks. “That wasn’t your fuck-up, Knox. It was hers. The Void gave her strict instructions before they took the contract. Once she paid, there was no taking it back. Her change of heart is on her.” She scoffs. “I’ll get The Director on the phone. He’ll probably call you for debriefing.”

“No,” I say, slipping back into my normal accent as I get closer to the train station that will take me back to my hotel. “I’m done. I don’t need debriefing, Peggy. This was my last job. No more.”

She sighs. “I hear ya, kid.” Peggy has been calling me ‘kid’ for the past ten years, as she’s close to twenty years older than me. “Let me tell The Director. Sit tight.”

I don’t plan on doing that. After the threat from The Void, I think sitting tight is a death sentence, but I don’t tell Peggy that.

I don’t want anyone to know where I’m going.

I plan to grab my bag from my room, hop in a taxi and figure out my next move.

I could catch a flight back home, but knowing The Director, The Void would have someone waiting for me at the gate.

I’m not sure they’ll plug me with a bullet, but I don’t want to take any chances.

“I’m going dark, Peggy.”

“I need you to be available for me, Knox. Only me. Let me know when you get settled. You are my responsibility, not The Director’s. Understand?”

“Gotchu. I’ll be in touch in a day or two.”

“Make sure you are. I left you a burner in the bag just in case. I don’t have the number. You’ll have to activate it. But you call me soon.”

“I will.”

I hang up the phone and hop on the train, heading to some seats in the back.

When I’m in a seat facing the door, but with no neighbors, I drop my phone to the ground and stomp on it, cracking the screen and snapping the device in half.

I pick it up gingerly and pocket it until I can get to a garbage can.

When I get off the train, I locate a trash can. I toss the first half, then walk several paces and get rid of the second half in another. I walk quickly to my hotel room, needing to be gone as quickly as possible.

After I close myself up in my room, I trade one disguise for another, popping in blue contacts, adding a wig that looks like a curly afro, peel off the tattoos, and line my ears and both corners of my mouth with piercings. It’s not my most clever disguise, but it’ll do in a pinch.

Grabbing a cloth from the bathroom, I wipe everything down, making sure there is no trace of me left behind. Then I leave the hotel, hailing a taxi to take a train somewhere out of town. I need somewhere to hunker down so I can come up with a game plan.

I could take off now, catch a flight to anywhere in the world or rent a car and drive across the border, but I’m too fucking tired to do anything else. If I don’t get a few hours of sleep, I’ll make a stupid fucking mistake and end up dead or in jail.

I check my phone for a place far away from Delham, but close enough to the border where I can make a getaway if I can. I find a large town called Siloq that has a booming tourist population, so I’ll fit right in.

The train ride takes an hour and forty-five minutes, and I spend every second on edge. I know no one saw me leave and no one is following me, but I hate sitting in the same place for too long. I’m too exposed. Until I know what The Void has planned for me, I need to stay on the low.

After the train stops at the station in Siloq, I grab my backpack and drag the suitcase full of Peggy’s delivery behind me so I can become someone else.

Well, more like, become myself.

I’m in a city where no one knows me and no one knows where I am. If The Void looks for me because of this fuck-up, it will take a little longer to find me than it would if I were in Toronto, and I’ll be long gone by then.

When I step inside a restroom, I beeline for a stall and remove my disguise. I trade my beanie for a fitted cap, pulling it low over my face so my features will be hidden.

Before I leave the restroom, I take a look at myself to make sure I look like me, not a disguise. I’ll hide out in this city for a few days until I can get a new flight, then go back home. The Void will get my resignation when I’m somewhere they can’t find me.

I step out into the cloudy day, glancing at the sky. It doesn’t look like rain, but I make a mental note to find a raincoat and an umbrella. I don’t want to be unprepared in case the sky decides to open up and drench me. Besides, an umbrella would help my disguise.

I’m so lost in thinking about the weather that I bump into two men as I descend the stairs of the train station.

One—a small Black man with intricate cornrows—yelps, his face streaked with tears, showing surprise.

The other—a Puerto Rican man with smooth light brown skin and wavy black hair—glares at me, wrapping his arm tighter around the crying man.

It takes a second for my brain to tell me that I know both of these men. I knew they were coming to Canada, but what are the chances that I see them in Soliq, of all places? Did someone send them after me?

No, that doesn’t make sense. They would have had no way of knowing I was coming here. Hell, I didn’t know I was coming to Soliq until I got to the station.

So why am I running into Talon and Javier when they’re supposed to be in Waterkilty?