Page 1 of Right Number, Wrong Man

COLT

Tonight, I’ll kill my brother for cheating on his wife—the woman I’ve secretly loved since I was fifteen.

Talk about starting the year off strong.

Murdering my shit stain of a brother stopped being a new year’s resolution by the time I left for the military, but I never gave up hope. Now, he’s finally given me a reason to indulge my violent impulses. He was safe as long as Hailey wanted to be with him, but their breakup is his death sentence.

Therapists recommend cutting out toxic people and that’s exactly what I plan to do for her.

I’ll excise this parasite called Mike from Hailey’s life like a festering tumor. Because if there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s killing people.

Snow crunches under my boots and my breath steams as I rush after Mike through a dark alley. A glacial breeze cuts across my face, but I barely notice it against the rage boiling in my chest. I grab his shoulder.

“You can’t tell me what you’ve done to Hailey and expect to walk away!” I grit out .

Mike breaks loose with the ferocity of a cornered animal. “And why the fuck not?” he hisses, the stench of cheap liquor hitting my face. At least he’s sober enough to keep his voice down and not wake the neighborhood.

I plant my feet. “Cause I won’t let you.”

“Incredible! Can’t you be on my side one fucking time? Just once? You came after me, asked what happened, and I told you the truth. Isn’t that worth anything?”

My leather gloves creak as I shove my hands into my jacket, my right palm closing around the switchblade in my pocket. I’d prefer to use my pistol, but a gunshot would startle the whole town. In the rush, I didn’t bring my silencer.

I scoff. “Yeah, you confessed to cheating like you’d confess to spilling a glass of water. Like it’s trivial. But your actions have consequences. Guess you can’t see that with the oxy ‘n booze blinding you.”

Mike sneers. “Spare me the lecture! You’ve been back for a few weeks and you’re on my case every day—just like when we were teens. Leave me the hell alone! It’s none of your business if I cheat.”

My skin crawls. I’m ashamed that we’re the same blood. They say one rotten apple spoils the whole harvest, but I hope that ain’t true. I like to think we have less than nothing in common.

Mike lets out a low, sarcastic laugh. “Do you realize how humiliating it is when Dad complains that it’s my fault you got a hardship discharge? Oh, the golden boy put his career on hold to take care of his druggie brother! How fucking charitable!”

He spits at my feet. I don’t react, but that riles him up more.

“The special forces bullshit got to your head, Colt. I don’t owe you respect because you can pull the trigger of a sniper rifle! Anybody with a finger can do that.”

I shrug. “Right now, I’m just a simple man seeking to right a wrong.”

“Do you want me to apologize to Hailey? I tried, but she was hysterical after she found the text from my side piece. I couldn’t get a word in. Then she kicked me out into this cold ass night!”

My jaw ticks. He’s the one cheating but he calls he r hysterical? Typical. Always playing the victim.

“How did you even find me?” he asks.

I rub my left hand along the scruff on my jaw. Fuck it. Why shouldn’t I tell him the truth? He can take my confession straight to hell with him.

A feral grin splits my face. “Every day, every free minute I have, I use my rifle’s scope to watch Hailey from my apartment. Seeing you storm out the door earlier was a coincidence. I simply followed you cause I thought something bad happened.”

His eyes widen. “You’ve been stalking my wife?”

My pulse pounds in my ears like war drums. “You have no right to call her that.”

“She’s still my wife and I’ll call that bitch whatever I want,” Mike retorts.

I bite the inside of my cheek until I taste iron, the sting grounding me against my fury.

Emotions are a hindrance in the field. When you line up the perfect shot, there ain’t no room for doubt. No room for mistakes. And for all the men I’ve killed, punishing my brother is the most important mission of my life.

“You don’t deserve Hailey. You never did. I looked the other way, but it ends tonight,” I say, steely determination in my voice .

“You’ve lost the plot, Colt. I knew you’d go full mental one day.”

My hand tightens around the knife in my pocket. “Nobody gets away with hurting the woman I love.”

“You love Hailey?” Mike snickers. “ You , the man who’s never been in a relationship? A psycho like you doesn’t even know what love is. But hey, if you wanted her, you could’ve just said so, big bro! I’d let you have my sloppy seconds if you begged nicely.”

The thread of my patience snaps.

I draw the knife, flicking it open, and drive it between Mike’s ribs—straight into his heart.

He groans as I twist the blade before I withdraw. Blood soaks through his beige jacket, staining it red, and he presses a hand to the wound, his fingers shimmering wetly.

“What… have you done?” he asks dumbly, turning pale as a sheet.

“What I’ve wanted to do since the day Hailey fell for you instead of me, dear brother. But you’re wrong about one thing: I had her first. On Halloween, twelve years ago.”

“You lied?” he snarls.

“That’s right. I made up the whole story. You weren’t too drunk and too high to remember popping her cherry. It never happened. While you were passed out at the party, I wore your mask. I pretended to be you, fucked her virgin pussy, and then I let you have her.”

Blood bubbles from Mike’s lips. He chokes, coughing as he drops to his knees. Red spatters the snow and it’s the prettiest thing that’s ever come out of his mouth.

“But make no mistake,” I add. “I let her go because she loved you and I wanted her to be happy. Lord knows what she saw in you. I always thought you were a lowlife piece of shit, but this ain’t personal revenge. This ain’t about jealousy. No, I’m killing you for her.”

Mike falls on his face and I grimace. Did he already kick the bucket? I roll him over with the tip of my boot, but his lifeless eyes stare into the night sky and his chest is still.

Hollowness expands behind my ribs.

This is it?

My whole life, I hoped that Mike would give me a reason to end him, but it happened too fast. He died too easily.

He deserved worse.

I return the knife to my pocket and grab the wallet from his jacket. He owns a whole $16. I take it all before throwing the wallet in the nearest dumpster.

The cops will write off Mike’s death as a drug deal gone bad or a botched robbery. His addiction has been medically documented since high school and nobody’s gonna think twice about the company he kept. I’ll still burn my jacket and my gloves and clean the knife. Just to be safe.

Pulling my Stetson deeper into my face, I stroll through the alley and onto the sidewalk. I’m glad I wore a generic pair of cheap snow boots tonight. Half the county wears the same brand and identifying me by footprints alone is impossible.

Three blocks later I take a right turn and my eyes are drawn up to the light in Hailey’s bedroom. My heart is heavy. I want to tell her that I’ve made things right, but I’m the last man on earth she wants to see—and not just tonight.

I’m about as welcome around her as a rattlesnake in a dance hall.

Grandpa Jim on Momma’s side said it don’t take a big person to carry a big grudge, and Hailey Grace is the textbook example. She’s hated me since high school when I took the fall for one of Mike’s pranks that got her hurt.

I don’t blame her.

But I didn’t kill Mike for recognition, just like I don’t anonymously send breakfast to her work every Monday and flowers on her birthday to be acknowledged. I do it all cause it makes her life better.

My steps clank on the metal stairs leading to my loft above the old movie theater. I leave the lights off when I enter and toss the keys onto the sideboard by the door.

It’s deathly quiet. Nobody’s waiting for me to come home, and I’m solemnly greeted by the lifeless glass eyes of my hunting trophies above the fireplace.

Mike was spot on about one thing: I don’t do relationships.

I never commit to more than a single night and I’ve never said the three magic words. These nameless women can touch my body, but they can never have my heart because it only belongs to Hailey.

If loving her was a choice, I’d have quit a million silent heartaches ago. But my obsession with her is in every breath I take and every beat of my pulse. It’s in my blood. The poison and the antidote. A curse and a blessing.

There are two things in this world I’m entirely certain of: my mortality and my love for her. Both are inescapable.

I take off my shoes, hang my jacket and my Stetson on the coat rack, and make a beeline for the living room window.

Grace—my sniper rifle I named after Hailey’s middle name—leans in its usual spot against the wall.

As I pick it up, the plastic cat charm on the side clanks against the metal.

The colors are faded and the paint scratched off, but you can make out its pink boots and matching cowgirl hat.

It’s a Japanese cartoon character called Hey Kitty. Hailey has been obsessed with it since we were kids. She thought she lost this keychain in school, but I stole it one afternoon she visited Mike at our house.

Since then, cowgirl kitty kept me safe through every mission. Hailey doesn’t know it, but she’s my guardian angel.

My spotter, Cody, always jokes about the charm. If the bastard wasn’t my best friend, he would’ve already caught a bullet for it. He’s asked over and over who gave it to me, but I always just say it’s from a special girl.

After checking that the rifle is unloaded, I lift the scope to my eye, peeking through a gap in the curtains.

When I see her, the world drifts out of focus and my stomach coils with that familiar ache—part yearning, part grief.

Hailey sits on her bed in a pile of used tissues, spooning ice cream from a jumbo-sized bucket.

It’s salted caramel, her second favorite.

The store must’ve been out of raspberry with chocolate swirls.

She wears a fluffy pink dressing gown, and even with her eyes swollen from crying, she’s beautiful.

I can’t see the TV on the wall across from the bed, but I know what she’s watching.

Her comfort movies: the Wraithface Chronicles .

They’re named after the iconic main character Wraithface, a serial killer who always dresses in black and wears a white mask that looks like a melting, screaming face with pitch-black, soulless eye holes.

My breath hitches as I spot the threadbare, pink Wraithface plushie on her pillow. If she knew it was me, not Mike, who left it on her doorstep for her eighteenth birthday, she’d throw it away.

A sigh on my lips, I set down the rifle and pour myself a bourbon in the kitchen before dropping onto the leather sofa opposite the fireplace. I turn on the TV above and select Wraithface I from a streaming service. Watching the same movie at the same time as Hailey makes me feel closer to her.

The alcohol burns my throat and heat blooms under my skin as I imagine her in my arms. I imagine kissing her head and burying my nose in her hair. I imagine saying I love you and her whispering I love you, too .

When my glass stands empty on the coffee table, I dig my phone from my pocket and find a message from my best friend.

Cody

I can’t last another day without you! The new guy never laughs at my jokes and it’s making me insecure. You still think I’m funny, right? Come back to me!

I could return to active duty earlier than planned. When I got the hardship discharge, my commander and I discussed the matter of my re-enlistment. We agreed that I’d sign on again this fall, giving me enough time to straighten out my brother.

Now that Mike is gone, my reason for staying is gone, too, but a new one is on the horizon.

No, I’m still needed here.

Tomorrow morning, Mom and Dad will lose a son, and Hailey will lose a husband. I don’t regret what I’ve done, but they’ll need somebody to take care of the funeral and Mike’s estate while they grieve in peace.

I write my response to Cody.

Me

You want me to tell you how pretty you are, too ?

The typing bubble appears and I wonder what time zone he’s in right now. Probably halfway across the world.

Cody

So you think I’m pretty AND funny???

Me

Time’s gonna pass in a flash and I’ll be back to fake-laugh at your miserable jokes.

Cody

Rude. You doin alright over there?

Me

I’m fine. Some family business I gotta take care of.

Cody

But you’re still re-enlisting in fall?

Me

Yeah. Can’t wait to get back into action.

Ice settles in my bones. I don’t want to leave Hailey behind again, but she doesn’t want me here. Our separation is inevitable.

Then why does my heart feel like a ticking timebomb?