CHAPTER TWO

"Did he sound pissed?" I glanced at Tara who had a hard time keeping up with me. 

"I couldn't tell," she said through short gasps as she tried to catch her breath. I slowed down so she could catch up. 

"You good?" I stared at her. 

"Man, you walk too fast," she panted. 

"Maybe if you didn't inhale Pop Rocks like oxygen," I teased, and she playfully glared at me. 

She tugged her sweater tighter. "Hey, you know I'm sensitive about my body." 

I squeezed her face. "What do you mean? You have a great body," I caressed her grey sweater. 

"If you'd stop hiding it under ugly sweaters." 

"Okay, not everyone can pull it off like you," she said. I chuckled. 

The elevator opened and I pressed my keypad against the buttons. The door closed slowly when a hand popped in. The tall brunette stared back at me with a smile. 

"Well, if it isn't the hottest woman in the building." Sam was a colleague who I had spent more time in bed with than in a conversation with. He was a good distraction—easy on the eyes, even better in bed. 

"Sam," I nodded curtly. 

I hated mixing business with pleasure, we were at work and so I needed to be professional. He gave Tara a nod and stepped in. 

"Haven't seen you in a while," he leaned in to whisper. 

"Yeah. Work." 

Sam was good in bed, but he didn't exactly quickly pick up on social cues. 

"When next do I get to see you?" he stared at me, and I stepped back. He did this thing with his eyes where he looked at you like you were the only thing that existed in his world. I liked seeing that expression in bed, but not when I was about to get yelled at by my boss for failing to kill a target. 

"Sam, remember when I asked you to pretend I didn't exist when we are not tearing our clothes off each other?" I smiled sweetly. Thankfully he took the hint. 

"Oh," his face fell.

The elevator pinged and opened. I stared at him expectantly and he stepped out. He turned to say something, but I quickly pressed the door shut. 

"You're kind of an asshole," Tara said. 

"You don't say," I deadpanned. 

"It's not just Sam, it's Williams, Liam, Oliver, Timo-." 

"Tara, if you keep naming names, you'd use the whole day," I interrupted. She glared at me silently. 

"Oh, don't look at me like that," I flipped my hair. "I give them the rules the first night we sleep together. Sex, nothing more," the door pinged, and I stepped out, Tara close on my heels. 

"It's not my fault they all go falling in love with me." 

"Well, aren't you humble," she scoffed, and I smiled at her playfully. 

"Hey Mia," Chloe, Tony's assistant smiled. 

"Hi, Chloe. Is he-," I pointed at the door, and she nodded. 

"He's expecting you." 

I could hear some voices in the background coming from behind the door as I knocked. 

"Come in." 

Tony sat behind his laptop watching something, a glass of whiskey in his hand. His eyes stayed focused on the screen as he sipped. I watched him intently; his eyebrows were furrowed, his jaw clicked together as he bit his lip. 

Oh, he's pissed.  

"Sit." 

Tara shifted beside me anxiously, adjusting her sweater multiple times. Tony tended to make people around him nervous. I had worked with him for eight years and I knew how evil he could be, not that I could judge, I killed people for a living. Tony and I had a complicated past and were bound by our trauma. He had rescued me from a very bad man in the past, and had stayed there with me, guiding me every step of the way as I took his life. My first kill--- watching the life leave his body made me feel... emancipated. 

After that, Tony took me under his wings, cleaned me up, and trained me to be a killer, the best one in the organization. I wouldn't be where I was if it hadn't been for him, and I was grateful for him in my life. He was like an uncle I looked up to. 

"What happened?" he walked towards me and gave me a drink. 

"He couldn't drink the poison. A drunk girl came in and-," the word died in Tara's throat at Tony's glare, and she whimpered. 

"Would you give us a minute, Tiana?" he said. It was neither a question, nor did it come off as one. 

"It's Tara," I said.

"It's okay" she smiled at me and stood up. He watched her silently as she closed the door behind her. 

"Tony," I called. 

"How many years have we known each other, Mia?" his face tightened as he stared at me. 

Tony wasn't exactly an open book but I had learnt to pick on some of his expressions that conveyed his feelings, but that, that was something entirely different. It was the first time I had seen that look on his face. 

Did I screw up that badly?  

"Eight years?" it came out as a question.

He nodded gently, the thoughts floating behind his eyes. "Eight years." 

"Tony," I called again, and he stood up. 

"Remember Nikolav?" he turned to face me, and a chill ran down my spine at the mention of the name. 

The memories flashed through my eyes, the fear, the screams, the pain and I squeezed my eyes shut and folded my fists, trying to forget it all. He was dead, I killed him. I was safe. He could not harm me any longer, I was safe. 

"How could I forget?" the bile grew in my throat. 

"Great, so you remember the role I played in all this," he took a seat and stared me right in the eyes. 

It was the first time Tony had brought him up since it happened years ago. Whatever this was—it was serious. 

"What is going on, Tony?" 

"Wes is dead," he broke the glass in his hand, and I watched the blood trail down his palm. 

"What do you mean Wes is dead? I thought he-," he grabbed my hand shutting down the words. 

Fury. 

 Desperation. 

Pain. 

His eyes showed them all as he stared into my soul. 

"Alan River killed him," he said through gritted teeth. 

Wes was Tony's pride. His only son. His real weakness. 

As a kid, he'd gotten into a lot of trouble but had started getting his act together, making Tony prouder than ever. Wes didn't know his dad's real job, that he was the head of an assassin agency and Tony had preferred it that way. He knew it would put him in danger and so made him live an ordinary life. I remembered the last time I saw Wes; he had made me promise to attend his graduation ceremony. I liked him, he was like a younger brother to me, and I had cared for him deeply. I couldn't believe he was dead. 

"No," I shook my head slowly but when a tear slid down his cheek, I knew it was no lie. 

"He's dead, Mia," he sniffed and stood up. "That bastard killed him." 

"But why? Wes wasn't a threat, he barely knew we were assassins," it didn't add up. 

"Alan and I had knocked heads about a month ago on a few business deals. He'd call to threaten but I didn't take him seriously," he sighed. "Wes paid the price." 

He turned to me, and I could see he was barely holding it together. "If I had known. I didn't realize he would target... I didn't-." 

My heart broke when I saw him stutter his words. I had never seen Tony like that in the years I had known him. I always thought he was this shell of a human who had no emotions and only worried about money. But he looked vulnerable and raw. 

"He's gonna pay," the vulnerability vanished quickly, replacing in its stead rage as he turned to me. 

"An eye for an eye," he held my arms and pulled me up. 

"Alan Walker killed my son," there was a tinge of madness in his eyes. 

"You're gonna kill his." 

I only killed people for business; it was the first time a mission would be personal. He let me go and walked towards his desk. 

"Alan gave Wes an easy death, I won't be so merciful," he smiled. 

"Tony?" 

"Kill Damon Walker and make it as slow and painful as possible." 

I stood rooted in spot, staring at him. 

"Mia, you are the only one I can trust with this mission, do you understand that?" he asked, walking closer to me. 

Wes' face flashed through my mind, his smile and his big brown eyes. The way his laughter made me laugh, and the way he always joked about becoming a better man so he could ask me to marry him. Wes didn't deserve to die, and he was family. 

You better get ready Mia. One day, I'm gonna get on my knees and ask you to marry me. His voice rang loud and clear in my mind. 

"I understand." 

I closed the door behind me, ignoring the sounds of glasses breaking and Tony's painful screams. 

"Don't go in there just yet," I told Chloe, and she nodded. 

"What's going on?" Tara asked, hot on my tails. 

"Find out where Damon Walker is gonna be. I wanna know who he's talking to, the room his mother's staying, where he's taking a shit, who he's fucking, everything I don't already know about him—ASAP" she must have seen the look in my eyes because she asked no questions. 

"Got it."