A week had passed since that strange meeting with the founders, she thought the feeling she had then would have subsided but it was still there, still lingering.
There was a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach every time she saw her father, each time she would tell him about it, he would smile softly and touch her cheek saying, “I can’t delay this trip Alice, it’s too important.”
So she believed his words. Lionel Caroni was the most honourable she had ever known and in her line of work, she had met a lot. He was never a man to go back on his promises. And he always had a plan for everything which he executed in perfect precision every time. So when he said something was important, it really was.
Alice never questioned his actions, she trusted him with every fiber in her body and they had enough resources in Russia in case of emergencies. It wasn’t that she did not trust that he would take care of himself on this trip, it was that he never mentioned the details of what the meeting with the Russians would be about. Not even to Lilith. This had Alice wondering.
What was he keeping a secret?
It was a little past midnight, he had just left for his trip, despite her warnings. She had access to the GPS system in all of the organization's vehicles but she never had a reason to personally track the traveling route of her father.
Until tonight.
Right now she was staring motionless at her laptop, her eyes following the little red dot on the screen that represented the car her father was traveling in. It was taking the secluded route he would normally take to a private airport and making good ground.
Just a few more minutes, she bit down on her lips nervously. He had approximately one mile to the airport then he was clear. She started counting the minutes.
One minute
Two minutes
Five….
Suddenly a quick wave of white lines swept over the laptop screen, then it went grainy. She tapped the laptop screen with her fingers harshly trying to get it to start working again. The screen takes a minute to clear but when it did, the red marker was missing. She reloaded the network just to see if she was mistaken. It came up blank again, confirming that her car’s tracker had been deactivated.
She quickly got to her feet and dragged on her coat and grabbed her pistol from her nightstand and headed through the door and down the main corridor. Based on her, the car was near Thatcher woods the last time it was online.
And that’s exactly where she will go.
A door flew open with a loud bang behind her but she didn’t stop to look who it was.
“Alice I heard noises, where are you going at this hour?” Lilith’s concerned voice sounded from behind.
“Dad’s tracker was deactivated.” She threw over her shoulder.
“What?” Lilith screeched in shock, her shrill voice grated off the walls of the hall. Alice didn’t offer an explanation, nor did she slow down so Lilith had to run to catch her. “Alice!”
“Mom, I can’t talk right now. I have to find him.” She said, dismissing any further conversation Lilith would bring up.
“I’ll send some of the men behind you.” Lilith understood her, she knew Alice’s demeanor, she was always calm. Seeing her so openingly worried brought a new wave of terror that stabbed her heart, one she never knew she could feel. Lilith ran back down the hall towards where the men stood watch at night.
Alice rushed to the garage and chose a black Y2K motorbike. It could cover more ground. She disregarded the helmet and strapped the spare handgun the motorbike held to her pants waist. The wheels skidded on the pavement as she peeled out of the garage and through the mansion gate in the direction of her father’s car.
Her heart thundered in her chest.
It could be nothing, she tried to reassure herself. Maybe they went into a black zone, that area was known for them.
“Call Lance!” She spoke loudly. The bluetooth earpiece in her ears beeped and the robotic voice echoed in her ears Calling Lance. It connected on the first ring.
“Alice. I’m kinda busy!” He barked out, based on his tone she knew that something happened and sent a of blinding terror down her spine.
“What the hell is going on? Where’s my father?”
“Alice- heavy fire, following us!” Those were the only words that came through the earpiece, along with a series of gunshots. It was raining bullets over, it was so loud that Alice couldn't hear anything else but it.
“Lance!” She shouted, her throat burned from the crisp air. “Lance!” The earpiece started to fry, before there was silence.
Shit!
Alice pressed on the gas pedal harder, the bike ate up more ground on the dark road. Her long hair danced with the wind, occasionally impeding her vision but her eyes were dead set on the journey ahead. Tall trees were on each side of the road, the dark shadows they created painted an eerie tunnel at the edge of the trail.
Not long after, the bike neared the site, the fleet cars were in a jam and covered in bullet holes, one was wrapped around a tree and the other was in the middle of the road. The headlights were still on and smoke was sprouting from them.
Alice jumped from her bike as soon as it scraped to a stop and pulled out her guns, pointing them in opposite directions, just in case anyone was trying to sneak up on her. There was no one in sight from where she stood, but she counted four muddy car trails that continued onto the road ahead. They looked about a couple minutes old, which meant whoever did this was long gone. She went around the car that impeded her vision, with the same stealth and caution she held when she first approached.
That’s when she saw him, confirming that her worst paranoia came to pass.
Her father was lying flat on his back unconscious, three of his men surrounded him in a pool of their own blood. Just then, the world stopped around her. She rushed towards him, her breaths sharp and frantic. In one swift motion, she fell to her knees beside him and pulled his body upwards, searching him up and down.
His chest was pierced twice. The white dress shirt he wore was soaked with blood, she could still feel it spurting out from the bullet holes.
“Daddy.” She jerked him, with hope that he would move but he didn’t. His eyes were still closed and face that was full of life just the day before was pale as the fresh winter snow.
She swiveled on her knees and held onto her father’s shoulder. “You have to wake up.” Her body shook from the series of sobs she released and she clenched onto him, desperately. “Wake up, please.”
She knew her tears were in vain. Her father was dead. Nothing she did could bring him back.
“Alice.” A familiar voice called out from somewhere, it was Lance. He was out of breath as he rushed back towards her from the direction of the muddy skid marks on the ground. His hands came up to her back slowly. The fingertips dripped of his own thick blood as he tried to mend the wound in his abdomen; he was leaking like a fountain. But Alice was blinded by her own pain.
“Don't touch me!” His jaw made a crunching sound as she rammed her elbow into his groin. The pain came in a blinding whiteness that he had to blink away to contain. “Fuck!” She jabbed him again, this time he didn't react to it, he just stood there, silent. Staring down at his boss that he was supposed to protect. Lance wore a painful expression, and it wasn’t because of the bullet wound.
Don Caroni was dead. A man he respected-loved. The man he was to be glued to on this journey. And he didn’t even know how it happened.
“H-how did this happen? You were supposed to be with him.” She cried out in agony.
“I’m sorry.” He said, but the sound of the fleet cars that approached them drowned out anything that Alice even thought of saying.
Cleaner- noun Definition: An assassin who is contracted to kill other assassins; someone who “cleans up” a physical crime. ***** The house was dull ever since the men carried the Don’s lifeless body through the hall down to his bedroom. The assassins that frequented the facility that was built underneath the house had remained down below, not going out for any assignments. Light spilled into the room, revealing that a new day had broken. Lilith sat by Lionel’s side wiping his bloody body, Alice watched over her from behind. It was tradition for the wife of a Don to clean their husband’s corpse. Alice was surprised to see Lilith do it so effortlessly despite the tears in her eyes. Maybe it was because Liltith knew what fate her husband would face in this life, running an organization of trained killers had its risks and she had made peace with it long ago. There was a light knock at the door before Tiago, one of the guards assigned to Lilith, appeared in the doorway. He sent a pain
Alice’s back was pressed against a cold marble gravestone, her chest rose and fell to the hammering rhythm of her heart. She was heaving mad. This was the main reason she hated wearing heels, those shits were unreliable in a fight, it places you at the receiving end of a reaper’s spear and she knew full well what that receiving end felt like. She hissed at the sight of the clipped heel. Her right hand held her pistol upward towards her chest and the next unbuckled the shoes from her feet and kicked them away. She kept her head hanging low from the impudent copper and lead. The gunshots stopped suddenly and she froze. The heavy silence stretched to an eternity. Nothing put her on edge more than a silent enemy. A few seconds later, low chatter resonated from opposite sides of the graveyard. There it was, the recouping move that every striker had, if only they knew she was right under their noses. Her other hand found her ankle quickly and she twisted the knife upwards, ready for battle.
She sat rooted in place from the shock. Her limbs couldn't move even if she planned on it. What in the actual fuck? Those were the same golden brown orbs that she almost swam off into that night, glistening black hair and the ridiculously broad shoulders. His refined suit was replaced by a black cotton coat with a white turtleneck on the inside and dark washed jeans. A dash of 6 o'clock stubble sprinkled his jawline but she had stared at him for too long to not recognize that face. For sure, a week ago, she was kicking the shit out of this man in a blonde wig and heels. She briefly forgot about their encounter because of the past few days but now she was sitting just a few meters away from him. Margaret didn't notice the look on her face, flew up from her seat and rushed over to the man and hugged
When Alice said I'll be out of your hair soon, she meant those exact words. She had to leave this house. And It had to happen tonight, this very minute. Every second of knowing she was sitting, hiding and worse, in the presence of a CIA agent was nauseatingly painful. It betrayed everything the syndicate stood for, everything the Caroni family stood far. Lionel always said police can be pawns, never a friend. She has seen how true that was on so many occasions and this time couldn’t be any different. If that girl didn’t come to interrupt them at dinner, Callum might have gone too far with his questions and things would have gotten a little messy. She had overheard Margaret telling him how they met, how she didn’t want to go to a hospital. It was only a matter of seconds before he searched her up, if he hadn’t already done it. So every fleeting minute in this house was stressful.A thunderous silence echoed through Margaret’s palatial home. So loud, Alice's ears started to thump. The
Cleaning Not in the literal sense, like with a scouring pad and water. And preferably with some brass knuckles and a KA-BAR if she had any, or maybe a bullet to the chest first, because their death had to hurt. Cleaning That was all her mind was on the second she left Callum in that hallway. It ricocheted off her mind with every step she took. Ever since she found Lionel in the street, she was desperately trying to find out which one of his many enemies caught up with him. And just three days after his death, she has. It had been the very people he surrounded himself with. Now, she finally had a target. She was going to wash all of them out of existence with copper and lead. She was going to clean their houses, their cars, their fucking cover jobs. Jonathan, Maxwell, Pablo, the whole lot of them! She didn’t care that they wanted her dead. That was understandable. But they fucking shot at her at her father’s funeral, and for that alone, they could not live. And on top of that, Lili
Alice shifted her stance, waiting for them to attack. Hannah stood frozen watched in bewilderment. Lunge, kick, jab, jab. -Not directly in that order but she took down the first five with ease but the last fucker was the problem. He was massive and had a stinging right hook, she noted, barely escaping its full effect as his knuckles grazed her face. She grabbed a glass bottle from the table beside her and smashed it against his head, he shook it off as if he barely felt a thing and advanced towards her. She attacked with expert hits, one of the fallen men grabbed her feet, throwing her off balance. Without hesitation, the man delivered two blows to her face. A sharp crunch followed. Alice stumbled backwards, knocking Hannah down in the process. Before she could regain her footing, he pushed her against the wall, his hands on her throat. Her teeth gritted as the grip he had on her neck tightened. Her lungs felt like they were bleeding liquid iron. She slowly raised her hands betwee
Eight.Seven.Six.Alice counted down as she eyed the large gray trash cans that lined the street. It was fields of endless nothing on the right side of the road and a line of stores on the left. A peculiar lamp post stood at the start of the pavement. She had been to this street once or twice in the past. And this place was even more conspicuous than what she remembered, but that was the syndicate’s speciality, to hide in plain sight.Her eyes landed on number five. This was the last one and it was closer to the alley. This had to be it. Her lifeline. A few pounds lifted off her shoulder as stooped down in front of the can to confirm the Caroni family’s emblem on the swing lid. Under it, she assumed held the key to her arsenal. Alice slid her hand through the slit of the can and started sorting through the emptiness inside it. In all her years, she had never seen one of these cans up close and she was the daughter of the king, so everything passed through him. Sadly, there was no ti
Alice swallowed the bitterness that rose in her throat as Callum’s face became clearer. He was talking, she knew he was, but she couldn’t hear a word. The erratic throbbing in her head wouldn’t allow it.Her eyes never left him as he tucked the pistol in his waistband and made his way over to her. His skin was covered in a sheen that made him look almost angelic but it wasn’t sweat. As a matter of fact, he looked too collected for someone who just killed five men. Not even a lock of hair was out of place. It reminded her of herself after a hit.He held out his hands for her to take it. She shuffled back. A million questions were racing through her mind. How did he find her? Did he have a mark on her or something? And more importantly, did he see her? Callum pressed his lips together, as he stooped down. He then pulled both of their bodies up. He stared down at her, his gaze thunderous. She didn’t know if it was the fact that she wasn’t responding to him or that she ignored his hand.Al