Chapter Four

My phone pinged and my eyes opened instantly. It was my Unit phone and that ping meant Clark was making contact. I accessed the messages and laughed softly.

Clark – Up for a private?

Wynter – Sure

Clark – Sending location for pick up and elimination

Wynter – Will confirm tonight

Clark – Ross Webber, Vampire, Webber Construction, Athens

I looked at the two locations that Clark had sent and memorized them both before putting the phone away. I could hear Milo and Mallory in the room next to me and it was barely seven am. I heard the front door open and then Ally’s face appeared in my doorway.

“Okay, this is awkward.” She laughed and then stifled it with her hand as Milo started spouting his ‘Daddy’ shit and I laughed.

“You should learn to knock.” I stood up from the bed.

“Dad sent me to tell you breakfast’s in ten minutes.” Ally’s face was reddening as Milo just got louder.

“Hold on, I’ll walk out with you.”

I pulled a t-shirt over my head and opened Milo’s door without knocking. Mallory looked up where she was on her hands and knees on the bed with Milo behind her. He didn’t stop thrusting into her and smiled as I stood there, watching them. “Breakfast in ten.”

“Almost there brother.” Mallory had tried to cover her breasts as Milo just kept going and her face was red with embarrassment.

Ally stood by my door and looked wide-eyed at me. I slung my arm over her shoulder and basically pushed her out of the guest house. Her mouth opened and closed a few times as we walked into the kitchen.

We sat down and I had to stifle the laugh that bubbled up in me as I looked at her face. Nova brought me coffee and Ryder frowned as he stared at me. I looked away from Ally and closed my eyes as I took that first sip from the cup.

“Sorry I’m late.” Milo had only taken seven minutes to join us and I smiled as I realized that Mallory was probably too embarrassed to join us.

“You just walked in there, while he was busy with her.” Alexis had just said that out loud, for everyone to hear.

I was thankful that Shae had spent the night with her friend and wasn’t a witness to this conversation. Abigail was watching all of us, frowning as she tried to figure out what was going on. Milo looked undisturbed.

“So?” Milo started piling food on his plate.

“You were having sex with her!” Her voice had gone up a notch and Ryder looked from me to Milo as Nova tried to ignore everything and poured more coffee for us.

“We’ve shared in the past.” I looked at Alexis’s face as I said that and Nova spilled coffee on the table.

“Shared what exactly?” she asked.

“Everything, Ally, we’ve shared everything.” Milo’s answer was as casual as only he could be.

“I’m always going to know this now.” Nova was whispering to herself she wiped the coffee spill up.

“I don’t even want to know what that shit means.” Ryder looked like he really didn’t want to know what Milo was saying.

“It works best when one is in front and the other one at the back, then both get release at the same time.” I started coughing as Milo shoved more food into his mouth.

“Milo, shut up.” He looked innocently at me and then grinned.

“It’s like when you and my dad called tag team … well almost.” Ryder was glaring at Milo and I had my hands over my face as Nova looked at Ryder.

“Tag team?”

“I guess I shouldn’t have said that out loud.” I couldn’t help the laughter bubbling out anymore as everyone stared at everyone and Milo ate his food as if nothing had just happened.

The kitchen door opened and we all turned as one and looked at Mallory as she stood in the doorway, uncertainty eating away at her.

“Morning.” Mallory had showered and her sundress reached her knees. She smiled at everyone but couldn’t look at me without her cheeks reddening.

“This is just great.” Ryder stood up from the table, smacked Milo behind his head and walked out of the house. I could hear him swearing Milo all the way down to the barn as I started laughing again.

Nova’s gaze burned into Milo’s. “After breakfast I want to hear more about this tag team thing.” Milo’s smile vanished as Nova started to eat her food and he looked pleadingly at me.

It was Saturday and we spent the morning helping Ryder around the farm after Mallory went home. Ryder hadn’t said a word to Milo about the tag team story and Milo had zipped out of the house before Nova could question him.

“What are you up to today?” Milo wiped the sweat from his brow as he cleaned his paint brush and looked questioningly at me.

“Might head over to Athens.”

“Assignment?”

“Private.” He nodded his head as we finished up and walked back to the guest house.

“I’m heading over to Mallory’s.” I grinned as we separated in the hallway and went to our respective bedrooms.

I could hear him in his room and I headed to my own and opened the safe that I had installed under a trap door inside the closet. I pulled out two black market double edged knives that had seen its share of spilled blood and smiled as I strapped them to my wrists, a trick I’d learned from Ryder.

 “I’m out,” I said loudly.

“Check in when you’re done,” Milo yelled from his room.

I started the bike and put my helmet on and sped through the open gate of the farm and raced towards Athens. It was just past three pm and I had plenty of time to get to my target. With the bike it took me forty minutes to reach Athens and I slowed my speed as I drove past Webber Construction.

His property had four warehouses on the premises. Two larger warehouses overlooked the two smaller ones where a sign read ‘Office’. I circled the property and then drove away. I parked the bike down the street and pulled my phone out.

“Webber Construction.” The voice was gruff and definitely not friendly.

“What are your office hours?” I asked.

“Eight to five,” the man replied.

“Craig referred me to you. Said you did good work for him. I’d like to meet after hours,” I said.

“Craig Nelson?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“I can meet you wherever you want,” he said.

“I’ll be at your office at seven,” I said.

“And you are?”

“John Bishop,” I said and disconnected the call.

I sent my confirmation that I had a location on the target and I received an address where I could pick up my weapons and I headed towards the new location. A garage door opened as I drove past what looked like a tyre fitment centre and I drove inside.

The man handed me a bag that I quickly checked. I took the CSR from the bag and checked the clip, tucking it into my jacket after checking everything. The man didn’t say a word as he took the bag and I drove away from the garage, on a mission.

At five pm I moved the leaves away to get a better look at the warehouse where Ross Webber was. His employees were leaving and I saw him shake hands with two men. He walked back into his office and the door slammed closed.

“Let’s move,” Echo said eagerly and I smiled as I jumped down from the tree.

I circled the outside perimeter fence and scaled it once I was closer to the two larger warehouses. The sniper rifle was now on my back with the sling over my chest. My hands morphed into claws and I quickly climbed up the back wall of the warehouse.

I settled down on my stomach and swung the rifle over my back to the front and took the scope off. The shot was too close to use a scope and I wasn’t worried about missing. I aimed the rifle at the door of his office and then I called him.

“Webber Construction.”

“Hi Ross, it’s John, something came up. Can we schedule that meeting for tomorrow night?”

“Damn humans.” I heard him mutter under his breath and smiled. “Sure, see you tomorrow night.”

I waited all of two minutes before the office door opened and I squeezed the trigger. Ross looked up in that moment and his eyes widened in disbelief just as the bullet tore through his skull. The force knocked him backward and his blood painted the carpet behind him.

I jumped down from the warehouse roof and landed on my feet with the rifle still in my hands. I swung it over my back again and walked to where Ross Webber lay dead on the ground, halfway into his office, bleeding over his cheap carpet.

I snapped a picture of him and sent it through to Clark. I got his reply five minutes later in the form of a message alerting me that I had received payment. I stepped over his corpse and into his office. I looked at his calendar and smiled when I noticed that he hadn’t written anything down.

I sent a text to Milo, checking in and headed back to that same tyre garage and drove inside. The man looked at his watch and then looked at me as I pulled the rifle and the one casing from the inside of my jacket.

“That was quick,” he muttered.

“I don’t play.”

He wiped the casing and the rifle and then turned towards me with a spray bottle in his hands. “For the residue,” he said and I pulled my gloves off. His eyes widened as the solution bubbled on my skin eating through the first three layers as my healing kicked in and I didn’t even wince.

“That’s an acid solution, hurts like a bitch,” he said.

“Not when you’re me,” I said as he just stared at me.

“Shit.” I flipped the visor closed and drove out of the garage.

“You’re so boring,” Echo said as I got back on the highway towards Hartwell.

“It was a boring kill.”

“You could’ve made it interesting,” he said.

“Like cutting out his insides so you could gobble them up?”

“It’s been a while since I’ve had liver,” he mused.

“You do realize that I can actually taste that shit in my mouth when you eat the dead.” Echo grinned at me, he felt the same way when I drank.

“Same like I can feel the shit you get up to, but you don’t hear me complaining,” he said.

“Fine, you can eat the next kill.” Echo was happy with that and settled down.

I took a chance that Cali would be at her hotel and drove towards it. I didn’t have her number and she didn’t have mine and I hadn’t even left a note that morning. I needed to see her because her timing sucked. I had more important things to worry about now.

“And the day started out so well.” I ignored Echo because he was sulking about his piece of liver and I wanted to gag at the thought of it.