An Assassin's Life - Part 2
By
Rob McCall4
This is the story of a professional hitman and his adventures traveling across the USA. He is a complex and complicated man with many sides to his personality, both good and evil and everything in between. A warning: There is violence in this storyline, If that's not your thing, please move on. Then again, it's a story about a hitman. What would you expect? This could be read as a "stand-alone:" but I believe you'll enjoy it more if you read Part 1 first. I hope you enjoy it.
© 2023 RMcCIV & Rob McCall4 - All Rights Reserved
It was 2am in the morning. The shot came through the sliding glass door, hit the mirror on the far side of the room, and shattered it into a million pieces. The door was tempered glass, so it stayed intact.
The slug buried itself into the wall. I threw us off the bed on the opposite side, shushed Dawn, looked around the room to see what lights were on, crawled to shut them off, dove back to Dawn, and covered her with my body.
There wasn't a second shot. I reached up, grabbed my backup Glock from under the pillow, and crawled over to the edge of the glass door to figure out where it came from.
It made no sense. It was night, dark, the ground was flat around the hotel, we were up on the third floor, and there was no obvious place for a hitter to be situated. Even though if they were any good, any place would work since our curtains were open to enjoy the night sky.
There was no helicopter sound or indication that it came from the air. I didn't think it was a drone, too sophisticated and too much attention. So it could only have come from a couple of places: Either a room from a building off to the west of the hotel or a long sniper's shot from one of Moab's many hills and geological formations. My money was on the sniper shot.
"Jax...?" Dawn was looking at the gun. I motioned her down as I scanned the horizon.
There was a pounding on the door.
"Everything alright in there?"
It was the hotel. I turned towards the door. "Yes. Great," I shouted. "Over enthusiastic with the champagne corks. Sorry about that!"
"Well, keep it down. I'm gettin' complaints."
"You betcha. Won't happen again. Nite."
I looked at the bullet hole and then back to the window. With the angle of the shot from the window to the mirror, it couldn't have reasonably come from a roof or the other building. That meant it came from far away and was probably a professional killer contracted to erase me.
The shot hit a couple of degrees too high. Someone's sight was off. That meant he wasn't good enough, and I could take him. All I had to do was find the motherfucker.
The question was how? I knew the why. But how could they have possibly found me here in Moab? Maybe it really was just a drunken asshole shooting a rifle.
I ran through my entire journey, and there was only one realistic possibility; it had to be the internet café.
I went back to Dawn, "Are you okay?"
"Who are you!" she was shaking.
"Dawn, are you okay?!" I asked again.
"Who the fuck are you!" she said.
I took her into my arms. "I'm sorry. I didn't think this would happen or you would be involved like this. I'm sorry."
She was clutching me in a death grip, shaking. "Jax, who the fuck are you? Wh-y-y-y did this happen? What is this? I need to get the fuck out of here." All shock reactions.
She tried to bolt, but I held her in my arms tight to me.
Dawn pounded her arms into my chest. "How's my hair? Is Denise okay? Was she hit? I've got to know if Denise's okay. Is my sister okay? We've got to get out of here!!!"
"Dawn, listen to me," and I slapped her. The shock brought her back to now. "Your sister's not here. She's home safe. We're in Moab. It's just you and me." I held her tighter.
"Breathe, breathe. I know this is a shock. I will explain everything to you, but first, you've got to get your shit together, and you need to do it now!"
I held her back from me and looked at her hard.
"Listen to me! Your life may depend upon it."
I looked at Dawn to see if she was with me. Her eyes told me yes.
"The cops will be showing up in any minute. You need to put your clothes on, wash the sex off you, and we need to agree on a story that sounds true and that we both can say with believability. Understand?"
She nodded yes.
"Good, the best part is everything is real and true. We were in bed having a romantic evening, and a shot came through our window. We have no idea why, and it scared the shit out of us.
That made Dawn smile. "Yes, it did."
"Well, those are the facts. As far as I'm concerned, it was some kind of weird random shot that seems to occur in America too frequently nowadays. Let's jump on it and call 911."
"Listen, I know you're scared." I continued. "I tried to warn you, but there is no way to understand until it happens. I get it. But no one was gunning for you. It was probably an errant shot from a drunken hunter. If anybody was the target, it was me. Do you understand? It was me. But there weren't any other shots which makes me think it was most likely some drunk, and I believe we are safe here tonight.
She looked at the Glock. "Then why the gun?"
"Better safe than sorry. Now, let's get you out of here and back to your friends as if nothing happened. But you have to act your part. Nothing happened here except for a lot of really hot sex.
That made Dawn smile.
"You have to be flippant and make them all jealous, especially Stephanie. Tell her about my large cock and how I went down on you and made you cum so many times you couldn't count them all. That will get her going, for sure."
She smiled again, subconsciously licking her lips.
"It was random. I'll wait for the cops, and at some point, they will contact you to collaborate. And tomorrow, we will get together, and I will explain it all. No secrets. Okay?"
She nodded yes.
I took her by the shoulders and looked deep into her eyes.
"You said you loved me. Were you lying, or was that true?"
"True," she said timidly.
I reached in and kissed her, and she stood there quivering with my hands on her shoulders and looked me into my eyes.
"Yes, true." A few sobs. "Jax, I think I love you."
"Good, because I love you too! And I have never loved anyone before."
She looked at me in amazement.
"Really?"
"Dawn, I am as serious as a heart attack. I have never loved anyone before in my entire life, and you stole my heart. You are the first and only one."
She looked at me with love in her eyes.
"Do you understand that? I asked.
She was quiet for a bit and then looked at me with those large, blue eyes.
"Yes, Jax, I believe you.
You said you trust me."
She nodded her head yes.
"I will take care of this. I promise. You were here, we had a romantic evening, then a bullet went through our window. We don't know why. It's as simple as that. Okay?"
Another nod, yes.
"I'll get you back to your friends, and tomorrow, I'll tell you everything. Okay?"
She nodded again.
But you need to do something for me, and I need you to look into my eyes and make a sacred promise."
I pulled her closer.
"What you may or may not have learned about me must be our secret. Seriously, our secret. You can't even share it with Denise. Otherwise, we could be in danger. Can you do that for me? Can you do that for us until we have our long talk tomorrow?"
She crossed her heart and lifted up her right hand with three fingers up and her thumb holding down the pinkie.
"Girl Scout's honor!"
"Well, then get over here and kiss me; get yourself washed up and dressed before the cops show up because I've got to get you out of here first."
I called 911 as Dawn pulled herself together. I snuck her down the stairs, got her into an Uber, and went back up, waiting for the cops to arrive, prepared to play a totally innocent, clueless guy as to why a random shot hit my window.
"Gosh, officer, do you think it could have been a hunter somewhere? It scared the shit out of me. Pardon my language."
Chapter 2
The cops were in my room for about two hours. A detective, two uniformed officers, and the forensic guy who took a lot of pictures dusted some stuff and then dug the bullet out from the wall. It probably would have been shorter except for the looky-loos from neighboring rooms and the understandably anxious hotel execs and staff.
The forensic guy brought the slug over to the detective.
"I'll have to get it into the lab, of course, but I'm thinking it's a 6.5 PRC Precision Rifle Cartridge. My guess is someone was hunting out-of-season or drunken kids, but I'll have more for you in the morning." After taking my prints and a Polaroid, he split. I wasn't worried about that. There are no identifiable prints of mine in any official record of any kind. And no mug shots or images of me on file. Everything had been erased years ago by one of the top hackers in the organization, also another one of my friends with benefits. So, I knew she wouldn't fuck me. At least, not that way.
I sat with Detective Nelson for another hour, going over for the umpteenth time my story about what happened, carefully explaining Dawn's involvement and why I thought it was best for her to be with her friends for comfort and support.
With the classic warning not to leave town and to come down to the station tomorrow, he left, seeming to buy the whole story.
And why not? I told him the truth. We met at Woody's, they could collaborate that, we went back to my hotel and were having a romantic evening at this lovely 5-star resort, and a bullet came through the window.
He seemed convinced it was some sort of misdirected random shot from a hunter. They weren't sure how or where but said they'd look into it. I knew they never would. Shootings happen in America every day, no one was hurt, and this was going on the back burner. Especially with such a small force and so many tourists in town.
I was starting to lean towards the drunken hunter and thinking maybe it was merely my paranoia getting the best of me, but it wasn't going on my back burner. I had been meticulous in my planning and my escape and needed to know what the mistake was, if any, that allowed them to find me.
The Seekins Havak HIT Pro is not a hunting rifle, even though they market it that way. It is built for professional shooters like police SWAT snipers and serious competition shooters like The Olympics and other world-class competitors.
If it wasn't a random shot, the security crack had to be the Moab internet café. I decided to go back there first thing in the morning, right after the cop station.
I had gathered up my things and moved to a new room, this one with an interior view, checked in with Dawn and laid down to grab a couple of hours of shuteye, crashing into a deep sleep
I woke up to room service bacon and eggs and ample hot coffee. It was on my third cup that I thought, "Shit, I let Dawn in."
She was outside of the world, but I let her in. Love, lust and my cock had made me make the biggest mistake of my life.
For the first time, I had submitted to love, and because of it, I fucked up.
Someone else knew. And it was Dawn.
And if Stephanie and the rest didn't know, soon they would despite her promise. Twin sister Denise was a guarantee. I could tell their bond and knew the sisters were one person inhabiting two bodies.
I told her I loved her. I think I actually loved her. But I let her in.
