Blind Trust Page 5

  “Here. It’s water. Drink it.” Janet passed me a large glass.

  “Thank you.” I sat up and the truck ran into my forehead, right between my eyes. “Oh,” I groaned, reaching for my head. “I need major aspirin.”

  “I’ll get it.” She jumped up and ran to the bathroom. I could hear her shuffling through the medicine cabinet.

  My living room was oddly clean. I mean really clean. I never kept it this clean. “Janet, what time is it?”

  “Three thirteen.”

  I drank the rest of the water and looked behind me, out the window. “It looks like it’s three in the afternoon.”

  “That’s right, Val. With how bright it is, you couldn’t have possibly thought I meant the morning.”

  She handed me a bottle of aspirin.

  “No, but I hoped for it.” I’d slept incredibly late. So many things could have happened between whatever time I passed out yesterday until now.

  “Your computer has been beeping and ringing and making all types of noises. You have so many phones around here I can’t tell which one is ringing. There’s this little red light that has been blinking all night in your bedroom. It started to freak me out so I closed the door, but when we didn’t blow up after a few hours, I stopped panicking and thought that maybe your vibrator was running low on batteries or something. I cleaned up. I told you I would. Your place was a pigsty. I washed your clothes, folded them, and put them on your bed. I even folded two of your white towels into those cute little doggies hotels leave on your bed. Just to make it special. I also made you breakfast and called the instructors I know of and told them you wouldn’t be making it to class. Now, tell me you love me and I’m the best friend you’ve ever had because I have to go. I have my first class at four today.”

  I leaned my aching head back on the couch. “Janet, you’re the best person who has ever lived. Thank you so much. I love you and you are the best friend I’ve ever had. Thank you again.”

  She kissed my forehead. “No problem. I’m sorry about what happened and if you need anything let me know.”

  Despair slowly crept in as I thought about my parents. “Thanks,” I mumbled.

  “If you’d like, I can come back tonight.” She slid the door open. “Love you, call me.” She slid the door closed as she waved.

  I jumped up, not giving the aspirin time to kick in. Racing to my room, I retrieved my laptop and typed in my password. The red light that constantly flashed from my room was not a vibrator but the agency. The agency was in a panic since I hadn’t been answering. I’m required to check in daily, and I would have checked in by now. But calling them was third on my list.

  The first thing was searching Kyle’s call history for Janet’s number. I remember her mentioning something last night in relation to him. Lewin had to be Kyle. If he and I shared a friend, I was going to have to break up with Janet. Depending on how long they had been friends, no way she wouldn’t be hurt by his death.

  On my iPad, I searched for Hayden Reynolds. I needed a face, family history, location, and contact information.

  Finding him was quicker than finding Janet’s number in Kyle’s contact history. His call log was clean of any number that I had for Janet.

  “I know he doesn’t have a second phone,” I mumbled to myself. “I should have it if he does. Janet definitely only has one phone that I know about. I know he’s Lewin…”

  Every phone I had was ringing.

  “Shut up, people! Stop calling me. I’m trying to do something!”

  On the brighter side, Hayden lived here in Austin with his high-profile mother and father. Dad was a big shot in the corporate world and in the not-so-corporate world. Supposedly, he was a gangster, heavily into drugs, women, and cars. Meaning that if one of their family members showed up dead, they could easily find out who did it and that person would be next.

  Taking that into consideration, I thought about my next move, whether avenging my parents was worth putting my own name on a hit list—if I was found out. I was a perfectionist. I made sure I always crossed my Ts and dotted my Is. I was confident that I could take out Hayden and get away with it. For my parents who loved me, who would go to the ends of the earth for me, and who had always been there for me? I was going to be there for them.

  Yes. It was worth it…

  “Mom! It’s me.” I shouted, announcing my arrival and checking the alarm system on my way through the back door. “Mom,” I called again, closing it behind me.

  “I’m in the kitchen!” she shouted.

  I shook my head as I walked past her sitting room. She was already yelling and she hadn’t even seen me yet.

  “What’s up, Mom?” I sat at the kitchen table.

  “How dare you, Kyle!” She threw her dish sponge at me, causing spatters of soap and water to dampen my shirt. This was followed by a plate, which I dodged, and another that shattered against the wall behind me.

  “Mom, what the hell did I do?!” I yelled, running from the kitchen and everything she was throwing at me. “And stop breaking the damn dishes.”

  “You’re taking names, aren’t you?” she accused.

  “No, I am not!” I yelled from the living room.

  “Then what was so important you couldn’t come right over here?”

  “I was on a date,” I lied, peeking around the wall I hid behind.

  She threw a plate and it broke against the wall. “You were not!”

  “Mom, I swear if you throw anything else at me, I am going to pin your butt to the fridge.”

  “Don’t you threaten me! You know that’s how your father died. You know what happened to me and now you want to get involved in the same damn thing, Kyle. It’s not safe. And if you—”

  “And if I don’t go out and make us some money, to pay for you, to pay for Anna and me, and every damn body else, we will all be fucked!”

  “Watch your mouth, boy.” She pointed at me with a knife I assumed was going to get thrown at me next.

  “I’m gone, Mom.”

  Something large and heavy smashed into my back as soon as I turned around. That shit hurt. “What was that?” I twisted around, looking at the floor. Milk was leaking from a plastic carton. “You hit me with milk?! What is your problem? It’s not like I’m dead or could get caught. You and I both know I’m good at what I do.”

  “No, Kyle. It doesn’t matter how good you are. You will stop this. You are not a hit man. Hitmen get hit. It doesn’t take long. The pay is good, but the consequences are bad.” She raised her shirt, revealing the six jagged scars covering most of her stomach. She used them as torture for me. The repercussion scars, I called them. She got them when they almost killed her. She wouldn’t tell me who.

  “Kyle, when your father died, that was enough. He was good at—”

  “He wasn’t good enough. My father was an idiot. He made the wrong decision and got himself killed. I’d never make the same mistakes he did.”

  “How do you know? You could get in a situation just like ours and a woman dedicated to her job will take you out just like I was required to do.” She roughly threw the knife in the sink. After it was out of her hand, I walked back to the kitchen. “Kyle, I don’t need you to take care of me.

  “Mom, you do. How else would all this stuff get paid for? How else will Anna stay taken care of when she does come around? Where else am I going to get the money to pay off your debts and my own? I’m keeping us safe—”

  “Kyle, I’m the mother. You don’t need to do my job! I keep you safe. I protect you. That’s what the mother is supposed to do. Not bury her son!”

  “Shit, Mom.” I roughly leaned against the wall, feeling the stress in her statement. I hated seeing her stressed, it wasn’t good for her cancer. I was trying to make things easier—the last thing I wanted to do was make life any harder for her. I pushed my hand through my hair, looking at her.

  She looked away from me.

  I ran my hand down my face as an overwhelming sense of remorse overtook
me. I was disappointing her, I knew. But what other choice did I have than to do this job. There was nothing else. For the past seven years this was all I knew; it was in my blood. Both my mother and my father had been professional assassins. Even if it was by accident, they introduced it to me, encouraged it even. I was locked into this life. Nothing else, like a nine to five, would have worked out for me. Hell, college was still taking me some getting used to.

  “Hello!” someone called.

  Mom ran from the kitchen to the front door.

  Anna sure knows when to pop up.

  “Oh, my baby’s home!” Mom cried out. I pictured Mom hugging her and Anna barely hugging her back. My sister and my mom didn’t get along.

  “Where’s Kyle? I know I heard you two yelling before I opened the door.”

  “I’m in the kitchen,” I called, waiting for her to flash around the corner and bum rush me with her “big brother hug.”

  She ran in and rammed into me, wrapping her skinny arms around my neck as she rose on her tiptoes. “Hi, Nips! I’ve missed you.”

  I lifted her a little, hugging her tightly. “Where you been, Juniper?”

  “Don’t worry about me or it.” She wiggled out of my arms. “Why are you and Mom in here fighting? What is she complaining about now?”

  “She’s got enough going on. Don’t come back starting bullshit with her.”

  She shoved me away from her. “You’re the one always shouting at her. You don’t stay here keeping up bullshit with her. At least I have enough common sense to walk away and leave here.”

  I thumped her in the head. “You make it worse, being gone and no one being able to contact you. We don’t know what’s going on with you, where you are, if you’re okay. We just hope you’re good until you decide to come back around.”

  “Kyle, I didn’t come back to hear you preach. If you’re gonna rag on me, point out your own problems.” She thumped me in my throat.

  I hated that. Being thumped in the Adam’s apple is the most annoying feeling on earth and I wanted to slap her across her face. But she was my sister and looked like she had already taken a hit with that purple bruise hiding behind her sunglasses.

  I relaxed, leaning back against the wall, pretending like I didn’t see it. “Why are you back?” I asked casually.

  “I need some money.” She’s so damn predictable. When doesn’t she need money and what the hell does she do with all the money I give her?

  Mom walked back into the kitchen, eyes red and full of tears.

  “Mom, I’m sorry,” I told her. I felt guilty for fighting with her. She didn’t deserve it. “But you don’t work. You can’t work because of your health. I still owe Purcell, we still owe on your doctor bills, Anna clearly needs her hair done and some new clothes, and bills still have to get paid.”

  Anna tapped my shoulder. “Don’t forget about Nixon.”

  I threw my head back. “Agh, and not to mention Nixon.” I’m glad she mentioned him. I needed to arrange to visit him. “I have to put money on his books. And maybe he can get out soon.”

  Anna wrapped her arm around my waist. “He’s been in there too long.”

  We went silent for a while.

  “I’ll take out a mortgage on the house. I don’t want you mixed in that,” Mom said, wiping down the clean counter.

  “What are you mixed in?” Anna asked.

  “Nothing. Just making us some money.” From its resting place on the floor, I grabbed the bag I’d brought in with the money I’d picked up for Mom. “Here’s extra cash, Mom. You may be ‘the mother.’ But mothers raise their children to take care of them when they can no longer take care of themselves. Let me take care of us, Mom. I’m safe, promise. All three of us—four when we get Nixon back.” I threw the bag on the table. “That’s five-hundred K. I’ve already paid off the rest of the doctor bills, paid up the bills for the rest of the year and dropped some money in your account, Juniper.” I kissed the top of her head, immediately regretted it, feeling something crusty push against my lips and the smell of who knows what causing her hair to stink.

  Mom looked me over as she walked to the table. “Clean up that milk and let me make you something to eat.”

  Anna followed my gaze down. “She hit you with a carton of milk?”

  “Yes, Juniper. Believe it or not, before you came in I was dodging dishes and food.”

  “Your mom is crazy.”

  “Stop it,” I told her. “Help me clean up this milk.”

  “Late start?” Peanut answered the phone.

  I looked at the phone, making sure I was calling the agency and not her cell. “What happened to ‘Valentine Services, Patricia speaking’?” I said, attempting to sound professional. She was supposed to answer with our cover name.

  “The instant you called, your face finally left my third screen. I’ve unfortunately had to look at it since I came in this morning. Though I think you’re pretty… I do not want to stare at you all day.”

  She went on for another two minutes about how she has been forced to look at my undesirable mugshot all morning and afternoon.

  “Peanut, I’m sorry you had to suffer through that. But can you please spare me your inconvenience and check me in for the day.”

  “Nope, I have to get you over to Claudia and Samson.”

  “Why?” I whined. I had to be in deep if I was required to talk to both Claudia and Samson. “Just transfer me.”

  “You’re not in trouble. Unfortunately, in our line of work, news travels fast. Let one thing in your life change, and everyone will know about it. I’m sorry ab—”

  “Don’t, Peanut. Thank you, but I don’t want to be that person today. Please transfer me.”

  “Okay Valerie, please hold.”

  As I listened to the slow music of a piano while on hold, I slowly slipped into my sadness. Oh, great. It didn’t take much and I was crying, full-blown tears falling onto my keyboard. The phone was clutched so tightly in my hand it hurt my palm. I couldn’t get a grip. I couldn’t shake the dread of my parents here yesterday, gone today.

  “Valerie,” Claudia soothed through the phone. “Valerie. It’s going to be okay,” she said, like she knew my pain. Like she had been in that position, where she’d once had parents and then didn’t have them.

  I doubt she knew exactly what I was feeling and could honestly say it’s going to be okay. I guess it’s going to be okay and I’m so sorry were words I was going to have to get used to hearing. When she repeated it, I made up my mind I wasn’t going to tell anyone. That was my way to avoid those words. If people didn’t know, there was nothing to be sorry for and they’d assume everything was already okay.

  “Claudia,” I cut her off from her sympathy spill. “It’s okay. You don’t have to be sorry. I wanted to call and check in. I’m sorry about this morning, I had a late start.”

  She sighed. “Okay, Valerie.” She cleared her throat and started in a strong tone, “You do not have clearance to go after Hayden Reynolds. You also do not have the time.”

  “Excuse me,” I said as respectfully as I could. “Clearance?”

  “Do not go after Hayden Reynolds. You have one day to terminate Arleen Shultz. You do not have time to go after Reynolds. After you take out Arleen, you then must confront Shultz and find out where Cunningham is. You’ve been out there for a year and you still have not found out who his benefactor is. Valerie, I am sorry to bombard you with this at this bad time in your life. But these things, unfortunately, have a time span. And your time to terminate all your targets is running short.”

  I would have liked to tell my boss to go and fuck herself. And on a day like today, I probably could’ve gotten away with it. However, I was more respectful than that. “Claudia, I hear you loud and clear.”

  “You are checked in. Goodbye.”

  “I thought I needed to speak with Samson.”

  “He just walked into a meeting. You’re clear.” She ended the call.

  I pulled the phone fro
m my ear and stared at it. My mom and dad were on my screen saver. “I love you guys.” I kissed my phone and lay back in my bed. The laptop toppled onto the floor and I could’ve cared less about picking it up. I was sure it wasn’t broken.

  I woke up feeling better. I could have moped around but I had a plan I needed to figure out. I did have a job to do and it was clear my employer didn’t care about my mourning the passing of my parents.

  I went straight for my computer and tried to get a location on Hayden. He was here in town and I had to do something. On my laptop, I looked up Kyle’s location. He was still a key factor in my life.

  For some reason every Kyle search came up undetectable. Like for his phone records, I knew for sure Janet called him. But his phone records had given me the same six numbers back-to-back since five p.m. yesterday. I searched his location and it came up that he was in Arizona, when I knew for sure he was here.

  “What the hell happened?” I mumbled aloud.

  Figuring it was something wrong with my laptop, I took to my computer. I quickly typed in my passcodes and searched all my tracks and locations for him. Nothing came up correct…

  “Where are you, Kyle?”

  This time it told me he was in California. Either the Internet had gone haywire or someone was on to me and scrambled his networks and database. I wanted to slam my fist into the computer screen.

  “Just great!” I got this close. This close! One day before I needed to take out mommy dearest and they shut me down. “Fine! If that’s how you feel, I’ll track him on foot.”

  Because of this, I had to put off searching for Hayden. “Damn you, life. Just damn you.”

  It was nine years ago I’d started training to be an assassin. At age thirteen, I’d held my first gun, courtesy of my aunt Frances. Her partner, who was a double agent, murdered her five years ago while they were on an assignment. Asshole, I loved my aunt like a mother.

  At age fifteen, she taught me how not to feel. I’d come to her one day, crying about being teased by some valley girl idiots who thought they were better than everyone else. That day, my aunt started teaching me how to overcome things like physical, mental, and emotional pain. It’d been years since I cried or felt sorrow.