The Assassin's Assistant

Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty One – Jason

In movies, things always go so smoothly. Then you walk out of the theater and life smacks you in the face.

I walked into the Center. Britt stood hunched over a desk, reading papers.

“Uhmm… Reporting for duty?”

She turned with a start. “Jason, what are you doing here?”

Scratching the back of my head, I replied, “Working? Or at least coming to.”

Britt’s face scrunched up in confusion. She looked at the door to the armory. “Luxury, come out here.”

The door opened slowly, and Lux stepped into view. She looked at me in a bored way, before facing Britt. She propped her arm against the door frame. “What’s up?”

“You told me you convinced him to quit.” I noticed how Britt would change her voice between the two of us. She talked to me in an even voice, like a boss to an employee. With Lux, it sounded like she was talking to an extremely lethal two year old.

Lux shrugged, “Thought I made my point clear.” Her voice was eerily calm. She looked at me with an expression that let me know her sentence had more meanings than one. Looking straight at me, she said, “I’m going to get back to polishing the knives.” She put extra emphasis on the last part, before turning around out the room. I noticed her limping as she left.

“Her leg’s still bad,” I told Britt, “isn’t she supposed to be resting.”

Britt shrugged, leaning against the counter behind her, “You left me with no options. The way you were acting-“

“How was I ‘acting’” I interrupted.

She laughed to herself, before continuing, “Like somebody who’s been through too much too fast.” Britt looked up to the ceiling. “Your girlfriend just died, how long ago? Three weeks? Your sister in Texas has leukemia, and you just killed somebody. Do you understand how much that is on a person?” She sent an intense stare my way, “I cannot make you do this, Jason. There was no calling you in, though I know you’d come. You’re selfless like that, always trying to do the honorable thing, but it just wouldn’t be fair to ask you to do that. And hiring someone new was out of the question. I’ve wrecked enough lives as is, and Lux would probably set me on fire. So, I called in Miss Luxury against the Doc’s orders.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but then the full force of her words hit me. It was why I’d been ticked off lately, and I hadn’t even realized it. It had taken Britt spelling it all out for me.

Almost every second, something was nagging me in the back of my mind, whether it was Melissa, Georgia, my job, or what I had just done.

There it was. I cringed. I had taken a life. Somebody was no longer living on this planet because of me. I didn’t know if he had a family. He was someone’s son, someone’s friend. How many lives did I ruin when I pulled that trigger?

I began to feel nauseous, and my stomach churned at the thought. ‘What have I done? What have I done? What have I done!’  Earlier, I had done my best to ignore the idea, but now I was being hit at full force, and I did not like it at all. Brittany’s voice snapped me back to reality, helping me get my mind away from… What I had done.

“Speaking of her, I thought she had convinced you to quit. Why’re you here?”

* * *

I wasn’t sure of exactly what I had just done.

The kiss lasted for a moment before I leaned back to face her.

Lux’s eyes were wide in surprise from my spontaneous action. “It’s…  Because of me?” She didn’t seem mad or upset, just slightly shocked. “I’m keeping you in this crappy job?”