The Hitman's Bodyguard

Taking The job

There was a time, around two months ago, when I would have declined the call as soon as I saw it was from Amelia. Now, as I stood in the middle of a garage sassing some dickhead who wasn't cleaning my car properly, I didn't think twice. I saw her photo and the words 'Best Girl' and picked up instantly.
"Hello Amelia." I answered, voice overly cheerful, I didn't want her to be upset with me if she thought that my anger was pointed at her right now. I glared at the man in front of me and held up two fingers, making sure he knew that I'd continue to tare him a new one as soon as I was done on the phone.
"I need your help. I'm texting you an address in Coventry. Get there as soon as possible, bring three bags of O negative blood. I'm giving you a maximum of three hours to get here but I'll expect you in two and a half. Be safe." She said in a rush and then she hung up on me.
"How's your day, motherfucker?" I grouched under my breath. "Might as well go and see what the fuck she's got herself into now." I pinched the bridge of my nose and let out a tense breathe of air. "Don't bother with the car, man. Take it out back and burn it. It's not worth cleaning." I spoke to the douchebag who as I spoke began to look relieved. He hadn't noticed me slip a pair of car keys into my pocket from his counter but he would when someone came to pick up their car that wasn't there.
I watched him begin to yell at his workforce in Spanish before leaving through the door to the lot. I nodded to a couple workers before swiftly pressing unlock on the keys and dashing over to the blue Honda civic that beeped in response.
It took me a matter of minutes to fulfil the blood order but the address, a safe house that I myself had used before with a client of my own, took me a further one and a half hours to reach. I shot Amelia a quick text to tell her I would knock three times and then left the car, unlocked for ease and speed, grabbing the blood, suture equipment and bandages for whomever it was that was bleeding out. I knew Amelia's blood type and as I took the stairs up to the flat where she was hiding I realised that I didn't know anyone with O negative blood.
Knocking three times, I waited quietly. My hands twisted together as I worried for Amelia. What had she got herself involved?
"Mickey, still dressing for work I see?" Amelia opened the door, letting me in as she made what I'm sure was meant to be a light hearted joke. My heart hurt and my throat got a little tight, I lowered my head and swallowed down any unwanted emotion before turning to grin at her.
"Still have the job, why not dress for it?" I responded, wincing at how awkward I sounded. I watched Amelia's expression fade a little and changed the subject quickly. "I got the blood and I brought a suture kit and some bandages just in case." I raised the cooler bag with the blood in it and the smaller bag in my other hand with my suture equipment and bandages. "Where's the transport?" I asked.
"Where's the blood guy?" Darius asked at the same time, stepping out of the room that Amelia pointed me towards. He stopped and stood still, probably waiting for my move seeing as he was injured. My hands clenched around the bags before relaxing when I saw he wasn't going to attack me.
"Sorry to disappoint Darius but today it's a blood lady." I shook my head to clear it of my initial instinct which was still telling me to run for my life. "Take a pew, I'll be there in just a moment." I added with a tight lipped smile. More a professional courtesy than anything else. I watched him back away from me and sit in a chair that could spin, I assume so that he would never have to have his back to me. I scoffed. "I won't hurt you today Darius. Even someone like us knows that you don't kick a somewhat innocent dog when it's down." I walked past him to where I knew the kitchen was, hearing the chair swivel and Amelia's following footsteps.
I grabbed a glass out of the top cabinet over the sink and filled it with cold water, guzzling it down and refilling it. I took a slow sip before turning to Amelia.
"You couldn't have warned me?" I asked.
"There's a mole in interpol, I had to make sure that you knew as little as possible until you got here in case they got you before you arrived. He needs to get to the Hague to give a testimony." She responded her voice tight, she expected me to fight her on it. I didn't.
"Okay."
"Okay?"
"Okay." I nodded. "If there's a mole then you need to get back there. Look over your shoulder, don't worry about anyone else, you don't know who you can trust." I ushered her to the door, helping her with her coat. "Distract them as long as you can, I'll have Darius out of here in two hours at most. We'll see you at the Hague."
It wasn't long after I chased her out that I had Darius hooked up to the blood bags. I sat, with my legs crossed, at his feet sewing his wound closed properly. I lightly slapped his shin, having cut off the bottom of his trouser leg. He told me he wasn't wearing underwear so I didn't want to take them off and this was the compromise.
"You of all people should know better than to try and take care of a bullet wound with dental floss. You would have bled out dumbass." I scolded him gently. I knew that he wouldn't listen to carefully, the same way I knew that I shouldn't care so much. I did care though, in a messed up way, I kind of looked up to the guy despite having a father of my own. Not that I'd ever admit that to anyone else.
"Yeah, yeah." Darius drawled out. I looked up, attempting to look irritated which only became easier when I saw his face. The face that brought me to this low point in my life. "Why'd they bring you in? I thought you were still on leave. Heard you were being stubborn about therapy."
"I'm here as a favour to Amelia, she's gonna get into a lot of trouble if I don't get you to the Hague on time so for this once how about you don't be a little bitch and I don't knock you on your ass." I spoke harshly, using his bad leg to pull myself up off the floor.
"You can't touch me. You're my bodyguard." Darius said smugly.
"Doesn't mean a thing. As long as I get you there alive I don't care how much I have to hurt you." I smiled and tilted my head innocently. "You're an old man now Darius, I'm sure I have a couple of new tricks up my sleeve to surprise even you."
"Shit, I guess I better not piss you off too much then." His voice was pained as he stood, we made our way to the door where I stopped him.
"As your bodyguard, I go through doors first. I assume that you have taken note of all the ways out but forget all those exits." I tell him, jolting in my skin as the phone rings. "Shit, interpol. We're going to the roof and we're climbing down the scaffolding. My car isn't parked far away and I have plenty more suture stuff in my first aid kit." I grab his wrist as I open the door, taking my gun into my hand.
Of course, almost as soon as I opened the door, Darius became sick of my attempts to direct him away from the stairwell that was crawling with hostiles in favour of the one on the other side of the building and he ran straight past me. The two hostiles on the landing were easy because he took them by surprise, stealing one's gun and using it to kill them both, he shot a third hostile as they ran down the stairs to shoot him then leapt down to the next landing, completely disregarding his leg, to sit another two hostiles who had began to come up due to hearing the commotion.
I looked down at him from the landing. "Idiot, now the interpol are going to rush us. Roof now!"
The two of us ran up the stairs even as he muttered under his breath about how clearly he didn't need some little little girl looking after him. When we made it to the top floor, there were two more hostiles who had seemingly guessed our plan. I took my gun, flipping it in my hand and cracked the butt of it over the first hostiles head as he rounded the corner in front of us. I quickly grabbed the gun in the other hostiles hand as he aimed it at me, pulling him closer and then whipping it upwards to break his nose. He let out a cry of pain as I grabbed his shoulder and threw him at his friend, the two of them passing out together.
"Thank God!" I cried glad that Darius hadn't had an excuse to shoot anyone. Suddenly a shot rang out behind me and I quickly turned to my left to see a man falling dead. I turned to Darius, his gun held high and sighed, taking it from him I threw it away. "That's too fucking loud." I hissed walking away.
"It was empty anyway." Was his response as he followed after me.
We made it to the roof and I rushed him to the North side where the scaffolding was. "There's a helicopter so everyone knows that we're on the roof." I quickly took his cuffs off and ticked them in my pocket. "We need to climb down as quickly as possible."
"There's a skip down there. Let's jump it." Darius said, he stepped back to take a run up. I quickly took note of how far the skip was and shrugged. I stepped out onto the scaffolding and stepped off, falling straight into the skip. Darius however overcooked it on the run up and folded over the scaffolding once, twice, thrice on his way down leaving me plenty of time to get out of the way of his landing.
"Come on, car's this way." I helped him out of the skip.
"Impressed?" Darius nudged my shoulder as we walked. "I made that jump on one leg."
"Yeah, and I made it without becoming part of the scaffolding." I snarked. He laughed.
We got to the car without being spotted and started to drive just as reinforcements for the interpol showed up.
"Lie back and get some rest, I'll need you to drive at some point. And it'll help us get past all of these cameras without being spotted." I ordered, pulling the lever on Darius' seat sending him flying backwards.
"Hey!" He cried looking at me grumpily. I only smiled at him.
"Whoops!"