Our Cruel Hearts

Chapter One

𝐓𝐖: 𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞

My leg is throbbing, warm blood pools at my feet with every step I take and every punch I throw. Grunts and the clang of knives against the concrete echo through the building, my eyes are stinging, my body screams of pain but I must keep fighting, our lives quite literally depend on it.

"Ayla!" Wyden yells from across the mound of bodies sprawled across the floor. He's tangled between two men double his size but it's Wyden, he's got speed. Real discrete signal Wyden, not at all what we discussed. I nod anyways and scan the room, every one of my friends putting up a good fight and from the looks of it we're getting out of this one unscathed...well, mostly.

The warehouse reeks of metal and blood, I glance up the stairs where Bandit's office resides and run for it. The metal stairs clang under my boots and as I glance to the office, a man at least a head taller than me eyes me down with unfiltered hunger. He drops his axe- clearly a bloodthirsty piece of scum-, it tumbles off the balcony and a second later I hear an earth shattering scream from the person it landed on. Not a scream I recognise. I'm already going for the dagger at my thigh when he's crossed the distance to me and begins throwing punches. He goes for me with all his weight and I dodge.

"You might benefit from more lessons old man," I blurt as I manoeuvre behind him. He turns around, and I nearly cringe at the rapacity in his eyes. I swivel my daggers in my hands as he crosses to me again, this time he pulls out a gun. That doesn't seem very fair, but what's it to me? I notice his left shoulder hanging lower than his right and I've got his weakness. As he attempts to grab me again, I dodge again and slice through his shoulder blade. He gasps and looks at his shoulder, approaching me again he freezes and looks down at the gift in the form of a dagger I've left through his heart. He's staring at me, trying to pull the trigger when an arrow with a signifying ribbon at its end pierces through his neck. Demi. She's on the roof across the entrance.

"Thanks Demi, I had that one thoug-"

"Thanks does the job, now go get what we're here for."

I roll my eyes and rip my dagger from his chest where he has collapsed on the railing, with a kick to his legs I flip him over the balcony and he lands on someone else. Ouch, I mutter under my breath.

My fighting leathers groan as I head into Bandit's office, I swing the door open and nearly retch in my mouth. I'm met with the stench of cigars, vomit and perspiration. A grown man living in a pigsty, men. I pull my face in displeasure. The office looks like it's been bottled and shaken up, the couches are tipped over and have been cut open, someone has been here. Looking for exactly what I'm here for, dammit I hope they've had no luck. Luca will lose it if we show up empty handed. I slide into his office chair and pull on my gloves, I'm going through his draws, papers, cigars, a gun, more papers. No papers of any significance. Nothing that will shut him down in his tracks. Bandit has been missing for weeks, his operation of smuggling has not come to a halt as a result of that. Which leads Luca to believe that he has changed his location of operation, Marcus is taking care of that somewhere else today, while we fight for our lives here.

Bandit is one of two remaining illegally operating agencies - I mean I'm sure our band of assassins isn't anything near legal but we're talking massively scaled things here, and we're the good guys - There used to be six complete agencies, which have been mysteriously wiped out the past couple months. The last two remaining belong to Bandit and Alistair. Our family of assassins has been tasked with putting an end to these last agencies, making the world a more peaceful place as Luca would explain his reasoning.

"Team get out of there, a woman walking her dog has called local authorities over a massive ruckus being heard across the road."

"I haven't yet found the laptop Luca-"