I'd Kill You First: when bad meets bad

Chap. 47

SODA: ^^^

I walked back out of the club with fists clenched and jaw grinding, steam practically pouring from my ears. This was the third time in two weeks that I had been assigned a client, and for the third time in two weeks, I had come up empty handed.

And it was all his fault.

Every time I geared up, studied the target, readied my strategies, and walked into the scene to take action, my client was gone. Vanished. Like they were never there at all.

The next day, after Boss yelled at me and threatened me within an inch of my life for losing a client, I would have to go on the hunt for the missing victim. When I would finally track them down, all I would find was a bloody and beaten up, half conscious body in an alley or ditch that was of no use to me until they could think clearly enough to sign over their lives to me.

Same thing just happened.

I showed up at the client's favorite club, got all dressed up, and mapped the place out before going in. At the place the man should have been, I found a note, just like all the other times.

I yanked the slip of paper from my pocket and unfolded it.

'You keep lining them up, I'll keep knocking them down.
Meet me or watch me tear you apart from the bottom up.
Assuming you have a pair, I hope you're man enough to come and get me.
I'll even help you out. Here's my number. -631-4325-

                -The Fighter'

Reading them only made me angry all over again.

The fuck is Keenon thinking?

He's going to get himself killed! If Boss gets tired enough of him messing in his affairs, all he has to do is snap his fingers and a gunman somewhere will end Keenon's life in seconds.

I can't let that happen.

It's my fault he's doing this. I shouldn't have made him look crazy in front of everyone. But I... I just couldn't act like I knew anything, help them at all. Drake was being serious. They would all be dead in minutes, and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if that happened. I would rather have them all be pissed at me for lying and leaving than dead. But if Keenon kept this act up, my lies would be for nothing. He would be gone anyway.

It hurt like crazy to watch him leave that hospital room. Ever since I remembered my month with him before the beating, I missed him all the damn time. It drove me insane. I had never missed someone before. I didn't even miss Lacy and Jasmine. I stopped by one day to watch a dance practice in secret, feeling the familiar ache in my heart as I watched the people I had to let go of do the thing I loved the most. I thought about the date with Kyle I would never have, how Jasmine probably still thought I was pregnant with his kid, how Lacy's sassy voice would be missed more than I thought. I thought about Toby's goofy grin and Brody's winning smile and outrageous laughter. I thought about Matt a lot, because I was leaving him again. It hurt so much.

But that was it. It only hurt to think of them. But with Keenon, the hurt was wrapped up in a strange longing as well. I missed his faint smell of cologne and earthiness, and the plain smell of his skin. I missed his messy rockstar hair and his sharp features. I missed those lips, those amazing lips that kissed me like I was the only girl in his world.

But most of all, I missed his eyes. I missed the deep sparkle in those green orbs as they smiled along with his expression while he watched me tell a crazy story. I missed the longing gaze he gave me when I came close to him. I missed the feeling of sleeping innocently with him, his warmth.