Hitman: Captured | #1 - HIATUS

► Chapter 17

It sounds insane. How can anyone in their right minds throw themselves to the very people trying to kill them just to get answers? I guess I'll be the first willing to try.

Neil's voice has long since gone silent, assuming he had given up trying to get me to go back but it didn't mean he wasn't going to find me. Thoughts circle in my mind incapable to keep up with it until I'm left a confused mess. I've become so exhausted by all the lies and secrets I can't even react anymore knowing my best friend was never the person I thought he was.

Not that it matters now. In the end, I never truly knew who they were, to begin with. Ruffling my black hair, I examine my surroundings making sure I am heading in the right direction. My hand rests onto a tree, waiting for a sound at all that can help me pinpoint how much further I am from the house; after a long period of silence, I finally hear it.

My head snaps to the left, carefully listening to how the sound echoes before a few others follow it. I still got a long way to go. The weight of the gun on my hand doesn't go unnoticed, gripping it tightly for a false sense of security. Guilt threatens to kick me in the gut and constrict my chest for shooting at Neil but not necessarily to hurt him. It's the first time I actually aimed it at a person.

That experience is not something I want to see, do, or feel again. Not after the look on his face as if he honestly thought I was going to shoot him. I probably should since he's been a dick since we first met except it doesn't justify my actions—hell shooting him won't solve my problems.

Perhaps I am asking too much of him. Expecting too much. He constantly reminds me he works for the man who hired him, Donovan Capro. All he's trying to do is his job and I'm the one making it hard for him because it's the only way I knew that could help me cope in this current situation. Now everything is falling apart. I thought I finally had some sense of control and then life decides to screw me over.

I knew I wouldn't get answers from Neil. Might have not gotten anything from Brian nor his parents either because having me in the dark is helping me quite a great deal. Everything I said to Brian when I got here, he already knew. Everything I told Chloe, she already knew. I was the only one who didn't know and to think Dominik is the freaking boss of those men that were guarding the house.

The shots grow louder, sharper causing me to inhale in order to have some form of control over my nerves. Who am I kidding? I'm pissed off. Whether or not my mother is related to that man, it doesn't change anything, especially the fact I am about to do something seriously dangerous and risky.

Several minutes after, my blue gaze finally catches sight of the house. There seems to be a pause until more shots pierce the air causing an unpleasant noise to my eardrums. I don't advance any further toward the house, instead, I begin to walk around it toward the same side I was practicing earlier.

Both hands securing the gun in my threshold, I crouch cautiously disregarding the slight irritation on the leg I was shot on. Clenching my jaw, I walk further away from the house toward the right gaining a broader view of where I am going spotting the vehicle still in the path. From the bottom stairs of the front porch, I see a man ducking to avoid any stray bullets, the glass of the slide doors are shattered and spread about on the porch.

Aiming at the man, I hold my breath slightly and pull the trigger catching his attention. His head snaps to my direction in surprise, eyes widening for a moment then lunges toward my direction clearly indicating I am far more important than those still in the house. I turn around rushing into the tree line trying to make myself quick to disappear into the woods.

Once I think I have run deep enough into the woodlands, I hide behind the closest tree and wait while peeking over to see the man steadily catching up. Using the thickness of the tree to my advantage, I carefully begin to move to the other side as he jogs past the tree I'm concealing myself with and quickly step out as soon as he slows down looking at his surroundings.