The Highest Bidder

❊ Cʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ Fᴏʀᴛʏ﹣Tᴡᴏ ❊

We parked our vehicles about two miles away from the house in the middle of nowhere. The good thing was that it was in the middle of a forest. The bad thing was that it was pitch black out by the time we got there, and I knew flashlights would only give our presence away to anyone guarding the front. The good thing about that was the fact that they also wouldn't see us coming if we made it up there without alerting them.

I motioned for people to spread out and head forward. I wasn't sure how far up the house was, but it would be better for everyone to be spread out just in case the guards did happen to spot one of us.

Ron walked beside me as we began our way up to the house. Owls hooted overhead and twigs crunched beneath our boots. We didn't speak. We didn't need to.

It had been so long since I went on a mission, knowing that I was ultimately going to have to kill someone. Saying I was excited was an overstatement. To be honest, I dreaded having to watch more people die by my own hand. But that dread was overshadowed by a need to save Eva and bring her back to me.

Twenty minutes passed before we caught sight of the house. There were lights on in every single room and two guards were stationed in front of the front doors. By the bored looks on their faces, they didn't hear us coming.

"We're in position." One of my sniper's voices came through a walkie talkie at my hip.

I waited for everyone to tell me that they were in position before I brought it up to my mouth. "No one here is innocent. Kill anyone and everyone in sight except for Maverick and Vince. Leave those two for me."

Barely two seconds later, the two guards were on the ground. Blood and brain matter splattered the white door and the dark brick house. Silence followed. No one heard.

I stepped out of the woods first, my gun at my side. I didn't care about being stealthy anymore. Maverick would see us sooner or later. It was just a matter of time.

Ron and I made it to the front door and I barely even glanced down at the two men on the cement porch. Ruthlessness was one of the most sought after traits as a government assassin. I believe that's why I got to the top of the ranks so quickly. I didn't feel when I was on the job. Death was just that. Death.

I turned the knob on the door and opened it. I leveled a pistol at a man's head as he turned wide eyes in our direction. His mouth opened to say something but I pulled the trigger, the sound of the gun firing ringing out throughout the house.

If that didn't get Maverick's attention, I didn't know what would.

The fifteen people who followed me up to the house flooded into the front room, and all spread out in different directions in an attempt to find Eva as quickly as possible. They would tell me if they found her. I wasn't worried about that.

My eyes found a surveillance camera pointed at the entryway. I lowered the gun and just stared into it, daring whoever was watching it to come out. There was no way that we would kill everyone living in the house. Only the ones who got in the way.

A woman rushed out a room and stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of me. I only stared back, tilting my head in a question. I wondered if she would scream or run.

She did both.

Ron shot her in the leg, making her crumple to the tile floor, her screams becoming violent sobs and attempts to catch her breath. He walked over to her and knelt down, murmuring something to her. I figured he was saying that we'd let her live if she cooperated, but she didn't seem to be listening. She was hissing through her teeth and clutching her bloody calf, her eyes clenched shut as she tried to block out the pain. But he kept talking to her and eventually she started nodding frantically.

Her bloodied hand lifted and pointed down the other hallway to my right. She said something before Ron helped her back into her room. He came back out a few seconds later with a cell phone in his hand, to which he threw to the ground and stomped his heel into it.

"She'll bleed out in time," Ron said as he walked past me. "Ready? The cellar is this way."

I followed, my finger remaining on the trigger ready to be pulled. And when a door opened just as we were walking by, my arm raised and I pointed the gun at Vince's head.

He lifted his hands up. "Just me."

I almost laughed. If it were up to me, I'd kill him on the spot. He got Eva into this mess and he only wanted to get her out of it because of the fact that he was the father of her miscarried child.

"Where is she?" I lowered the gun to my side.

"With Maverick in the cellar." Vince tried to smile, but it seemed like it was too much of an effort. So it just turned out as a small curve of his lips. "He's...busy with her."

"Busy," Ron echoed.

Vince merely looked at him, but that look told me exactly what was happening in that cellar.

I saw red. It was the first time that I showed any emotion on the job. I grabbed Vince by the shirt and pulled him to me, our noses touching as I ground my teeth together. Maverick was in some cellar of the house raping Eva and Vince wasn't doing anything about it? He never did anything about it. He just sat back and fucking watched.

"You will show me the cellar," I hissed the words out through my clenched teeth, twisting my hand in his shirt.

His face didn't change. "You don't want to see it, Enzo. It's probably best that you wait it out."

I slammed him up against the wall and put my gun to his temple. He flinched away from it, but I moved it so that it remained in its spot. If he didn't answer me, then he'd be killed. It was as simple as that. I had no qualms against killing him. And at that moment, I didn't care if it would anger Eva.

"Now," I whispered.

He flinched again before raising his hands in surrender. I dropped my hands and took a step away from him.

Vince closed his eyes and let out a slow breath before turning and heading towards the end of the hall. Ron and I followed, his eyes on our surroundings and my eyes on Vince. If he made any move to stop me from getting to her, my gun was ready.

Ron lifted a walkie talkie to his mouth. "Any more guards?"

It crackled and one of my new recruits answered. "A few. There aren't as many as expected in here."

"Kill them," I murmured, fingering the trigger as Vince turned and motioned towards the last door.

I stepped inside with Ron at my heels. It seemed like just an empty room with wood flooring and a large black area rug in the middle. I didn't have to look under it to know that the door was located under that. If it weren't for the fact that I knew what was going on below me, I may have laughed at how cliché it was.

Ron threw the area rug to the side and I opened the hatch hidden below it. Cement stairs led down to a small hallway, which ended at a door. My fingers stilled over the doorknob as I closed my eyes. The numbness was fading into premature horror. But I had to go in.

I opened the door and took a step inside, my eyes still shut. And when I finally opened them, my heart sank to the pit of my stomach.