The Assassins Guild

Chapter 7

Present Day

"Let's go over it one more time," I said to the kid, kneeling at her side while I tied her shoes for the hundredth time since I bought them for her. Why kids couldn't tie their own shoes? And also, why they never seemed to realize their laces were undone? Olivia rested her tiny hands on my shoulders, smiling down at me.

"My name is Olivia Peters. I'm nine years old and I'm your niece. My mother Samantha is your older sister. We are just passing through," she parroted while I fixed her jacket and make sure she didn't have a hair out of place. Going to the diner in pajamas was perfectly excused, but if we were doing this shit I needed her to look perfect. We would be rubbing elbows with an entire police department and the kid couldn't afford to look neglected or both of our necks would be on the line.

I've had no other choice but to attend Mason's barbecue with the kid. Assassin's first rule was to be invisible. Adaptation was all about blending in and in our current situation we desperately needed a social net to hide us. Mason's barbecue was the perfect hideout. Nobody, and I repeat nobody would ever dream on looking for us in a police department barbecue. We desperately needed to stay at Pond Springs for the rest of the week until the Venetian Games had started and my life returned to normal. If we wanted to stay then we had to blend in. I looked over my shoulder and the camping park where the barbecue was going strong. I've never seen so many rednecks together. Every single citizen of Pond Springs has done an appearance. I knew this because I've researched Pond Springs population before buying my property and felt comfortable in the low numbers. There were only about a hundred people living at Pond Springs and they all fit comfortably in the park in front of us. I studied all the possible threats surrounding us. There was this biker guy with a .44 Magnum concealed behind his back and of course every single police officer in attendance had their customary Glock 22 hanging from their leather holsters. I calculated forty-five seconds of advantage over every single one of them before the first cop could get his gun out of his holster and shoot it at me. Forty-five seconds equaled to three dead people and a good lead. I counted twenty cops and of course Mason, who most likely was the strongest opponent of them all. I studied him from afar and took notes of my observations. He favored his right leg from time to time suggesting an old wound that never healed properly. He was slow and left handed. I was way out of his league, but still there was something curiously interesting about him. He had that classic, reassuring manly air, like a younger version of Clint Eastwood.

I frowned, tightening the kid's jacket and looking at her beautiful face. She widened her smile and that stupid heart inside of my chest tightened. I cleared my throat and Olivia turned serious right away, as if she knew I would be all business the moment I opened my mouth. The kid had learned to read me in the short amount of time we had spend together. We did a good team, a fact I still didn't know if it should thrill me or if it scared the living crap out of me.

"Stay always in a close range. Always keep your back at me so you keep your eyes ahead. I will be protecting you. If something weird happens and you feel a funny feeling in the back of your neck you come running back to me," I told her and Olivia nodded, before furrowing her tiny brow.

"What kind of funny feeling?"

"You have felt it before kid. It's a feeling in your bones, you just know it. When a monster is close the back of your neck tingles and you just know something bad is about to happen. If you ever feel that way ever again you come running to me. You understand?" Olivia nodded and to my surprise she hugged me. I froze, feeling awkward under her small arms. I've only received enough hugs during my life to count them with one hand, but this one...this one felt different. I didn't move, scared out of my mind to do anything that could scar her more than what she already have been by her father. Just then Mason focused his eyes on me and waved a hand from the barbecue stove in the middle of the park. I waved a hand back and send Olivia to play with the other kids. I kept my eyes on her until I make sure she had been properly accepted by the other children. The kid blend in spectacularly, making me strangely proud. She was by no means like the others. I was sure Olivia carried more emotional trauma in the back of her mind than the biker I was just passing by, but that kid was as resilient as a flower blooming over layers of snow. She will grow stronger than what her father ever thought she would ever be. I would make sure of it...somehow, someway.