Hitman: Captured | #1 - HIATUS

► Chapter 23

Neil Madden

Footsteps rush through the wooden corridors and up the stairs that grunt under my boots as I reach the second floor. The bedroom door is nearly thrown off its hinges startling my father who is unpacking his belongings; laptop on the office desk and his hands on his sniper rifle aiming directly at me from my abrupt arrival.

"What the hell, Neil?" he hisses angrily putting down the weapon. "I almost shot you!"

It goes over my head, unable to concern myself with my near-death experience while closing the door. "I got a letter from Mudo." I anxiously reveal.

He stops what he's doing, "What? How do you know it's from him? Did you see him?" Frank begins to tense up, an intimidating expression touches his face.

I shake my head. "No, I got the letter from Ivano. He has no idea who sent it to him or why."

A sigh heaves from my father's lips, rubbing at his tired face. "Neil, you didn't even open the letter yet. How can you know it's from him? He's been keeping a low profile all this time, why would he surface now? Don't you think it's Keli fucking with us again by setting you up in a trap?"

"I know, I thought about it but Keli would have sent us a message directly, he wouldn't need to contact one of Don's men."

He seems to consider where I'm coming from, exhaling once more and outstretches his hand. "Alright, give it up." Without another second to lose, I immediately give the envelope to my father trusting his experience in this kind of thing.

As he unfolds the paper inside, a series of numbers is shown. It bemuses me until I begin to analyze it closely and see they're actually coordinates. "Why did I expect it to not be cryptic?" He murmurs to himself, walking to the office desk and sits down in front of his laptop. Once again, I witness him open the map program then type in the coordinates excluding the last four numbers. A blue dot blinks on the screen, zooming in on the location to demonstrate a road in the middle of nowhere. "If this doesn't convince you that it's a trap, I don't know what will."

"Thanks, dad." I peck his cheek ready to go there as soon as possible.

Frank grabs a hold of my arm. "Hold on a sec, idiot. First of all, the meeting isn't until 20:00 which is 8:00 PM at regular time. Secondly, there is no way in hell you're going there alone after what happened last night."

One look at my father and I know there is no changing his mind. His hard expression and firm grip give it away enough. Although, he is right. Going there alone would be stupid, especially once Keli gets the message Genesio and I left him.

I'll be walking into my own grave.

"Wait and prepare," he suggests. "Don't tell Donovan. It'll just escalate things more. For now, we'll check what it is tonight. It might be unrelated to Matt."

Shit. Being Donovan's hitman means I'll constantly be targeted by other crime families for what I have done. Despite going under an alias, it doesn't mean they won't be able to contact me through other means. Yet I can't help this nagging feeling from the back of my head telling me this is it. But it could also be wishful thinking so I have to be careful.

Nodding my head, my father releases my arm turning his attention back to the laptop—not plugged into the monitor. "I'll go apologize to Don for what I did to Danio. He could've had more information about Keli-"

"He did but he wasn't going to say anything. Theo called Danio a traitor to his family yet Danio had been working for Viktor Keli. I can't help but wonder if what happened to Matt back then was also his fault." Frank says.