The Ideal Deal

46

"I don't think I can do this," Romaine complained while breathing heavily. "If I'm caught-"

I rolled my eyes, "You'll be fine. We'll direct you through an earbud."

Dominic then handed him a baseball cap with a small spy camera on it. Dominic instructed, "Make sure you keep the hat on."

I placed the earbud in Romaine's ear and told him, "Take a deep breath and get out the car."

Romaine nodded and did as instructed. He then began walking off in the direction of what he called Headquarters. He raised his hand to the guards, probably showing them his tattoo, and they stepped aside and allowed him in. Romaine then walked to a front desk where a lady with the same tattoo was sitting behind.

"How may I help you?" the lady questioned.

"I'd like to see the boss," Romaine answered.

The lady frowned, "Do you have an appointment?"

"Tell her it's urgent that you speak with him," I instructed through the earbud.

Romaine replied, "This is an urgent matter."

The lady nodded and picked up her phone. She then dialed a number and placed the phone to her ears. She spoke, "Sir, there's a member downstairs that requests to speak to you about an urgent matter....Okay. Sure." The lady hung up the phone and nodded in response. "Last floor."

Romaine nodded and walked to the elevator, which were blocked by three guards. The guards moved and allowed Romaine to enter the elevator, where two guards were already stationed.

"Do you have any weapons on you?" a guard in the elevator asked once Romaine got inside, and Romaine shook his head. "We'll need to do a pat down for safety purposes."

"Sure," Romaine agreed. A guard gave him a pat down before allowing Romaine to press the button of the floor in which he needed to go to.

When he arrived to the floor, there were six guards guarding a glass door. They stepped aside, and Romaine pushed the doors open, which lead to a very large office. Sitting on a chair behind a glass table was a guy I recognized from a convention meeting I went to when I was younger. I looked over to Dominic, who looked over at me with raised eyebrows.

"Romaine, is it?" the guy asked.

"Yes, Sir," Romaine answered.

The guy then asked, "What's so urgent about meeting me today?"

Dominic instructed, "Tell him you failed the mission."

"Huh?!" Romaine replied.

The guy he was meeting with repeated, "What's the pressing issue?"

"Tell him," Dominic restated.

Romaine answered, "I failed the mission you assigned."

The guy remained silent and simply clasped his hands together. After a moment of silence, the guy shrugged, "You simply won't get paid. We'll assign the task to someone else, unless you are willing to continue the mission, but a fee will be deducted for your tardiness."

Dominic then instructed, "Tell him you'll continue but that we recognized your tattoo."

"I'd like to continue the mission, but I'm truly here to tell you that they recognized my tattoo, somehow, Boss," Romaine followed through. "They asked me about it, and I threw drinks in their face and managed to get away."

The guy frowned, "Why didn't you simply lie about it?"

I instructed, "Tell him you thought that Dominic and I are looking into the assassination."

Romaine answered, "I felt that they were looking into the assassination."

The guy slightly tilted his head as he frowned, "Why would you think that?"

"Intuition," Romaine shrugged. "The way they looked at the tattoo, and the way they sounded when they asked me the question lead me to believe that they were on to me. They probably didn't know that I was hired to kill them, but if they recognized the tattoo, then they must've encountered it somewhere else."

The guy behind the table informed, "I met the two at a convention five years ago. Maybe they remembered mine."

"Still, Sir, they weren't asking out of curiosity. I could tell," Romaine reenforced.

The guy nodded, "Okay, thank you. We'll keep our eyes open."

"Ask why they want the entire family dead," I instructed.

"Sure, Boss," Romaine nodded, "but out of curiosity, why does the person sending the hit want the entire family dead?"

The guy thought for a moment before announcing, "Between you and me, I'm the one who sent both hits, Romaine. I've been trying to buy out both families' companies, and if you can get the mission done within the next 24 hours, I'll double your pay and give a generous tip as well. You'd be looking at $3 million dollars."

I turned to face Dominic with wide eyes as I wondered if Romaine would snitch out our location for the money.

Dominic immediately offered, "Say you accept. We'll give you $5 million so you can hide out yet live comfortably."

"I accept, thank you," Romaine said, and the guy gave a short nod before pointing to the door. Romaine then left and took the elevators down to the main floor. He exited the building and walked back to where the rental car, which we had Romaine purchase for the purpose of not being tracked, had been parked. He got inside the backseat and assumed his spot beside me. Dominic then drove off, and Romaine took off the cap and took the earbud out.

A/N: Late Happy New Year to all 💖🎉🎊