Short Stories

Prompt #21

"You don't strike me as a professional criminal."

"That's what makes me so good at it."

He looked at the child ahead of him, sat casually drinking from a beer bottle, a pistol tucked away in their trousers, hidden by a loose t-shirt and held tighter by the hoodie tied around their waist. Feet up on the table and eyesight directed elsewhere, it was hard to believe it was the same person he had contacted. But the one who assumed anything about Finch would be the one in the grave the next morning.

Underneath the hood of 'Axel Finch' was actually Matthew Kelly, heir to the wealthy Kelly family that owned one of the largest corporations in the country. Underneath Matthew Kelly was actually Jade Kelly, the daughter of the Kelly family who was forced to become a boy, her parents even paying for the fake birth certificate that declared her so.

Jade had lived her life a boy to the point that the deep voice that she put on was no longer an act, but more an accent or language she could easily slip in and out of. For the most part, she never dropped it. Nobody in the criminal underground knew she was who she was. On the days she felt lost under her layers of identities, she whispered to herself in private to try to remember what her real voice sounded like, the higher, more feminine lilt to her words and the sound they produced.

"So how soon can I get this done?" The suited individual asked Jade, his fingers resting on the briefcase under the table.

"How do you want it done? Quick and quiet? Want a message sent? Am I making an example of him? I need the details or I can't do it," Jade questioned, leaning back in her chair as she spoke with her hands, the cold drink in her hand being sloshed around as she did so.

The man opposite seemed uninterested in sharing what the purpose of the hit was, so simply stuck to what Jade called the 'Default Hit'.

"Quick and quiet, dispose of all evidence, you'll get half now and half afterward."

"I'll get it all now or your guy is a free man. If you're only gonna give me half the pay then I guess you'll get half the job," she proposed, her fake voice calm and level.

The suited man held a flash of anger in his eyes but hid it within himself due to being situated in the den of Axel Finch. He had seen firsthand the shooting skill the young leader held but had only heard rumors of Axel's beastly hand to hand combat. Anyone who faced the Finch was sure to end up bruised, broken, and left for dead.

"Fine," he grumbled, proceeding with the deal at his boss's expense. He lifted the briefcase to the table and Finch leaned over, eyeing the briefcase with smug satisfaction. "All accounted for, we have ourselves a deal," Jade grinned, holding out a hand to shake. The gentleman opposite returned her firm grip and they both shook on the arrangement.

Jade stood, yawned, and stretched upwards. Ammo for her gun fell from the pockets of her hoodie and she lazily bent over to pick them up. The gentleman frowned, a scowl on his face, "you don't strike me as a professional criminal," he observed.

Jade picked up the last of her ammo and gave him a dangerous smile, the killing glint in her eye setting the man's scowl back into the firm line it had been previously. "That's what makes me so good at it," she retorted, feeling for her gun and reloading it within eyesight.

"Cheer up chuckles, you've got nothing to worry about," Slider, Jade's best friend reassured the man, placing a hand on his shoulder. He stepped away from Slider and made his way out of the bar, the eyes of the other patrons inside following his exit carefully. Jade let out a groan as he left and allowed herself to fall back into her seat, the beer bottle assuming its position in her hand once again.

"Yeesh where do you find these guys Ax? He looked like he could freeze Hell over and scare off the Devil himself," Slider commented, sitting opposite.

"It doesn't matter who he is Slider, all that matters is that he pays," she returned, taking a swig of her bottle. She placed it beside the briefcase and fumbled for the latches for another peek at the cash inside.

Slider leaned over her shoulder and smirked, "So. Which poor sod do we have to kill this time?"