Pink Walls

Day Three [Part IV]✓

"I apologize for being too attached to life."

For a long moment, I wondered if she would be my first kill, this hunting dog with a death wish.

She put a gun to my side and paraded me through the heart of Ron's territory without so much as an afterthought, as though she would not be gunned down the moment I let out a scream.

Unfortunately, the gunfire would draw more of her 'colleagues' to the hotel, so the smartest thing I could when we got to the lobby was ask the receptionist for the keys to Alex's car.

"Here Sir." As he slid it across the front desk, his dark eyes flitted to the person behind me. "Going out for an evening drive?"

"Yes. I promised this fine lady a fun time. As great as Dei Lupi is. . ." I winked. "You understand, don't you?"

"Where is your name tag, Amelia?" he asked her, his voice as light as mine. He stared at me hard, his knowing gaze begging me to say something, but I just smiled. I couldn't do that when Daniel was still in the hotel, unprotected.

"She must have lost it," I answered, the moment I sensed her agitation. She was getting tired of this little detour we were taking. "She's clumsy like that."

"I understand," he said slowly then addressed her again. "Since you are off duty at the moment, it's not a problem. But the instant your next shift starts, you need to be wearing a new one."

"I'll remind her," I told him with a small smile then started to turn away.

"Oh," I called out after taking only one step back. Amelia tensed behind me. I could tell that her finger was ready to pull the trigger.

"Remember to wash the other car," I said.

Confusion flashed across his features almost imperceptibly, then he nodded and smiled. "Of course."

"I'll pay you extra if there are no scratches," I added with a small laugh then turned to Amelia, holding my hand out towards the exit. "Shall we?"

With a wordless grunt, she shoved me forward. "Don't even try to pull anything. If you do. . ."

"I already told you that I would cooperate," I muttered, my knife itching to be used. It would be so easy to take her down right now. I would take her by surprise, sidestep and slice her hand at the wrist, damaging the tendons that let her hold that gun she was so confident about. I had to slit her throat after that though. It was the only thing I could do.

I had to want to kill her to be able to beat her. I had to forget mercy entirely, because any moment of weakness would get me killed.

That was what made me avoid fighting hunting dogs. I had to lose myself in the fight to survive, I had to want them dead.

I had to go for the carotid, the jugular, the trachea, spleen, femoral artery. . . Places I knew too well to know to not hit with a knife. Places I usually avoided thinking about entirely.

As the two of us walked out of the hotel, I found myself wondering just how many of the Carmosinos' people had infiltrated it.

I already knew that Ron couldn't mobilize anyone right now but her hotels were supposed to be safe zones. That was the reason why they were so popular. Mobsters, gangsters, hitmen, if they needed somewhere to lay low and evade whoever was out to get them, this was it.

The Carmosinos' plan to infiltrate must have taken years of careful consideration to come to fruition. Planting someone at Ron's side wasn't as easy as it sounded.