Hannah and the Hitman

Chapter 46

46

HANNAH

“Thanks for picking me up.”

“From an adult store on Colfax? I want the story,” Brittany said, an hour later when she picked me up in front of Pleasure Palace.

“Who’s car is this?” I asked, scoping out the interior of the white minivan as I put my seatbelt on. In the back was a booster seat, a pool noodle and stray crackers.

“Dr. Todd’s. You took my car, remember?” She pulled onto the road headed west. We’d have to go a few miles to get to the highway that took us up into the mountains and to Coal Springs.

Shit. It was in Jack’s parking garage. My car was still at the library.

I should be freaking out. I was freaking out. “Right. I’m so sorry, B, but I didn’t know who else to call.”

“I’m your BFF. You’re supposed to call me.”

“So did you save Jack?”

“Yes. With my superpower.”

She hummed something, probably a theme song for a superhero movie. Her finger even tapped on the steering wheel along with it. She wasn’t thinking clearly when it came to my current situation.

“I tossed a bad guy across a parking lot, and he got run over,” I said, trying to get her to see this wasn’t one of those comic movies. I threw a real guy, and he got really dead. “Then Jack accused me of being a hitman sent to kill him.”

A bark of laughter escaped as she stopped the car at a light. “You? A hitman? You put spiders in a cup and carry them outside instead of smooshing them like normal people.”

I flung my hands up, then dropped them back in my lap. “Right? That’s what I tried to tell him. Not the spider thing, but that he was fucking insane.”

“Then what?” The light changed and she accelerated, looking both ways before crossing the intersection.

“Then he kidnapped me to his sorta-dad’s old apartment in some industrial area, we got in a fight, and I teleported.”

“Again?” As if I did it all the time.

I nodded.

A slow smile spread across her face. “That’s so awesome, but why the Pleasure Palace? That’s a little odd.”

I shrugged, slid my fingers over the shoulder strap of the seatbelt. “I’ve only done it twice, but it seems I get sent to wherever I was thinking about right before it happened. The Pleasure Palace is the only adult store I know because they have those commercials on the radio. ”

She glanced my way, eyes wide. “You were thinking about an adult store while fighting with Jack? Very kinky.”

“He said he’d stopped at one and picked out some things for us. I guess he piqued my interest.”

“A guy who’s secure enough in himself to pull toys into the bedroom is a–”

“Don’t say keeper. There’s one thing I haven’t shared yet.”

Her eyes bugged out. If I shocked her any more, they might fall out. “There’s more ?”

She slowed for another red light. Colfax had one at every block for what felt like miles. At this rate, we’d never get out of town.

“Yeah. Jack actually is a hitman.”

She tipped her sunglasses down and eyed me like I may have started spouting in tongues like Perry said he could do. “What do you mean he’s a hitman?”

“I mean he kills people for a living. That’s his job.”

“Are you serious?”

“I teleported to an adult store .” I put an emphasis on both because teleporting was the thing of sci-fi movies and I might read sexy romances, but I’d never been in an adult store. I ordered online where it was nice and discreet. “Why would I lie about this?”

“Good point. Okay, he kills people for a living.”

“Remember when I told you he could be a murderer, but you said it didn’t matter since he suffered through dinner at my parents’ house? Yeah, well, he really is a murderer.”

“But he suffered through your parents’ house,” she reminded with a shudder. “Name another murderer who’d do that.”

“I don’t know another murderer!”

Maybe Dax was one. Wait. So was Joey Brains. And Eyebrows. I seemed to know quite a few. I doubted any of them would last as long as Jack had.

I turned in my seat, bending my leg so I could face her. “Are you hearing yourself? He kills people. He actually murdered someone during our dinner date the other night. In the restroom while the waiter brought out my salmon and his steak. I went back to see if he was okay and gave him a Pepto Bismol thinking he had stomach issues.”

She started to laugh, then bit her lip. “Sorry.” A snort came out before she could calm herself. “Jesus, Hannah. You wanted a second lease on life. You got one.”

I sighed, looked down at my fingers. I threw a man and he ended up dying. I was an accomplice killer. If I was into sports, I’d get the assist. “Be careful what you wish for, right?” We were quiet through one stop light. “I’ve been trying to keep myself alive, B, and he kills people. He doesn’t have any regard for life or death.”

She sobered. “Oh, sweetie. What are you going to do?”

“I can’t stay with my parents.”

“I’d rather be strangled by a mafia goon,” she replied.

I’d experienced both and one was a much faster way to go.

“I can’t stay with you,” I added.

“Why not? I thought that was why I came to get you.”

“Someone tried to kill me! I’m not putting you in danger.”

“You’re riding shotgun, girlfriend. ”

“I know. I was going to have you drop me off at a hotel or something, but I realize now I don’t even have my purse.”

Instead of continuing straight through the next light–finally, it was green–she used her blinker and turned onto a side street.

“I know where you have to go,” she said.

I looked around. I was loosely familiar with Denver. Knew how to get to specific places like a mall, a sports arena or the airport, but it was pretty hard to get lost since the mountains went north to south on the west side of town. But I didn’t know what street we were on. “Where?”

“Back to Jack.”

“What?” I squawked. “Have you heard anything I said?”

She nodded. “Yes. Especially the part where he’s a killer. He’ll protect you, Hannah.”

He would. He’d said he wouldn’t hurt me, no matter how much he yelled and fumed and he’d done a lot of both.

“The bad guy who came to the library, he said he was there for me because I was a distraction for Jack.”

“Which means this is a Jack problem. You only got caught up in it.”

“So I should stay away from him, not go back to him.”

She shook her head, as she turned once more so we were returning the way we came, one block parallel to Colfax. “I’m not saying you’re not in danger, but this is Jack’s problem to fix and part of that is making sure you stay safe. And alive.”

“You’ve never even met him and you’re taking me to him? A murderer?”

“If he kills people for a living, then he will protect you. ”

“That makes no sense,” I argued.

“It makes complete sense,” she countered.

It did, but I wasn’t going to admit it.

I sighed. “I’m really mad at him, B. Hurt, too. He didn’t believe me when I told him the truth.”

“He saw you hulk smash a guy. It’s pretty unbelievable. Remember, I drank a bottle of wine after you lifted my tree trunk coffee table. You have to give him a little leeway.”

“You believe me,” I reminded.

“Yeah, sweetie, I do. But you don’t love me. You love him.”

“I don’t–” She set her dark hand on mine, shutting me up. Squeezed. “Yeah, you do. Remember though, you have the advantage.”

“How’s that?”

“You can do the whole teleport-away-from-him-thing again if he makes you even madder. No matter how big and burly or how talented his dick, he can’t stop you.”

They were valid points. All of them. Including his talented dick.

“Now tell me where his apartment is. I promised to get the minivan back before T-ball.”