Hannah and the Hitman

Chapter 53

53

JACK

It was time to come clean. She’d seen what kind of people I dealt with firsthand.

“Yes. But only bad people. Really bad people.”

“The night at my parents’ house, you left to kill someone?”

I expected a horrified expression, perhaps even an attempt to climb off me with revulsion. I got neither. She was more curious and perhaps that was the librarian in her that wanted to know the full story.

I shook my head. “Sal Reggiano called. Three times over dinner. He’s the mafia boss in Vegas who now wants us both dead. Last week, I was contracted by him to kill a guy and I hadn’t gotten to it yet. Someone distracted me.”

This time, she looked away, not the least bit sheepish. Perhaps pleased with herself to have taken up my attention enough to keep me from killing someone. Or I’d like to think that.

“The next night, at the pizza place?” she continued.

“Again Reggiano, the needy fucker.” I sighed. “He texted and asked me why I was in Coal Springs. Turns out, he was having me tracked. I was angry because I was with you, and I needed you to stay a secret.”

She looked down at my chest, but I didn’t miss the instant hurt that my words brought about. “Why?”

Reaching out, I tipped her chin up. “Not because I’m ashamed of you, gorgeous. To keep you safe. Now that you know the truth, you can see why.”

Her dark eyes searched mine as she nodded. As if she was still unsure if I told the truth.

“He knows how important you are to me, and he was hoping to use that–the text at the pizza place–to keep me in line. When he realized he couldn’t, that’s when he sent Joey Brains.”

Her eyes widened. “You’re in the mafia?” It seemed being a hitman was one thing to handle, being in the mafia another. “Do you have a nickname?”

“Hell, no. We’re not in the mafia and no stupid nicknames. Dax and I are freelancers. We take on a variety of clients.”

“Helping them with a variety of projects?”

I smirked, remembering the bullshit line I’d told her about what I did for a living.

“Dax is also a hitman?”

I shook my head. My hand went back to sliding up and down her bare back. “He’s a fixer. ”

She frowned. “There’s a difference?”

“He fixes problems and I make them go away.”

She opened her mouth to say something but closed it. Her brain was working on what I said.

“Reggiano’s only one of our clients,” I added.

“They hire you to kill people and Dax to fix things.” She simplified it down to one sentence.

“Bad people,” I clarified, making sure she was well-aware there was a difference. “Only very bad people. I do research and make sure the world is better with them dead.”

“And dinner the other night? You didn’t have a stomachache?”

Shit. I was fucked no matter how I answered.

“The target was eating at the restaurant. I had to finish him there before he went to the ball game. It was my last and only chance.”

“Finish him,” she repeated, making me sound so callous about taking a life.

“He was an arms dealer, Hannah. He sold weapons to other bad people in bad places who kill innocent people.”

She was quiet as she thought about that. My words, to me, justified my actions. But I’d pretty much grown up to think in black and white.

“So you did it… in the bathroom?”

I nodded.

“How?”

“You want to know how I killed him?”

She nodded.

I didn’t want to tell her, to have her know the extent of the things I’ve done, but I couldn’t lie to her, or lie by omission. I needed to know she was with me because of exactly who I was. “I broke his neck.”

“I didn’t hear about a murder on the news.”

“I broke the water line beneath the sink so the floor was wet. I hit his head against the floor so it made it look like he slipped and hurt himself.”

“That’s not very realistic,” she replied. “I mean, Mrs. Metcalf is more of a mystery book reader than I am, but I think a detective would see through it.”

My lips twitched. She wasn’t running. Instead, she was making a joke. “Probably. But when the detective found out the guy was a well-known, very notorious and very bad weapons dealer, they’d have to hand off the case to the FBI and they wouldn’t look into it further. They’d know it was a hit and not care.”

“He was a weapons dealer?” She swallowed hard.

“Yes. The last job I did was to kill a trafficker. He sold women into sexual slavery. The guy before that doped racehorses. Mistreated them. Real bad. I don’t do anything random or unintentional. I like to think of their deaths as penance for the far worse things they’ve done to others.”

“You get away with it?” She rolled her eyes. “Obviously.”

I ran a hand down her back and cupped her bare ass. “Gorgeous, I always get away with it.”

She looked unsure. We’d both shared big things. BIG. I didn’t know which was more nuts, finding out the woman I was in love with had superpowers or if she learned the guy–I hoped–she loved killed people for a living.

“I’m a bad guy, Hannah, but I’m a good bad guy. I really need you to see that. ”

She looked down, absently touched my tattoos again. “I almost died, Jack. I was actually dying. Staying alive is all I’ve thought about these past few months. I know firsthand how weak we can be.”

“You are not weak,” I said, my words threaded with steel. Because I was the one who was afraid. “You are so fucking brave.”

“What I’m getting at is I value life, perhaps more than others because of what happened to me. You… don’t.”

I shook my head. “I value life. I do,” I added, when she looked skeptical. “The people who I kill hurt people. Animals, too. They’re cruel. They don’t value life. By putting them six feet under, I’m saving so many and getting justice for those who couldn’t be saved.”

It’d never been more important to be understood. I’d never given a shit what people thought of me. Until Hannah. I wanted to be good for her.

“I quit,” I added. “I told Reggiano I quit. That’s why Joey Brains showed up at the library. He wanted to hurt me in the worst possible way.”

“Is that why the guy was waiting for you in the parking garage?”

I nodded. “The men from the plane were Sal’s men. They follow his orders. But I’m not taking any more jobs.”

“Why?”

“I want the simple life. Quiet. No bad guys. Only me and my girl and a little romance bookstore.”

She blinked at me as if I’d blown pixie dust in her face. “What? You’d walk away from it all for me?”

“I already have except for some loose ends.” Like killing Sal. And Joey Brains .

Setting her hands on my chest, she pushed herself up. I admired her breasts and the rest of her gorgeous body, but she was retreating. Pulling away. I could tell from the look on her face, and the fact that she wasn’t kissing me.

FUCK.

“I… I need to take a shower. To think.”