How the Assassin Met the Traitor #2
Finally, she shrugged. “Regardless, I was going to find myself someone to entertain the night with, so before I agree, you might as well keep me occupied in that manner first. You do know how to do that, do you?”
He laughed, walking over to the corner of the room to reach for one of the expensive whisky bottles sitting on the table. “I think I can handle you for tonight, if nothing else.”
Before he could grab the bottle, Celia slinked over and slipped underneath his arms. She shoved him back, and, as he stumbled, she pushed him again to fall onto the bed.
She climbed over him with her legs apart.
Her hand reached for the halter and slowly pulled out the bow around her neck.
The dress dropped from her body. She pulled off her gloves with her teeth and grinned as his eyes gazed upon her.
“You can’t handle me at my best.”
· · ·
Celia smirked when the young man stumbled out of bed the next morning. She pushed the covers off her naked body and reached for the early morning alcohol left at the bedside when he brought back a folder of papers.
“I am trying to break apart the mafia group my family is part of.”
She paused her drinking straight out of the bottle. “You’re betraying your parents?”
“My parents are both dead, but in a way, yes, I’m betraying them.”
“Why?”
“I don’t agree with what they’re doing. With what I’m doing. I want to ensure they are brought to justice like they should’ve been years ago.”
She screwed the cap back on and dropped the bottle. “You are part of the mafia, so you should know better than anyone how impossible that will be.”
“It is not impossible.” The devilish smile returned to his face.
“I have already made efforts toward it. I purposefully reestablished lost relationships, so that I can have all the most powerful families in one place when I take them down. That’s the only reason why I bothered extending an olive branch to the Chen family after they killed my mother. ”
She raised an eyebrow. “That must’ve been difficult.”
He chuckled. “It was less difficult than I thought.”
“And how do you intend to enact this master plan? By yourself?” Celia reached for the folders to flip through the pages.
“I have already contacted the best of the best. Trustworthy law enforcement. The best lawyers of Hong Kong and the US. With a bit of a helping hand from an important group of people.”
Celia’s hand froze. She stared at the profiles of the Guo family.
On paper, they were just another family, part of Infinite, but one look at the photographs clued her in on their true nature.
An undercover family with a husband and wife who worked for the government and children looped in to appear as normal as possible.
A doctor and a businesswoman. What perfect careers.
The handpicked clothes, the purposeful body language, and the eyes that glowed of warmth.
Perfect mediocrity that could not possibly exist in the world.
“How in the world did you manage to get them to help you?” Veiled admiration tinged her voice.
“I didn’t.” He lay on the bed and stared up at the ceiling.
“My mother set the stage. Unintentionally. When she found out the truth about them, she spared their lives and convinced the other families that the Guo people were failures. Not government agents.” His voice quieted.
“They couldn’t have been happier when I reached out to them. It was a debt unpaid.”
She continued reading his plans. He moved to Hong Kong because their main businesses were operating out of the United States. “My perfect excuse was to grow our side of the business here, which I have, but really it just makes it harder to trace to me if things start to move,” he explained.
“And the children of the other families? Your stepsiblings? Your younger brother? What’s going to happen to them?”
“As long as Lang Lang is kept out of the crossfire, I really don’t care what happens to the rest.”
Well, he’s certainly not the best of humanity. Celia could not help musing to herself at the icicles that dripped from his words. But the best of humanity is just so boring… She leaned forward invitingly.
He snatched the folder from her hands and gazed into her eyes. “Are you interested?”
A part of her didn’t want to answer, but Celia never turned down entertainment. She grinned. “It sounds not boring.”
And not boring it was.
Sniping from a rooftop. Poisoning drinks and leading the victims away.
Seducing married men and opening her body for easy photographs for Hui Ye to use.
Lying without the slightest sense of guilt.
She utilized every bit of technique she developed in her career—killing, questioning, fishing, and blackmailing.
She was many people at once and no one at once—Andrea, Avery, Olivia, Meghana, Sally, and June. He provided her everything she needed to transform into another woman, showing her an entire warehouse with clothes, wigs, makeup, and accessories.
“Do you like to create women for your fantasies?” she once teased him as she cycled through another identity.
“There’s a more personal reason to this. My mother made most of the clothes here.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t your mother make most of the clothes you own?”
He nodded. “She loved designing clothes.” And said nothing else.
After one of their drunken nights in bed together, she woke up to see him melancholy by the window. He said without turning to her, “Today, my mother was murdered. They almost killed my younger brother, too. She protected him.”
“You know you don’t have to wait for the day she’s killed to mourn or celebrate her,” Celia climbed out of bed and hugged him from behind. “There’s not a specified day for mourning.”
He chuckled and played at an empty glass of alcohol in his hands. “It’s a force of habit now. For Lang Lang’s sake.” He said nothing more, and Celia didn’t bother to pry.
They had more important things to focus on.
· · ·
Celia had just climbed into her car after a successful meeting with the bank regarding Hui Ye’s newest investments in his rival’s business. She drove her car to a secluded area and slipped out of her curly black wig. She was busy wiping the makeup off of her face when her phone pinged.
Eyebrows furrowing, she picked up the phone with her still gloved hands to see the location of where Hui Ye last was. The message alerted of his status.
She threw her phone aside and pressed hard on the gas pedal. She weaved through the unsuspecting streets where citizens yelled at her for speeding, and she took care that no one followed her before entering where the GPS signaled her to go.
She drove into an abandoned construction site.
Smoke rose from the distance, and collapsed buildings dotted the dug-up land.
The land once had no value, and the poorest of the city lived in this unassuming area before a rich person decided they wanted to develop it.
The citizens were kicked out, and the construction began with grand designs of skyscrapers, beautiful artificial gardens, and stunning roads.
Halfway through, the rich decided it was no longer worth it, and the area remained a ghost town that no one ventured to.
Except for Hui Ye. Paranoid of people following, he had his chauffeur weave through forgotten and abandoned lands like this to get to where he needed to go.
She slammed on the brakes and flew out of her car.
His car burned, and smoke billowed out into the sky.
Hui Ye had begun to crawl his way out of the car through a window but gave up halfway through.
He hung completely limp, and his arm brushed against the ground.
His chauffeur stayed dead and strapped to the driver’s seat.
She dashed over and pulled Hui Ye out of the car, but she knew he was a lost cause. Burns covered his entire body, and his legs were twisted like a toy. How he was not screaming from agony, Celia did not know, but she laid him on top of her lap as best as she could to make him comfortable.
Her heart did not beat in pain, panic, or anger.
There was an eerie acceptance of the fact that the man she had dedicated several years to lay dying in her lap.
He coughed and gasped for air, and, despite half of his face burned away with flesh curling in torment, she still found herself admiring his handsome features.
He forced his one good eye open, and the crooked smile returned to his face when he recognized her. “I might’ve…messed up…” he whispered.
“Do you know who it was?”
“Not really, but…Wang Xing was acting weird today…you’ll want to dig into who spoke to him recently…” He coughed, and blood trickled out of his mouth. Pain painted in his eyes, but still, they focused only on her. “I have…one more wish for you to fulfill…if I may ask…”
She tipped her head. “Your wish is to take down Infinite. That wish is what I agreed to, and I will continue to work on it even in your death. That is how I operate.”
“No…it’s regarding Aiden…Lang Lang…Hui Lang…
” He took a moment to catch his breath, but his determination forged forward.
“…he wants to live a life separate…like he should…please make sure he doesn’t get swept into the family and have to pay for their transgressions.
Make sure that he’s free to live. Like he wanted to live. Grant his wish by granting mine.…”
“Why?” She stared down at the dying man. “You cannot give me anything in return for my work in that regard. You will soon be dead.”
However he managed to summon the strength, Celia did not know.
Hui Ye reached into his pocket on the right and pulled out a small jewelry box.
She took it from his hand and opened the obvious ring box.
A silver ring reflected back light. A purple gem sat at the center.
Celtic symbols were engraved within the band.
“That…” he whispered. “That is a promise…”
“A promise?”
“That it will be fun.”
She snapped the ring box shut and placed it on the ground beside her.
As Hui Ye continued to breathe laboriously, she slipped her gloves off and threw them into the fire of the car.
His body started to shut down. Writhing, whimpers escaped from him.
She placed her hand against his eyes to focus him on her touch, and she placed her other hand against his cheek.
His breathing calmed. He chuckled, leaning his cheek into her hand.
“I had once thought to myself that if I were to get killed, I would rather it be you to kill me.”
“Well, isn’t today your lucky day,” she whispered. She tapped the small button inside her shoe with her toe, and the heel retracted for her to grab the dagger attached to her boot. She pulled it out.
“How are you going to kill me?”
Her finger lingered on his neck. She traced it, dragging the tip of her nail against his dying skin. “Like this. So quickly, so suddenly, and so professionally. Your blood will pour out in a matter of seconds, and you will be dead. Just like that.”
He smiled at her as she readied the dagger against him. “Celia? Was it fun?”
She sliced the dagger through his throat, and he died with blood pouring out his neck and over her lap.
When he was nothing but a corpse, Celia moved his body back into the burning car.
It would be a while before anyone noticed something was wrong.
The murderer would ensure that news of his death would not travel far, which protected her as her fingerprints burned away with him.
She opened the ring box, took out the ring, and tossed the box into the flames.
She slipped the ring through the gold chain necklace that currently decorated her neck and clasped it back in place.
I need to make sure his body is completely destroyed, she thought to herself and reached into her trunk for the fuel.
She tossed it onto the burning car, stepping back as the flames engulfed the car and the bodies.
Her lips touched the ring with great tenderness, and she turned back toward her car to leave.
She had very little time to lose.