Miss Jenny Jones #3
She opened up her refrigerator. She pulled out some bread, ham, mayo, and a brick of Romano cheese.
As an afterthought, she grabbed two bottles of water and headed to the kitchen counter.
Before she knew it, she had made two sandwiches.
She stood in the darkened kitchen, staring at both sandwiches with chills racing down her spine.
She had just made a snack for the man who was paid to kill her.
She sensed someone behind her. She looked back and Simo was staring at her, then at the sandwiches.
She was utterly surprised at how quietly he moved.
“I… uh, didn’t know if you were hungry…”
“We have a few minutes. We eat and I’ll give you your instructions.” He pulled out a stool from under the counter, sat down, grabbed the sandwich nearest her, and took a huge bite. JJ followed his lead and slowly started on hers.
“This time you have to follow exactly what I say. If you don’t, a fuck-up will cost you your life. Understand?”
She swallowed her bite and it went down hard. “I do. Yes.”
“You won’t know everything. Understand?”
“Yes.”
Simo finished his sandwich, tore off a wad of paper towels, and wiped his mouth. To her surprise, instead of throwing the paper towels away, he stuffed them into his pocket.
“If we are stopped by police, I will say ‘police’. You will uncover and stay back there. If you are asked, you are hiding from your boyfriend. I am your friend and am taking you to your mother’s. You are planning on staying there until Christmas. You had a big fight and he is drinking. Understand?”
“Yes.”
“Next. We will be followed. We will lose them one way or another. If there is any shooting, stay the fuck down. If I go down, or there is a problem, a man named Theo can be trusted. He will say his name, he has a thick accent… more than the one I was using. You hear any other voices? You are gonna die. If it were me, I would kick in as many balls as I could and scratch their eyes out. Make them pay for taking your life. Understand?”
“Oh… yes. Why does all this have to take place?”
“Lots going on tonight. Joel is in Mexico with Sarah. Irwin Miller conveniently fell down his stairs an hour ago… he will not live much longer. Joelly is moving up to the big leagues. Soon he will have his father’s money and he will do some more stupid shit… worse than usual.”
JJ looked down at her half-eaten sandwich. “Where will I go?”
“That is being finalized.”
“I—I have my passport in my…”
Simo angrily cut her off. “NO! You can’t use anything from your old life.
I will give you a new identity. I already have what was in your purse.
” He jabbed his finger at his temple. “You have to use your brain. If you use your phone, passport, or credit cards, hell is going to shit on your pretty head. Understand?”
JJ stared aghast at Simo and slowly nodded. “If… if I had left the country, wouldn’t Joel have found me anyway?”
“Yeah, but it would have been easier to make you disappear. Besides, it would have cost Joel a shit-ton of money for overseas contracts…”
“Oh… ok.” With a heavy sigh, she opened her water bottle and took a deep pull. She handed Simo his. He waved it off and smiled. From inside his jacket, he pulled out a flask, opened it, and took a quick swig. She smelled licorice. “What’s that?”
Simo held up his flask. “Ouzo. You ever want to get crazy? Ouzo.” He uncapped it and handed it to her.
She accepted it and gingerly took a sip, coughed, and handed it back as the cloying, sweet licorice burned its way down to her belly. She coughed again. “Wow. Crazy, got it.”
“Time to wrap you up.”
“Why do you have to wrap me up if you are expecting trouble?”
“To keep you where I want you to be… not very calm last time I asked.” He winked and began wrapping the big blanket around and around her, just leaving enough open to let her breathe. “Can you get out?”
JJ wiggled a bit and felt the blanket loosen. “It may take a bit.”
“Good. I will carry you and put you in the back.”
Before JJ could respond, Simo had swept her up and over his shoulder. She heard him punch in the alarm code in the laundry room. In moments, he was putting her in the back of the Audi.
Suddenly, his face was looking at her inside her warm blanket. “Last thing…” He chuckled. “I hope you are not too attached to your car…”
“What? Oh… it was Halo’s…”
“Just remember what I told you.”
The back hatch was slammed shut and she heard him speaking. She heard a weird word, ‘fevgo’, then the Audi started. Suddenly, the Audi was turned off, then she heard some rapid speaking in that foreign language.
Theo’s voice erupted in his earpiece. “Oxi katharo!”
“Poso?” How many? Simo replied.
“Theo. Dyo.” came the reply.
Simo shut down the Audi and called out to JJ. “Getting you out! You need to go back in the house. Company incoming… two heavy hitters.”
Simo jumped out of the Audi, kneeled up on the hood, and unscrewed the garage door opener’s light. Reaching in, he flipped on the Audi’s parking lights, which illuminated the walls with red and yellow. Simo ran around to the rear, pulled JJ out, and stripped the blanket off her.
“Get your ass into the safe room. It’s a piece of shit but it’s better than nothing. DO NOT trigger the alarm. If the police come, they may be killed.” He shot her a glare full of caution. “If it is not my or Theo’s voice, then you will activate it. Understand?”
JJ nodded through her shock at all he knew about her, including her alarm code and the safe room. She managed an ‘ok’. Going inside, she deactivated the alarm and rushed up to her safe room.
Once inside, she pulled the nearly invisible door closed behind her and locked it.
She settled in as best she could, as the small room only had two cramped seats.
The alarm keypad glowed blue, illuminating her trembling fingers.
She swallowed hard, full of thoughts about what might be happening down in her garage.
Simo stood by the garage door opener pad and pulled out his FN 57 and quickly spun its silencer on. He left the door open to the laundry room as he depressed the garage door button.
Then, he rushed back to his predetermined dark hiding place by the HVAC in the back of the garage.
Kneeling down, he sighted his FN 57 at the slowly opening garage door.
A waft of fresh air replaced the Audi’s exhaust fumes.
When the door was barely halfway up, a darkly clad intruder surreptitiously rolled under the opening door and came up by the Audi’s rear quarter panel.
He poked his head up to the rear passenger window, then quickly dropped down.
Simo waited in his dark hiding place and observed.
The intruder made his way forward, scanned the area, then lifted the back hatch of the Audi. JJ’s suitcase was tossed to the ground and then kicked toward the laundry room door.
The intruder then he moved in front of the Audi and his flashlight came on.
He swept the dark back area of the garage with the bright beam.
Simo ducked as best he could as the beam flashed above him.
Simo watched him stop with his back to him.
He was outfitted with a suppressed automatic M4 and dressed in tactical garb.
Movement at the front of the garage caught his attention.
The intruder’s backup ran inside the garage and Simo saw that he, too, was outfitted the same.
Simo readied himself and placed his finger onto the trigger of the FN 57.
The backup went inside the open laundry room, leaving the intruder crouched with his back to him at the laundry room door. Malaka, Simo muttered to himself. The fucker didn’t clear his area. Good for Simo. Maybe good for ‘shit for brains’, too, Simo chuckled to himself.
Simo extricated himself from behind the HVAC.
As he moved toward the man, he put his handgun away and pulled out his black-bladed combat knife.
With his knife at the ready, he silently came up behind the intruder.
In a flash, Simo grabbed the man’s gun hand, pinning it against his body, his razor-sharp blade at the intruder’s neck.
“You move, you die badly,” Simo whispered into the shocked man’s ear.
The intruder suddenly had a different idea and reached up to try to disarm him.
Without pause, Simo plunged the point of his knife deep into the stiffening man’s neck.
In one move, he pulled it out the front of the struggling man’s throat, nearly severing the man’s head from his body.
Simo continued holding the man’s gun hand as he supported the man’s weight, waiting for the gurgling air and blood to stop pumping out of the gaping wound in his neck. The dead man’s backup never came.
Simo deposited the body by the HVAC, wiped his blade on the man’s pant leg, and put it back inside his jacket. Pulling out his FN 57, he readied himself as he began searching for the intruder’s radio.
Finding it, he pulled his own earpiece from his ear and replaced it with the dead intruder’s. Simo heard the backup’s voice talking. It was a deep southern drawl, but the man sounded professional. “Bottom floor clear. Waiting for y’alls cover to proceed to upper level, over?”
Simo depressed the ‘send’ switch and chuckled into the microphone. “Hey, Alabama, I told you I would kill you all if I saw any of you.”
There was no response to his taunt. Simo guessed he was highly trained, perhaps Special Forces or a SEAL.
Simo crept up to the open door, then froze as a car turned into the driveway across the street.
Reaching up, he hit the button and the garage began to close.
Putting his own earpiece back, he spoke in Greek to Theo.
“One down.”
“Need assistance?”
“No. Wait to help JJ in the safe room if needed.”
“Roger.”