Page 46 of Protecting Charity

“I know,” I whispered.

He stepped away, leaving me locked in the car with Max and his hellacious glare. My smile wavered as he continued to study me as I drove away.

“All right, come out with it.”

I pulled onto the freeway and drove to the luxurious brick home I had watched for weeks before taking Tom to the motel. I knew his every habit and routine and, by default, that included his wife. That was how I knew she would come home from soccer practice late tonight. How I knew that she sent the kids right to bed once they got home, and she would go to her room with a glass of wine and watch a movie with Tom. Seeing as he was no longer there, it’d be so lucky if she stuck to it.

“Do you want to die?”

I scrunched my face and shook my head with bewilderment. “What is that supposed to mean? What kind of question is that?”

“It means; you do all these daring things that make it appear you have a death wish. So do you want to die? Just tell me now, and I’ll put you out of your misery and get it over with. I’m tired of getting jerked around wondering if you are going to survive the next day.”

I scoffed. Where was this coming from? I had never given the impression of wanting to end my life—only the lives of others. I don’t take unnecessary risks. I have a job that puts my life in danger every time I step foot out the door. Anyone could be up for retaliation. “The only people I want dead around me are the ones that deserve it, Max. I don’t want to die; I have too much to live for.”

He ran his hands down through his hair and sharply exhaled. “Then, stop what you are doing.”

“Max, let me put something into perspective for you, m’kay. I am not doing anything different from what I always have. The only difference is, I have you three suddenly breathing down my neck with uncertainty and doubt.” I parked on the side of the road, far enough away to be hidden by gigantic trees and bushes from the front door. “I haven’t survived this life, albeit short in comparison, by making poor decisions. You guys used to trust my abilities, and now that we are… involved, you won’t see reason.”

I stepped out of the car as Max was about to say something and shut the door, cutting him off. Just as I thought, Nora wasn’t here, but she would be soon. Had I planned this ahead of time, I would have brought my tools to enter the house as I did with Karen. It was a good thing I was great at improvisation and thinking on my toes. Seeing as Nora always parked in the garage, I rarely saw her enter the front door. She came in through the garage door with her kids, almost always. I slipped my leather jacket off as I approached the front door and wrapped it around my hand before punching it through the door’s stained glass—again, thank you, Vito.

The high-pitched shattering glass threw my mind back into my car and made the bitterness come steaming up faster than I could snuff out.

I took a deep breath and sneered as I knocked the jagged glass from its space and slipped my hand through, unlocking the bolt. My boots crunched on the fallen glass, piercing the silence of the home. I froze, waiting for someone to come around the corner or an alarm to go off—silence. Shutting the door behind me, I took the stairs two at a time to find her master suite, then settled myself in the corner of her room on a bench, near her closet, and waited.

It didn’t take long before the garage door opened, causing the floorboards to vibrate. The screaming kids filled the darkness as they made their way to their rooms to get ready for bed. I pulled out my Kimber, screwed the silencer into place, and arranged it in my lap. She hollered at the kids just outside the room. Her voice became louder as she opened the door and flipped the switch, blasting the room with brilliant lights.

Nora was a petite, red-head with freckles speckling her cheeks and nose. She dropped her bags on her bed then froze, belatedly noticing me sitting in the corner pointing a gun at her.

“Do not scream,” I said as she turned to face me.

Her mouth gaped like a fish as her mind filtered through a thousand options to increase her chance of survival. The fight or flight instinct was kicking in, but with my gun pointed to her head, she didn’t have any scenarios that ended with her living unless she followed my instructions.

“Good. Now, lock the door and have a seat.” I waved my gun towards the bed, pointing where I wanted her to sit.

If there was one thing I knew about little brats, they had no respect for privacy and would barge in at any given opportunity. I would know I was a little brat once that caught sight of some disturbing sex between my parents—disturbing because I was young, not because my mother was a freak in the sheets. Ugh, thinking about that makes me gag.

She did as I said, then took a seat on the edge of her bed. Her hands trembled as her foot bobbed, causing her knee to bounce wildly with nerves.

“Relax,” I said coolly, “I don’t want to hurt you unless you’ve given me a reason to.”

Her head whipped in my direction. “What do you want?” she yelled in a whisper at me as every mother I knew mastered early on.

I snickered. “I’m going to be brutally honest with you, Nora. If you lie to me, and I’ll know if you do, I’m going to kill you in front of your kids. They’ll live with the image of their mother bleeding out on the floor with no way to save you for the rest of their lives. So think about that before you speak.”

Nora looked to the ground and covered her mouth to muffle the sound of her shocked cry. Her shoulders shuddered as the tears spilled from her eyes. I almost felt bad for her until I recalled the reason I was here. The bitch tried to have me killed.

“Do you understand?”

She kept her hand to her mouth and nodded vigorously.

“Good. Do you know who I am?”

She nodded again.

“You sent Oisin after me?”

“Yes.” She sniffed.

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