Young and Deadly

Chapter Eleven

Tossing and turning was all that I did when I tried to catch some sleep. Was it because of the letter? Trench coat guy? Dean? The men in black? It was all just a lot to think about within the time span of one -almost two- hours. My system was seemingly out of whack today.

When dinner was finished, I ate in my room. My mind was racing too much to even comprehend was anyone else was saying. Carl's, and sometimes Seth's, voice was all that I could hear... seriously. I think I have a one track mind at the moment.

Okay, I need a phone book.

"Elizabeth." I open my door and shout, hoping that she hears me.

"Yes dear?" She sounds closer than I thought.

"Where is the phone book?" I look down one side of the hall and then the other. She was putting some linens into the linen closet.

"It should be downstairs by the front door in the stand." She straightens her shirt and motions me toward the stairs. "I'll show you where."

I grab my phone and follow her down the wide stairs. My head was throbbing. Maybe I should grab some aspirin from the medicine cabinet in the kitchen. She descends the stair case so gracefully that I wondered if she used to be a dancer. I was lithe too, but for a completely different reason.

We reached the bottom of the stairs and we quickly made our way to the stand. She pulls open the drawer and removes a thick, red phone book. Perfect! Using her hip to close it, she hands over the book.

"There you are." She smiles. Why does this woman always smile? I don't see what there is to smile about in this twisted world.

"Thank you Elizabeth." She waved her hand and walked off towards the laundry room.

Opening the book, my agile eyes scan the yellow pages. My finger lands on what I want. I grab my purse and check to make sure I have money. Rushing to the kitchen I find the aspirin and take three. With stealth, I sneak out.

Dean, as the guy who is supposed to over see me, was supposed to know where I went and if it wasn't he was supposed to follow me. What I had in mind at the moment might not be good for Dean's health... or life.

My gun in tow, I sneak to my car. The engine purred to life and I made a clean get away. It was just after six and the place I was going didn't close until eleven. All I was praying for was that it wasn't busy. If the roads on the way there was any indicator, then it wouldn't be.

For the deserted location, the place seemed extremely nice and well kept. The spacious lot was empty. I grab my permit and proof of identification. It wasn't my real ID since I had to be eighteen for this and it didn't have my true identification on it either. I had too many ID's and permits all because of my 'job'.

Locking the car, I glanced around my surroundings for any foreseeable threats. When I was satisfied, I continued towards the building. This will be so much fun.

Pulling the door open, I'm met with the sight of a bickering twenty something year old couple. It immediately stopped with the ding of the door.

"Hello young lady, have you gotten lost? I can try and help as much as I can," the man offered, moving from behind the counter.

"No sir, I'm here for some rounds." He looks at me oddly.

"You must be confused sweetie," the woman says this time.

"No, I'm in the right place." I hand him the permit and the license saying I'm nineteen.

"What's a girl like you doing here for that?" Both the woman and the man ask.

"I need to blow off steam. I've had a stressful day and this is exactly what I need... trust me." I slide my bag from my shoulder and take the last few steps to the front desk. "How much for the rest of the night?"

The woman seems taken aback so, once again, the man answers me. "That's a span of about four and a half hours. It's about forty-five every half hour so that'll be..." He starts tapping button on the register. "Four hundred and five dollars."

"Alright. Do you take debit cards or strictly cash?" I remove the wallet from my nice sized Gucci purse.

"Which ever you have is fine." He shrugs.

I hand over my card. I would rather save the cash in case I needed in a situation that will call for it. He takes the black piece of plastic then stops. At first, I'm worried he notices the name on it at first.

"Do you need a box to refill your magazine?" He asks.

"Not at the moment no. As soon as I run out I'll purchase some more. Actually on second thought, give me say... six boxes." I can refill it and be fine... Besides; I only brought two extra magazines.

He nearly chokes on his spit. "Six boxes? You do know each contains a hundred and fifty right?

"Yes, this is far from my first time doing this... trust me."

"Okay, but that just added an extra two ten to the price," he warns, raising a questioning eyebrow.

"I don't care, just add that on." He gapes at me.

"What do you do that you have so much money?" He questions as he swipes my card.

"I manage in a family company since my parents died two years ago." My lie is convincing because I've had to use it so many times before.

He just makes a silent 'oh' and has me sign the receipt.

"Alright follow me," he motions and the woman crosses to the door with the six boxes in her hands. Once in the large room, he motioned me to the center room. I was the only one in here, but it brought me comfort to know if these two were shady, I had my gun and knives.

The woman set the boxes down. "Thank you." She finally smiled and quickly scurried away.

"Okay, let me make sure this line is working." He disappeared and I could hear the whir of a machine.

A paper was on a clip and it moved to close rang. "Okay, thank you."

I finally remove my gun and one of the extra magazines. Might as well save one for my safety. Knives weren't always efficient in a tight situation; even if you knew how to use them like they were a part of you.

"First let me show you how to hang a new sheet. I'll also demonstrate how to hold, aim, and shot the gun." His voice was cocky on the last sentence so I decide I'll let him.

After showing me how to set it up, he went to the next line where he had set up another paper. "Never hold a gun loosely, it often has a kick back and when you’re a beginner you can be in trouble. Next line up your shot. Where would you like me to line it up to?"

"Heart."

He glances at me in shock, but shakes it off. "Have you dealt with guns before?"

"Yeah here and there. It was something that my father and I did together.... He wanted me to be able to protect myself." I explain in a convincing tone.

"That sounds nice." He smiled, but I knew he didn't mean it.

"So continue," I wave my hand as a hurry up.

"Right. Never put your finger on the trigger until you're ready. Put your sound reducing head phones on," he nods his head to the big black and read head phones. I picked it up and placed it on my head where it pressed firmly against my ears. He had mimicked my motions and turned to me.

"Are you going to shoot?" I raise my voice enough that I know that he can hear me.

"Yeah. Now come over here and watch how I do this." He may be muffled to me, but he sounded cocky once again. I doubt he's as good as he is making him self sound.

"Alright, show me what you got big man!" I shout this time.

"Okay, watch and learn," he smirks. Cocky twenty something year old indeed. I just motion for him to continue. He raises his gun, slips on safety glasses, squints his eye to line the shot up, and fires. The gun recoils and I see him smirk.

He lowers his gun and nods for me to look. Looking at the sheet, I see he's four or five inches off his target. I snort. "That's... good."

His face gets red at my less than enthusiastic comment. His next words were said in that ever so cocky voice. "Well let's see you do better."

I place my safety goggles on and step towards my sheet of paper. The weight of my gun bringing tremendous comfort to me. I say nothing and sent him a glance to be sure he's watching. He is and is staring at me in a discomforting way.

All in one smooth, fast movement I lift my gun and shoot. It was all quicker than he said it should be and I set my gun down. I didn't even aim it.

"There is no way you did better than me. You weren't steady, didn't aim, and didn’t do any of the things that I showed you to do!" His voice is slightly raised and smug.

"Bring our papers forward then and when can compare," I pat his should and smile. Wanting to prove he did better, he goes to the controls. Both papers come forward. He goes to his first and looks at where he hit as do I. Five inches off. Then we walk to mine. His face quickly falls.

"But you..." He splutters and looks at me in wonder.

"Don't worry, I can teach you to hit a target," I smile. Mine was dead center, nothing off about it. They don't call me the best for nothing right?

"This is definitely not as good as I thought you would be." His voice and face portray shock.

"What can I say; I've been at this for a long time. I recently moved so I can't go to my usual shooting range." First true thing I've said tonight.

"I'll go put a new one up for you. You definitely showed me up so it's the least I can do." He rushes off, muttering about how a girl showed him up. Men are so touchy when it comes to a girl beating them at something 'just for men'.

"How kind of you sir," I say ever so sweetly. Children would be on a sugar high with how sweet it was.

"Don't call me sir; I'm only twenty-four!" He insists as he grabs a sheet and replaces my old one. Usually, I just go to shoot to subdue my anger so I just shoot at random half the time. The other half, when I have finally calmed down, I go for accuracy.

"Sure. It's the least I could do right?" I ask, c*****g my eyebrow.

"Yeah, you showed me up now I'm resetting your paper," he grumbles in a playful tone.

"Well, I'm glad to see you're not a sore loser," I laugh a full body laugh.

"Yeah. Besides, I don't think I would want to be on your bad side. You didn't even look to line it up. You were like a ninja with a gun!" He chuckles.

"Nope, not a ninja. I'm a deadly assassin," I say with full out sincerity.

He laughs like I knew he would. "I almost believed you if I wouldn't have known otherwise. You could be if you wanted some really good pay. Wait, you already manage a company so never mind that suggestion."

"Yeah, I mean people still want to murder me anyway so it doesn't matter. If I can shoot them before they can shoot me I'll be just fine."

"I have no doubt." He returned to the controls and distanced the paper again.

"Thanks."

"No problem." And with that, he left the room. Now I can shoot in peace.

The first two hours were blind rage, the other skill practice. I ended up buying two more boxes in the end. What? I had steam to blow off and this was how I did it. The woman came in and told me it was closing time so I removed my empty magazine and put in the one I had saved.

Placing it back in my purse, I threw the empty boxes in a trash can. As I left, I said good bye to the two. As I went out into the cool night air, my phone rang. Huh, twenty-six missed calls from Elizabeth's house phone. I nearly forgot about Dean.

It starts ringing again and I prepare to answer it when a hand grabs my shoulder. In one fluid movement, my phone is in my purse, my purse is on the ground, and my hand is grabbing the assailants hand and sending them over my shoulder.

The male, from the weight and height, wasn't very threatening. Regardless, my hand had quickly grabbed the knife and brought it to the man's throat.

"Jesus Christ, please get off of me. Are you sure you're not a ninja?" He chokes out from underneath the weight of my arm.

"I'm sorry, but you should never sneak up on me." My laugh was dry and humorless.

"Yeah, I can see that," he laughs and stands up, wincing as he straightens.

"So I'm sure there is a reason that you were out here," I prompt him.

"Oh yeah! Here, I found this and you've been the only customer we had today. This tends to be the slowest night we have." I look to see my mother's necklace hanging in his hand.

"That was my mother's," I whisper. "Thank you for bringing this to me before I had left."

"No problem," he says then looks over my shoulder. "I must go; my sister is getting impatient with me. Good bye Karen!" He shouts as he jogs away.

I say nothing and just hop into my car. The drive was silent and short. I wasn't really looking forward to Dean and I's next encounter. Like I said, he was to accompany me any where I went that didn't pertain to the Collin's case.

"Where have you been?" His voice floated to my ears from the porch. Should have known my 'handler' would be waiting for me.

"Out," was my vague answer.

"You are aware you are to take me with you when you are out, right?" He stands and crosses his arms.

"Well doesn't someone feel all big, bad, and important," I snap at him. So much for my good mood... again.

"Don't even go there Blake," he warns.

"I think I'll leave now." I thought it was low enough that he wouldn't hear me, but I was wrong.

"You aren't going any where without me," his voice is firm as he walks towards me.

"I'm leaving... without you." With eyes narrowed, I cross back to the car.

As I got close to the car, his hands grab my arms just above the elbow. So I bash my head into his nose and kick back, hitting his leg just below the knee cap. One hand flew to his nose, the other to his leg.

I quickly spin around to face him, crouching down into a defensive fighting position. "Care to try that again?" My voice was low and threatening.

He quickly recovers and stands up. Men really don't like to lose to women. "I won't have some blonde little girl get the better of her handler. You're supposed to know your place with me."

"Wow, I wasn't such a 'little girl' today was I?" His face flashes with guilt. "I don't even want to look at you. You have seemed to do nothing but piss me off today."

"You're not supposed to like me so it really doesn't matter." He wipes blood from his face and saunters towards me. "Let's see if you’re as bad as the make you sound. No weapons are aloud only hand to hand. Got it?"

"Oh, I don't need a weapon to hurt someone. They're just a luxury for what I do." I laugh mirthlessly.

"You should have been able to get away from that guy without one then. Why couldn't you? Cause you're nothing but talk." He spits.

"I used my knife to kill him you moron!" I shout and get ready to pounce.

"I bet that's just an excuse for not being as good as your reputation says you are." He taunts.

"You're really getting on my nerves," I say through clenched teeth. I decide to count to five before springing on him. Finally getting to test who they sent to 'protect' me.

Five, "I." Four, "Don't." Three, "Care." Two, "If." One.

I pounce on him, efficiently knocking him down to the ground and pinning him. "That's the problem with people. They get distracted from the fight by giving a speech. That is why I graduated two years ago. I'm not like other people. Nothing about me is remotely normal and it pisses me off," I growl.

"Get off of me," he huffs.

"Wait, I thought we were supposed to see who was best at hand to hand," I c**k my head and look at him.

He takes my pause as a chance to flip me over so that now he's pinning me down. "Yeah, we are."

I take my knees up to my chest since he is straddling me and holding my hands above my head. I'd seen people get distracted when someone they find attractive does something provocative. I bring my head towards his and stare at his lips then up at him.

His grip loosens slightly and I tilt my head even closer. When I can tell he's distracted, I break my hands free and use all of the force in my legs to kick him off. He stumbles slightly and lands on his back.

I pin him, but this time I pressure his windpipe. He struggled, but he wasn't able to faze me this time. Just before he passed out, I stood up. He gasped and clutched at his no doubt bruised throat.

I'll give him something though, he recovers fast. Hopefully the years of gymnastics I was forced through still pay off with my combat skills as well. He lunges, but I quickly dodge him. Trying to keep up, he spins and swings a clumsy fist. I mean, come on, why'd they send him?

I kick out, landing a blow to his stomach. When he recovers from it, he lunges once again. I back flip out of reach, kicking him in the face in the process. His nose that had stopped bleeding began again and there was a cut on his lip. As he goes for me again, we both freeze at the sound.

"Hey, stop that!" Elizabeth shouts after having whistled. "Get inside the house and stop behaving like uncivilized children!" She commands.

Tired and not wanting anything else to make this day worse, I walk inside the house. Today was just lovely. Can it get any worse? Without anything else being said, I go to my room and lock my door. Very wisely, I avoid my bathroom. I can foresee another mirror incident right there. Once can seem accidental to Elizabeth, second is going to raise some eyebrows.

I toss myself down on my bed without bothering to change out of my clothes. My body is finally tired enough to sleep. All that was in my dreams was what Carl and Seth had asked me to do. Looks like I've got a new agenda to cater to now.