Assassin X

Alex

To say that Alex was surprised to see Raven outside of his building would have been an understatement. He thought for sure she’d fled back to her own place or even to Papa’s to tell him what had happened. He’d tried her cell at least a dozen times but she hadn’t answered him at all. So he had been fairly certain he wouldn’t be seeing her or hearing from her again.

What she’d said, about being as good as dead, had sent shivers through his body and on his walk back to his apartment those shivers hadn’t stopped.

It was clear through the look in her eyes that she wasn’t being dramatic, Raven really was in fear for her life. So when he saw her outside of his apartment building, obviously waiting for him, he felt a sigh of relief. At least he knew she was safe for the moment, and she had come to him to keep her safe.

Once up in his apartment though, the tension still evident in her body, Alex knew he had to put aside his inner need to protect her. He wanted to wrap her in a blanket and hold her all night long, let her know that he wasn’t going to let anything touch her.

And if she let him, he was still going to do that for her, but fist he needed her to tell him the truth of everything. Who she was and what he was up against.

“Let’s talk,” he told her as he shut his apartment door behind them both. Playing it smart he double checked the lock and even slid the chain across the door, not something he did unless he was going to bed. And sometimes not even then.

But he wanted Raven to feel safe in his home and until he knew what he was up against, which he was sure was quite dangerous, he wanted to make sure he was keeping his own self safe.

Raven followed him into his apartment, which was not nearly as nice as her expensive one and he realized as he looked around also quite messy, but Raven didn’t even seem to be paying attention. Her stare was blank as she took everything in, but he was certain her mind was in too many places to be really paying attention.

Alex sat down on the edge of the couch and Raven mirrored his moves.

“I…I don’t even know where to begin,” she said. Her voice was coming out as barely a whisper and Alex wasn’t sure she was even going to be able to tell him what she needed to.

On instinct he went to his cupboard which doubled as a liquor cabinet and pulled out a bottle of wine that he’d had in there for longer than he could remember. He took down two juice glasses, not owning any actual wine glasses, and poured two large glasses. He walked back to the couch and handed one to her.

She eyed him skeptically but eventually took it and a large swig of the liquid.

“When I was younger I was pretty scrappy, I had to be to survive on the streets. Papa watched me on the streets, and one day he kidnapped me and put me down into a cellar. He told me that he was going to take my scrappy ways and train me to be a fighter in his army. He made it sound like I had a choice, but I didn’t. He was going to force me to do this or kill me, and he made it sound….he made it sound like I was going to be doing something good. That I was going to be a part of something, and part of a family.”

Raven took another large sip of her wine, Alex took a smaller sip of his. He wanted to stay alert just incase something happened in the night, but he wanted her to keep drinking, to keep talking like she did the first night. He wanted her to feel comfortable.

“He and his men, they trained me well. I ate, slept, and breathed Papa’s rules and his life. I was good at it too, really good at everything they taught me. They praised me, I became one of Papa’s favorites. It felt…good…I guess….to be somewhere where I wasn’t getting beaten. Where I was actually cared about. I was so young, so desperate for approval, so desperate to be off the streets, that I didn’t really think about what they were going to have me do. When they thought I was ready, they pulled me from the cellar and gave me this amazing apartment. Papa told me that as long as I was a part of his family, he was going to take care of me. For the rest of my life.”

Her voice was wavering and the tears were getting ready to fall. She took another sip, trying to swallow the emotion that was building in her. Alex watched her, completely entranced by her story. Being pulled off the street, being trained and sort of brainwashed, being given a lavish life to a girl who never had anything was a big deal. When Alex thought about it, he wasn’t surprised that she decided to go with Papa and his family. Not that it seemed there was much of a choice in the matter. Papa had basically plucked her from the streets and told her she was to follow him or die.

“He began giving me missions, targets to kill. At first it was ok with me, as ok as I could be with killing someone. But the targets he gave me were the same types of people that had mugged me, abused me, killed people right in front of my eyes. He was getting rid of these horrible people and I was ok with that. That’s how it began.”

Raven’s glass was empty so Alex poured some of his wine into her glass. She needed it more than he did.

“I was good, I was so good at what I did. And…I believed Papa. I believed he was just trying to clean up the city and make it safer. I felt like I was doing some good in the world. Weird isn’t it? I was convinced that by killing these people I was helping to do some good. That I was like a silent angel for the city. But then, then it didn’t feel so good anymore.”

“Why not? What happened?” Alex asked. It was the first thing he’d said since Raven started talking. She looked up from her glass and looked him in the eyes.

“Papa had me start killing other types of people. People that weren’t that bad. The names were getting bigger, politicians and billionaires, but they hadn’t…they hadn’t done such bad things. They hadn’t killed or r***d, they weren’t like the people out on the streets. And I still went along with it because Papa had me convinced but it just…didn’t feel right anymore.”

Alex waited for her to finish, he had a feeling this was where it got rather dangerous for her.

“You…you were the one who caught me and ruined that hit for me a few weeks ago weren’t you?

Alex nodded slowly, not sure if that was going tot make her angry or not.

But she just nodded as if she had already been certain that it had been Alex.

“It wasn’t entirely your fault. I mean, it was because you made a noise which spooked him and me, but it was also my own fault. I wasn’t being as careful as I should have been, I was uncomfortable. I was second guessing everything.”

She smiled wistfully and set her glass down, the wine was still in it but it looked as if she needed a break.

“Papa, he’s so smart. He knew I was second guessing him. And at the absolute worst time for him since he was moving into the next phase, the bigger fish, taking over the city. Just like he threatened when he baited the cops.”

Alex wanted to talk about that, ask what the plan was so he could fill Captain in on everything. But he didn’t push her on that. There would be time for that later, first he needed to know just exactly what kind of danger Raven was really in. She was far more important to Alex than anything else that was happening.

“He hasn’t given me any hits for weeks, not since that last one. I don’t know how long he was going to let me go on like that, but he wanted me to figure out my allegiance. When I found out about you, found out that you weren’t who you said you were, I went back to him. I thought he was the only person I could trust, I felt like such a fool for thinking that I deserved any other life than what he had given me. When I went back, he gave me another hit to prove myself. But if I failed…that was going to be it for me.”

“It?” he asked.

Raven nodded slowly and gave a sad shrug. “You’re either with Papa or you don’t exist. He can’t have ex-assassins running around on the street that know too much.”

Alex realized what she was saying and a wave of nausea washed over him.

“So because I made you miss your mark tonight, he’s going to kill you?”

The tears were brimming and Raven was trying to be strong and hold herself together, but she gave a slow nod.

“Seems that way, he already had men waiting outside of my building.”

“I’m so sorry,” he told her.

In an attempt to save Oliver’s life and stop Raven from making another bad decision, he had basically sealed her fate.

“I was going to go to my apartment, gather as much stuff as I could, and take a bus to the farthest place from here. And then probably hop another one even farther away.”

“What were you going to do once you got there?”

“I don’t know. Probably end up on the streets again. At least I’d be alive though.”

Alex stood from the couch, he’d heard more than enough. Pacing his apartment he tried to think of any way to make the situation better. He was going to make it better, that was a promise he was making to himself. There was no way he was going to let her run away and live on the streets again. Raven’s life had been hard enough and she was so young, she deserved a chance to have a better life. And Alex was going to help her get there. But first he needed her to know something important.

He sat back down, this time right next to her so that he could feel the heat from her body. He grasped her hands and waited until she looked up at him.

“Raven, I need you to know something. My truth. My job was to infiltrate your life, find out what we needed to find out and take down the ring of people you work with. But after that first night out with you, I didn’t want to do that. I decided I did want to find out everything I could, but I had no intention of dragging you down into all of the mess. I was going to find a way to protect you. And I still am going to find a way to protect you.”

She was looking at him, biting her lip, and Alex continued.

“I need you to trust me. Please Raven, I never wanted to hurt you. And I’m not going to let that happen now. Can you trust me?”

After waiting a beat of decision, Raven gave one slow nod.

That was good enough for Alex.

“Stay here tonight, I’ll keep you safe. And then we will start fixing all of this tomorrow.”