Manhattan: In Love with the Infamous King

Chapter 3

Nolan POV

That girl, Alex, walks out of here. We all look at each other kind of shocked and confused. Someone had the balls to come up to our home base for a kill. What kind of bullshit is that? How the f**k did he get up here?

“Holy s**t!” Trent yells out in frustration. He grips his hair hard before heading over to the bar and grabbing that expensive whiskey and takes a swig of it. The men are transferring him now before we get to him, but we need to make sure this doesn’t happen again. “Are you f*****g kidding me?” Trent is still relentlessly upset. I make a phone call to see where my men are and they’re headed to the warehouse now with that man.

From his tattoo on his neck, I recognized him immediately. Panther. He’s known to cut his victims into pieces, a hitman. Someone is targeting Trent. “Panther is with our men now. Calm down, Trent.” I give him a hard stare. We may have a hit on all of us, but we need to think about this with a clear head. He looks at me angrily but then nods slowly, even he knows we need to get our priorities straight. I see Phillip pull out his phone and look confused.

“Uh, guys.” He flips his phone around and we take a look. It’s a picture of Trent two weeks ago at our last mission in Barcelona. On the bottom, it read “The Jack - $1M.” Trent is raging with anger and I can’t believe there was a hit ordered on him. That’s not a joking number either, so whoever ordered this isn’t playing around. “That’s not the weird part.” Phillip states back at us while we look at him like he’s crazy until he flips over the phone again to show who sent him the hit. “A favor. -The Whisper”

“The Whisper gave us the tip?!” Tori exclaims. We are all look like a deer in the headlights. This is uncharacteristic of a hitman, especially of his caliber, but we have bigger fish to fry at the moment.

“He didn’t just give us the tip. He wants a favor in return.” Phillip tells us as the tenseness of the room rises. “He rejected the hit.” That’s a real kicker. Nobody turns down that type of money. Trent lets out a breath. The Whisper doesn’t take things lightly. For whatever reason, he decided to not kill him and tip us off that someone is.

“Alright Trent, who have you pissed off?” I bark at him. “This isn’t petty money! Whoever ordered the hit is serious about making sure you’re six feet under.” He paces back and forth before he stops and pales. “Who is it Trent?”

“I slept with Veronica in Barcelona.” Are you kidding me? This is a joke. I told him not to, that it would only bring more trouble than good.

“Veronica, the Spaniard drug leader’s wife?” Tori puts both her hands on her hips as she yells at Trent. “We are now all in this s**t show because you couldn’t keep it in your pants?!”

“No. Renaldo isn’t stupid and he couldn’t care less about his wife. If it’s him, he using that as a cover for something else.” I say calmly. “It’s more likely someone else. Trent?” I question him as he’s still swinging liquor down his throat, but he shrugs like he has no idea. “Phillip, see if you can find anything else. If The Whisper calls on that favor, I want to know the moment that you find out. Understood?” He nods profusely before leaving to his office.

“Tori, I need you to do the interrogation.” In the corner of my eye I can see that Trent is pissed at this, but I hold my hand up at him to shut him up. “Go, now. Let me know if you have any problems.” She rushes out of here, and I turn to face Trent.

“I’m the one that has the hit. No one else.” He looks at me seriously. It’s rare to see him so serious since he’s usually super laid back, but he knows how dangerous a hit with that price means. I breathe and I nod at him. “No one else should handle this but me.” He points at me because he knows there’s no way in hell I’d leave him out to fry.

“You’re not alone. We are dealing with it.” He lets out an angry deep breath, but I give him a hard stare. I’m not budging in this. He’s my best friend and he’s one of the Royal Flush, we are loyal to a fault. “Look man I need you to clear your head if we are going to get to the bottom of this. And until we can figure out what the hell is going on, you need to go under.”

“Like hell!” He bursts back at me, but as he tries to say something, the lights go out. f**k.

Alex POV

I send a message to Ten, who I assume is Phillip. Normally I wouldn’t do something like that, but it’s nice to have the Royal Flush owe you a favor for the tip. And they’re not exactly the worst gang members I know. I’m about to reach my loft and I see someone in the rear view following me. I recognize the sports car and roll my eyes before pulling into a discrete area of the harbor. I slam the car door and look towards the waters while he comes up next to me.

“Hi baby.” Gross. We dated for like three months and a year before I became The Whisper. He doesn’t know who I am, but I can tell he might have his suspicions if I’m not careful. “I saw you leave the building of the Royal Flush.” I cross my arms across my chest and lean against my car.

“And..?” I say back at him, annoyed. He shrugs his shoulders and follows my lead and leans against my car.

“They’re looking for a sniper.” He says nonchalantly, but I give him a look like seriously this is what he chased me down for? I shake my head at him before trying to get back into my car, but he doesn’t give up, so he slams my car door shut. “I just want to know if you got it.” I smirk at him. He’s always been jealous of my natural skill, though he’s never seen how good I truly am since I always held back to not bruise his ego.

“Ryker, it’s Kennedy’s 21st birthday today. She wanted to go to one of the hottest clubs in New York City. Surely, even you can understand that?” Ryker is 24, just four years older than me. He gives me cocky grin.

“I miss you.” Geez, he was always too possessive of me. It’s been over three years, get over it. “You know, we can start again?”

I shake my head. “I’m good, thanks.” This time I yank open my door and he moves off of my car as I get in. For safety measures, I take alternatives routes home to make sure I’m not followed. When I get home, I get undressed and take a hot shower. The hot water washes away all of sweat and grime of the club. Instead of going straight to bed, instead I go to my computer and investigate a little. A one million price tag draws a lot of attention. The person who requested the hit is a Spaniard drug king and I wonder why he would want to hit an American gang elite. Whatever the case, this isn’t going to be a pretty sight. I’m staying out of this.

Before I get off, Ten tries to again hack my network. I’m going to call in my favor now. He might not be able to break in now, but I’m not risking the one day he will. I send another message to him. “Favor. Stop. -The Whisper” I don’t think I need to be more clear. He knows that’s he’s been trying to hack me since I’ve gained popularity in the black market, but I’m not in the mood to play games. His consistent hacking is giving me a headache. I don’t wait for his response and go straight to bed.

Nolan POV

Shit. We shoot down what I hope is the last of them. There were only six more hit men, but they’re the ones desperate for the kill and that cost them their life. Most of them I have never even seen or heard of, at least from their kill tactic. I see Trent on the other side of me wiping the sweat from his face. Blood pools pile in our hallway and there is just stillness. We drop the guns on the table. How the hell did they get up here? I’m going to have to get Phillip to ante our security.

*ring ring*

I look at the caller ID before putting Phillip on speaker. “Tell me something good Phillip.” Trent is next to me intently listening in. There’s nothing from the other end and we look at each other before I try again. “Tell me something Phillip.”

“He called on his favor.” Damn, that was quick. “He said to stop. Nolan, he knows we have been trying to hack him.” s**t. Could this day get worse? We have to follow through with this favor. It might be the only reason Trent is alive right now. That just means The Whisper now has two over on us, but with this favor, it will go back down to one. I grab the bottle from Trent’s hand and take a swig of it. He really doesn’t want to be found.

“Fine. Stop trying to hack him, just try to make contact for now.” I say angrily. “Anything else?”

“Yeah, the hit was ordered by Renaldo.” At least we got one of our answers. Trent shakes his head. Suddenly, I have a thought.

“Phillip, what if we make a hit on Renaldo?” Trent looks at me and mouths “what are you doing?” I smirk at him before continuing. “The Whisper didn’t take the order from Renaldo, but maybe he’ll take one from us.”

Alex POV

I wake up at 7 AM and I hear my automatic coffee maker start brewing. My phone reminds me that I have a flight today to Madrid at 10:13 AM. The target is Joseph Moreno. I run through my systems to see his usual schedule. Another message pops up from last night and I open it. It’s a request for a hit, but it’s for Veronica Duran, Renaldo’s wife in Barcelona. When I see who it’s from, I’m intrigued.

The Royal Flush wants to take out the wife of the man that’s after their Jack. I shake my head in disapproval. Although I understand how it could be smart, they’re using this to out my identity. Not today, and I reject the request. The message pops up yet again and they upped the ante. Reject.

I sip my black coffee before grabbing my light bag and head to the air strip. The attendant looks at me before handing me the keys for the small plane. I tend to switch up my modes of transportation to keep off the radar. I look through my passport, Laura Nguyen, before taking off for Madrid. Once I get there, I scout for the spot I’m going to take my shot. Discretely, I make my way inside a small church and sit on one of the benches. I look outside to see the street market and notice some things that are odd. One of the men selling cows' milk puts the glasses in direct sunlight. It’s a hot spring day, any dairy farmer or distributor knows not to do that. The florist lady does the same. Hmm. I go out to test it out.

“Ma’m, are these daisies for sale?” I smile politely at the young 30 year old florist as I pick up the asters. She looks over quickly and nods while looking back around her. I smile widely at her as I give her some cash for the flowers and walk off like some ditsy young girl. These sons of bitches. They’re trying to set me up and now I’m going to have to send a message. I walk into my nice villa stay and smile at the patrons as I make my way to my room. Looking through my phone, I find the one that ordered the hit. Henry Portsman, Veronica’s brother. I take my snipers out and load some extra rounds, looks like I should make my message crystal clear.