The Killer’s Vow by Aria R. Blue
Simon
With my body still flat against the high-rise’s rooftop, I wonder why I can’t bring myself to kill the girl.
It’s not because she’s a woman.
Usually, I carry out the tasks as they’re given to me.
If the Bureau is asking, they have a reason to want the girl dead.
Even if she had never done anything to harm Russia, it’s normal for innocent lives to sometimes be taken for the greater good of the country.
Instead of pulling the trigger, I watch her through the lens.
She looks different today.
The white wedding dress molds against her figure. All of the pictures I’ve seen of her feature shapeless burlap sack-like clothing.
But today, with her pissed-off face and heavenly body, she looks like a goddess.
The groom’s blood stains the hem of her white dress red.
The Bratva’s security will find my hiding place soon. The only reason they were so cocky in the first place was because the church is bulletproof.
Or at least it was before I altered some of the glass panels.
I need to make the second shot and get the hell out of this country, but I don’t want to blink, let alone move my body.
Seconds tick by.
As if he’s witnessing all this in real-time, Vlad calls me.
“What the fuck, Simon?” he says, releasing a string of colorful Russian curses, including one about dandruff in my penis that’s making me act crazy.
“It must be the jet lag,” I say. “You know, you should really give me a few days to get used to different time zones.”
“This isn’t about jet lag,” he barks. “You had one job, one hit, and you managed to mess up again. I can’t keep covering for you.”
“At least I killed only one person this time,” I say.
“The wrong person,” he exclaims. And then he sighs. “Everything’s not a fucking joke, Simon.”
“Who told you about it, anyway?” I ask, scanning my surroundings to see if anybody is watching.
“You’re not the only person who works for me,” he warns.
He’s trying to threaten me.
When he picked me from the Institute, I was an uneducated boy who couldn’t speak English or even hold a gun.
He provided me with life skills and a livelihood. That’s the only reason he has my loyalty to this day.
“Are you still at the location?” he asks.
“Yes.”
“Finish the job then,” he commands.
“I’ll see what I can do,” I say, looking at the beauty through my gun scope again.
She’s not a traditional kind of beautiful.
There’s a fierceness around her edges that makes it hard to put to words how attractive she is. Just by looking at her, I can tell that she earned her strength by going through adversity.
I’ve been told that she’s a spoiled Bratva princess, but I don’t think that’s true.
She was just born to the wrong family.
Before today, I never had the luxury to ponder things like destiny.
But I do believe that certain people are meant to find each other, even if only for moments in time.
And I know better than I know my own name that I’m meant to meet this girl.
And until that happens, I’ll shoot any fucker that tries to lift her wedding veil.