23
(Season
3, Episode 1)
The
Hit
Tobias opened the door to his and
Linda’s condo, still laughing from the night’s festivities. Linda was right
behind him. Tobias was in a pin striped tux, which was disheveled and undone
from the reception. A fedora pushed back
on his head made him look like a drunk lounge singer. Linda was still in her flowing wedding dress.
It was elegant but conservative, and somehow she seemed to shine.
She was his wife as of two hours
ago.
“Hank should be here any minute,
and then our flight leaves in two hours. I’m going to change and check our bags one
more time.” Linda said with a smile but as she moved, Tobias grabbed her arm
and swung her back to him.
“One more look of how beautiful
you are in this.” He said with a grin and the two kissed deeply.
When they broke, Linda smiled. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” Tobias responded
instantly and truthfully. His life was
finally coming together. It had been two
months since they had helped Sidney with Savannah, his restaurant was taking
off, and now he had married his dream woman.
He had only one more phone call to
make.
“You should change too. Get some comfy clothes on for the flight.” Linda said, playfully hitting his chest then breaking
the embrace to head upstairs.
“I will, I have one call to make. I still can’t believe you got me to agree to
fly!” Tobias called to her as she climbed the stairs. He pulled out his cell phone, trying not to
think of his fear of flying.
“Don’t worry, you’re more likely
to get shot!” She called back from their room upstairs.
Tobias shook his head and smiled,
dialing the number for Sidney Thompson. It
rang once then her smooth voice picked up the phone playful as always. “Shouldn’t you be getting on a plane right
now, or doing your wife?”
“We’re getting our stuff together
now. Hank is taking us to the airport.” Tobias answered.
“You sure that’s a good idea? Hank had quite a few himself.” Sidney joked.
Tobias snorted. “He’ll be fine, hell of a party.”
Tobias could hear Sidney nod. “Easily the best wedding I have ever been to.”
“Your speech it surprised me. I figured you’d hang me out to dry like a normal
best man, but that was…” Tobias struggled to find the word.
“Don’t get weepy on me Bias.”
Sidney answered.
Tobias switched gears. “Look, I got you a present. You can do what you will with it.”
Sidney’s voice became confused. “A present? Aren’t we supposed to give you something on
your wedding day, not the other way around?”
Tobias shrugged even though she
couldn’t see him. “This is different. It’s-”
The front door was suddenly kicked
in with one hard decisive blow, loud like thunder. “What the fuck?”
Tobias took a couple of steps to
look down the hall and that’s when he saw him. The hitter was dressed all in black, was bald and
wore black driving gloves. As he raised
the mean-looking, silenced pistol, Tobias couldn’t help but think he looked
exactly like the hit man in that stupid video game.
“Spaghetti.” He managed to speak
the one word into the phone before he saw a muzzle flash and a wisp of air.
He was then falling backwards now,
over a cliff and into a seemly endless void…
****
Linda heard the crash and thought
something had fallen, she hurried out of their room and down the stairs and
watched as the third bullet hit her new husband’s chest. Three small holes, blood poured into his blue
undershirt at an alarming rate. He was
covered with the stuff before he hit the floor.
She had never thought she was one
of those woman that would scream when something like this happened, but now in
the moment she felt it rise and escape her throat, almost on instinct. The hit man now noticed her and turned the gun
toward her.
What could she expect? This is what happens when you marry a man who
was a professional thief. They never
really get away and you just end up being collateral damage.
That’s when Hank hit the man. Having seen the carnage from the doorway, he
had sprinted the few steps and hit the man high like some kind of mad
linebacker. The two men went down.
The hitter tucked in and rolled
low, his training kicking in, sending Hank toppling over his head. The hitter popped up to his feet, and Hank
scrambled to get up, but the trained killer was faster. He stepped in with an elbow strike to Hank’s
face. Hank stumbled and the hitter moved
in, stepping up and driving a knee into Hank’s stomach. The blows were fast and side-by-side and they
sent Hank crashing through the coffee table to his back, gasping for air.
Linda watched and worried. The situation was hopeless. No one brawled like her brother but this man
was a killer. He was trained, balanced,
and prepared. Hank was tough and strong,
but it wasn’t going to be enough.
The hitter turned and started to
walk back toward her and she wondered why, for a second. With that thought, her brain began to break
the hold that shock had over it and she realized that the hitter had dropped the
gun at the foot of the stairs when Hank hit him.
The gun…
The gun…
The gun!
Her brain kicked on and the man
saw the understanding in her eyes and rushed for the weapon. Linda leapt down the flight of stairs,
catching the man’s arms as He pulled the gun from the floor.
Two more shots were sent into the
wall with a mechanical hiss and the man cursed her under his breath. She didn’t
have the strength to pull the gun away but she had to hold on to keep it from
being pointed at her or her brother and hope for a miracle.
The hitter fought at her,
desperately punching at her face with his free arm and elbowing with her other,
doing anything and everything to get her to let go. One blow caught her on the nose and her eyes
watered but she held on.
Hank suddenly wrapped the man
around the waist and yanked him backward.
Linda held on for dear life, not knowing what else to do. Hank dragged the hitter back through the
threshold to the kitchen. Linda slammed, head first, into the door arch and
fell to the floor, stunned.
The sudden shift of weight threw Hank
off balance and he fell, both men crashing into the dishwasher with such force
the door broke off the hinges and the machine showered the kitchen with water. Hank scrambled to get the upper hand on the hitter,
getting to his knees first and began to rain down right hands.
“You like that?! Huh?! That’s
my brother, my sister! I’m gonna beat
your fucking-” He was cut off as the
killer managed to get to a small combat knife and bring it up into Hank’s left
shoulder.
Hank yowled in shock and pain. The momentary opening was all the hitter
needed. He planted his feet and stood at
the same time he pulled the dagger from Hank’s arm and took another swing, this
time for Hank’s neck.
It was all Hank could do to step
back enough to avoid the kill blow. The
blade still caught his lower lip and sliced it open. Hank was dripping wet, blood poured out of his
right arm and from his chin, staining the button up shirt he had worn to the
wedding. The fight was draining out of
him with the precious life fluid. The hitter
stood in front of him, blood trickled from his nose. He was also soaked, but other than that, he
was alright.
He also still had the knife.
Hank baited him anyway. “Come on… Dick… I’m not done yet…”
In the distance, sirens could be
heard. Someone had called the cops. The hitter heard the sirens, then cracked his
neck. “Not bad for some back woods
hick. Too bad the cops are coming and I
have to make this quick. We could have
had fun.”
“I’m a lot of things, but quick
ain’t one of ‘em.” Hank said, his breathing ragged.
Linda watched through stunned and
pained eyes, at first only half understanding. The blow to her head had done some damage. It had stunned her so much, in fact, that only
now did she feel the cold heavy weight of the pistol. It was in her hand, she had held on and come
away with the weapon in the struggle. Her
fingers closed around it and rage flowed through her.
She hated guns, never fired them,
never used them and had no interest in changing that, until of course, that
very moment. She raised the gun and
began pulling the trigger, the air popping sound happened again and again and
the hitter yelped in pain. She kept
firing until the gun’s slide locked back. Bullets had pelted the kitchen and she had
managed to put only one into the hitter’s leg. A passing thought that it was harder to shoot
these things then people thought entered her pain addled mind. This was quickly replaced by the desperation
that the man was still standing, and still prepared to kill them all.
Hank saw the opening, called forth
all his remaining power and lounged forward, throwing himself into the hitter. The man’s now wounded leg buckled and he fell
backward. As he did, Hank grabbed the knife
and turned it, falling with his weight onto the hilt sending the blade into the
hitter as Hank came down on top of him.
The knife went deep into the hitter’s
right lung and he began to gasp for air like a fish out of water. Hank’s face
was two inches away from the hitter’s.
He smiled and whispered. “We
having fun now?”
Hank rolled off the hitter who
continued to gag and gasp and laid in the water. Linda had pulled herself up, throwing the gun
away and crawling to her husband. Her
white dress now covered with blood, she tore at it and put a wad over her
husband’s wounds before lying on top of him. His eyes looked lost and lifeless as they
stared at the ceiling, but she refused to give up on him. She depressed herself onto of him harder,
trying to hold the blood in. She had
seen it on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy and hoped, more than anything, that it
was an actual lifesaving fact, and not just show flare.
“Stay with me…” She whispered it
as she ran her hand through his hair. “Stay with me…”
End Episode 23
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