Don't Hate Me (Club Pétale), page 25
His hand dropped slowly, along with his smile.
“Am I making you nervous, Tiffany?” he asked. “I’m well-intentioned. I want to know what you’re bringing around my family.”
His words caused my stomach to sour.
“Nothing, sir,” I all but hissed. “It’s taken care of, and it won’t come back.”
He gave me a slow nod.
“That’s good, next time then.”
I nodded and left without being dismissed, feeling his eyes on me the entire way out.
I’m so fucking glad this was my last day.
Quinn
“I should have known you were up to no good when you showed up looking like someone pissed in your coffee,” Ugo said, his brown eyes lighting up. A light laugh left his lips when I sent him a glare.
“So are you saying you don’t have my money?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest and leaning back against the rickety chair that groaned as I put my weight on it.
The stench of cigars filled the air and clung to the insides of my throat. As if sensing my discomfort, Ugo picked up his cigar and took a big puff of it, blowing the smoke to the side.
I normally wouldn’t have done business with someone who annoyed me as much as he had, but I had been desperate to hide the money somewhere before I was shipped off overseas and Ugo was a man who could take a bribe.
It didn’t mean he was trustworthy, not in the slightest, but the guild wouldn’t want to sully themselves with his slimy reputation so in my mind, that meant it was safe.
I’m beginning to realize just how naïve I had been back then.
One man was at his side, another behind me guarding the door. Both wore suits and looked far too out of place in the dingy club. It was a front of course, like most of the run-down clubs that littered the back alleyways and dark streets of this city.
Loud music filtered from above, the pounding of feet against the floor caused the room to shake. The rhythm matching with my own, panic heartbeat.
No one would hear you if you blew their heads off, a wicked voice purred.
But then I wouldn’t get my fucking money, the rational side of my brain barked back.
I was running out of time. Blake and I needed to get out of New York before the body washed up. It had been a miracle we hadn’t heard anything yet.
I knew for a fact that his people had found the eye, as it had been eerily quiet around Blake’s house for the last few days.
I had guessed that some of the people watching her had been from him, but surely it hadn’t been so many that more than half of the agents that had normally been watching her disappeared.
At that point, I was having trouble figuring out which agents were with which organization. Many were unmarked, but all of them screamed danger. I just couldn’t figure out who was screaming the loudest yet.
“I’m saying I don’t have it on me,” he said, giving me a slimy smile. “You know things like this take a while to move.”
I slammed my fist down on the table, anger running through me. I needed to do this for Blake. Without this money, we would be left with almost nothing.
I had never felt such visceral panic mixed with anger in my laugh.
“You were supposed to keep it to the side for me,” I hissed. “If I hear you spent it on drugs, I swear to God—”
I hadn’t heard anyone come in, so the moment a hand was placed on my shoulder, I jumped into action. My hand grabbed the wrist, and I shot up, attempting to pull the offender’s arm forward and flip him onto the table between us.
But not only was he strong enough to resist my pull, he had seen it coming. An arm wrapped around my neck, forcing the air out of me. I bucked against the man, viciously trying to claw my way out of his hold.
“Calm,” an all-too-familiar voice barked at me. “I said calm, damn it!”
I froze when I heard Rolf’s voice. I just jumped straight into action and hadn’t taken the time to analyze the hand that grabbed me or take note of the musky smell of his cologne. The same one he had worn for as long as I could remember.
My heart ached when I realized that he was here. It could only mean one thing.
I let go of his hand, and in turn, he let go of his iron grip on my neck. I was frozen as he ordered the others in the room to leave.
He’s going to kill me.
Blake will go home tonight, wait for me, and I will never show up.
I didn’t know what saddened me more—the fact that I may never see her again or that I couldn’t give her the freedom she craved. I wanted so badly to give it to her.
To help her create a life she loved. One where she wouldn’t have to look over her shoulder all the time. One where she could love freely and be herself without anyone looking down on her.
I would fight for it.
I would fight him.
I turned around, bracing my hands against the table.
He looked at me with a pity-filled expression. Something I had only seen a few times in my existence.
It hurt to see him look at me like that. Like he cared about what I was going through.
“You were too silent,” he said. “That was your first mistake.”
“And my second?” I asked, raising a brow at him. My fingers brushed across the back of my pants. I had a knife, but that was all. To remain inconspicuous, I left the heavy-duty stuff at home.
Never thought I’d run into one of my own.
“Getting your money from that bastard,” he said with a shake of his head. “It’s long gone, Quinn. Now tell me why you need it.”
I shook my head, unable to wrap my mind around what was happening. He should be lunging for me, so why was he stepping back with his hands at his sides?
Why wasn’t he taking up a fighting position?
“I’m going to kill him,” I gambled under my breath.
“Why do you need the money?” he asked again.
I looked him in the eye, thinking of all the possible excuses that I could come up with. I obviously couldn’t tell him I was going to bolt, though he probably knew it already or else he wouldn’t have graced me with his presence.
This was probably another test of his to see what I would do under the pressure.
“I’m taking a break after this,” I said. “The job should be wrapped up in the next few days. I have eyes on the USB, and I just need to finish the target. I’m planning to take the money and buy a house up north. Use the rest to fund my living expenses for the break.”
He cocked his head to the side. For a moment, I thought he wouldn’t believe me.
My palms started sweating, my heart raced in my chest so loudly that I swear he heard it. I tried to keep my face cold, not letting him see past my mask.
“You didn’t get it approved by me,” he said after a moment.
“I wasn’t going to until I was far enough away that you couldn’t threaten to kill me,” I said, letting an easy smile cross my face. In the past this type of banter would be easy, btu each word that left my mouse caused a dull pain to spread through my chest.
This may very well be the last time I see him.
When he let out an annoyed huff and a light crossed his eyes, I was painfully reminded of what we had been like before I started taking jobs of my own.
It had been hard growing up under the assassin, but he was all I had… and I liked to believe sometimes I was all he had as well.
“I’ve been working nonstop,” I said, adding an annoyed huff. “Come on, you know I deserve a break after this.”
He clicked his tongue against his teeth and looked around the room. Assessing. What was he seeing? It panicked me not to be able to read him.
“Is there something else you’re not telling me, Quinn?” The use of my name almost caused me to spill everything right then and there.
I killed Blake’s husband.
I am infatuated with the small agent much more than I ever thought I would be.
I will run away after this, and you will never see me again.
“She’s an abuse survivor,” I said, dropping my voice. “She is usually out of my scope. I was wondering why…”
I let my voice trail off.
“You’re having second thoughts.”
Warning bells rang so loudly that my ears hurt.
“No,” I said far too quickly. “Well… a bit. I just want to know why. I don’t get it. I know she was married, and he hurt her, but this is not the usual clientele.”
He looked down at the floor, his tongue swiping across his teeth.
“The things she has on the USB will destroy someone that is very much a part of your scope,” he said. “So instead of taking them out this time—”
“I’m protecting them,” I finished for him.
He met my gaze before nodding.
“I’ll get it done,” I said with a conviction that fooled even myself. “I didn’t mean for you to think otherwise.”
He gave me another hard look before letting out a sigh that seemed to deflate the tension that had risen in his shoulders and chest.
“Good,” he said, motioning for me to follow him. “Because it’s not just your ass on the line for this one.”
I raised a brow at him.
“Not just mine?” I asked with a light laugh. “Who else? Not you, surely?”
“Me, you, and every other agent I’ve been on the hook for,” he said. “Over a quarter of the guild’s best. All decommissioned if you can’t finish this.”
His admission caused me to pause.
A quarter? Him too?
I was expecting my decommission, sure… but his as well? How could they?
“All for a fucking secret service agent?” I asked.
He sent me a look from over his shoulder.
“Just a secret service agent?” he echoed. “You know the information she has makes her so much more than that.”
I didn’t get it. I didn’t understand how a single person could ever control the guild like that.
“How much power do they have?” I breathed.
He shrugged.
“Power, money, connections, favors,” he said with a sigh. “I couldn’t tell you.”
But they would be—Rolf would be—
“Taking it more seriously now, huh?” he asked with a chuckle. “Good. I’m too young to die. Come on, let’s go get the bastard to compensate for your losses, and maybe then you’ll find your motivation to end this thing.”
I followed behind him, a numb feeling rising in my chest.
I didn’t want him to die, nor did I want to be the one responsible for all those agents’ deaths. Who in their right mind would even think of that, let alone make it work?
I’m a monster, that much is undeniable, because even as I thought through all the memories Rolf and I had together growing up… I couldn’t go back on my promise to Blake.
One day I would prove to him that I could kill the people I cared about… I just didn’t know his time would come so soon.
Blake
Maybe the darkness had always been inside me, just waiting for someone like Quinn to come in and let it out.
How else would I have been so comfortable killing Russell? How else could I have been so excited when Quinn invited me to her lair?
I had nothing else to call it.
For normal people, houses were a place that started as a shell, but they slowly built into something that was an extension of themselves and their interests. They filled it with furniture they liked, pictures of the people they loved, food that brought them comfort.
But Quinn had none of that.
When she first pushed open the door to give me a look at her almost barren apartment, confusion ran through me.
This… she had to be joking, right?
But when I looked back at her, she just calmly closed and locked the door behind her while giving me a small smile. A smile that seemed almost… nervous.
The Quinn I knew wouldn’t get nervous, not unless I was in between her legs.
Maybe she was nervous that I would hate it. The thought caused butterflies to unleash in my stomach and guilt to hang over my head.
Stupid Blake. Of course she'd be nervous. This is her letting you into something. She probably never let anyone in, just like you.
It's hard to imagine how different my life has become since she came into it. Not long ago, I would have never even dared to bring someone home… and now I was making plans to run away with someone I barely knew.
But if I were being honest, I knew her just as well as I knew myself.
Both of us knew what it had been like to be shackled down. To be controlled by someone and forced to be the perfect model of whatever they wanted us to be.
Hers was an assassin, and mine just happened to be a submissive housewife.
“You probably don't have much time to decorate, huh?” I asked and walked into the room. “I mean, with you and all your jobs.”
The nervous shell cracked slightly.
“I could use that as an excuse,” she said with a shrug. “But in actuality, I just never found the need to. The spaces that we had when I was growing up had to be… sterile, to put it lightly. We could hide things, but more often than not, they would come and find them.”
Her dark hair fell over her face, but not enough to hide her blue eyes. Those torn pupils that I had looked at so many times before this stood out in the dim lighting.
Her stance was supposed to be casual. Her hands in her pockets and her weight on one leg… but I noticed the tenseness in her shoulders.
“The people who made you an assassin?” I asked.
There was no use hiding the truth anymore, not when we had come so far. I should have been scared to talk about it. I felt sick to my stomach, but it was as easy as discussing any other job.
She gave me a nod. “Think of it like a really fucked-up boarding school.”
I couldn’t help the small laugh that fell from my lips.
A fucked-up boarding school. That sounded like it fit her current personality a bit too well.
“You’re sure we lost them?” I asked and peered down the small hallway, noticing that there was just a single room.
I can’t wait to see what was inside.
I got off my shift not long before, and I was more than excited for this small excursion. For over an hour, we drove through the streets of New York, trying to lose my tail. I even made sure to leave my phone at home.
“Positive,” she said and motioned me forward, but she didn’t step into the space. As if this was her way of giving me free rein into her sad, sterile place of living.
The oddest set of emotions hit me and made me want to sweep her away from this place. I imagined her coming back here, after a day filled with death and destruction, only to be hit in the face with the reminder of her cold, dark life.
“I trust you,” I said, walking through the space. The door at the end of the small hallway was calling me, though I made sure to walk around, taking in every spot, no matter how barren. Because even if there was nothing there, this was Quinn, and I wanted to know all parts of her.
“Do you now?” she asked, her voice dropping. It was the kind of tone that made the hair stand on the back of my neck. You shouldn’t, was the unspoken words that hung between us, but I ignored them.
Giving up my charade, I walked back to the only room available. This time, she followed.
Peering in, I noticed a small desk with a monitor and computer. There were files on her desk, though in the darkness I couldn’t make out what they said.
What I did notice was the large, multi-panel wall to the right. Something that looked so out of place that I couldn’t help but stare.
Quinn brushed by me, her hand lingering on my back before coming to the wall and pressing a divot that was hidden in one of the panels.
Slowly, the entire panel pushed forward, lowering, until I got a glimpse of the lit-up shelves beneath it. On each of them were small glass jars filled with—oh.
Filled with… eyes.
If it was anyone else, I may assume this was some type of elaborate prank, but she was far too serious as she looked over me. They would laugh at first, before they got a good look at them, then jerk back probably muttering a string of curses as they retreated.
But not me.
I wasn’t scared, but there was something else, lingering right below my skin. An emotion I didn’t know the name of just yet.
She was silent as we waited for me to take it in.
The eyeballs were in pairs, stored in jars filled with a clear liquid. The shelves she had placed them on all had lights shining up into them, illuminating the eyeballs.
It was grotesque, and it caused goose bumps to rise on my skin and my blood to chill… but it also caused a sense of awe to fill me.
I had never been one of those people fascinated by death, more often than not, I ran from it with my tail between my legs. But the eyeballs?
There was something so hauntingly beautiful about them that I couldn’t take my eyes away.
The first thing anyone saw when meeting a person was their eyes. Eyes held emotions. Eyes held hope, fear, love. Seeing them taking out from where they should have been and put on display was an almost out of body experience.
I imagined the life they lived. The people they loved.
What had they done to deserve her attention? What life had they lived up until then that caused nothing more to be left of them than their eyes?
I turned my gaze to the many rows of eyes. Some were blue, green, and brown. It would seem that she didn’t have much of a preference and there were no indicators as to why she collected these ones.
I took a step closer, trying to get a look at the one on the bottom right. There were a few more spots open next to it, so I assumed this was one of the newest.
Quinn shifted and took a few steps back before maneuvering behind me.
Had I… seen these ones before? I tried to concentrate as she got closer to me, but it was hard. All I could sense was her. Her smell. Her warmth. Her gaze on me.
I still hadn’t been able to get over how she made me feel, and each moment I spent with her just seemed to exacerbate the issue.
