Page 85 of Exile and Embrace

People are speaking in one of the other buildings as I round a corner and see an open door.

I glance inside. Neither of the men standing near massive crates is armed. They don’t look up from their phones as I pass by the door, sticking to the shadows.

My pulse races as I near the warehouse my target is in.

Dim lights shine from the frosted windows, casting shadows on the ground.

I stick close to the building, keeping my head down and my face hidden from the cameras.

As I enter the warehouse, I’m careful not to make a sound. I move behind a stack of shipping containers. After making sure that the safety on my gun is off, I head toward the back where my target should be working in his office.

There are no other people as I weave around the shipping containers.

I stop when I get to the back.

The target’s office door is wide open. He sits behind his desk, white bricks of heroin stacked in front of him.

The wall behind him is glass, and in the shadows, Ava sits in the waiting car.

I enter the office and shut the door, twisting the lock. The man looks up, all color draining from his face as I aim the gun at his forehead.

“Hell, Roger, you’ve been a very bad boy.” I smirk as I approach the desk. I tap one of the stacks of heroin. “Stealing was a very bad idea.”

“I didn’t want to do it. I had to do it. I need the money. Please.”

With a sigh, I walk around the desk and press the gun against his head, tsking. “Roger, you should know better.”

Tears stream down his face and a dark stain spreads across the front of his beige slacks. “Please. I have a wife and kids.”

Roger is still sobbing when I pull the trigger.

His body slumps in his chair, his eyes still wide.

I tuck the gun into the holster on my hip before grabbing the back of the chair and pulling Roger to the door. His body shifts slightly in the chair, his head tilting to the side and that vacant expression looking up at me.

After opening the door, I tug him through the warehouse and out to the white truck that’s waiting on the other side of the building.

I lift the body up and toss it into the back of the truck. As soon as I have a tarp pulled over him, I pull out my phone and send a message to Cillian.

Now that the job is done, his cleaning crew is going to go in and wipe the building. They’ll take back his stolen heroin and make sure that there is no trace of me anywhere in the building.

Although, there wouldn’t be a trace to begin with.

I’m good at my job. I stay in the shadows and keep my back turned to the cameras.

I spent the last week staking out this warehouse just so I would know where to hide when the time came to kill Roger.

The cleaning crew arrives as I’m getting into the truck.

I nod to them before getting in.

While Cillian may have a cleaning crew, I prefer to dispose of the bodies on my own. I can’t trust that someone in his crew won’t slip up and leave evidence behind.

I drive over to the car where Ava is.

She looks up at me, one eyebrow raising.

I don’t know how much of what just happened she saw through that window. While I’m hoping it was minimal, this is also the part of my life that she’s going to have to be okay with.

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