Page 1 of Vengeance

1

Viper

Car crashes.

Not the most exciting or thrilling way to kill a person but effective. Common enough that no one is ever going to suspect foul play. Sometimes I even get to have a little fun with the killing. Like today, as I walk up to the car of one of my boss’s lieutenants. Well, an ex-lieutenant after tonight. One who’s going to need to be replaced by someone my boss thinks he can trust and someone I knowIcan trust.

I snatch the jammed driver’s door open, and before he sees my mask and realizes who I am, the man mutters, “Please. Please…”

“No thanks,” I say.

The man registers who I am and begins to groggily stammer, “N-n-no. No. I didn’t. I’ve…”

I grab the man by the back of the head and slam his head hard against the steering wheel, silencing him for good.

I catch the bright headlights of another car coming toward me. They come to a stop just near the wreck before getting out and approaching me.

“Eileen,” I say.

“Adrian. In the middle of a mess as usual,” she says as she takes in the scene before her with her hands in her pockets and her blonde hair in a messy bun at the top of her head.

“Well, sometimes when you’re cleaning house you have to make things more of a mess first.”

Getting rid of Pray is only one part of the puzzle toward taking over his criminal empire. But that means shit if the people under me are loyal to Pray and Pray alone first and will plan their own war against me. Not that they’d have any hope of winning. But it’s better to get rid of these guys while I know exactly where they are and can use the guise of a war to hide it. There’s going to be a enough chaos when all this is over without having to worry about my fucking so-called allies.

“Going to blame this one on Dele or Vicious or whoever the fuck else too?” Eileen asks.

“Who else?” I say taking out the calling card of said assassin. A masquerade mask. The calling card of an assassin who hasn’t seen the field in months because her actual alter-ego is cooped up in New York City right now.

“I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“I know exactly what I’m doing,” I say as I tie the mask around the dead body’s hand where whoever finds him will clearly find it. “I’m making everyone fear her.”

“Exactly. Fear her so much they’ll think it’s just as bad a deal to side with her as it is to side with Pray, and they’ll decide on something stupid instead. Like the fact that Pray has a dick and Dele doesn’t.”

“A lot of them are already going to decide based on that. That’s why I’m doing this. They’ll overlook that Dele doesn’t have a dick if they keep hearing that Pray is losing soldiers left and right to her personal assassins. And then they’ll notice that Dele is only sending her assassins after legitimate, logistical targets and doesn’t send her assassins after her own without proof or a good reason like Pray has been doing. That’ll be enough for them to see that doing business with her is a good deal.”

Eileen eyes the body and then me. “Perhaps.”

“No. Definitely,” I correct. “But I didn’t call you all the way out here so you could question my methods in making sure Dele has the allies she needs.”

“What then?”

I direct Eileen to follow me to my car, pop the trunk, and take a thick orange folder out a brief case.

“Here,” I say.

“You had to call me out here for this? You couldn’t have gotten a regular foot soldier?”

“Not for this.”

“What about Dele’s sister?”

“She’s not aware we’re working together, and she and her girlfriend are on my kill on sight list, regardless of how Dele feels about it.”

Eileen gives me a dry look before taking the folder.

“What is this?”

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