Devin

 

The switch went perfectly, and as Devin took over the steering wheel and Cara slipped into the backseat, he could only hope the rest of the night would go as smoothly.

 

“A few weeks ago, that would have been the most exciting thing I’d ever done,” Cara said from her spot on the floor of the back seat.

 

“Really?” Devin asked, surprised. “You never did anything wild like that as a teenager?”

 

“Never. I was what could be called a ‘goody two shoes.’ Plus, I never had that many friends, so if I’d done that kind of switch, there wouldn’t have been anyone to take the wheel.”

 

They exited the tunnel, and Devin took an unmarked exit towards the land just beyond the city’s limits where large houses sat secluded amongst the hills, high above the peasants. The Bianchis had their hands in every part of the city, negotiating backdoor dealings for businesses and overseas manufacturers, trafficking humans for sex and slave labor, several nation-wide gambling rings. They were the Michael Jordan of mafia families.

 

As they neared the compound, Devin could feel his adrenaline rising the way it always did before a hit. His hands began to quake on the wheel, his vision felt sharper, more focused, and the plan cycled through his head on repeat, an endless play by play. Finally, the house came into view.

 

Though perhaps castle was a more apt term.

 

The house was three stories of brick with a large, circular tower on one end like from a fairy tale. That tower was his key to Rob Bianchi. Based on Devin’s research, Rob’s room was at the top of that tower. So, Devin would need to get in through one of the windows, make his way up the winding staircase without being spotted, and sneak into Devin’s room.

 

It was the most difficult path into the building, but the most direct, and made it less likely that Devin would run into any guards once inside the building.

 

He pulled the car to the side of the room, parking it behind a small outcropping of trees.

 

“Are we there?” Cara asked.

 

Devin nodded, but then remembered Cara probably couldn’t see him in the dark. “Yes, we’re here.”

 

“How long do you think it’ll be?” she asked.

 

“I’m not sure,” Devin said. “But if I’m not back within an hour, leave without me.”

 

“Devin… no. I won’t leave without you.”

 

“You’ll have to. If something goes wrong in there, they will send guards to scout the area, and you don’t want to be here when they arrive.”

 

“But what about the hit?” she asked. “Won’t I be in danger if Rob Bianchi isn’t killed tonight? If you get killed in there, and I leave, the Morettis will know I didn’t do it, and they’ll send someone for me.”

 

“I took care of that,” Devin said. “What you said about being a double agent the other day wasn’t completely off base. I don’t work for the Bianchis, but I have a friend on the inside. If things go south, he is going to take out Rob. He owed me a favor, and I’m cashing in.”

 

“Wow, so you really thought of everything.”

 

“I sure hope so,” Devin replied, taking a deep breath. “But I need to get going.”

 

There was a pause, and Devin wondered what Cara would say. Did she care that he was risking his life? Was she concerned for him?

 

Finally, she responded, her voice quiet, “Okay. Good luck.”

 

Devin lowered his head, staring at his hands in his lap. “Thanks.”

 

He grabbed his bag of supplies from the passenger seat, and ducked out of the car, settling into a slow jog up towards the house. There was only one road that led to the house, and a gate was positioned at the end of the Bianchi’s driveway, a guard positioned there twenty-four hours per day.

 

Devin ran along a tree line until he reached the stone wall, and then slinked in the shadows along the wall until he reached the gate. The guard stayed within the walls of the compound, but once every twenty minutes he would walk to the iron bars of the gate and look out into the darkness for signs of any intruders. If Devin had timed it right, the guard would be coming to the gate in just a few minutes.

 

Pulling out a rag and a bottle of chloroform, Devin doused the rag in the liquid and waited. Sure enough, no more than two minutes later, he heard footsteps crunching in the grass on the other side of the stone wall, and then, the guard’s face appeared between the bars.

 

Stepping out of the shadows, Devin plunged his arm between the bars of the gate, grabbed the guard by the collar, and yanked him forward, smothering him with the wet rag. They struggled for several minutes, but eventually, the guard’s wide eyes rolled back, and his body went limp. Devin dropped him, and he fell to the ground in a heap of bones.

 

The clock began to tick. The guard wasn’t a large man, so Devin estimated he had twenty minutes before he would wake up, and even then, another fifteen to twenty minutes of confusion and disorientation before he ran to alert another guard. Devin needed to work quickly if he wanted everything to go well.

 

Scaling the fence, Devin landed with his knees bent on the grass on the other side, and then took off running across the yard, knowing the longer he was exposed on the lawn, the higher chance there was of someone spotting him. By the time he made it to the shadow provided by the tower, he was huffing, his breath coming out in spasms. He reminded himself to spend more time working on his cardio if he made it out of the compound alive.

 

His friend on the inside had told Devin that the first-floor windows were all set with alarms, but if Devin could get to a second story window that his friend would leave unlocked, he would be in the clear. A small shed near the base of the tower made this part of the plan easy. Devin simply climbed on top of the shed and, taking a running leap, jumped from the roof of the shed to a large window ledge on the second floor.

 

Just as his friend had told him, the window was unlocked, and it took little more than a push for it to open and for Devin to be inside. The window opened into the bathroom just off of Rob’s room. The room was dark, and Devin could see under the crack of the door that Rob’s room was dark as well.

 

Taking a deep breath, Devin crept to the door, turned the handle slowly, and pushed the door inward. Immediately, he was met with the sound of a groan, and he froze, fearing he’d been caught. However, as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Devin could see a gyrating shadow on the bed.

 

A woman moaned, and Devin’s mouth fell open. Rob Bianchi was having sex. The woman rose up, her upper body perfectly silhouetted against the window behind her. She was naked, her breasts high and perky, nipples erect, and she was grinding her hips, one hand running through her long hair.

 

Devin retreated back into the bathroom, pulling the door mostly closed behind him, leaving only a small crack for him to see through. He didn’t have much time to waste, but if he barged into the bedroom now, he’d be forced to kill both Rob and the woman. Despite that being the easier option, Devin didn’t want to kill anyone who wasn’t essential; that included the girlfriend and the guard at the gate.

 

So, he decided to wait. Based on the moans and grunts, they were both close to finishing.

 

Unable to help himself, Devin peeked through the crack in the door a few minutes later. The woman was on her hands and knees, Rob kneeling behind her, his hips jackhammering into her, nearly knocking her flat on the bed.

 

Eventually, she did fall onto the bed, her stomach and face pressed into the mattress, and Rob merely repositioned behind her and kept on pounding. Just as Devin was growing concerned they would never finish, and he’d be forced to kill them both, Rob’s thrusts began to slow, each one punctuated with a moan, and then he rolled off of the girl and collapsed into the covers.

 

The girl began telling him how great he was, how magnificent it all had been, and cuddled into his side.

 

Rob pulled away, sitting up. “You should probably get going though. I have to be up early tomorrow morning, and I don’t want you to have to be up at the crack of dawn with me.”

 

“I don’t mind,” the woman said, her voice high-pitched and child-like. “I just want to be with you.”

 

Rob kissed her, hard. He grabbed a handful of her hair, and held her face to his for thirty seconds or more, and then pulled away. “Maybe another night.”

 

Finally, she relented, slipped into a skin-tight dress, and sashayed through the door, blowing a kiss to Rob as he lay naked in the bed.

 

Devin watched as Rob stood up, stretched his arms over his head, and rolled his neck. This part was always the worst for Devin. Seeing his targets in their last moments. Thinking, with every action, that it would be their last. The last time they stretched or yawned or walked across their bedroom floor. It humanized them in his mind.

 

Rob scratched his scalp and padded across the hardwood floor towards the bathroom. Devin slid back into the shadows along the wall, his finger on the trigger of his gun, heart pounding. Rob pushed the door, and before he could even reach for the light switch, Devin pushed him up against the door, the gun held to his temple.

 

“What is—?” Rob started, but Devin had already pulled the trigger. It was easier for everyone that way. Rob didn’t need to know why or who. It was bad enough he knew he was being attacked and murdered, did he really need the details? Devin didn’t know if he believed in a Heaven and a Hell, but he believed in something, and wherever Rob was now, good or bad, he wasn’t worried about how he died or who did it.

 

Devin snuck out of the house the same way he came in, surprised by the ease of it all. By how perfectly the plan had gone. He jumped from the window ledge to the shed with a dull thud and then hopped down into the grass. It was then that he heard it. Footsteps. Running. Voices.

 

He looked up just in time to see several men rounding the back of the house, guns drawn. Devin didn’t hang around to see what they wanted. He took off sprinting through the grass. Immediately, he heard gunfire and bullets whizzing through the air past him, but he couldn’t think about that. He was so close to escaping.

 

The gate was only ten feet away, the guard still unconscious on the ground. As bullets flew, he scaled the gate in three easy maneuvers, and landed in a crouch on the other side, immediately throwing his momentum forward and down the road towards the car.

 

Even with armed guards chasing after him, Devin’s thoughts were on Cara. Had the guards already done a perimeter search? Had they found her? Was she okay? As he took the bend in the road and the car came into focus from behind the trees, he used the last bit of oxygen in his lungs to release a sigh of relief.

 

He pumped his arms even harder as he sprinted for the car. Finally, just when he thought his lungs would explode, he grabbed the handle, wrenched the door open, threw himself inside, and started the ignition.

 

“What is going on?” Cara shouted, forgetting she was supposed to be crouched in the back seat and sitting up.

 

Devin reached into the back seat and pushed her onto the floor. “Stay down!” he shouted as he slammed on the gas and flipped a U-turn.

 

Driving away, he could see the guards running down the road in his rearview mirror, and several flashes of light told him they were still shooting, but they were too far away now to do any damage. Devin caught his breath and then laughed.

 

“What the hell is going on?” Cara asked. “Did you do it?”

 

Still laughing, Devin nodded.

 

“Are you insane?” she asked, clearly annoyed to not be filled in on what happened inside the house.

 

Again, Devin nodded.

 

“So, he’s dead?”

 

“He’s dead,” Devin said, getting himself under control, his cheeks sore from smiling.

 

“So, we’re done?” Cara asked.

 

“We’re done,” Devin said.

 

It was then that the reality of everything hit him. He was done. They were done. He’d just done his last ever hit, and Cara was free. She’d fulfilled her agreement with the Morettis. She was going to go start over somewhere, and Devin would never see her again.

 

This was it. This time in the car was the last time they would properly spend together. Devin tried to recall his joy and excitement from just moments ago, but it was gone.