Chapter 4
“I don’t know about you, but I think that should prove to you that I’m on your side. I don’t think that’s going to be the end of it and this was an open contract. I was given the heads up, but it became public knowledge to the community about an hour ago. If it’s all the same to you, I would like to get out of here, before anything else happens.” She didn’t give him a chance to think about it, grabbing his arm and forcing him towards the door.
This time, there was a young woman on the other side and she appeared to be vacuuming. They were on their way down the hall, when Brent had an inkling that something was wrong. It finally dawned on him that a woman like her wouldn’t be wearing 4 inch high heels. Girls in that profession would be in something more comfortable like flats. He pushed Shelley up against the wall went down on one knee and fired one shot. The woman had turned and had a very small gun concealed underneath her dress. The shot that he fired had made contact with her hand.
The gun in her hand had now spiraled down the hallway, as she scrambled after it showing no regard for the bleeding hand. She did not scream or show any kind of reaction and that itself made Brent a little worried. Only a true professional would be able to withstand that kind of pain and not scream bloody murder.
“That was pretty good shooting, but maybe next time you should take the kill shot.” Shelley opened up the door to the stairwell and motioned for him to join her. She heard the elevator and looked at who was coming out through the door and it was not a sight that she wanted to see. He was only known as the cleaner, a bald white man with a pair of black gloves and wearing a suit that made him look like the undertaker.
“They’re not pulling punches. How are we going to get out of this building, let alone to the senator’s office a few miles away? Any time that I’ve done this in the past, I’ve never had much of a problem. That only makes me believe that what’s in this case is dangerous. I’ve never been tempted to look into one of these things before, but I think that there might be a first time for everything.” He laid it down on the stairs, while she was keeping look out and making sure that they weren’t going to be rudely interrupted. They had barely enough time to dress quickly.
“I’m not sure that this is a good idea, Brent. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t know what exactly you’re carrying, but I think that we can find a better place to do it. We are sitting ducks in this hotel and we need to get some distance between us and this place.” “He seemed determined and I guess I would be the same way, if I were in his shoes. I wish that I could tell him that we will survive this, but with everything that I know about these people it’s going to be a damn miracle, if we even get out of the building alive.”
“You make a valid point, but I’m not going anywhere, until I find out what your real name is.”
Shelley grabbed his hand and pulled him down the stairs away from forces that were beyond their control. “My name is Shelley and I try to keep my alternate personalities similar to that of my real one. I should be getting paid right about now, but I imagine that the $10,000,000 that they’ve already given me has been taken away from my account. It was on a hold, until early this morning and now that time has elapsed. I would say that I want you to be worth the sacrifice, but I think I already know that you are.” “I never thought that this day would come. I always thought that this would happen to somebody else and not me. I’d watched movies that would end exactly like this and I would shake my head in disbelief. I guess I have a lot to learn and hopefully Brent and I can learn it together.”
They moved down the stairs jumping two steps at a time and sometimes three when they were feeling more adventurous. Brent looked towards Shelley and couldn’t believe that she was the one that they had sent to take him out. If it wasn’t for matters of the heart, he would most likely be dead and wouldn’t have even seen it coming. He wanted more time to get to know her and to see if her love for him was strong enough to keep her from going back to bad habits. The one thing that he wouldn’t condone is her killing for money. The past was the past, but what happened from this moment on concerned him, almost as much as it concerned her.
Brent had his gun in hand and he was using it to lead the way. He felt hot lead streaking through the air. He barely ducked out of the way by pure instinct. He had done what most men would do in that situation. He had grabbed Shelley and pulled her out of the way of certain harm.
Shelley stumbled down the stairs and twisted her ankle. She did not fall to her knees, but she did show discomfort. This was not the way that it was supposed to be and she was now wondering if maybe her heart was the problem. It felt too good to try to deny herself that this was meant to be. She would protect the both of them and he would do the exact same thing in return. They were both well prepared and trained. They were an unstoppable force.
They came out into the lobby with a fuselage of bullets. They walked into the fray with a determination and conviction that was shown by how easily they had dispatched of those that were standing in their way. Those people that were trying to kill them felt that nail in their coffin, flying backwards and lying with vacant stares in their eyes.
They came out into the open and a black SUV have now screeched to a halt in front of them to shield them from an attack that came from across the street. The door opened and the senator and a posse of secret servicemen were right there to motion them into the vehicle.
“We heard some chatter that there was going to be trouble and we decided to intervene. The information that you have in that case is everything on all of our undercover operatives. If that were to fall into the wrong hands, then those that are trying to keep our freedoms would have to keep one eye open.” The senator opened the case and smiled, knowing that this needed to be placed into a safe and locked. There were no electronic copies. This was a kind of information that had to be kept in a soon to be redacted hardcopy.
Shelley heard the bullets ricocheting off the armored glass, as they sped down the road. “I got involved with a man that I was supposed to kill and now I’m sitting in what constitutes the Lions’ den. I can play the game and if I do this right, I can give them high profile targets that make them offer me complete immunity from all charges.”
“I’m glad to see you, senator and now that I know what was in that package, I can rest easy knowing that those men’s lives are now safe from retribution on behalf of our enemies. I know that this is going to be a strange thing for me to say, but Shelley is not exactly an innocent bystander. She was supposed to kill me and let’s just say that things didn’t go according to plan.” The story was told and then Shelley was brought in without handcuffs. That debriefing led to the arrest of several assassins and a few of her clients that had the reputation of having a squeaky clean record.
“I’m glad to see that all of us are on the same page. I’ve given you these people on a silver platter and now I expect a reward. I want my record expunged, my name completely extinguished and a new identification and life. I also want William to be a part of it, but only if he agrees. I would never presume to tell him what to do.” “I knew that we had not talked about it, but deep down I figured that he would know that being with me was better than going back into the field.”
Shelley was a woman of her word and she did track down that taxi driver and set him up with the money promised.
The agreement was signed by the district Attorney and by the senator who gave his personal blessing to the document in question. She signed it and it was agreed that she would never have to testify. The evidence that she gave them was damning. She had photographs and videos and even names and dates of transactions that could not be weaseled out of.
Commander William Lester and Shelley Coleman were now known as, Stephen and Marcia Cross of Connecticut. They were going to play house and try to have a normal life. They both knew that there was nothing normal about them. They closed one chapter and opened a new one with the possibility of a third if things didn’t work out.
THE END