Page 25 of Trigger Happy Ending

Act like it.

Chapter 12

Soren

Islam my notebook shut and shove it under the mattress. Thankfully, my brain feels looser. It always does after I write. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a philosophical guy, but I do like pouring my dark, twisted, demented thoughts onto paper. I’ve been doing it since my first tour in the Middle East. And not to understand myself, or to immortalize memories … Nah. Writing somehow restrains the beast that festers and grows inside. Stops it from exploding outwards and becoming a living, breathing thing.

It started as sketches. Weapons, landscapes, tanks … But I’m a shitty artist. After one particularly bloody mission, I picked up the pen and wrote down how it feels to take a life, not wanting to forget how satisfying it felt to slaughter an enemy. It was a cathartic experience, explaining the power that comes with being someone’s executioner.

Since I’ve become a private contractor, I’ve had more time to reflect on the things I’ve done. Not living within a warzone anymore has changed me … I’m not sure in what way yet, because I’m still a sick motherfucker with a violent nature. I certainly don’t have regrets, because what’s the point? I can’t change the past. Although, sometimes, I have to remind myself I’m no longer on a black mission. Physically, I know I’m not. Psychologically, sometimes I forget. It normally happens when my body is feeling stressed. And being around the bitch queen from hell—gorgeous as she is—stresses me the fuck out.

Walking out of my bedroom, I find Raine in the kitchen, perched on a stool. She’s applying winged black eyeliner with the edge of a blade, using the chrome tap as her mirror.

It’s as crazy as it is genius, I suppose.

I clear my throat to announce myself. We’ve spent two days in the apartment and barely spoken to each other. I’ve got nothing to say, the little stunt she pulled on the jet is unforgivable. Embarrassing me like that? I’ve killed people for a lot less.

But there’s just something about her. She’s different. She’s like an evil witch.

I open the fridge and grab an ice-cold Coke Zero, slamming the fridge harder than I need to, because subconsciously, maybe I want her attention. I lean my back against the fridge and crack the can open. The hiss from the opening makes her glance up at me before going back to the blade.

“That shit will rot your teeth,” Raine says casually.

“Like you give a fuck.” I sip on my soda and watch her for a few moments. It’s jarring to think this woman—this very hot, very sexy, very psycho woman—is an assassin.

How’d she get tangled up with the Agency?

I don’t care, not really. Still, though, it’d be good to know. If only so I know who is supposedly watching my back during these next few weeks, or months, or however the fuck long this last job will take. After a few long years, this is my final mission before I am finally free from the Agency’s shackles.

“Ready for your first shift tomorrow?” The words tumble out, I don’t know why I ask. I can’t explain it. I don’t want to talk to her. Do I?

“Yep.”

I wait for her to elaborate, but she says nothing else, which annoys me as much as it confuses me because I don’t want to talk to her.

“Hope you’re nicer to your customers,” I say, well aware I’m poking the bear.

“Soren,” she says, but without dropping that black pencil from her eyelid. “What do you want?”

“Nothing from you.”

“Listen,” she says, still dragging the pencil across her eyelid. “I don’t want to work with you, just as much as you don’t want to work with me. It’s not personal. I’m a loner. I like it that way.”

“Ah,” I say, taking another sip. “Makes sense.”

Let’s see if she’ll take the bait, if curiosity kills the cat.

“What?”

Bait taken. Curiosity always kills the cat.

“It makes sense why your people skills suck.”

She caps her eyeliner and sets the blade down before she looks me in the eyes. “You know firsthand my people skills don’t suck.”

The enunciation of the word “suck” makes my dick twitch.

“I don’t like people,” she admits quietly. “They’re never who they say they are.”