Sophie Oak - Found in Bliss

Why couldn’t he see her?

Callie walked away with her men, and a heaviness settled around Holly’s heart. Callie hadn’t been forced to choose. Laura had gotten everything she needed. Rachel was probably somewhere kissing her men.

But Holly would have to choose. She would have to decide if she wanted the hot, sweet Russian who was years younger and would only really want a fling or Caleb, who couldn’t seem to make up his mind but who might be good in a long-term way.

Being forced to choose sucked.

And it was getting late. The night was moving on. She needed space. She stepped away from both men. “I should be going.”

They stood side by side, each so beautiful in their own ways. Neither stopped her. They both simply watched her as she walked away.

Story of her life. By the time she found Nell and Henry, she’d wished she’d never left her cabin.

Vincent Cavilli looked around his small motel room. It certainly wasn’t the worst place he’d been forced to hole up in.

He’d chosen Creede as his home base because it was close to his target but not so close he would be forced to deal with the locals. Though he was well aware that his appearance was bland and forgettable, it was always best to hedge his bets by staying outside his mark’s area.

He walked to the window and opened the curtains. He liked the mountains. This part of the country was gorgeous and clean. So unlike the city. And it made for a much harder kill.

No one noticed him in a major metropolitan area. He’d worked in all of the world’s great cities. New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney. He’d killed in them all. It wasn’t hard to work in urban areas. Everyone kept their heads down and paid attention to their own shit. People actively ignored others in cities.

Not so here. He’d already been forced to converse with both the motel owner and a father of four on vacation with the most obnoxious children he’d ever had the displeasure of sharing a lobby with. Seriously. He’d considered taking the kids out. It would be his way of giving back. His version of pro bono work. He’d considered playing the asshole, but people tended to remember assholes, so he’d smiled and laughed and talked about the hiking he would do.

Luckily, the US Army had trained him well. It had been a while, but he could hike and track and build a shelter if he needed to. He wasn’t planning on it. He planned on getting some advice on the best trails from the locals and then spending his days working. If he did the job right, it wouldn’t take more than a day or two. He mentally went through his list. Get a lay of the land. Identify the target. Figure out the best method of taking out the target and enacting the plan.

An accident would be best. Again, because he wasn’t in a city, he needed to cover his tracks. Murders in small towns got a lot of attention. Car accidents, heart attacks, even animal attacks were more common here. As he didn’t work with animals, and poisoning someone was really harder than television made it out to be, he was thinking about fucking with the mark’s car.

God, he hoped the mark had a car.

The cell phone he’d bought specifically for this job trilled. He sighed. He had all the relevant information. Why did he need regular phone calls? He’d tried to explain to his current employer that it was better they didn’t communicate, but it was obvious the asshole wasn’t listening. Mobsters. He hated working for them, but they paid well. Unfortunately, they also believed they knew his business better than he did.

With a deep sigh, he answered the phone. “Yes?”

“Are you in place? Did you receive the package?”

Ah, and his employer had more than one employee. This one didn’t sound like she came from Jersey. Fuck. He really hoped the asshole hadn’t put this duty off on some freaking law student. Real smart. Here’s your checklist for the day. Call about the appeal. Make sure the argument papers are formatted. Oh, and call to check in with the assassin we hired. Idiot.

“I received the package. It should take me a few days. I have to see a friend.”

“Ah, so you found the house of your friend.”

“Yes, the directions were impeccable, thank you.” At least the idiot wasn’t coming right out and asking him how long it would take to complete the kill.

“We thank you. I’ll be watching for your progress. Please contact this number when the job is done.” The connection closed suddenly.

Amateurs. If he didn’t need the money so badly, he would have avoided this job altogether. He really preferred to work outside the US, but the real money was here.

Two hundred thousand dollars and all he had to do was kill one simple target. He would attempt to make it look like an accident. If he couldn’t do that in the time allotted, he would just shoot the fucker. A car accident would be more elegant, but a bullet would do the job, too.

He took a deep breath of mountain air, trying to banish his wariness. He couldn’t turn this job down. He simply had to watch his back and try to fit in. It shouldn’t be too hard. It was late summer, and there were tourists everywhere. He would be just one more tourist among the throng. A city dweller looking to get back in touch with nature.

His mark would never know that death was coming.

Vince sat down at the crappy desk and pulled out his file. He went over all the particulars of the person he was being paid handsomely to kill.

The kids next door screamed and turned the television up far too loud.

It would be a miracle if he got out of Colorado with only the job under his belt.

Alexei walked from the recreational center to the Movie Motel, his heart light in ways it hadn’t been for years. Holly had responded to him. She’d softened like butter the minute he’d really touched her.

The gravel crunched under his feet. He was going to have to find a car. He was going to have to find a job. All of that would have been taken care of for him if he’d chosen to stay in witness protection, but Holly was more important than such minor matters.

“’Night, Alexei.” Gene waved at him from behind the counter. The door was open, and Gene had a bag of popcorn in his hand. “How was the wedding shindig?”

Alexei followed his line of sight. From where he was standing, Gene could watch the screen. It was playing a Doris Day film. The Technicolor of the movie lit up the night.

“I miss wedding, but I enjoy the dancing very much.” He’d loved the feel of Holly’s body pressed against his. He’d loved it even more when he’d covered her with his own. He’d meant what he’d said to Caleb. He’d only been kissing her and touching her. He had no intention of their first time together happening on a picnic table. There would be time for freaky sex in odd places later. The first time would be in a bed with flowers and wine.

Gene nodded. “I bet you did. You Russian fellas are real good dancers.”

“You were not invited?” It seemed to Alexei that almost everyone in Bliss had been invited to the wedding. The hall had been filled to the brim with guests.

“I don’t like to leave this place much,” Gene explained with a little sigh. “Besides, if I had left, I would have missed a couple of new guests. Real nice folks. You know, I offered Stef and Jen a room for their honeymoon. They wanted to go to Hawaii.” Gene’s head shook like he just couldn’t understand why anyone would willingly leave Bliss.

If Alexei had his way, he would take Holly on a great honeymoon. Someplace nice and tropical, where he could enjoy the sight of her in a bikini and he and Caleb could go fishing.

Because he intended to be in a very happy threesome. He just wished the man who was to be his partner was less of a stubborn ass. He’d met donkeys with heads less thick than Caleb’s. Doris Day continued on her quest for love on the big screen behind him while Alexei changed the subject.

“Tell me something, Gene. I am needing to find work. Do you know of anyone who needs good employee?”

“What kind of work are you looking for?”

Well, he’d spent the last several years working for the mob. He was excellent at interrogating criminals, laundering money, and covering up crimes. He doubted anyone was looking to hire a thug. “I am good with cars.”

Gene’s eyes lit up. “I heard Long-Haired Roger was looking for a mechanic. Now, you want to make sure you find Long-Haired Roger and not Roger. Roger is kind of mean, and folks around here are pretty sure he’s planning on attempting to secede from the US. I don’t think Uncle Sam is going to let Roger form his own country and name it Rogerville, but he gets touchy about it, so I would avoid him. Now, both Long-Haired Roger and Roger are married to women named Liz, so you can’t tell them apart that way. And their wives are sisters. And they don’t much like each other. I think their dad should have come up with different names, but he just called them Liz One and Liz Two.”

Gene, Alexei had discovered, could talk for long periods of time. He knew everyone in the area and a story about each person. Unfortunately, Alexei didn’t have time this evening to listen. He needed to shower and sleep. In the morning, he had to meet with Caleb and then find a job. “I will find the Roger with long hair.”

“Oh, he doesn’t have long hair anymore. He went bald a couple of years back.”

And Gene could be very confusing. “Perhaps you give me address.”

“Now that’s a real good plan. I can do that.” Gene wrote down the address, and Alexei bid him farewell.

Perhaps by tomorrow he would be gainfully employed. Maybe between the blood tests and a real job, Caleb would relax a bit.