Page 30 of Damon

There it was on a small shelf off to one side. My client had sent me a picture of the jewelry he sought. A pair of diamond earrings along with a matching bracelet and her wedding ring. Easy enough.

I pocketed the jewelry and turned to head back downstairs. That’s when I heard a creak on the staircase. Footsteps… as if someone was trying to approach quietly. Fuck. I hadn’t anticipated that.

Did the ex-wife return early from her trip? I glanced toward the bedroom window. It was a hell of a drop to the ground below. Deciding that I didn’t want to take the chance of breaking a leg—or worse—I decided to confront the person on the stairs.

A job like this usually didn’t require violence or weapons. I wasn’t stupid enough to come without them though. I had a second gun tucked into the back of my jeans, which I planned to only use if absolutely necessary. I hadn’t been paid to kill anyone, and cleaning up a body was a hell of a task.

Pausing near the bedroom door, I listened hard. Someone was definitely coming. It seemed unlikely that a woman alone at night would choose to confront someone in her house. The heavier tread made me suspect a man.

I turned the corner into the hallway right in time for a knife to slash through the air toward me. The small nightlight in the hallway glinted off the blade, giving me a split-second to react. I flung an arm up to block the blow. The knife cut through my hoodie sleeve and into my forearm.

“Who the fuck are you?” a man shouted. “What are you doing in my girlfriend’s house? I’ve already called the police.”

Knowing that I didn’t have much time before my blood would flow and leave evidence behind, I snatched up a vase from a nearby table and smashed it over the man’s head. That was starting to become a regular thing for me.

Thankfully, it sent him down to the floor, momentarily stunned. I was able to leap over his prone form and rush down the stairs. Holding my sleeve tight against the wound in my arm, I did my best to keep the blood contained.

I was out the door and in the car in record time. Before I even shouted at Athena to drive, she was already slamming her foot down on the gas. The car peeled away with a squeal of tires.

“Holy shit. I saw him go in the house, but I had no way to warn you. Didn’t think about that, did you?” She shot me a dark glower. When I pulled up my sleeve to check the wound and she saw blood running down my arm, Athena let out a little shriek. “Oh my God, what happened? Are you okay? What do we do?”

“You keep driving,” I said, calm as I shrugged out of my hoodie, using it to wrap my arm the best I could. “Cross over the river to that new area on the east side of town. We’ll stop at a drugstore to get some First Aid supplies before we ditch the car.”

“Holy shit. Holy fuck. Oh my God, this is so screwed up. How are you so calm? Do you need a hospital?” Athena carefully navigated the car around a corner.

“Absolutely not. No hospital. I’ll be fine. Take the next right up there, then a left. Take Elmdale Drive across the river.” My main focus was on keeping my wound wrapped so I didn’t bleed all over this car. The sooner we ditched it the better.

Lips pressed tight together, Athena stared straight ahead, her hands tightly clenching the wheel as she drove. I couldn’t help but be impressed. She was handling this quite well, all things considered.

Maybe I would have to keep her around for a while longer than I’d planned.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

ATHENA

I did my best navigating the streets, maintaining a steady speed without doing anything that would get us pulled over. Driving a stolen car was not for the weak. I was constantly checking my mirrors for any signs of a cop behind us.

For a man that was bleeding, Damon was exceptionally chill. Maybe this was nothing to a guy like him. My adrenaline started pumping the moment he left me alone in the car. When he disappeared inside the house, I’d been holding my breath, hoping to see him re-emerge quickly. I hadn’t expected to see another man drive up and enter.

“What exactly happened in there?” I asked, needing to break this tense silence.

“Good question. I’ll be asking my client that exact thing. Nobody was supposed to be there tonight. Looks like his ex’s new boyfriend wasn’t on his radar.” With the psycho bunny mask sitting atop his head, Damon flashed me back to the night he chased me through the woods. A delicious chill crept through me at the memory.

“I can’t believe he stabbed you.” My hands shook slightly on the steering wheel as we crossed the bridge, taking us to the other side of the river.

“I wouldn’t call it a stab. More of a slash.” Damon pointed at the upcoming intersection on the other side of the bridge. “Take a left up there. Pretty sure there’s a drugstore down that street.”

I don’t know how I managed to hold myself together. On the inside, I was a shaking, quaking mess. Even though I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer, I dared to ask, “Did you kill him?”

Damon’s evil chuckle made my stomach flip. “Of course not. That’s not what I was hired for. I knocked him out and took off.”

“So you have killed people then.” I nodded, already knowing the answer.

“When the price was right,” he said, confirming my suspicions.

Even though I had so many more questions, I refused to ask any of them. It was better for me not to know.

We pulled up to the twenty-four-hour drugstore and finally I could breathe. Since Damon was bleeding, I had to go inside to fetch supplies. He handed me a wad of cash, telling me to make it fast.