It’s not like Anita planned on ever being one of those people, who kill who the big guys in the underground wanted dead. She didn’t plan on using her skill set on that type of stuff, stuff like sniping Generals in the military from a building across their big fancy suites. But that’s what she does now. It’s not like she can complain, right? It’s giving her big money, and after being kicked from the military, she needs that money. So now she’s there, staring at the file that was just passed over the table to her.
“This is your new assignment, I want it done by the end of the week.” The man in the seat said gruffly, grabbing his cigar and taking a smooth pull off it, waiting for her response. She looked over the front page of information, her eyes scanning over the info on the assignment's description.
‘Assignments. Really? When did I stop thinking of them as other people?’ She thought to herself after catching herself on her thoughts. She sighed and looked up after closing the file. “Why the end of the week?”
“They have vital information that I can’t afford for them to tell. They have a meeting with the higher ups in the military over the weekend. You can handle this job, right?” He questioned her, staring her down with such force that she didn’t hesitate to answer.
“Of course, I can. No one else out there is better suited for the job.” She stood from her seat, thanking him for his time before being led out by one of his men. She was quick to get in her car and drive off to the motel she was staying at. With the boss being so far, everytime she had to get an assignment, she’d have to stay at some run down motel, to also keep anyone off her tracks. She didn’t want anyone suspecting her for the deaths of her assignments.
She tapped the wheel while stopped at a red light, taking a glance at the file in her passenger seat. “How did I end up like this?” She asked herself, before seeing the green light and continuing her drive. Spending the rest of the drive in her thoughts, she started thinking about how she ended up being hired as The Boss’ personal assassin.
“The defendant, Anita Williams, is found guilty for the murder of General Charleston Clarke. This court is adjourned.” Anita looks up from the table, standing up as a police officer starts to lead her out of the courtroom. Right as she’s about to leave, her eyes find the eyes of a man with two men sitting next to him in the back row, watching her closely. Her brows furrowed before she walked out and was led to a holding cell.
“You’ll be transferred to a federal prison tomorrow morning, for now, you better get comfortable in here.” The officer said as he took her cuffs off and left the cell, closing and locking it behind him. Another officer stood by the cell as the other one walked away. She sighed as she laid down on the uncomfortable and hard bed, thinking she might as well sleep until she’s transferred. She doses off soon enough.
About an hour later, she’s woken up by an officer. She groaned as she sat up, wiping her eyes in an attempt to wake herself up better. Standing up, she yawned as she put her hands out so the officer could put the cuffs on her. She’s silently led to a room where two of her former higher ups and her lawyer were waiting.
“Sit there.” The officer instructed before she sat down at the table, keeping her expression neutral. She didn’t want to cause unnecessary issues with them right after being charged with murder. They started talking about her discharge, telling her she needed to sign papers for it and that it was a dishonorable discharge.
She went along with it, sighing as she signed all the papers they told her to sign. When they were done, she was led back to the holding cell. When back in the cell, she laid in the bed, thinking to herself on everything that happened. It wasn’t too long before she had ended up dosing back off to sleep.
The next morning, she was awakened by a police officer, telling her to get up and that she was being released. Barely knowing what's going on and still being half asleep, she followed him outside where she saw one of the men she saw in the courtroom. “Anita Williams. Come with me.” She looked behind her at the building then at the man, thinking about her choices. She sighed and walked down the steps to the car. He opened the door for her, waiting for her to slide into the back seat before closing the door. He walked to the drivers door and got in.
“Who are you?” She questioned, looking at him with her brows etched together, waiting for a response from him.
“You’ll find out soon enough.” He answered simply, not elaborating further. She sighed, knowing that was probably all she was going to be getting out of him, leaning back in her seat, looking out the car window. When they started getting farther downtown, she sat straight up, getting worried now. Up until now, she had avoided this part of town due to recent news of gun fights. “Where exactly are we going?”
“You’ll find out when we get there, now just sit back and wait.” She looked at him, waiting a moment before leaning back again and crossing her arms.
Not long after, they pulled into the garage of a building. She sat back up, her heart starting to race just a bit. ‘Great, I was bailed out by someone I don’t know, just so they could kill me. This is wonderful.’
When the car was parked, the man got out and pulled her door open. She stepped out of the vehicle slowly, the door being closed behind her. “Follow me.” The man said, walking towards an elevator. She looked around the garage for a moment before following him and stepping onto the elevator after him.
Anita sighed as she was pulled out of her thoughts at the sight of the motel. She parked quickly, grabbing her things from the passenger seat and opening her door. She got out of the car, sighing as she stretched her legs before walking into the motel, nodding to the person at the front desk. Walking to her room, she unlocked the door and locked it again behind her. She placed her bag on the desk and put the file on the bed.
She looked towards the bathroom then the file and decided to take a shower before reading the whole file. She went ahead and grabbed one of the towels and put it on the counter in the bathroom before getting undressed. She got into the shower, turning the water on and letting it run hot before stepping under it. The tension in her shoulders slowly dissipated as she started thinking more about how she ended up doing the dirty work for one of the biggest mob bosses in the country.
The man led her into a big lounge type of room, where music was playing and had small circular stages where both men and women were dancing. He led her over to a table where the same man from the courtroom was sitting. “Anita Williams! You're finally here, please sit.” He motioned to the seat next to him. She was skeptical while she sat down, looking around the room, noticing a small bar where a tall, broad man was making drinks. Her eyes moved back to the man next to her.
“Who are you and are you the one who bailed me out?” She asked quickly, watching his face for a reaction. He laughed as he straightened in his seat.
“Straight to the point aren’t you. Well, I suppose I should tell you who I am. I’m Ronaldo Navvaro, and yes, I was the one who bailed you out of that pretty big charge.” He explained as she sat there, visibly on edge. She didn’t know what to expect now that she knew who he was. She knew his name, of course she did when she was that high up in the military previously. The man caused a lot of issues within the ranks. A lot of people ended up missing or dead because of him.
“By your reaction, I have to assume you know who I am, which saves us time. I’m sure you’re wondering why I bailed you out. I’ll get to that in a moment. First, let's talk about you.” Ronaldo lifted his cup, signaling to the man at the bar that he wanted another round. She tensed up, making sure she was entirely aware of her surroundings. She nodded to him slowly, waiting for him to continue.
“So, you were a Sergeant in the Army, almost about to be promoted to Staff Sergeant when you, what, killed General Clarke is cold blood. Explain to me why you murdered him.” The man behind the bar brought over more drinks, placing them on the table. Ronaldo grabbed one and slid the other to Anita.
She slowly grabbed it, taking a sip from it before placing it down and thinking. “I killed him because he did something to a friend of mine. She was discharged for reporting him. They denied all of her appeals because he said for them to. He made my blood boil. People like him should not be in places of power like that.” She answered honestly, looking at him to watch his reaction. He nodded as he obviously thought something through.
“I see. Now that we’ve discussed that, let’s talk about why I bailed you out. As you must know, I am a high power in the underground so I can’t go around doing my own dirty business. I bailed you out to offer you a position where all you have to do is take out the people threatening me and my business. You’ve got the skill set, being trained in the military of course, and you are obviously capable of murder.”
“What are my choices?” She asked, knowing that there must be some sort of consequence with saying no to the position. She grabbed her drink and took another sip as she started to relax in her seat.
“You can take the position, or one of my men can take care of you.” Out of the corner of her eye she saw a man casually holding a pistol, looking over it carefully as he glanced up at her. It was obviously a threat and not some sort of offer with some second meaning. She sighed as she placed her cup down and looked at Ronaldo again.
“Okay. Will I be getting paid or is that not part of the job description?” She asked, straightening up more. Ronaldo let out another laugh as he took a drink from his cup.
The water started running cold, pulling her out of her thoughts. She turned it off, stepping out of the shower as she grabbed the towel, wrapping it around herself as she walked out of the bathroom. She stopped to stare at the file, groaning as she realized she was going to have to read it before going to bed. She was quick to get dressed and sit down on the bed. Grabbing the file, she opened it and started pulling out the different papers. She first started reading the description again, humming to herself as she placed it down and picked up the stack of pictures, pausing in shock as she saw the face of the assignment.
“Y/N?” She started flipping through them, seeing pictures of you doing day to day things, like getting coffee and taking your dog on a walk. She wondered what kind of information you had on him that could have put a target on your back. When she was done with the pictures, she put them down and picked up a stack of papers that explained in extreme detail what your normal routine was, what your schedule for the next week was and when you were having that meeting with the higher ups.
She picked up the last papers that contained all your personal info, including your address, your phone number, where you were located in the last 6 months, family names, etc.. Sighing she put all the papers and pictures back in the file, thinking about how she was going to go about doing this. How she was going to bring herself to ending the life of the one person she was closest to for the last 10 years, give or take.
She laid down, picking up her phone and looking up one of the cafes the papers talked about, finding out where it was. It was a few towns over. ‘Guess I’ll be checking out of here in the morning’. She thought about going to check around the buildings to see if there were any roofs she could use for sniping, or maybe if she could try to just see you, and reconnect to get you alone somehow. Then she started thinking about how long it’s been since she’s seen you. Last time you saw each other was right before she had murdered the General. That was about a year ago, she was still unsure if it was safe to be seen in public during the day the more she thought about it.
After being released and the media found out, she wasn’t able to do anything during the day. And when she did, she had to make sure her face was covered and her appearance was different to the last time the media had seen her, the trial. The Media was raging about it, most people were angry at her release, others not as caring about it. Her release was all over the news. Headlines like ‘MURDERER ANITA WILLIAMS RELEASED FROM PRISON’ were everywhere for months after.
After people stopped talking about it so much, she was able to go out at night safer at least. Most of her jobs were given to her after the media quieted down about it. She spent most of that time that she couldn’t go out just training more, using the supplies Mr. Navvaro gave her.
She huffed as she thought out her choices before deciding sleep was a better choice until morning. She moved the file over to the bedside table and got comfortable. Or as comfortable as someone could be as a criminal who has put many targets on her back could be.
She only slept for about four hours, rising early to get her bags fixed up and dressed in time to be checked out of the motel by 5 in the morning. She put her duffle in her backseat before tossing the file into the passenger seat, and getting into the car. Starting the car up, she pulled out of the parking lot swiftly, setting off towards the town three towns over. She wanted to leave early cause the roads were almost empty and it was quicker to drive when there was no one on the road to get in her way.
The drive was only an hour, as she successfully beat traffic. She pulled up to a hotel, parking and being quick to pull her bag and file out of her car, walking into the lobby. After paying for a room, she put her bag on the available desk and placed the file down next to it. She didn’t unpack, she never does. Not unpacking makes it easier to leave if someone is onto her.
She pulled her laptop out of her bag and started looking up directions to the cafe, wondering if that would be the best approach. She bit at her lip as she decided she was going to go with that plan. She tried convincing herself this was an easier plan and not a self-fulfilling decision. Looking back at the file, she scanned over your routine of going to the cafe and spending about an hour sitting at the same booth reading. You usually did that around 9 ish in the morning. She looked at the time, seeing it was exactly 8:45.
She sighed and got up. “No time for a shower I guess. I’m glad I took one last night.” She mumbled to herself as she changed into more appropriate attire. She put on a facemask, and grabbed her room key, the file, and her phone before heading out of the room. She walked straight out to her car. She wanted to be there on time so she could catch you while you’re reading.
Driving off as fast as legally possible, she got to the cafe within 10 minutes. She hadn’t seen your car yet, so she sat there in her car, keeping her eye out for you. When she saw you pull up, she grabbed her phone and slid it in her jacket pocket, putting her facemask backup so it wasn’t immediately obvious who she was. She got out of her car right as you were walking into the cafe, speed walking to the door before casually walking in. She didn’t want to bring any attention to herself while she was in there.
She walked up to the counter as you walked to the booth she saw in the pictures. She ordered a black coffee and just waited by the counter for it. When she got it, she walked over to the booth and sat down across from you, immediately bringing your attention to her. “Uhm.. Hello?”
She sighed and slid the facemask down so you could see her face. “Williams? What the hell are you doing here?” You were quick to question, getting nervous at the fact your ex, who happened to be a murderer who mysteriously disappeared after being released, was right in front of you.
“I was in town for work, and saw the cafe. Wanted some coffee. I wasn’t expecting to see you here though. It’s been awhile, y/n” She spoke clearly before taking a drink from her cup, watching your expression.
“It has been a while. I definitely wasn’t expecting to see you again, after,” you paused, thinking about your choice of words, “you know.” She nodded at your words in understanding. “So, you’re working? I’m surprised to hear anyone hired you after all that happened. No offense though, it’s great to hear you’ve got a job though.”
“Yeah, I understand, no offense taken. I was surprised too. But I guess it’s working out as it’s supposed to.” She said before taking another drink, looking out the window at the building across the street. If this had been a year ago, she wouldn’t have been able to do this type of plan cause she’d be under watch from Navvaro’s men. But, now she had gained his trust enough to use any plan to get the job done.
“What about you, you still a staff sergeant?” Anita asked, looking back at you, smiling warmly. It felt weird for her to smile like that again. Working as an assassin has kind of given her life void of reasons to smile too much. But she didn’t mind, it’s what kept her fed.
“No, actually, I was promoted and moved up in ranks a couple months ago.” You said, still concerned if you should be talking with her, but still smiled back. She didn’t like the fact you smiled back, didn’t like the fact that it meant you were starting to trust her, even a little bit. She would rather you tell her you don’t want to talk so that she can just fall back to plan b and snipe you while you were in your apartment.
But you didn’t. You smiled, and continued the conversation, actively catching up with her, or what you thought was catching up. She watched your face and body language throughout the conversation over the next half hour, seeing you slowly relax into your seat and become more expressive while talking. She knew she had you where she needed you. She was certain she had you where you needed her when you checked the time and said you had to go.
“Damn, I’ve got to get going, I have some errands to run today, but I want to keep catching up. Would you like to meet me for dinner, maybe at my place, tomorrow night?” You asked, looking almost hopeful. Her heart broke when she realized that if she said yes, what you’d be thinking was happening would be entirely different than what she knew would be happening. She knew she’d be leading you on, only to hurt you once again.
“Of course, I’d love that.” She answered, her smile almost faltering as she said it. When you slid a paper to her, her heart broke just a little more. She looked at it, seeing your number and address on it.
“Here you go, you can come over around 8ish, if that's a good time for you?” You smiled, putting your bag together. She for a moment started thinking about before, when you first met 10 years ago. When you were both in your late teens.
“ Is this seat taken?” You had asked, pointing to the seat next to her. Anita shook her head no, motioning for you to sit. It was senior year, and you had just moved to town. During the whole class, you had tried making conversation. It worked at some point, as she had been talking more than paying attention to the teacher. When the bell had rung, she sighed and looked at you.
“I have a different class but do you want to hang out after school?” You asked with hope in your eyes. She nodded with a small smile, grabbing a paper you slid over to her. It was your number and your address. “Come over anytime, my parents won’t mind.”
“It’s a perfect time, I will see you then. I hope you have a good day.” She agreed, thinking to herself how ironic her hoping you have a good day is. She didn’t know what she was going to do now, especially as she watched you walk away and out of the cafe. She watched you walk all the way to your car before she pulled her mask up and got up, leaving to go to her own car. She drove back to the hotel, deciding she was going to start planning what she was going to do.
She got in her room and looked over at her duffel, and decided what she was going to do. She started planning everything out while also going through her own hesitations and feelings beforehand, not wanting to get herself caught during this because of a misstep in the process.
Before she knew it, the new day had come and she spent the day getting ready completely. She woke up early and took a shower, spending more time than she’d like to admit in there. When she was out, she got dressed and went and got breakfast. When she was back in the room, she sat on her bed, letting her thoughts take over for a bit.
“Anita!” You called out to her, running to catch up to her. She was headed home, mostly just wanting to eat something better than cafeteria food. You went with her, her mom already used to you coming in with her. She grabbed some food from the fridge before both of you went up to her room. You sat on her bed, reaching and grabbing some of the food off the plate and plopping it in your mouth. She smacked your hand before dropping her bad onto her floor and getting on the bed. You laughed and you both just relaxed and hung out until it was time for you to head home.
She ran a hand over her face, checking the time. It was about noon. She didn’t know what to do until 8. So she laid down and kept thinking.
“L/n, something funny?” The sergeant standing in front of the group of recruits asked after you started laughing at something Anita had whispered to you.
“No, Sir. Nothing is funny.” You said, getting serious enough for the sergeant to move on, before you and Anita looked at each other and quietly chuckled. This was a normal occurrence for you two. Even as you moved up in ranks together, you both were seen as the ones who seemed to never stop laughing around each other. If one of you was with the other, jokes could be heard. But without you, Anita was serious, a seemingly different person when you weren’t around. She’d barely make jokes, or even laugh at someone else’s jokes. They figured it was the bond you two shared.
No one had blinked an eye when you two had gotten together and started dating. Everyone was waiting for it to actually happen, hell, half of them believed you two were already dating. For years, everything went well, minimal problems between the two of you. Everything was great until the incident. You had looked so worried at how angry she was about your friend being discharged. She had disappeared in the middle of night only for you to find out where she’d gone was General Clarke’s room, having strangled him. Someone had found her right after, calling for help. She was quickly arrested for his murder and had been tried immediately.
It broke you the next morning when they’d told you what she’d done. How she didn’t resist when they took her, she just looked emotionless. Like she didn’t care about what she’d done. She didn’t though. The man deserved what he had coming in her eyes. He had hurt one of her friends then had her discharged for wanting someone to know what he’d done. He didn’t deserve his position as General.
After that night, you had never seen each other. You’d refused to face her, not wanting to see her. She understood. She was a murderer, and she understood why you didn’t want to see her after she had become a murderer.
Anita woke up suddenly, not knowing when she had fallen asleep. She checked the time, seeing it was about 7:30 now. She cursed at herself before getting up and getting dressed. She slipped on her best looking outfit that she had with her and pulled out her knife roll from her duffel. She looked through it, choosing a simple dagger that’d be easy to hide in the inner pocket of her jacket. She looked at the time and saw she had about 10 minutes to get to your place and felt her heart start to race. For the first time in forever, she felt herself get nervous about a kill.
She put everything including the file into her duffle and made sure she had all her things, before leaving the room and checking out of the hotel. She got to her car and tossed her bag into her trunk before getting in and driving to your place. She made sure to text you that she was on her way at a red light.
When she got there, she reached into her center console for her leather gloves. She looked at her reflection in her side mirror before getting out, and walking up to the building. Once she was buzzed in, she took the elevator up to your floor and walked over to your door, knocking a couple times.
You opened the door with a smile, welcoming her in quickly. When she walked in, she was hit with the smell of food. “Smells delicious.” She mentioned as she looked around the apartment before looking back at you.
“It should be done soon, until then, wanna watch T.v?” Everytime you asked a question, she swore her heart stopped because you always had a hopeful look in your eye. It made it really hard to say no to you. She nodded and took her jacket off, putting it on the back of the couch as you both sat down. It felt awkward until the show came on and she made a comment about how she hasn’t watched it in so long.
Soon you both were laughing like you used to. Soon, you both were right next to each other on the couch, laughing so hard at each other jokes, everything felt okay. Then you were looking at each other, tears going down both of your faces from laughing too hard. It was sudden, she wasn’t expecting it and she didn’t know who initiated it. But somehow, you both were holding onto each other with smiles on your faces as you kissed for the first time in almost two years.
The only thing that stopped you was the beeping from the oven. You sighed as you got up, Anita quick to follow. You pulled the food out of the oven and pulled out the plates as Anita looked for the cups and got you both cups of water. With the food ready, you both sat at the counter across from each other. You kept conversation as you ate. It was like any other date you two had been on before everything happened. It was like nothing had happened, like you both so easily fell back into the same habits with each other.
Time flew by so quickly, neither of you paying attention. Soon enough, it was midnight, and Anita felt her heart leap at the fact she had to finish this soon rather than later. You both were on the couch by the end of night, Anita pushing you to lay down as you were kissing. She reached over to her jacket smoothly, digging into the pocket. When she got the dagger out and realized what she's about to do, the emotions hit her. She started crying. But you assumed maybe she was emotional after all this time apart. So you just pulled her closer, smiling into the kiss. She slid her hand up your stomach, letting herself cry just a bit harder as she pulled the dagger up to your skin. She broke from you just enough to whisper, “Y/n, I am so sorry.”