The Hitman and His Consort

XV - Engagements

First Person P.O.V: ARTHUR DELAVIGNE

You could say I’ve spent the past five months actually worrying about my brother but that would be wrong, 2 weeks from the last time I saw him I knew something wasn’t right, my brother was the type of person to call and text someone for no reason other than to piss them off or tell a stupid joke. It was at random times but it’s considered frequent.

Prior to his disappearance, I know he left on a mission, that mission being the assassination of Pierre Lovanné and August Navarro, but that’s all I know about it.

It wasn’t mine and I don’t really but in into other people’s cases so I just knew who’s name would flash on a news report the moment he was done because he always does things well, he always finishes his missions and he always makes sure it was a job well done. I eased myself with the idea that maybe he just took longer because he was working with two targets at the time.

The first month passed, and I told my father about it, he replied that he and my brother got into an argument just the past week so I was again put at ease at the fact that he was just around throwing a tantrum after having a row with papa. In fact that calmed me down for a good two months.

I’ve seen him have fights with my father and it does take a while until they reconciled but even at that, two months was long. Very long.

When I asked about it again with papa, he said he hasn’t heard from him either, I asked my mother and she said the same thing, I even went as far as to ask my younger sibling but of course, the answers remained the same.

Just after that, I coincidentally happened to be swamped with work that Inka was forced to help me with some of them, but once the smoke cleared I realized that my brother was already gone for four months and hardly anyone batted an eye. I can excuse Ludwig and Pauline since they’re busy living their normal lives, but I slowly, unconsciously, hated my father for being indifferent.

I swore up and down to myself that Madeline is just fine, that he’ll turn up eventually, or that perhaps he’s gone rogue. Yet for my inner peace, I snooped around his targets which led me to the Mariella labs and the rumors that spread from within that lab reached me.

And word in that lab says that Montreal and Pierre had everyone working on edge and tightened the security because of the incident luckily the ‘pest’ was dealt with.

I couldn’t f*cking believe my ears. That was my last straw. I spent a whole month trying to actively search for him, his whereabouts, and possible hideouts, but not even a strand of his hair was found, so I succumbed to the facts…

Madeline was dead.

He failed his case and died.

I had no support from my father and my mother at the time shunned me. I told her what I knew as if I was the one who killed Madeline. Pauline left the house and cut ties with us, I did the same while Ludwig was stuck in that house, left to enthrall our parents by herself and as much as it pained me to leave her, my thoughts back then are the same thoughts I have now.

Until Dr. Norris said those words last night…

I felt the hairs on my skin prick up and chills ran down my spine at the mere thought that my brother is not a decomposing corpse. I couldn’t describe the overwhelming feeling I had at that moment that I forgot the possibility of it being false. Then again, I was someone who thought he was still alive and well, despite being gone for four months.

Now back to my current predicament, I—no, ‘we’ resorted to stalking.

Inka and I studied the patterns of his whereabouts, his coffee breaks, his usual dining spots, his working hours, and when he finishes his shifts.

But the man was whimsical. No, more than whimsical. He seemed like he had no plans for anything; he was random. Although he did seem to favor one restaurant, he visited it most frequently among the others. He has no fixed time for breaks. Rumors about him being able to do whatever he wants because Montreal was lenient with his prodigies were true.

I already knew we wouldn’t be getting much information even if we followed him all day.

“He’s not doing anything interesting, huh?” Valya announced in his monotone voice while looking at our target through binoculars. We’re hiding from alleyway to alleyway and jumping from roof to roof just to make sure we don’t miss anything.

There was nothing to miss. Our spying went along like this:

- Pierre left the lab around 2:43PM and went to a different restaurant, Italian.

- After eating, he grabbed an iced coffee and walked around town, he entered a boutique,

- After that, he went back to the lab at 5:12PM

- He came out again at 6:09PM and had some take-out from a fast-food chain,

- Then at 11:07PM he went home to his condominium.

We waited for about 2 more hours and watched as the lights from his windows shut. Absolutely nothing.

“That was a f*****g waste of time, Arthur,” Valya said from behind me, I recall him saying that he’s not good at waiting, I’m thankful for his help but he could’ve just not come if all he’s going to do was talk sh*t about our prototype plan. I know intel-gathering would just be futile if no intel was gathered, but what else could we do?

“Valya, you know I’m thankful for your presence but not your attitude,” I snapped at him.

“Shame, I can only make changes on the former,” he quipped, always having something to say.

I sighed and crossed my arms, leaning on one leg, “Then do you have suggestions other than this? You said it yourself that approaching him could be a trap,” I argued, making him raise a brow at me and lift his chin before looking away with a huff,

“We could try again tomorrow and see if we can actually find something useful…” He trailed off walking closer to me and leaning down to my eye level, “But if that’s not the case we can try another way, something that includes a more ‘hands-on’ approach,” he finished,

‘Why the hell did he have to lean close like this?’

I hummed, which seemed to satisfy him enough, he then lit a cigarette stick and blew out smoke, “What do you want to actually do with Pierre? Do you want to interrogate him? Torture him? What is your end game?” he asked, small puffs of smoke coming out with every word.

‘s**t… that’s ho—rrendous, focus!’

I gulped and cleared my throat trying to flush any non-professional thought that I come across, “I’m not sure yet, I would probably want to beat him with an inch to his life, but my priority right now is to know if my brother is alive and if so where is he,” I explained and he sucked in another whiff of smoke before looking at me.

He glanced at his watched and flagged down a cab, “I’ll see you tomorrow, we’ll watch him from the moment he leaves his house for work until he comes home,” he said,

I was pretty stumped at all that and even as his cab drove away I couldn’t speak a word. I didn’t expect him to go through all of this again, more thoroughly at that. I also flagged down a cab and went back to the library to pick up my motorcycle. That place was open 24/7 because more than being my parking lot, that place is a storage.

A storage for other ‘professionals’ like me, and we couldn’t ask for a better safe-keeper than Mrs. Cole.

Once I got there and she handed me my keys with a headshake, I just left with a smile, not sure if tomorrow would be as productive as today.

And sure enough, when the following ‘morning’ came at the crack of dawn, I rose earlier than the sun did. I saw Valya’s figure on the sidewalk where he could easily watch Pierre’s condo. I didn’t actually expect to see him this early. I would’ve thought he’ll come a bit later, but his work ethic is top-notch.

I left the motorcycle at the library again and got a cab here. He noticed me when I arrive and I jogged toward him, can’t help but smile, “Well, look at you, you pulled through, huh?” I started placing a hand on my hip.

He was smoking again, huffing a breath before answering, “I’m the one who suggested this,” he’s monotonous as usual but that’s fine, our day was just starting. We waited for a few more minutes until we spotted his car leave for work.

The time is 5:32AM when he arrived at the labs and while he was in there, we grabbed breakfast and coffee as we waited for about three hours until it was 8:09AM when he left the building to grab breakfast himself; it was from another fast-food chain and he was pretty quick, he didn’t even take any detours this time and headed straight back to the labs.

By now I’m starting to think that it would be impossible to actually track this guy’s routine, he has none. It’s not even halfway through the day but I’m already rethinking what Valya said last night. It’s probably time we take some underhanded methods to make this work.

And seeing as I’m not actually aware of all my possible I’ll just ask Valya for his opinions, he seems really good those, or at least that’s what it seems like, he didn’t even break a sweat when he suddenly took Dr. Norris. He’s someone who’s lacking in compassion, that’s for sure.

A few more hours passed, and it’s 1:34PM, he went out to grab lunch; he seems to be going somewhere different again because he was walking for quite a while, passing those that he went to before, I just thought well maybe he’s just looking for something new, that seems like the usual for him.

But then he’s been walking for about 10 minutes now, then 15, then 20…

Valya grabbed my hand and pulled me into an alley, “We’re being followed,” he whispered.

I cursed, I knew he was taking a while, that’s why he’s suspicious. He’s probably drawing us out and brought guards along with him. “How did they even find us,” I hissed.

“Probably because you’re dressed suspiciously,” he replied,

“Ugh, oh please, who even wears… a lot of people wear suits—okay, fine, but do they know that’s it’s us?” I hissed

He grunted, “Not sure, they’re just following close, they probably noticed us watching him,”

“Ugh, sh*t… we have to get rid of them,”

“You meant ‘Rid’ like lose them on our tail? Or kill them?”

“Uh… whichever needs to be done,”

“Good choice,” he said with a small smile, and I almost felt my heart race a little.

‘Oh sh*t, I’m attracted to him,’

I mentally cursed as I nodded and looked away from him. Inka was right. I am easily attracted to questionable individuals, and it’s not even funny.

I don’t know what exactly triggered this but I could easily chalk this up to my attraction to men who act like they have their s**t together and does well by themselves so they probably won’t be interested in establishing a relationship with me and in the event that they do they’ll half-ass it so we won’t even last for a few months.

Is this what self-deprecation feels like once it takes on different ways to be presented other than self-deprecating jokes and self-sabotage?

I mean, for justification, Valya does have conventionally attractive features, if his nose wasn’t crooked he’d look even sharper but the look he has altogether is not lacking in anything. If anything, I think the crooked nose is—No.

Although he does have the eyes of a sleepy person, like those half-lidded and uninterested-looking eyes. His face hardly ever changes too, he's sarcastic and rude but he keeps that stupid facade of his on lock.

“Arthur..” I heard him snap, which startled me back to our current predicament.

“Right, being chased, what do we do?” I asked, and he looked around the alley. We snuck in and sighed,

“We can’t climb up, we’ll need to go opposite Pierre’s direction, if they still follow us we—”

“Engage, I know how many do you think are there?”

“Not sure, but we only really have two options here so if we can’t fight we run,” he said, I nodded at him and we did as we planned.

We walked the other way and this time even I noticed them. There are people who are following us. They’re a bit behind, but even when we cross streets and shift directions, they remained following us. The fact about Pierre not bringing guards is true because we didn’t experience this yesterday. It could just mean that Pierre probably got a whiff of us yesterday and decided to bring guards with him today.

I even thought that maybe Dr. Norris gave him a heads-up that we’re looking for him, but even so, we were too tactless that we became noticeable, sh*t maybe it is because I dress too suspiciously.

That or we actually didn’t take extra precautions on our steps, then again, sometimes I forget not every target of mine is remotely challenging. Back to reality again, is it just me, or are they getting closer, “Sh*t, they’re catching up, Valya,” I whispered to him and he threw a glance to confirm,

“We’ll fix that,” he said in all confidence as he grabbed my hands and we speed-walked through passing pedestrians,

‘Please don’t add gas to the flame—’

I thought, but this man has a vice-grip that I felt my fingers get crushed a little, “where are we going?” I asked.

“Somewhere less crowded,” he answered. Guess that also means we’re already preparing for a confrontation.

I have my 22 TCM and my M9 Beretta, like always, and I’m always prepared for a fight but the fact that I have Valya with me threw me off a little, I’m not used to working with someone that even when Inka helped we avoided working on the same case just so we don’t interfere with each other’s battle psyches.

I tried to look around to map which part of the city we were entering. I did recognize the area, but it’s hard to pinpoint just where the ‘less crowded’ parts are. If we’re really with taking things to tight alleyways, guns are out of the question.

My knife skills aren’t bad, and so is my hand-to-hand combat, and not to brag but I actually take pride in there, you don’t spend your whole life training to be the ideal assassin and not be good at things like this. My father was really insistent on giving us those training as a backup plan. In case we don’t fit or find a place in the normal world, we can always have other job options that make quite the cash.

“Ah, wait, we can go through that alley, that’s connected to the area where they dump old tires!” I told him and he nodded, by now I managed to loosen his grip on my hand and he didn’t seem to notice me slowly detaching them but we went with my suggestion anyways.

It was still a busy part of the city but this is the less suburb-ish place, rather than residential it’s a more commercially used area, fewer people live around these parts and I guess that gives us a little bit of space.

We take a sharp turn to the said alley and walked further in, just in case they didn’t catch up on that it’d save us the trouble but seconds after we did, sure enough, they found us to we ran further ahead until we reached the tire dump.

“This ‘less crowded’ enough for you, Valya?” I asked,

“It’ll do,” he replied,

‘I hate that smug tone of his, but that’s actually really my thing, damn it,’

When the men caught up to us it was easy to count, five men, dressed as civilians but their earpieces stood out like a sore thumb making me smirk. Can’t they afford the cordless once? For a lab that allegedly pulls in billions, that’s pretty cheapskate-ish of them.

Three of them already had their guns drawn, “Identify yourselves,” one of them announced,

“You go first, that’s how manners work,” Valya replied, I’m not someone who’s spent a lot of time with him but he has a habit of screwing with people who threaten his life doesn’t he, he did that to me last time too.

“This is not a game, sir if you’re a proven threat to Mr. Lovanné, we will take action,” he warned,

“What makes you think that?” I asked, mimicking Valya’s taunting tone,

“I think both of you are not taking this seriously, I’m saying that if you don’t cooperate, we will shoot,” he repeated, and I snorted,

I exchanged glances with Valya and he gestured at the talking man as if to say ‘Can you believe this guy?’ and I shrugged at him. At that moment, we shared a subtle nod. It’s go time.

These guys formed a roughly triangle shape, one guy at the far back and the two guys both in opposite diagonals to him had their guns drawn while this nagging guy stood right in front of them alongside another guy, both of them unarmed and both of them quite close to me and Valya.

“Are you like their boss, mister?” I asked,

“That doesn’t matter,” he replied,

But it does matter because I’m thinking of whether they’d shoot you if I used you as a shield or as a hostage. I guess I’ll just have to find out.

A quick draw landed a shot on the guy, who's closer to Valya, on his leg which was enough to shake things up, and before he even fell to the ground I pulled out my knife and grabbed the guy who’s been nagging us to death and pressed my knife to his neck while Valya pulls the injured guy up to act as his shield and draws out his gun and shoot another one right on the chest so we’re down to three able-bodied enemies.

This guy I have at my knife struggled and little and managed to get off me, props to him but I already have my gun out so shooting him on the thigh was an easy feat, he fell to the ground, so much for being my shield. Valya took the liberty of shooting another guy before shooting his shield, too.

Until only one armed guy was left standing.

This is the difference between guards and killers. These men defend and secure safety, so their main concern is life preservation, something we, on the other hand, don’t give much thought to. If I get shot right here, I bet Valya wouldn’t even bat an eye and focus on returning to favor more than worrying about me.

The man looked at us both, his gaze shifting between me and Valya, “Monsters... you’re monsters,” he whispered with a gulp.

Not gonna lie, I didn’t expect that to go smoothly at all but Valya’s an absolute heartless beast; it happened too quickly, and he picked up on it up to speed like he’s done this multiple times, and out of nowhere Valya shot behind our backs, I took a glance and the nagging guy, who I only shot at his thigh, tried to pull a fast one and drew his gun, this big guy beat it to him though by effectively shooting a whole to his head.

‘Valya’s instincts are insane… what the hell,’