The Billionaire's Assassin [COMPLETE]

File 10: Stolen Chocolates

Santa Barbara, California

Rex 2010

When Rex was a child, his father, Micky, allowed him to explore a convenience store with five dollars in hand. He’d entered with the intent of buying a snack and soda until something caught his eye. A bright yellow race car like the ones he saw in movies. That’s when greed struck him, a voice in his head insisting it’d be his. Even though ten dollars was out of his range. Of course, he could just go back and ask his father for the money. Easiest choice. Or just stick to his initial purchases, ignore the craving for another day.

Sneakily, he grabbed the toy off the shelf, quickly tucking it beneath his shirt.

With the plastic chilling his stomach, he zipped up his jacket with a mischievous smirk. Calmly walking to the snack aisle, he grabbed a bag of chips and a soda from the refrigerator. The clerk paid him no mind, too busy checking out a woman strutting through the store in the tiniest dress. When he placed the snacks on the counter, the man quickly scanned them, frantic about returning his attention to the woman.

Throughout it all, his heart jolted every corner of his chest. Sweat threatened to form along his brow. But the excitement of it sent him down a whirlwind of highs and suspense. Would he get away with it?

He waited for the pretty woman to claim her orders at the counter before walking out the door beside her. Ring, ring!

“I’m going to have to ask you to return to the counter.”

The clerk was all too pleased to keep the woman in his facilities a bit longer, strolling around the counter with a sultry smile. Rex hid his own conniving grin with his arm, strolling towards his father’s car.

And that’s how Rex realized the invigorating thrill of thievery for the first time. The memory coating his mind as he waltzed through the neighborhood convenience store, examining a Playboy magazine at a distance. His target for the night.

“What do you mean that’s a foul?!” the clerk shouted to the TV screen above his counter. Slow nights like this were the best for Rex. A window between the clerk's obliviousness and the vacuity of the store. A risk with ease. “Bunch of i***t referees, I’ll tell ya.”

His fingers brushed against the plastic wrapped around the lewd magazine. The exit strategy presented itself as a man grabbing a case of beers and a few snacks. Peering over his shoulder one last time to see the clerks' eyes stuck to the screen, he quickly snatched it, stuffing it within the pocket of his hoodie. A smirk captured his lips. His heart racing at the sensation like old times. And no one was the wiser.

“I would have grabbed last months issue,” a familiar voice taunted.

Rex jumped at the sight of Maya, a thin smile of satisfaction lining her face. “Where’d you come from?”

“Just came to get a soda,” she answered, presenting her bottle. Her eyes roamed his attire before looking over her shoulder at the cashier, eyes still glued to the game on the screen. “Wanna get out of here?”

A minute went by before Rex blinked away the surprise of her presence, holding the magazine with one hand in his pocket. “Sure.”

“Let me go pay for this.” Following Maya to the cashier, it took every ounce of strength for Rex not to panic. This wasn’t the plan. She set him off track, noticing the man with beer heading towards the counter behind them. If he left at the same time as the man, the alarm would go off and he could get away, no problem. But with Maya…

She placed the bottle on the counter, catching the cashier’s attention. “I’ll just take this soda, Jim,” she greeted.

Rex gave her a perplexed look while the cashier just smiled, ringing her up. “Thanks again for coming in to fix that damn contraption,” Jim thanked, sighing in relief. “Gotta buy a new detector if it acts up.”

Maya waved off his words, keeping her eyes on Jim. Rex stood behind them, taking note of their words. “It’s my pleasure. It shouldn’t be going off randomly anymore.” She paid for the drink and nodded a goodbye, gesturing for Rex to follow with a grin.

This was it.

If he heard correctly, Maya had fixed the detector in the front and it would go off. Then why didn’t she say anything about the magazine in his pocket? Taking a deep breath, he looked down at Maya’s hands, one in her pocket while the other held the bottle. Maybe they could both book it. And…

“Oh, it’s really chilly tonight,” she said, adjusting her jacket.

The cool night breeze nipped at Rex’s exposed neck, the hood of his hoodie covering his head. Looking back, his heart jolted in amazement as they slipped through the doorway without a beep. Usually, he’d slip out behind someone more distracting or just run for it, most clerks older or too scared to leave the convenience store unoccupied.

“How?” he muttered to himself.

Maya leaned closed to him, walking along the sidewalk. “I fixed the detector in front of the door so it wouldn’t beep for no reason. Now, it doesn’t beep at all.” The smirk of Rex's face couldn’t convey how much this girl amazed him, his steps now firm with certainty. “I won’t say anything about the magazine...” She pulled out a box of chocolates from her pocket he hasn’t noticed she’d been holding. “If you don’t say anything about these. Want one?”

His smile widened. “You really are something,” he chuckled, heading around the corner. The street lights were beaming overhead along with cars speeding by. “Usually you aren’t this cheerful or open. What gives?”

What is up with me? she thought. She’d only come out to tap into the convenience store surveillance, a well-known bar local offices frequented across the streets. The idea started by fixing the detector, something Gabe wired to malfunction a lot to gain entrance. This was business to begin with then she spotted Rex by the magazines and felt that unbearable knot in her chest pulsating at the sight. Her feet moved all on their own and she found herself teasing him about the magazine before she knew it. He was making her lose her composure.

“Just...surprised to see you,” she informed him, half-heartedly. The words spoken were the truth, more than she’d like to admit. This giddiness of spotting him surprised herself. “So, what brings you out this late? It’s almost midnight.”

He shrugged, pushing the hood off his head. “I usually take a stroll around town to get out the house once in a while.”

In truth, he needed these reckless moments of thievery and adrenaline to avoid his home life. His mother’s shouts still clouded his mind as she ranted at his father on the phone before he hung up. Then the tears started. The sound of his mother crying always tore at him and tonight, he couldn’t take it any longer and left home to cool his head. Anything to forget how weak he was whenever his parents fought, always leaving his mother with tears in her eyes. Most times he’d comfort her, they’d watch something to get their mind off the hole his father, her husband, left within them that they’d both never mention to one another.

The weight upon his shoulder collapsed at the thought. “My parents were fighting,” he admitted in a low tone. The sound of nightlife rang around them, their steps gradually ceasing by a closed bakery and bench. “My...my dad travels a lot and this time, he’s been gone longer than expected. Almost 5 months now. He’ll call once every blue moon but it’s not enough.”

The words seem to pour out of his mouth before he could catch them all, keep his eyes to the ground. It wasn’t like him to spill so much of his personal business out like that but inside, he hoped Maya would catch it.

He shook his head, distancing the thoughts away. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to rant about my problems. I’m sure your parents fight a lot.” Now that I think about it, he thought to himself, eyes peek up at Maya. I don’t know that much about her. She now stood by the bakery doors, biting her bottom lip with a solemn expression. A pained beam flashed within her eye before vanishing. Damn, I ruined her cheerfulness.

“My parents don’t fight anymore.”

Rex scoffed, trying to play off the wandering atmosphere of sorrow now bubbling around them. The chill in the night air only suffocated them even more, making him want to disappear in embarrassment. “Wow, I’d like to know their secret so I don’t have to hear my parents bickering.”

Looking up, an aching ping hit Rex in the chest. Maya’s eyes had become cold and distant in only mere seconds. “They died.”

Rex gritted his teeth. You f*****g i***t.

Before he could say another word, thinking of a whirlwind of excuses for darkening the giddy mood they just had, she continued, blinking away the sorrow in her eyes. “It was a long time ago. But I remember them fighting sometimes, mainly about me and…” She pulled in a breath, catching herself. She’d never spoke about her parents to anyone besides her friends in the agency who had similar pasts. But Rex was different and yet she felt compelled to disclose herself to him. Something inside her--maybe the agent on a mission or the girl who just liked being with him--wanted to tell him all that she was. “...my little sister. Our money situation wasn’t the best before they died. So they fought about that too.” Breathing in a deep breath, she felt a sliver of a smile grasp her lips. “But they’d alway made sure whatever the problem, they wouldn’t go to bed angry at each other. They made sure the same was between me and my sister.” Turning to Rex, she took a step forward boldly. “The best you can do for your parents is be a good kid. Don’t steal porn magazines so they’ll have less to fight about when they do talk.”

Redness coated Rex’s cheeks at the mention of his laud magazine still stuffed in his pocket. “You seemed to find a way to bring it back to the magazine.”

She shrugged, noting the slight embarrassment of his actions. “Everyone has their own guilty pleasures.”

An eyebrow spiked at the mention of guilty pleasures. “How about you? Do you have any guilty pleasures?”

“In fact, I do.” Pulling out the box of chocolates, she took a seat on the bench, gesturing for him to sit down beside her. “I like this brand of chocolates. They remind me of my mom’s homemade ones. Hers were much better but these are the closest to the taste.”

Cracking the box open, she offered him a chocolate truffle the size of her thumb which he accepted.

She popped on in her mouth, savoring the gentle taste before speaking once more. “I wasn’t a big fan of chocolate growing up but when my mom made them, I would eat as many as I could. She only made them twice a year: holidays and when halmonei and hal-abeoji would come over.”

Peeking from the corner of her eyes, she waited for him to ask the familiar question of, “what does that mean?”

“Grandma and grandpa,” he answered, licking the leftover chocolate off the corner of his lip. He turned to her with a confident grin. “Am I right?”

Maya rolled her eyes, veiling how impressed she was with his language skills. When they first began his tutoring sessions, he could barely recall how to say hello. “Yeah, you are. But are you A worthy for the upcoming test?”

The conceited smirk of mischief played at the corner of Rex's lips, Maya sighed at the sight of, realizing all too late it’d become a new guilty pleasure of hers. “I am so A worthy that I already made reservations at one of my favorite spots by the pier. You are going to have a memorable weekend.”

“We’ll see about that.” She popped another piece in her mouth with a smile that had Rex clutching his chest, heart thumping harshly. To disguise the sudden emotion, he took another chocolate, turning away. Usually, around women, he was the smoothest player of them all, but around Maya, everything felt fresh and brilliant.

And a piece of him felt frightened of it.

A familiar voice shot through his train of thought. “Maya, there you are! We...”

Rex jolted at the voice, looking up at him in awe of his presence and the name that rolled off his tongue. “Gabe?”