The Housewife and the Hitman

Chapter Two- The Real Conner

Gemma would awaken to the sight of Conner having walked from one side of the room before returning when noticing a groan come from her plump lips. Although she had been unconscious for quite some time, she still wasn’t able to recognize the area she had been in, but also knew it was familiar in some way-but she couldn’t quite pin it down. It was only when the light showed through the small windows on the garage door that she noted that she had been in the garage itself. The lack of truck harboring the right side, where she had been placed on a piece of workout equipment as a bed, told her that her husband, Shane wasn’t home-which allowed a sense of her fear to fade. But it would only be exchanged as she saw Conner having been wearing solid black latex gloves and a black hat-appearing like more of a thief then a gentleman that she saw the day before. 

“Di...did you follow me home?” She asked, her tone still shaky and a bit raspy from having been unquenched in the last few hours. She licked her lips to try and dampen them before cracking as she spoke-only to be handed cherry flavored lip balm by the mysterious man who somehow comforted her in his hitman attire. 

“I had no idea you lived here…” Suddenly the sound of the garage door having opened, startled Gemma as she turned to face Connor and found him to have miraculously disappeared. Having remained on the weight lifting machine that had been collecting dust for the last five years, Shane emerged from his car and gave a quizzical look to Gemma before she stood with a smile. He raised a brow to her, having waited for her to give him his afternoon kiss while scanning the fact she was in only a towel. 

“Have you decided to give up on your attire completely?” He asked while she looked to him with a glare of confusion before finding his hand to move towards her quickly. Expecting to be hit for yet another unclear reason, she was startled for a worthless cause as she only found him to move his fingers to the towel and try to disrobe her. Although Conner had taken her as his lover a few hours prior and managed to disappear in a matter of seconds, Gemma was uncomfortable with being seen in such a vulnerable manner. “Where the hell is your wedding ring?” He suddenly noticed the bare spot on her left hand before bringing his nails to her chin and digging them in such a way where he could control which way her face turned. “Are you stepping out on me?”

“Of course not…”

“Then disrobe.” He demanded, his eyes having remained present with lust, but done so in a violent lust that made it impossible for her to know if he would force her, as he had done so in the past. 

“Can I in the house-”

“I don’t want the kids to see their w***e of a mother…” The words seemed to grate at her heart before she bowed her head and slid her fingers to the small fold that kept her towel around her body. She stood in her nude glory before her husband and the man she broke her wedding vows to, hiding somewhere in the shadows. As the towel hit the floor before her, she tried to cover herself up before being forced back upon the work bench by Shane’s wicked hand. It was clear that he had s****l intentions and the ability of force to backup his desire as she feared he would somehow uncover the fact that she had broken her vows and given herself to another. That very person having been so very close, yet elusive to her husband’s radar. 

“Daddy!” A sudden whine from an offspring of Shane and Gemma called out as she thanked God in this moment as she knew the only thing he feared worse than the police would be for his children-especially his daughters, to see him in such a way. Due to this, he left her alone in the garage-but not before speaking so cruel to her, that it made her feel guilty for things she had no control over. 

“I come home without dinner on the table and my wife acting strange in the garage...in a towel. I don’t know if this is some way to feel confident in your body after three kids...but it won’t change the fact that you have packed on a few...you are wasting your time…” He scoffed before moving below the garage door and keeping her a teary-eyed mess. Only when the sound of the children having exclaimed when seeing their father, had been cause for Conner to emerge from the rafters. He descended down a set of perfectly placed bins that were lined to one side of the garage and led up to the rafters. 

“So you’re married?” He spoke, trying to lighten the mood in his own sick sense of humor. She couldn’t bring herself to match his eyes as she was frozen in place, feeling unable to cover herself up from the verbal rape she had just recieved from a man who was supposed to love and protect her. 

“How many kids?” Her eyes finally moved to him as she no longer cared for the fact she stood nude or the doings of her husband. When it came to her children, she would-and has walked through hell and back for them. And although she shared a passionate moment with Conner, he was no more a friend to her than her husband at this point, and so she looked at him with a glare. 

“I need to know…”

“Why?” She questioned before watching him move by her. She worried that he would bring his touch to her and force her to release any morale as he had managed to do the night before. But instead of taking a page from her husband’s book and kicking someone who was already down, he lowered himself to the towel set around her feet and wrapped her back with it. While raising to meet her eyes, he seemed to take in everything from the way her self-administered pedicure had begun to chip to the shea butter smooth legs left behind by a close cutting razor-complete with a few nicks. He desired to kiss each small dot of blood that had clotted by now and try to heal her external wounds as he knew he couldn’t do so for the ones inside. Instead, he rose and helped her remain modest by setting the towel under her arms and back over her chest. Her eyes met his gaze as she looked to him in complete surprise-having never known anyone quite like Conner-and feeling safe and comfortable with him for some unknown reason.   

“Why are you here, Conner?” She spoke his name, as he broke from his trance-like state and realized that he would have to be honest with her in order to protect her. 

“You weren’t supposed to be here...he was supposed to be alone...without a wife...without kids…”

“What are you talking about?” Her hazy daydream of a reality of her lover having fawned over her yet again had began to crack as his words sounded as if it came from a Mafia hitman more than some random guy she just met at the bar. Then again, there was not much that she knew about him and anything he had spoken to her could have been some elaborate ruse to get her into the bathroom and take advantage of her-which he had succeeded on. But the guilt laid behind his emerald eyes had somehow calmed her racing heartbeat-but not enough for her to forget the fear she felt while standing before him. 

“I was told he doesn’t have kids or a wife...Least of all...you…” He spoke, his hand tracing upon her cheek, making her bat her eyes as she could feel herself dampen to the way he was able to make her forget the cruel words spoken to her just moments ago and adore the feeling of his touch. “You need to take your children and go…”

“What? Why? Where?”

“Anywhere…”

He set his hands on either of her cheeks and moved in to deliver a kiss before her hands fell atop his.” No...Connor…just tell me what is going on…”

“It is better if I don’t…” Of course, her mind began to run wild with theories fueled by the clues he had given in his rather vague yet ominous choice of wording, yet she saw him as a beacon of hope somehow and due to this, didn’t want to allow her assumptions get the best of her present moment. 

“It is not safe for you to be here…” As her hands fell down his back as her defenses began to fade, her heart stopped as she felt something hard sticking out of the fabric of his pants-stuck in place, and easily recognized to be a gun. A bizarre silence fell between them before she tried to make a break for the door, realizing that whatever his “job” was when being sent here, it would bring harm to someone and fearing that would also involve her and her children, she tried to get help to anyone who would listen. However, Conner seemed prepared by this as he took hold of her arm and set her against the cold concrete slab separating yet holding the two garage doors while setting his hand over her mouth. 

“You and I both know that Shane is not a good man…” He paused while hearing her attempt to speak beneath his strong fingers keeping her mouth quiet. “The way he speaks to you is reason enough for me to end his life...but those I work for want him gone and it’s my job to do that-” He lingered for a moment, seeing tears form in her eyes. “You and your children’s lives will be better off without him. Now I’m going to release you-and if you run, I’ll have to go after you…”

She nodded before he slowly peeled away his fingers, prepared to move them back at any moment until growing surprised when seeing her-seemingly unafraid of him. Instead, she seemed inquisitive for the facts she had learned about him-and had to fight the desire to laugh at some of the details as she felt as though it was too far fetched. But the gun had been the tip off to keep the moment serious as she was reminded of this as he exposed it from behind him and brought it to view. 

“I can’t let you…” She interrupted him loading his gun and setting the silencer over the nozzle of the gun to make it unalarming to anyone in earshot of Shane’s likely imminent death. “I know he’s a...a bad man...but...he’s my children’s father and he’s a good one to them.”

“How many times do you have to lie going to the doctor because of something he did to you?” She paused, her gaze averted from him as her back remained against the cement slab and being unable to move as she was frozen in fear that her legs may try to escape when her mind told her to remain put. “Or how many times you’ve had to play the television on loud for your kids because of how loudly he hurt you-”

“It’s not-”

“I may not have seen every inch of your body, but I know the scars are there...I saw it in the fear you had when looking at him...I saw the way you were disgusted with the way he touched you...the fact he felt he could.”

“He’s my husband-”

“A wedding ring and vows can be done by anybody. A marriage certificate isn’t an excuse for abuse…”

“He doesn’t-”

“I saw him nearly rape you and if he would have, I swear to God I would have knocked him to the ground without a second thought-”

“Please, Conner...just don’t kill him.” The words chilled her to even speak as she felt torn between allowing Conner to follow through on what would be expected of him and defending her husband although he didn’t deserve it. “I know you don’t know me and I know you don’t owe me anything...but...there has to be something else that I can do or he can-”

Suddenly, a bulb seemed to go off in Conner’s mind before he looked around the garage, noticing the plethora of boxes set around and then looked back to her. “Would you have any idea why I was hired?”

“No...I mean maybe an ex girlfriend of his?”

“No…” He corrected her. “Shane made enemies of very wealthy and powerful people. Compared to murder and rape, it isn’t even on the scale of why he should be killed, but they want to send a message to others who try to gilt them.”

“So he borrowed money-”

“He cheated in a poker game, cheating out prominent members of society for fifty thousand dollars. For them, it’s not about the money-but the principle of it...but if you can tell me where that money is-”

“I didn’t even know...he gives me one hundred dollars for groceries a month and-”

“One hundred…” Conner scoffed. “How many nights do you go without eating?”

“It’s not that big of a deal…”

“Everything he says to you is a reflection of how he feels about himself. It doesn’t say anything about you, it says everything about him.”

Their gazes locked for a moment before she looked away nervously once more. “I don’t know about any money, he always tells me he works late and I...I don’t question him-”

“Because you’re afraid.” She shied away in response as he slowly nodded. 

“Okay...That girl you were with at the bar-”

“Don’t bring her into this.” Gemma ordered as he smirked, appreciating her sudden burst of confidence in facing a life or death situation. 

“Do you trust her with your children?”

Gemma nodded. 

“Good. Have her watch them for the weekend.”

“It’s Thursday-”

“The weekend and a day then.”

As Conner tried to pull her from the garage, she remained in place-stubborn before he pulled his phone from his front pocket and gave her a look of fear. “Gemma, in one hour, my phone is going to ring and they are going to ask for a confirmation-a photograph of his death. If I don’t have that, they will come do it themselves. So either you come with me, or you allow them to kill him in front of your children.”

“What can I do? What does me leaving them have to do to find that money?”

“You’re going to help me steal it back...But you can’t be HERE to do that.” He paused. “It is three days and I promise you will be back on Sunday night, before the kids are even asleep. So call her and make arrangements-I’ll be waiting for you by my car…” he left his phone with her before going to leave the garage, pausing to say one more thing. “Don’t play the hero...the men and women who arranged for this, can’t be brought down by a revolution or even a stubborn and determined housewife…” She nodded before he allowed her to be left alone and she dialed the number and complied to his instructions. When she moved to him, however, she could hear her name having been called before turning to see Shane moving towards her.