Chapter 02: Mousetrap

“Geez, do people eat lunch on their lunch breaks anymore?” Alexa whispered to herself as she tailed her newest target. Gavin Stark had a fairly busy schedule it would seem. He had taken her from his job at Jack Jones BWAN on Madison, to a small café on Lexington, to a tattoo parlor on Fairbanks, to a jewelry store on 18^th and Pine, and back to his auto shop all within the span of an hour. Unsure if he would stay put for longer than ten minutes, she hadn’t left the comforts of her rental car. “Come on baby. Let me see that pretty face.”

But as he slipped beneath the chassis of a 2009 Dodge Charger, Alexa climbed out of her car for a closer shot. She snapped off a few of him and his coworkers and work area before rushing back across the street. In her previous stakeouts, Gavin hadn’t revealed much about himself that Alexa could exploit. He was either extremely careful or incredibly boring. What little she did uncover, would not be very useful in the long-term mission but she’d worked with less before.

He wasn’t attached; a fact she knew from her earlier surveillance which was great for her. It made what she had to do that much easier. He spent most of his nights alone at the garage or at his apartment listening to Alternative Rock and surprisingly, Blues. His favorite drink was a Sazerac or Sidecar. He had a total of three close friends, all huge classic car buffs, much like himself, and all drove motorcycles. Tommy Mercado and Jeff Fagan both worked with him at the auto shop and Kirk Nesmith was a homicide detective for the St. Claire Police department. On occasion, he’d accompany his friends to a bar close to his home, Body Shots, and he had a weakness for blondes.  

The information hadn’t proved useful thus far, except the part about the blondes. Gavin seemed to show an attraction to Alexa, which was great. But she needed another way in. The client asked for a “Jawbreakers Deluxe.” In her terms, or that of the menu K set up on the Sweet Tooth website, a “Jawbreaker” was a job in which the client wanted someone close to the target killed or maimed in some way to frighten the target into complying with his or her demands. And if that failed, the target themselves would be hit. Alexa was tasked with getting close to the target in order to learn his dirty secrets and use them against him. 

It was a fairly new option added to her already full selection of “gifts” and Alexa had her qualms about this type of job. Her main concern was hitting someone deemed innocent and if they didn’t commit a crime that would present a problem with her rules which were very important. Alexa would never embark upon a job without the client first agreeing upon the rules of engagement.

Rule 1: No real names. This rule is obvious. Anonymity keeps both client and assassin protected. The client has plausible deniability since he or she will never be aware of the person performing the hit. This also allows the assassin to remain hidden from both parties in case the client has a change of heart and spills the beans.

Rule 2: The assassin chooses the time, place and style of death dependent upon the situation. While the client has influence over whether the act appears “accidental” or not, he or she has no input in the manner of death. For example, if one requested the target be drowned, they cannot then request that the target drown in his or her own bathtub. 

Rule 3: Targets must have criminal dealings. No hits would take place on an innocent victim. The business of assassinations began from the loss of her family to an overzealous crime syndicate. Since then, she has devoted all of her time and energy on vindicating the wronged and helping them get justice when law enforcement’s hands were tied.

Rule 4: A deal’s a deal. Once terms have been agreed upon, the price and target cannot be changed, renegotiated or canceled under any circumstances. However, if a client breaks any of these rules, the assassin is subject to proceed at his or her own choosing.

Sighing as Gavin seemed to settle into a groove on the car above him, she realized she could be sitting a while before he lead her anywhere important. Alexa opened the package she received from K. Pulling out a pair of earbuds she pushed play on the mini recorder and listened to the voice of a man identified only by his initials: J. B. He was crying, in obvious pain and she could hear the sadness in his voice as he spoke to what sounded like the police. The differences in pitch helped discern the number of speakers, three, and from the direction of the speech she could make out where each was sitting or standing relative to the client.

‘J.B.’ was recounting the loss of his wife and 8-year-old daughter and how he’d found them with their throats slit the day before his 12^th wedding anniversary. He was coming home from a business trip when he opened the door to the gruesome scene. His wife lay mere inches from their daughter. It appeared that with her last breath she tried to get to her and save her but died before she could. Blood was everywhere. The place had been tossed. Their killer was looking for something and J.B. was at a loss as to what it could be.

But something was off. Even though she couldn’t see his face, she could tell J.B. was lying. It seemed to her he knew exactly who had come to his house that day and what they were looking for. Sweet Tooth had been contacted one week after the attack, three days before the bodies of mother and daughter were put in the ground; J.B. was anxious.

Hours had passed as Alexa sat keeping watch of her target across the street. She was just starting to relax when finally, Gavin slid from beneath the car again, this time heading for his locker preparing to clock out for the night. After saying his goodbyes to the last two mechanics on site, Gavin skirted his motorcycle to the end of the curb. He punched in a code on the security pad for the gate which Alexa quickly jotted down and headed out of the yard. Starting her engine, she waited for him to pull off before slowly merging into traffic and following him.

They drove for twenty minutes. Gavin led her through the city and along a busy section of St. Claire near the downtown area before finally coming to a stop in front of an empty lot on Bailey Road. Climbing off his bike, he took a few steps onto the property and just stood on the vacant land staring into space. Alexa watched him for a few moments before pulling off and heading home.

10:01 p.m. – 3457 Bailey Road –

10:02 p.m. – Which is? –

10:03 p.m. – You tell me; that’s your job, isn’t it? I need to know everything you find out about that location. –

10:05 p.m. – Let me see what I can do. –

A knock on the door made her fingers pause above the keyboard and she glanced toward the area behind her. There was no reason she could think of for anyone to be knocking this late. And outside of Gavin, she didn’t know anyone else in the building. Then again, excluding their “accidental” meetings a few times in the hallway and their cozy elevator rides together, she couldn’t think of a reason it would be him.

Although she was sure that each time, he was checking her out as they spoke and maybe even timed it to bump into her on some of those occasions. But they had made idle chitchat here and there on runs to the mailbox and he’d even bought her morning coffee from the street vendor on the corner. Shutting down the laptop she started forward cautiously. “Hello? Anybody home?” a muffled voice asked just before the knock returned louder. 

Peeking through the peephole, she sighed, checked herself in the hall mirror and opened the door. “Gavin! Hey.”

“Hey. Uh, were you sleeping?”

“Well, if I was, you knocked loud enough to wake the dead.” She replied, closing her arms against her chest with a small grin.

“It’s late, I know. I shouldn’t have knocked, I’m sorry. I just assumed…well I saw the light on when I pulled in and figured you were a night owl like me.”

“I guess,” she responded, the grin on her face growing wider and easing Gavin’s nerves. “How are you?”

“I’m doing well, thanks,” he smiled easily and leaned against the door. “How’s your evening going?”

“Good. I’m good.” Alexa gave him a curious look as she waited on him to continue. “Uh…what…?”

“You busy?”

“Kinda. I was going over some law reviews. I have an interview tomorrow and wanted to brush up in case there was a pop quiz or something.” This time it was Gavin who looked on curiously and Alexa laughed nervously. “I suck at interviews,” she quickly added, hoping he wouldn’t inquire more.

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” he sighed and pulled away from the door. “You’ll knock it out of the park.”

“Gee. I wish I had as much confidence about that as you do. So…were you just checking on me or was there something?”

“I don’t know. I was sort of hoping to take you up on your offer,” he replied and glanced into the apartment behind her.

“My offer?”

“About that drink. I’ll have it now.”

“Wel…I…it’s kind of late. And as I said…” he smiled charismatically and slowly slipped into the door around her. “Ok. Come in,” she grinned as she shut the door and led him to the living room. “I hope you like red wine.”

“I don’t mind it.” Alexa poured him a drink and watched as Gavin made himself at home on her sofa. “‘Tell me about a time you had multiple, time-sensitive projects due — how did you prioritize and what was the result?’ Law reviews?” He smirked and dropped the notepad back to the table.

“I told you I suck at interviews.” She began collecting the items scattered around the sofa and floor, stacking them neatly on the end of the table and took a seat beside him. “Gavin, it’s not that I’m not thrilled to see you, I’m just, confused.”

“I know. I guess it’s kinda rude to just drop in unannounced like this. I’m still trying to figure you out.”

“Figure me out?”

“I-I didn’t mean to say that out loud. But…I mean you don’t really fit in around here; at least to me it seems. You’re different than most people living in this building. I’ve lived here going on 6 years now and I’ve talked on some level with every neighbor on my floor. We see each other in the hall stop and shoot the breeze but, not you. And I’ve been trying to find a way to…uh,” he laughed anxiously and set his glass on the table in front of him. “What I’m trying to say is you seem unapproachable.”

“I do?” Alexa asked, looking around uneasily while thinking up a response. “You’re sitting on my couch at 10 o’clock at night with me in my night clothes but somehow, you’ve come to the conclusion that I’m unapproachable? That’s…interesting.”

“Yeah…” he sighed and nervously rubbed his hands together. “Can we try this again, please?” Alexa nodded and Gavin shot her a smile that seemed to calm him a bit. “I’m not normally this…weird. I mean I am weird just not this weird.”

“Don’t worry about it, Gavin. I actually think it’s kind of charming,” she laughed and placed her glass beside his. “And don’t lose sleep about the ‘unapproachable’ thing. I get that a lot, believe it or not. I can be a little assertive. I know what I want and I don’t beat around the bush to get it. Guys find that intimidating.”

“So, you’re single then?”

“Wow!”

“I’m sorry, that totally came out wrong,” he laughed and found his foot in his mouth again. “I’m usually much better at this I swear…not that I do this a lot…it’s just…maybe I should stop talking now.”

“Oh no, Gavin, don’t stop there, you’re on a roll,” Alexa laughed at his flustering face. “Please, regale me with your weirdness!”

“Alright, you still haven’t answered the question though.”

“Yes, Gavin, I’m single.”

“That’s good.”

“I suppose,” she smiled with a raised brow.

“Well, it is for me. That means if I wanted to ask you out, I wouldn’t have any competition. You’re new to town so I’m HOPING you haven’t met someone yet. Although for all I know you could be some psycho chick who moved here chasing after some guy you’re obsessing over.”

“Oh really? And are you speaking from personal experience?”

“As a matter of fact. It didn’t really go so well though. The girl spotted me in her tree and things just went downhill from there,” he responded, joining Alexa in laughter. “Did you know it really does hurt like a motherfucker getting tazed?”

“No, Gavin, I did not know that!”

“Oh yeah; hurts more when you’re butt naked.”

“Do I even wanna know?”

“Oh, it’s nothing; just when I fell out of the tree, I lost my pants. My guy mind logically figured that since I was bottomless, I might as well lose the shirt too. Boy did those cops get an eyeful.”

“Please,” Alexa responded through laughter. “Tell me you’re joking.” 

“I am,” he chuckled, watching Alexa wipe away a few tears. “If I was going up in a tree I’d at least have the presence of mind to buckle my pants.”

“One would hope!” she giggled again and leaned forward in her seat.

“So…”

“So…”

“I worked on a relative of yours today and it got me thinking…about you.”

“Oh no, please don’t tell me I’m your new obsession,” she smiled and grabbed her glass from the table.

“Getting there,” he smirked and wiggled his eyebrows. “But no, a late model Charger came into the shop today.”

“Oh,” Alexa sighed and took a sip of her wine.

“Anyway it reminded me of you which is why I thought I’d stop by. See how you were doing, you know? How you were settling in.”

“Not bad, I guess. I did get lost today but I have GPS on my cell, saving grace.”

“Well one of these days, you should let me take you around town; show you around.”

“That sounds great. I’d really like that.” Gavin smiled and leaned over, looking as though he was going to kiss her and Alexa, thinking quickly, spilled her glass of wine in his lap. “Oh! Gavin, I’m so, so sorry,” she shouted, jumping up to grab a towel for him.

“It’s ok, that was my fault.” He dabbed at his crotch as he stood and laughed off the stain. “At least it was room temperature,” he joked and licked excess wine from his fingers.

“I really am sorry. I can get your shirt dry cleaned or buy you a new one.”

“No, that’s perfectly fine. It’ll be a nice reminder of a rather awkward first acquaintance.”

“Second, actually. If you’ll remember our first encounter happened after my box accidentally found your left foot.”

“The 50-pound blender, right! How could I forget? You really are some kind of klutz,” he grinned and handed her towel back. “I guess I should go get myself cleaned up.”

“Sorry again,” Alexa repeated as she walked him to the door. 

“It’s okay, really. Uh, well, thanks for the drink…drinks. Next time, they’re on me, hopefully not so literally. And, also, for the record,” he leaned forward and brushed away a piece of lint from her hair, showing it to her before tossing it away. “I wasn’t trying to kiss you,” he smiled warmly. “I’ll see you around.” Alexa waved goodnight and quickly closed her door. Gavin was coming along quicker than she’d expected. This might be much easier than she’d originally thought.

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