Chapter 03: Last Call

 “You keep throwing them back like that you’ll be drunk before he even notices you,” Kasper scoffed in Alexa’s ear.

“Mmm, wrong! I don’t know if you knew this about me, K, but I’m pretty good at holding my liquor. Besides,” she said, downing her third shot and slamming the glass to the counter. “This bitch is watering down these things until you can barely taste the alcohol.” The bartender glanced at Alexa from the corner of her eye causing her to smirk. “Oops. Guess she heard me.”

“Well now you’ll get an extra little something in your drink.”

“And if that happens she’s getting more than a tip; I’ll give her the entire fucking blade.” She could hear Kasper laughing in her ear as she flagged the bartender. “One more, please,” she said pointing to the tallest glass in front of her.

“Another cranberry tonic coming right up.” The words were cheerier than her facial expression. Alexa shrugged it off but kept her eyes on her while she made the drink—just in case.

She had settled in at the bar. After they’d botched their last mission, she and Kasper both knew they needed to find another way to get the information they sought. And while the two ideas that came before the one that had her sitting here looking lonely and desperate had failed, she was sure this one would work. 

Scoping out the room again, she trailed her eyes along the array of colorful outfits and characters who had all converged here for the same reason; companionship. Alexa sighed and shrugged off the thought. Seven days. It had been one week since she’d last caught herself thinking about him. Closing her eyes, she forced herself not to go there, not tonight. Turning away from the display of flirty couples she looked back in time as the bartender returned with a strange drink. “I didn’t order this,” she said, waving her off as she sat a tall glass in front of her.

“It’s from me.” A smooth baritone with a slight southern accent caused chills to ripple down her spine before his face came into view. He slid smoothly onto the barstool next to her with a half-smile that added to her rising body temperature. “I noticed you seemed to enjoy your vodka, figured you might like to try something with real taste.”

“‘Real’ taste huh?” she smiled, flipping a lock of her red hair over her shoulder. “What is it?”

“It’s called a Polish Mule. Ever heard it?” Alexa shook her head no. “Well there’s a first time for everything,” he responded, flashing a quick smile and secretly drinking in the way hers could easily brighten up a room and had him at a loss for words.

“I guess,” she replied, glancing at the glass again, carefully deliberating over whether or not to accept it. “Lana.” She extended her hand.

“Adam.” He accepted with a grin. Adam bit his lip admiring the softness of her hand and the sensual touch of her fingers. He marveled over her flawlessly tanned skin accented by her almond shaped brown eyes and deliciously plump lips. “Beautiful name for a beautiful woman. You here alone?” He made himself more comfortable on the stool, turned sideways and provided her with his undivided attention. 

Her smile slowly ceased but still remained in her eyes. “I am,” she said. Alexa took the drink and removed the straw, selecting instead to use one of her own. She swirled it around the glass and waited to see if it changed colors, indicating the presence of drugs. When it didn’t, she brought it to her lips and moaned. Adam watched as she took a tiny mouthful, let it sit on her tongue a moment before consuming a bigger sip.

“Well?”

“Not bad, it’s…creamy. Pretty tasty.”

“That’s how you know it’s a good vodka. It should be soft, silky and smooth, just like a woman,” he said with a smirk. Ordering up a bourbon, his focus was only away for an instant before he was looking at Alexa once more. 

“So what about you?” she asked, drinking the glass to half and setting it back on the counter. “Are you here alone?”

“Yes. I come here after work to blow off some steam. It’s usually much crowded, hence the reason I prefer the sanctuary of my private booth,” he motioned towards the VIP lounge roped off and situated behind a glass wall. “Funny enough I thought I’d made a mistake coming here tonight and started to go home but, suddenly…I’m not so sure it was a mistake at all.” The look on his face was devouring her, his eyes staring intensely into hers. “And I know it’s kinda cliché to ask but, would you care to join me?” 

“Mmm, tempting but, I think I’ve already had a few too many. I’d better get home before I forget where I live.”

“What are you doing? You had him!” Kasper shrieked in her ear.

“Watch and learn, K.” Alexa flashed Adam a smile as she slid from her barstool, accidentally stumbling into him.

“Whoa, you ok?” he asked, holding her upright and taking the opportunity to feel her up. His hand on her ass wasn’t lost on her. And neither were the fingers that opened against her chest, grazing her right breast as he ‘assisted’ with getting her balanced.

“I’ll be fine, but I think your Polish Mule just kicked,” she laughed. Adam chuckled and moved his hand a little further up her back but kept the other settled on her waist.

“Now what kind of man would I be if I didn’t offer to escort you home?”

“That’s very sweet of you but…”

“I insist.”

Alexa grinned and wrapped her arms around Adam’s neck and whispered in his ear, “How about instead we go to your place?” 

“Even better.” Adam chugged the last of his drink, settled his tab and led Alexa out the door towards the parking lot. His hand remained on the small of her back, a little for support and a little for his own pleasure. When they reached his car, he leaned her forward, brushed her hair to the side and started kissing her neck. Alexa quickly spun, gingerly maneuvered her hands up his chest before wrapping them around his neck and pulling him into her. They began kissing heatedly, their hands roaming each other’s bodies and he nearly came undone right there.

“Mmm, I guess it’s true what they say about redheads,” he sighed against her neck, picking her up as she wrapped her legs around his waist. “You really are a fiery one!”

“Oh, Adam,” Alexa moaned, kissing him again, “You don’t know the half of it.” Without warning he reeled, his hand fell from her thigh to his side. Alexa placed herself back on the ground as Adam shook his head, his eyes becoming very heavy. A woozy sensation overtook him and he teetered against her, placing his hand on the roof of his car for balance.

“Damn. Is your world spinning too?” he muttered. He was out. Alexa placed his arm around her neck and lugged him over to the van. 

“You down a few shots then pretend to be drunk to get the guy to offer a ride?” Kasper asked as she slid open the side door. “Genius.”

“And that’s why you should never question my methods,” she said, tossing Adam into the back.

“I bow at your feet, oh great Master.”

“Just drive,” she laughed, sliding into the passenger seat.

An unconscious groan escaped through Adam’s lips. His head bobbed into his chest, rolling to the left. A stream of light beamed down in his face, casting a red glow behind his shut eyelids. He moaned. His eyes opened one-by-one slowly adjusting to the mixture of colors surrounding him just as a shadow moved in the corner of the room. Everything suddenly became much brighter with its movement causing him to wince and bring his hand up to shield his eyes.

“You’re awake!” The shadow moved closer, sat down in a chair positioned in front of him before a stranger’s hands tilted his head towards the light. “Your pupils aren’t dilated anymore which is good. It means the little something I slipped in your drink is wearing off.”

“Wha…? Where am I?”

“Safe. For now.” His eyes came into focus and he narrowed in on Alexa’s face with a frown.

“Lana?”

“Guess again.”

“Ok. If your name’s not Lana then who are you?”

“I’d have thought that answer was fairly obvious.” Alexa said, opening the folder sitting on her lap. “Adam McCain; you made your millions developing ‘software-defined security’ applications for banks and financial services before loaning out your talents to various governmental agencies, including those of other countries.” 

“I know who I am. The question was: who are you?”

“Does the name ‘Travis Stark’ ring any bells?” she asked, watching the color drain from his face. “Adam, may I call you that? I mean you’ve had your tongue rammed halfway down my throat so I feel we’re familiar enough to continue on a first name basis, right?” He shrugged and Alexa sat forward in her seat. “Adam, you hired an assassin to take out an up and coming governor in St. Claire claiming that he’d wronged you but that wasn’t true, was it?”

“Wait a second…you’re the hitman?” he asked, finally putting the pieces together. “Wow. You’re a real looker. I never would have guessed that. And here I’ve been looking for a male subject this entire time. How archaic of me!”

She sighed and leaned back against her chair. “I don’t think you fully understood how I conduct business. ‘Total client disclosure.’ You weren’t honest with me, Adam. And because of that, a lot of good people are suffering. But, I’m gonna give you the chance to make it right. Tell me why you targeted the Starks and I’ll consider letting you off with good behavior. If not, you’ll get to see firsthand why I’m the best at what I do.”

“Save your threats. I’ll tell you everything you want to know. But, you have to tell me something in return.”

“What’s that?”

“Who you work for.” Alexa narrowed her eyes a moment and Adam sat up as he elaborated. “I looked you up, or rather I investigated into your ‘Sweet Tooth’ website looking for even the slightest hint of a rabbit hole that I could hop down and follow back to you. There was nothing. And you’re not about to sit here and tell me that some tough-as-nails assassin can outsmart the founder of NovaSoft Networks. My company has a foothold in nearly every major market in the world. No one is invisible from me…except you. Which leads me to believe you’re working with a very technologically advanced organization.”

“Sorry to disappoint you but, I don’t work for anyone, Adam. I’m my own boss.”

“Right. So you’ve been able to fly under the radar this long working for yourself? Who is it? CIA? NSA? Kōanchōsa-chō? Some other off the books Black Ops division that has yet to be named? There has to be someone pulling your strings. Otherwise…you’d be in jail or dead!”

“Again, you’re wrong. I’m in business for myself but, technically I suppose I do work for the people who hire me for a job. Which brings us back around to you,” Alexa replied, sitting up straight. “Alright, Adam, your turn. Why did you want Travis Stark dead?” 

“A deal’s a deal,” he sighed and shifted in his seat. “I didn’t want Stark dead.”

“You hired me to…”

“I know but, I only did it because I was told to.”

“Told to by whom?” she asked, crossing her arms into her chest as she returned to the seat in front of him.

Adam’s smirk returned and he leaned back against his chair. “You really have no idea what’s going on here, do you? Maybe you are a lone player.”

“Enlighten me.”

“Stark was basically wrong place, wrong time. He captured the attention of an organization that essentially deals in ‘creating politicians.’ And since the good old State’s Attorney went sticking his nose where it didn’t belong, he made himself a target. The only reason he wasn’t killed straight out is because the company believed they could use him; turn him for themselves. So, plan A, they tried blackmailing him first.”

“The pictures.”

“I guess you’ve seen them. Pretty raunchy stuff. When that didn’t work, they went with plan B: hire an assassin, one with a particular skill set for asset retention, you know, scaring the living shit out of someone to get them to comply with our demands. But, complication number 2, he or I guess the proper pronoun here being she, went off the reservation. An assassin with morals. I mean…come on. And I’m sure you know the rest from there.”

“Adam,” Alexa sighed, standing and moving closer to his chair. “All this I really already knew. You still haven’t told me the one thing I asked for.” She growled, placing a knife to his throat as he peered into her eyes. He winced, gritting his teeth as the pain seared through his flesh when she pressed the blade harder against him. “WHO is paying for the hit?”

“Frank,” he snarled through clenched teeth. “Frank Delacroix.” 

Alexa backed away, astonished by the name but, not completely surprised. His name had come up a couple of times during Kasper’s routine server checks for many of WET’s Enterprises and subsidiaries. He was a person of interest. And now she knew exactly where he fit in the totem pole. “And I’m sure you have proof? A man like you is bound to keep insurance with your…clientele.”

“Yeah, there’s proof. I keep a record of all my dealings and even have some recorded conversations. It’s all encrypted and saved on various hard drives kept hidden in multiple safe deposit boxes with my bank.”

“Impressive. And what? You’re just willing to share all of this information with me?”

“Of course.” Adam smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes.

“Good. You’ve burned me once, Adam. I can’t make that same mistake with you twice.”

“Oh you have no idea how big of a mistake you’ve already made,” he laughed, building from a small snicker to a boisterous cackle.

“What’s so funny?”

“I have a secret,” he whispered, his grin growing wider. “Up until now I didn’t think it would work. You see it all the time in movies where the bad guy yammers on while the hero stalls for time until his reinforcements come bursting through the door.”

“Am I the ‘bad guy’ in this little scenario of yours?” she asked, feigning outrage.

“You have me tied to a fucking chair in the middle of a dark, musky basement, lady! Who else am I talking about?” he shouted. “You see we’re talking insurances on this and that, well, I have a little insurance on myself, too. Something I’ve been marketing to many of my high profile clients. It serves its purpose in cases of kidnapping and ransom demands. It’s called an RFID chip. Ever hear of it?”

“Enlighten me.” Alexa crossed one leg on top of the other and sat more erect in her seat.

“Well, to put it in its most simplistic form, it’s a tracking device.”

“Oh you mean like what they do to dogs?” Alexa grinned. Her comment chafed Adam but he brushed it off and continued.

“I have one. And it’s only a matter of time before my company tracks my whereabouts to…”

“You mean the one that’s in your right hip—or rather ‘was?’ Guess you didn’t notice because of the numbing agent I used when I retrieved it.” The smirk quickly withered from his face and it was Alexa’s turn to smile. “You keep underestimating me, Adam. I’ve been at this for quite a while. But you’re right. Your company will find your chip, it just won’t lead them here. I sent it with a special note to one of the CEO’s of WET. These ‘reinforcements’ should actually be popping into his office right about…” 

 “Now.”

“As for you,” she said, holding her arms out as she did a small spin. “You recognize this place yet? See, I also did some digging of my own. Turns out, before you got your big break in network security you tried your hand at real estate, developing communities for low-income families. Very charitable work. Except the houses you built were all on substandard and hazardous property; sinkholes, former graveyards, toxic soil…you just built right over it all. You made a lot of people sick with your shady land developments. Quite a few people died; including nine children under the age of 12.” 

“And when time came to blame someone, you had already sold out of the business and moved on to greener, more lucrative pastures. Well, Adam, today the hens have come home to roost.” Alexa bent to retrieve her knife again from her boot, placing it at eye-level for Adam to get a good look. “I know it’s a little apropos; you meeting your end where so many helpless families died but, I’m a sucker for a befitting punishment. And you—you won’t be seeing the outside of this basement ever again.”

“Wait, Lana…ah fuck!” he screamed as she slit two deep gashes across his thighs. “What the hell are you doing? I’ve cooperated fully!”

“I know you have, Adam, which is why we’re done here.” Alexa moved to his side and made equally as large and just as deep incisions into his arms and hands.

“What does that mean? You can’t leave me down here like this! I’ll bleed to death.”

“Oh no, don’t worry, there’s no chance of that. I was sure to miss your major arteries. I only baited the water. I’d rather your death be much more slow and painful.”

“‘Baited the water’? What the hell does that mean?” Adam got his answer when a squeak near the stairs drew his attention to a crate. “What the fuck is that?”

“Your new friends,” Alexa replied, opening the crate to reveal a cage of rats. She unlocked the top to remove one and with slow, deliberate steps, walked it over to Adam’s chair. “Cute little guy right? And I figured since the two of you had so much in common, being vermin and all, you wouldn’t mind sharing a meal.”

“Keep that fucking thing away from me!”

“Aww, don’t be like that. This little fella is just dying to meet you. After all, they’ve not had a decent meal in three days. I wanted them nice and primed for this,” she laughed and sat the large rodent in the man’s lap. Instantly it crawled the length of his chest, stopped on his shoulder and sniffed around his neck. 

“AH FUCK!” he screamed as the animal nibbled on his ear. Alexa moved back over to the crate and opened it for the others to join. “Wait, no, don’t do this, please! AHHHH! Don’t leave me in here with them!”

“It’s ok. I left a little exit for them when they’re done.”

“Lana, fuck, whatever your name is, wait! We can work this out, please!”

“Goodbye, Adam.” Alexa turned out the lights and started up the stairs, leaving Adam bleeding to death in the dark.

“PLEASE! WAIT! LANA! PLEASE!”

“Are you really gonna leave him down there like that?” Kasper asked once Alexa rejoined him in the kitchen.

“Of course I am. I can’t very well let him go. He’s seen my face.”

“No, I mean…the screaming. What if someone hears him?”

“Oh I wouldn’t worry about that. This subdivision has been condemned for the past four years now. No one comes up here. But, if it’ll put your mind at ease, I’ll go and remove his tongue.” She grabbed her knife from the kitchen counter and started towards the door.

“Alexa, wait,” Kasper called for her, noticing movement near the patio doors. “I think someone’s out there.”

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