Chapter I

The Lonely Loser

I'm a loser. Or at least  that's what people say about me, whispering into eager ears,  always fearful I might hear something. Had anybody really known  me, they probably would have started shaking like leaves, cold  sweat breaking out on their foreheads and running down from  their armpits.
Because I'm a hitman. I kill  for money and my services are available to anyone willing to put enough cash on the table

A hitman wil take out anybody  if the price is right and if he's good there is never any  shortage of work. A hitman plays by a self imposed code, a set  of fixed rules dictated by his need to survive his assignments  and which he will never break, lest he make himself the target.
The single most important  rule is to stay anonymous, meaning a hitman, more than anything  else, needs a cover and it has to be a good cover if he wants to  stay in the trade. He does not socialize. He has no friends  whatsoever and stays away from his family.
And most important of all, he  does not engage in relationships with the other sex, no matter what. Those are the rules.

If you know your tradecraft,  you stay out of trouble. 
You play by the book and you  play for keeps.
Those are the rules. No  exceptions.

Until you yourself become a  target. That is the moment when everything changes and rules are being overturned, when you have to run for your life, playing  every dirty trick you know and then some. That is the moment  every hitman fears and it was about to come down on me.

The target is right on time.  A middle aged man, eager to get to his office in the Justice Center. He isn't going to break stride for anybody, spitting out  the occasional "no comment", whenever some press guy  throws a question at him. More journalists start to crowd around  him, as he approaches the marble stairs leading to the entrance  of the halls of law. He is slowed down momentarily and I make my  move. Reaching into the pocket of my jacket, I pull out the  small silenced .22 and push into the press crowd. Nobody hears  the muffled reports of the gun, as I fire two rounds into  Justice T. J. Warren.
Always shoot twice. Leave  nothing to fate.

When the judge finally sinks  to the ground and the panic-stricken crowd around him starts to disintegrate, I'm already on the other side of the street,  headed north. I need to make a phone call.

Hank's Bar is my kind of  place. None of the patrons will ever ask you stupid questions  apart from the occasional "how 'ya doin' man" and if  anybody asks them a question, they're likely to throw you out of  the joint. After slitting your throat and bagging your wallet,  that is.

I signal for Hank to dish out  a club soda and a turkey sandwich and walk towards the back. The phone is in a corner, giving you a good view of the whole bar,  while you place your call, which is the reason why I come to  this place and no other.
I punch in the numbers and  when the person on the other end lifts the receiver, I simply  say "It's been delivered".
"You sure about the  address?" whispers the voice of my present employer.
"No doubt about it."
"Then payment will be  arranged as soon as we have official confirmation." The  pompuous prick is acting as if I don't know the game, but I  don't complain. He will pay good money so I will put up with his  being a jerk.
"You know my accounts.  divide it evenly. Unless you have more deliveries, this is our  last conversation." With that I hang up before I have to  listen to more high strung bullshit. My job is done and there's  nothing more to it. If the Johnson wants to shoot the shit, he  can do it with his wife for all I care. It's friday and that  means I won't have to get up for my regular job tomorrow. I'm  going to get me a bottle of Bourbon and sit in the window,  enjoying the warm L.A. night.

"I didn't know you had  some business on the side. How many accounts do you have?"

The voice of a woman rips me  out of my thoughts. I spin around and find myself face to face  with my boss' wife. The wife of the boss of my regular job, that  is. In my "real" life I work in construction as a  simple carpenter, leading a seemingly boring and uneventful  life. The life of a lonely loser.

She has a mocking expression  on her face as if saying "what could a loser like you  possibly put in a bank account, let alone multiple accounts."  I had always thought she was a bitch, but now I know for sure.  She's her to bust my chops and if she starts spilling it to her  husband, I'm likely to loose a good cover, a cover I have been  building up for years. For a moment I think about killing her  right here and now, but it's a bad setup and will expose me even  further. I have to come up with something quickly, have to get  here of my back, cover my tracks.

"I was talking about  e-mail accounts, and yes, I do some business on the side. It's  called e-commerce" I say and my voice sounds hollow and  hoarse to me at the same time.
"E-commerce" she  says with a grin "I sure wasn't aware that you had the  necessary knowledge for this kind of business. Still, one  account should be enough for you to handle your business mail, don't you think"?
"If you're so smart  lady, you should know that if you're sending too much similar  mail from the same account, you get accused of spamming."

I'm starting to get pissed  off now, but also a little curious as to what she's actually  doing in a place like this. Ninety percent off Hank's female  customers are hookers, the other ten various kinds of lowly  criminals, and she sure doesn't belong to the either group.
"What brings you to this  place, Mrs. Delaney? It's not the nicest neighborhood to hang  around."
"I saw you coming in  here and thought I'd just say hello. It seems to be true, what  they say though: you're a jerk." Her expression has  changed, her eyes wary now, watching my every move " What  are you doing in this joint?"
"As you have heard, I  was making a phone call. Other than that, I wanted to enjoy a  sandwich and a soda" I whisper, my face now close to hers  "Are you following me around, Mrs. Delaney?"

All of a sudden she grabs my  shirt and pulls me towards her. I'm so surprised by this move  that I oppose no resistance, as she pulls me down to her and  whispers in my ear: 
"I know that you have  some kind of secret. I don't know what it is, but I'm going to  find out."
Her breath is hot in my ear  now and her voice echoes in my head. "To tell you the  truth, I get a kick out of secrets." With that she slips  out of the corner and walks towards the door. Within seconds she  is gone, leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth and a feeling  of foreboding that I can't shake, however hard I try.

Finally sitting in my window,  I try to enjoy the smoky taste of the Bourbon but the usual easyness of having completed a hit will not come. I'm thinking  about Karen Delaney and her strange appearance at Hank's today.  What is she up to? She doesn't seem to know anything definite,  but her snooping around is enough to at least shake my cover.  But I can't simply take her out without finding out what she  knows. I will have to get some leverage on her, pry out her knowledge and maybe that way I can get to the bottom of this  mess.

As I stare down towards the  hustle and bustle of the street, I hear a knock on the door.  Shoving the gun under the waistband in the back of my jeans, I  slowly approach the door. I don't look through the spy hole,  only idiots in movies do that. In real life, the guy standing  outside is only waiting for the hole to go dark. Then he puts  two rounds in your guts and is on his way.

Standing on one side of the  doorframe, I slowly open the door. Karen Delaney is standing in  the sickly light of the corridor and she looks slightly scared. 
My boss' wife is about forty,  a petite, slender woman with no apparent female curves. She  wears a long black silk skirt, slit almost up to her hips, a  matching grey silk blouse and a leather jacket, but almost no  makeup. while she looked quite stylish, my take on her was  always, that once you got her out of her fancy clothes, you'd  find something skinny with a lot of angles. Although her nose is  a bit too long she's quite pretty with her shoulder length red  hair and a pair of green eyes, that usually are piercing.
But not tonight. Tonight she  has the look of a deer caught in the headlights

"What do you want?"  I ask flatly. This is starting to get frustrating and it's sure  no pleasant way to spend a friday night.
"I wanted to talk to  you" she retorts nervously "are you going to let me  in, or do we have to do the talking in the corridor."
I look at her and I can tell  that coming to this neighborhood has her freaked out quite a bit and the junkies in the stairwell are no nice sight either. I  open the door all the way and motion for her to come in with a  quick jerk of the head.

I point to an armchair. "Have  a seat. You look like you could use a drink." She just nods  and I fix her two fingers of bourbon and hand her the glass.  Then I light a cigarette and draw the smoke deeply into my  lungs. I need to remain balanced, calm. I need to control this  situation and find a way out.

"What exactly is it,  that you want from me Mrs. Delaney? If this is some kind of a  game you're playing with me, you'll find that I'm not into  games" I say as calmly as possible "And I don't like  people nosing around"
The liqour seems to have  brought some colour back to her cheeks, as well as some  confidence. She looks right at me with those green eyes and I  wonder once more what the hell she's up to.
"I told you, secrets  make me curious" she says in a strange voice "and it's  clear to me that you're not who you seem to be. You play dumb  when you are on the job, but as soon as you stamp your time card  you become somebody else. Who are you?"
"You don't want to know,  lady." I reply, looking at her through the smoke "It's  better if you don't go down that road."
"I think you are  somekind of criminal, you know. Don't worry, I won't go to the  police or something like that"
"Don't go down that  road." I repeat. She is beginning to be a threat, I can  feel it from the way my hair stands up on the back of my neck.  But I still don't know what to do with her. I can't take her out  in the apartment and in any case being my boss' wife puts her to  close to me for any investigation to simply overlook me. Gotta  play it safe here.
"You have quite a place  here. Very exciting neighborhood as well." She says it as  if she were on a camping trip

I watch her as she stands up  and takes a few steps to look around the hole I call an  apartment. Then she approaches me, trying to grab my shirt  again, only this time I'm prepared. I grab her throat with one  hand and push her against the wall. To my surprise she doesn't  try to escape nor resist. I bring my face close to hers and  stare hard into those green eyes.
"Back off, Lady." I  rasp "I'm in no mood for games"
"Really" she barely  manages to pronounce. Then, despit the long skirt she starts to  lift up her feet and hooks them around my waist. Slowly she  starts pulling me towards her, while never breaking eye contact.  We remain like this for several long seconds, while I try to  decide what to do with this woman.

"If you try to set me  up, lady, I'll kill you" I finally say. She just closes her  eyes and pulls harder with her feet, her nostrils flaring now.  Then her hands start to tug at my jeans, frantically trying to  open buttons, pulling out my shirt. Her hands finally make it  into my briefs, eagerly grabbing my cock. I feel myself getting  hard despite the situation, despite the danger this woman  represents. Her hands slide up and down my cock now, while she's  still suspended in mid air with my hand holding her throat and  her feet behind my back. Slowly I let go of her and she starts  to slide down the wall.
Kneeling on the dusty  linoleum floor, she puts her mouth to work and when I come hard  and fast, she grabs my ass and shoves my prick down her throat  as far as she can. As I explode, my head spinning, I hear the  gun fall to the floor with a loud thud.

As she stands up, I can see  her eyes sparkling with excitement. Maybe this was what she  wanted all along. Maybe this is all there is to it. And who  knows what advantage I might be able to take from the whole  situation? But I'm wrong.

"I knew you had a gun, I  just knew it." she exclaims, excitment in her voice "maybe  you are a professional killer"
Again I grab her, this time  putting my hands on her hips, turning her to face away from me, pushing her roughly against the wall. She holds both hands to  avoid crashing into the wall, suppressing a gasp. I slowly start  to hike up her skirt, stroking her inner thighs, finding she came to my apartment without underwear. In response she pushes  out her little butt, sighing softly.

When my fingers reach her  ass, it is firm and round, not skinny as I expected. I massage  her buttocks for a moment, then slide my hand slowly down the  crack untill I find her asshole.
She stiffens and I know that  I have just found her weak spot, wondering how best to exploit  it. To reassure her, I move further towards her pussy. She is  completely shaved and her juices are already flowing, her tight  lips hot with anticipation.
I start rubbing her pussy  slowly, my fingers moving up and down her slippery lips and her breathing becomes faster and louder. My fingers are exploring  every part of here pussy lips, slowly at first, then faster and  faster as she starts to moan in response to my moves. She throws her head backwards and moves her legs, trying to spread them  wider.
When my fingers finally part  her now swollen pussy lips to find her clit, she starts to buck  and wriggle. Little cries are coming from deep down in her  throat. She is now begging me to make her come but I have other  plans. Ever so slowly I move my hand upwards, spreading her  juices in her crack. 
Then I move back towards her  pussy to find more juices. I insert one finger into her, then  two, making her twitch. I turn my fingers to find the bump that  characterizes the g-spot and start massaging it gently. At this  point she looses control and virtually starts riding my fingers, trying to make herself come. She is in extasy, almost ready to  come when I slow down and then stop moving altogether.

"Do it now, you bastard,  make me come." she hisses breathlessly but I don't care to  reply.
Instead, I pull my moistened  fingers out of her and place them between her buttocks, slowly moving inwards in search of her asshole. She breathes in sharply  when I insert one finger into her asshole, cramping in fear.
"Don't do that!" 
Again I don't say a word, but  insert the second finger, making her cry in pain. She tries to  get away from the intruding fingers, but I simply grab one of  her slender hips with one hand and hook my two fingers upwards.
"Please, no ... don't do  this, you're hurting me." She is desperate now, begging me  to let go of her. I slowly pull out of her and flip her around,  grabbing her by the throat again, pressing her against the cold,  bare concrete of the apartment wall.

"You shouldn't play  outside your own league, lady. You're likely to loose."
"Please, anything you  want but don't hurt me anymore" Her eyes are pleading with  me, the same look on her face as when she was standing in the  doorway earlier that evening. I don't understand what makes  people takes risks like that, getting themselves into situations  far beyond their control. But maybe there's hope for Karen.  Maybe I can teach her after all.

When I put my hands on her  hips and pull her towards me, she shudders but I can't tell if  it's from renewed excitement or simply from fear. I walk her  slowly over to the mattress lying in a corner and reach over to  the makeshift nightstand to grab the switchblade.

I flick the blade and her  eyes go wide in disbelief. She starts to shake her head, but I  simply hold her by the jacket and three movements later her  blouse is hanging in shreds from her shoulders, only held by the  jacket she is still wearing and here skirt lies on the floor. I  pull down the jacket and she stands naked in the middle of the  room.
She is actually quite a  sight, slender and petite as she is. Her breasts are small, but  for a forty year old woman still quite toned. She looks at me,  judging, trying to find out what I'm up to.

I undress completely while  she watches me and I can tell she's still interested in what I  have to offer. I approach her slowly and put my hands on her  breasts, gently squeezing and massaging. She seems to relax and  I let my hands slide down her stomach towards her pussy. Her  lips are still moist and hot and welcome my exploring fingers. I  rub them slowly, then faster until they part, giving me access  to her clit.
I can hear her breathing fast  now as I take her clit between two fingers and twirl slowly.  After a few minutes she begins to move her hips, matching the  rythm of my hand. With my free hand I lift up her knee to her  chest to give me better access to the inside of her moist lips  All of a sudden I insert two fingers into her pussy, making her  gasp with surprise and lust. Then I put my other hand under her  ass and start to lift her up slowly until my forearm is  horizontal.

She throws her head backwards  and cries out in delight. Then she starts to move back and forth on my hand so fast, that I have to place her with her back  against the wall. My fingers find her g-spot and she moans  louder and louder. She rocks back and forth in a frenzy while my  fingers move faster and faster. Her moans become,shouts, then  screams while her nails dig deep into my shoulders, drawing  blood.

When I feel that she's about  to come, I put her back on the floor and slowly pull out of her. She almost goes out of her mind.
"You bastard, why are  you doing this?" she cries out in frustration. I grab her  by the throat and choke her slightly.
"I told you, you're not  calling the shots around here." I whisper "Don't you  get it, lady? I will do with you whatever pleases me."
I push her down onto the bed  and she looks at me confused and unsure, a lost expression on  her face.
"You came to play, lady,  but you came to my turf and that means you're playing by my  rules. Do you understand that or should I draw you a map. You  want to play by your rules, you better play at home." I  give it to her straight. After a few seconds I ask "You  playing?"

She looks at me in  bewilderment but after a moment something like understanding  shows in her eyes. Unable to speak, she just nods. I take one of  the rags that once were part of here blouse and quickly  blindfold her. Again she wants to protest but I give her no  chance.

Once again I start to massage  her legs, slowly working my way towards her narrow hips until I can see that she relaxes. Then I lower myself onto her and kiss  her breasts, nibbling and sucking at her taut nipples. When I  bite one of her nipples, she arches her back and breathes in  sharply, her body stiffening in response to the pain. She will  yet have to understand how closely related pain and pleasure  are, how the orgasm resembles death itself. Who better than an  agent of death to teach her?

Her breathing accelerates and  when my mouth works its way down her slender body she begins to moan, slowly at first, then louder and louder. I take my time as  I approach her pussy but when she starts to squirm under me in  anticipation, I spread her legs as far as possible and lower my mouth onto her clit.
She cries out when I make  contact, her hips bucking. I start to lick her clit, sometimes  sucking it into my mouth, sometimes biting. She is making  guttural sounds now, her head thrashing from side to side. Her  pussy is moving up and down my face at a crazy rythm and her  juices are everywhere, flowing abundantly. I let go of her legs  and use both hands to pull her pussy lips apart and stick my  tongue into her as far as possible. She starts to scream like a  madwoman, twisting and bucking, all the while I tongue-fuck her.

When I feel she's about to  come, I move my tongue to her clit again, licking fast now. Her  hips match my rythm and between shouts and screams she begs me  not to stop this time. My face seems to be completely covered by  her slippery, shaven pussy, moving up and down at impossible  speed.
Then she comes, trembling at  first, then shaking, pulling my head into her pussy with all her strength. She erupts like a volcano, squirting liquid in my  face, bucking and shuddering, screaming, begging me now to stop,  telling me she can't handle it anymore. I slow down a little but  keep going, and although she is begging for mercy, she comes two  more times.

"Oh my god, what did you  do to me? What was that?" She asks me, after tearing of the  blindfold but I don't answer. This is not the time for talking.

Instead I position myself  between her legs, holding my cock with one hand. I start to move  my shaft up and down her pussy lips. She tries to stop me but  after one look at my stony face, she lies back down. I keep my  movements at a steady rythm until I see her close her eyes and  relax. Then I pick up the pace, spreading her lips with my  fingers, teasing her clit with the tip of my penis. All of a  sudden she pushes my hands away and spreads her pussy lips  herself, pulling hard, wanting them to open as wide as possible.
She looks at me,  understanding now and I smile for the first time. Now she  inserts three fingers of each hand into her pussy and pulls it  wide open, arching her hips upwards so far, they almost meet my  face. When I insert my tongue into her gaping hole, she screams  at me like crazy.

"Fuck me! Fuck me now!  Take me anyway you want!" Her face is a mask of lust and  desperation, her eyes misty, staring at the ceiling.

I grab her hips and pull her  down and towards me, while her fingers are still stretching her pussy. With one movement I ram my cock into her. She has the  tight pussy of a little girl and although she is incredibly wet,  she can take only a couple of inches of my shaft.
She grabs my hips and pulls  me towards her, wanting me to invade her flesh completely. I  pull out almost all the way, then plunge forward as hard as I  can. With every thrust of my hips I enter her deeper until I can  feel the tip of my cock bang against her uterus, but still she  is pulling me to her. I grab her hips forcefully and pound her  until I can feel her inside giving way, allowing my shaft to  enter up to the hilt.
She arches her back and opens  her mouth wide but no sound is coming from her throat. I pull  back again, resting the tip of my cock against her entrance for  a moment, then I push back into her with all my might and this  time she screams with renewed pain and pleasure. Everytime I ram  my cock into her, she screams and as I start to move faster her  wailing becomes continuous. She starts rubbing her clit while i  pull her pussy lips apart with my fingers.

She comes fast, abruptly,  like a geyser, forcing me to withdraw from her as her liquids  spurt from her pussy in hot bursts. This time I don't give her  time to settle down. I flip her over onto her stomach and lift  her hips up. But she doesn't protest when the tip of my cock  touches her pussy lips again. Instead she thrusts backwards and  impales herself on my rod. Now I start to fuck her in earnest,  ramming into her like I was posessed and she meets each of my  movments, pushing her small ass backwards with all her power.
After several minutes I start  to slow my pace and in the end pull out completely. Her ass is quivering and her inner thighs are covered with liquids, her  shaven, glistening pussy shining between her legs.
She is beautiful.

I insert two fingers into her  wet pussy, then three. She starts to move again, moaning,  begging for more. Slowly I push in all five fingers, then I push  forward.
"Oh my god, yes! rip me  apart!" She has lost all inhibition, asking me to do to her  whatever I want.

I push my hand slowly into  her pussy until I can go no further, then curl my fingers and  ram my fist deep into her. She makes a gurgling noise as I pull  back, but when I start to move forward, she is already rocking  towards me, hard and fast. I fist her as fast as I can and she  takes it willingly, screaming with lust and madness, her juices  flowing down my forearm. She moves with lightning speed,  desperately wanting to go over the edge, thrashing her head from  side to side.
Then, as her pussy begins to  tighten, clamping down on my hand, I slowly lift myself up and place the tip of my cock at the entrance of her already  lubricated asshole.

She stiffens for a second but  then she starts moving again, looking at me over her shoulder.  Her eyes are glassy but she smiles.

"Yes, do it! Fuck my ass  now." She writhes and starts to rub her clit. Putting her  head on the mattress she is now using both hands to finger  herself, while I slowly force my way into her glory hole. I can  see the pain showing on her face but she is more than willing to  take it.
Slowly her asshole stretches  to welcome my shaft and she relaxes. The pain is gone from her  face leaving only pure lust to destort her features. Her mouth  is wide open but no sound is coming from it. Here eyes have the  faraway look of a junkie after a fix.

Gradually, I increase the  speed of my strokes until I move easily inside her cute little  butt. She meets each thrust with equal force now, addicted to  the power of pure lust. We grind each other like animals,  fighting for the painful release of the climax.
There is no love in what we  do, it is the nature of the beast breaking free finally, taking  over rational thinking. Karen has learned her lesson.

As I ram my cock into her  faster and faster, filling both her holes now, she reaches  backwards with her hands and pulls her cheeks apart as far as  she can. She wants me to pound her harder, wants to intensify  the lust and pain.
I increase my efforts and my  sweat is running down my stomach into her crack. In a blur we  fuck each other furiously, without quarters. My cock is swelling  now, beyond it's normal size, anticipating the explosion. She  feels my pumping cock getting bigger still in her ass and yells at me to come into her asshole and to finish her off. I start  pumping harder and harder, moving my fist in her pussy, pulling  her hips towards me. Now I am shouting as well, telling her to come.

When I finally shoot my load  into her it feels like molten lead. I thrust into her as deeply  as possible, both of us wanting more. She screams for what seems  like minutes, shuddering and twisting, her pussy squeezing my  hand like a vice. As I pull my hand out of her burning pussy her liquids spill all over the bed and she collapses onto the soaked  sheets with my cock still up her ass.

I sit in the window again,  sipping my whisky. The gun is in the back of my jeans, where  it's supposed to be. Outside the night is void of sounds, the  predators resting now, gathering strength before they leave  their hiding holes again in search for prey. I am calm now,  confident that my cover is not threatened anymore. Karen knows  now that she would never survive in the kind of jungle I move  in.

I look at her. She is lying  on the mattres, sprawled like a murder victim, stil unconscious
She has stepped over  boundaries, broken her self-imposed rules.
She didn't play by the book.
She became a target instead  of targeting somebody else.

When she finally comes around  again, she has the lost eyes of a child. She is a mess, her  dried juices and my semen all over her legs. I throw her a towel  and tell her to shower. When she steps out of the tiny bathroom,  the towel wrapped around her, I hand her a glass of whisky.

"What's it gonna be,  lady?" I ask her without any preambles.
"What do you mean?"
"Are you stil interested  in secrets?"
She looks into her drink for  several seconds, the slowly shakes her head. When she finally  looks up at me, there is something new in her eyes, something  that hadn't been there before.
"I could still go to the  police. Tell them you raped me." But this time her voice  holds no challenge, she is only stating a fact.
"You could do that"  I reply "but I wouldn't recommend it. Do you see the black  box in that corner, near the ceiling?" Her gaze follows my  outstretched arm and when it sinks in, her eyes widen in  disbelief.
"The camera is still  running, just so you know it. You have been a fool, coming here,  trying to play me. You make one false move, lady, and I'll use  the tape."

She sits very still now,  weighing the facts in her mind. Then she stands up and walks  toward me.
"Do you have some  clothes that I could borrow? Some crazy pervert tore mine to  pieces."
I start laughing for the  first time today. This woman could actually be useful to me in  many ways.
I will have to find a way to  control her, make her my willing tool, to be used by me, and by  me only.
I open my jeans and motion  for her to come closer. When she is just inches away from me, I  rip off the towel and grab a fistfull of her hair. She stands  very still, her arms at her side, not daring to make a wrong  move. 
Slowly I bring her head down towards my waiting cock.