GUNPOINT | 2

12.| The Evening Stranger

Keith leans his elbow out the window while his hand occupied itself with rubbing his chin. It wasn't until before the light turned green that he caught them scanning him and Natalia.

He slowly averts his gaze from the green light to them just as the driver gives them a smirk. Keith slowly gases the car, sending him and Natalia off to a head start of the following Mercedes. Just before they reached the next red light Keith looks in his rearview mirror suspiciously.

"Does something seem off?"

"Maybe.", Natalia responds as she takes another peek at the approaching Mercedes, "Although off wouldn't be the right word...suspicious sounds more accurate."

Keith looks at them annoyed.

"You guys got a problem?", Keith sternly asks; switching his gaze from the driver and passenger hoping this was all fake.

"Maybe...I see your healing quite quickly", the driver says in a Russian accent as he alternated his gaze from Keith to Natalia before the light turned green, "Fine necklace you've got there Miss Petrova, seems to be custom made too."

"See you grew out your mustache", Natalia snaps back, obviously recognizing him from her past mission; a few weeks ago, "Doesn't really fit you, Dean."

With an evil grin, Dean rubs his mustache before Keith gases the Jaguar dodging Dean's attempted impact. 

"You know him too?!", Keith asks shocked with a hint of fear between his words.

"He's gone.", Natalia whispers to herself the moment she looked back.

"How would you know him?!"

She spins around and jerks the wheel, turning it slowly to the left just as Keith begins to push the brake down leaving a trail of smoke behind the peeled out tires.

"Pay attention to the road, Hercules!"

"The heck...he's gone again?!", Keith mumbles in surprise when the road before them remained completely barren.

He gases the car, quickly speeding after the Mercedes he noticed had taken a left while he was distracted by the attempted accident.

"What would you exactly mean by again?"

"I asked you first.", Keith says concentrating on the road.

"Well, fine tiger", she mumbles before answering his question, "He was one of the recent missions Arthur had assigned me to do. Arthur said Dean was one of your missions a while ago but you weren't able to kill him so...it obviously was passed down to me. Now your turn!"

"Whoa whoa, no need to waste your energy for an answer, save the energy for tonight.", he says with a grin before Natalia sighs with a slight pink blush darkening across her cheeks while rubbing her temples with her eyes shut.

"Just answer the question Keith."

"Well, mood pooper, take a wild guess who's the Evening Stranger."

"Dean?!", she asks surprised with her eyes wide open.

"Yup", Keith says, emphasizing the p at the end.

"Well, what happened?!", Natalia asks eagerly after Keith remained silent.

"Using up your energy again?"

"Stop it with the talk about tonight. Nothing's happening, just explain the story with Dean. I need more info about this jerk."

Keith rolls his eyes before gassing the car slowly reaching 5000 rpm, passing Dean while maintaining  the front position.

"The Evening Stranger-or as you know him-Dean was some terrorist who helped some other big dog, transport kids, women, people, military weapons and all sorts of illegal things from Russia and Italy to America. We came to the conclusion that he must be a part of a bigger Mafia gang so Dad wasn't planning on sending me there all alone since getting involved with the Mafia is one of the worst decisions. But, after Dean began capturing, murdering and torturing innocent American citizens and agents, I was obviously sent."

"Soooo how were you captured?"

"How...The place was in a desert location and Mum didn't agree with my plan so rampaging in with a squad of guns blazing got us all caught. Every agent caught was killed on sight except me."

"Why?", Natalia asked curiously.

"Something about that someone needs me...but they never showed up. They tortured me for obvious reasons. At first it was brass knuckles then spear spiked brass knuckles hourly but I continued to refuse to tell them who sent me and what I was doing there. It got bad when Dean came in and asked who you were and I refused to cooperate. I was rescued the next morning so...", Keith ended with a shrug.

Natalia looks at him blankly unsure of how to respond before Keith takes a sharp right turn leading Dean away from Carson's house; which he thankfully wasn't aware of.