Oakley POV
"He said it's around this area," I said, leaning my head forwards as I twisted the car around the corner. Olivia and I had been driving for nearly an hour and a half trying to find the damn shooting range. No luck yet.
"Maybe he was lying," Olivia said in the seat beside me, applying scarlet red lipstick in the mirror attached to the sun visor.
Driving into a neighborhood, I move slowly past the people of NYC, each person walking to a destination of their own. My eyes scan every building we pass, each coffee shop, and each grocery store until Olivia called my name.
"Oakley, look," She said. I turned my gaze to where she was pointing across the street. In front of what looked like an abandoned small building, with newspapers and posters covering the windows and door, a bullseye target stood on the window.
"Do you think that's a coincidence?" She asked, turning back to me.
Spinning my head to look in the rear window to make sure the road was clear I answered back, "I guess we'll just have to find out, won't we?" I whipped the car to the right across the street as soon as the opportunity revealed itself. It beats driving around the street again.
I parked beside one of the cars in front of the building with the bullseye poster and unbuckled my seat belt.
Turning to the backseat was a blanket that laid over the duffle bag full of guns. I kept it covered just in case we got pulled over or something unexpected happened to the car. Can't have nosey people looking in and seeing a bag that size and start suspecting anything of us.
I pulled it off and unzipped the bag, whiffing in the pleasing metallic scent of the guns that I fell in love with. Pulling out two small submachine guns, I passed one to Olivia and she took it out of my hand.
"Okay bitch, you ready?" I asked Olivia.
She snorted, "Is that even a question? They took your parents from you. I'm down with whatever you decide to do, no matter how insane it is. Forever." She held out her hand, her pinky sticking out.
I looked down at it, "Forever." I said, hooking my pinky with hers. We brought our hands up and kissed our connected hands. It was a form of friendship we created several months ago, as a way of promising we'll always be there for each other. Forever.
Not everyone gets to find a best friend that's the same as you, or even crazier, in their lifetime. And since I found her, she isn't going anywhere, she's stuck for life.
"Let's go then." We both lifted our hands to the ski masks rolled up at our foreheads and pulled them down so that only our eyes and lips were visible.
I put the gun in the black leather leggings that I had changed into before we left and put my shirt over it to hide it. Olivia did the same before exiting the car.
Getting out of the car, I walked around it to meet Olivia standing in front of the building.
I felt a small flutter in my stomach before pushing the door open. For nearly my entire life I've been preparing for a moment like this. And now it's real.
From above, the chiming tunes of bells ranged, indicating our arrival. My eyes scanned the small box area, my wedged boots clicking on the wooden floor below. There was a reception desk in the front and to the side was, sure enough, a window, showing the room of a shooting range. Inside the lights were dim not a soul in sight.
"Guess this is the place after all," Olivia said as we approached the desk.
It all seemed that way, yet I couldn't help but feel like something was off. "Yeah, maybe."
I looked down and pressed the bell, a ding sounding through the room as a result. Seconds later I hear a faint buzzing sound, but not like a bee flying around my ear, but something mechanical.
I lift my eyes to the ceiling, and in the corner is a moving camera, a red dot on it flicking on and off.
Instantly I shot my head away from it, and put my hand on Olivia's arm, "There's a camera in the back corner of the room, make sure not to look at it." I mumbled and she nodded her head.
A door opens from behind the desk and coming through it is a fairly older woman, probably in her late forties. The roots of her hair were highlighted with grays, and the corner of her eyes was beginning to wrinkle.
"Good afternoon to you young ladies." She greeted us, "The shooting range is closed today, you may come back Friday–"
"We're not here for the shooting range, we're here in search of someone," I said. "Do you know anyone by the name of Val?"
I studied her body, which I had seen harden at the question. Her eyes averted from mine and Livs as she fumbled with some papers to try and hide that observation.
But on one of the papers in bold letters at the top read: SALVO INN. And if I wasn't sure this was the right spot then, I am positive it is now.
"No, sorry I haven't," She said with a soft smile.
"Well then, do you by any chance sell the gun this bullet comes from?" I took my necklace from around my neck and showed her the bullet and the writing on it.
She shook her head after glancing at it, "No, not at all." I was surprised at how well she could lie directly to my face.
I looked at Olivia for a moment before she began speaking, "Well, I'm sure you can look through that computer of yours and find out if someone around the name Val ever came to this place before. Preferably in the past ten years." Olivia spoke.
"Oh, erm... It's against privacy rules to disclose any personal information about our customers to strangers."
I sighed, it never works doing things the easy way does it? People always seem to push it toward doing things the hard way. I lifted my shirt and pulled my gun from my waistline. I spun around, aiming the gun at the camera, and sent a shot towards it, leaving it smoking and sparking in the corner.
"Okay," I said spinning back around to the lady who was frozen to the ground, "Now that we're alone, and you know we aren't fucking joking, I advise that you cough up the information that I know you have."
She leaned in, putting her hand on the desk to whisper towards us, "You both don't understand the trouble it'll cause me if I give you what you want."
"Would you rather be in trouble... or dead?" Olivia asked, "Because I think I'd choose the first option."
"All I hear is the same options, dear," She said.
I rolled my eyes, bending down to my boots where I pulled out a switchblade from inside my sock. Always carry one around, you never know when it will come in use. I leaned back up and flicked it open, slamming the blade clean through the lady's hand on the desk and pinning it to the wooden desk.
A searing scream left her mouth as blood crept up from around the blade. "Jesus help me! Okay!" She wailed in pain, "Val used to work here, ten years ago, she quit for a reason that I don't know, that's all I know."
"You must know where she's staying or used to stay," I said. "So tell me."
"I don't," She said, her bottom jaw shivering as if she was cold.
I pressed my lips together and before I could do anything Olivia reached over and twisted the knife in the woman's hand. I smirk and raise an eyebrow at the woman, "What was that again?"
"She lives in queens!" She answered, her words straining to exit her throat as tears began to flood her eyes. If she wasn't the only thing getting in my way from finding a piece of information about my parents' murderers, then I would have felt a little remorse.
That's the thing, ever since my parents' death, it's left me numb. I try to have one-night stands or drink until I blackout, to try and feel something, but nothing has helped subside the numbness that it left in me.
"The last house in the neighborhood that's named Sunnyside. I don't know if she still lives there, it's been a decade but please, just believe me, that's all I know."
"Your cooperation is greatly appreciated," I said before turning round to walk out the door, sliding the gun back in my leggings and under my shirt.
"Oakley, aren't you gonna get the knife?" I heard Olivia ask behind me.
I had almost forgotten I had stabbed the woman's hand in the first place if I'm being truthful. I shrugged, "Take it out if you want." I said, turning back around to exit the store. I scanned the streets around me and everything looked as usual and got inside the car.
Olivia got in a few moments after me and I drove off as soon as she shut the door. She held onto the blade layered with blood, "You actually took it back?" I asked with a laugh.
"Well duh, you didn't wear any gloves. They could've traced it back to you."
Olivia always seemed to be using her brain more than me in situations like this. This is why I pretty much always need her with me. If I dig a hole too deep, Olivia will be there with a ladder on the top, ready to help me climb out.
"You're right, like usual," I said. "The woman said the last house in Sunnyside Queens, and if we're lucky, the bitch still lives there."
"Remember, no shooting until–"
"Until after we get more information," I finished her sentence, "I got it."
***
When we arrived at the last house in the neighborhood, the sun was beginning to set, casting a bright orange tint over the city.
"This is it?" Olivia asked. "It looks like shit."
I looked out the window as I parked the car. It was a plain house that looked like every other house on the street. But this one was overgrown and the fence around it was in bad shape.
"A shit house for a shit person," I said before opening the car door and walking towards the porch.
When we got to the door I tried the handle. Locked. Sighing, I took out my gun and stepped back, pointing it towards the lock, and fired into it until the handle popped off.
The door creaked open slightly and I began to open it.
"Oakley, be careful," she said following behind me. I nodded at her.
I don't know what I had expected when I opened the door, maybe a woman who was scared to see two people with guns entering her house, or an empty house altogether.
But when my eyes locked onto her, Val, sitting on a barstool, leaning against her kitchen counter, my heart took over.
Everything flooded back, all the memories from that night which were slowly starting to fade over the last decade. It was all like it happened yesterday.
The woman's bright red hair was still prominent, twisted into a low bun. She raised a glass of wine to her lips as she turned her head to us. On the counter lay a gun of her own.
She smiled at me, "Welcome, Oakley, I was informed you'd be... visiting me."
[A/N]
Well hello there Val, haven't seen you in ages hehe. Doesn't it seem like everything is ... too easy for them though? hmm.
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