"Aly, wake up."
I groan in response, burying my face in what I assumed to be my pillow. Whatever it was, was pulled from my grasp and the sheet I was wrapped in was unraveled, leaving me facing the cold air of my apartment.
Note to self, don't sleep half naked in the winter.
"Get up."
I crack open one eye, trying to see who is looming overtop of me, but having just woken up on top of being half-blind, everything was blurry.
"F-ck off."
I'm met with a kick to my side and the stranger receives a glare in return.
"Kick me again and you're dead."
I slightly notice the same foot coming for my side again, so I grab their leg, sweeping it out from under them. Trapping them on the floor with my legs on each side of their small body, I place my hand around their neck to keep them still.
"How did you find me?"
"If anyone knows how to find you-"
"It'd be your best friend. Yeah, I get it. Did you not listen to me?"
Letting my eyes slowly adjust, I see green eyes looking right back into me.
"If I was the one who turned you in, would I be here alone? Unarmed?"
I look at my friend with suspicion. Standing up, I pull her with me and start frisking her.
"Whoa, hey!"
"Being cautious."
Patting down her sides, I stand straight up and never waver my stare. Pointing towards her shirt,
"Shirt. Off."
"What?"
"You heard me. Off."
"Aly-"
I groan in annoyance, pulling her shirt halfway off of her body, checking for a wire.
"What the f-ck!"
I pull her shirt back down, flopping back into my couch and turning the tv on.
"I was just looking."
"That's not creepy, Aly."
"Don't flatter yourself, Sheriff. I was checking for a wire."
"Seriously? I told you-"
"Yeah, that you didn't turn me in. So who did? Roy?"
I scoff, shaking my head,
"Roy is harmless. You're the Sheriff. Put yourself in my shoes and tell me who sounds more guilty."
I hear her sigh in defeat as she lifts up my legs and sits on the other end of the couch, placing my legs onto her lap. I turn on the television to let the awkward silence be filled with some form of noise. Sneaking glances at the traitor on my couch, she's the first one to break.
"You know I didn't do it."
I scoff,
"Really? I do?"
"I have never turned on you in our lives, Alyson. Why would I now?"
"Because I'm killing people?"
I snap my head around to glare at her, being met with a broken and glassy-eyed Grace.
"Aly, you're shooting bad people."
"Oh, now you believe that? First I was a murderer, and now I'm a hero?"
"Aly-!"
"No, Grace! Listen to me!"
I scramble up off of the couch, running my hands through my hair and pacing around the back of the couch.
"I trust too easily. You and Roy have been my second family for years and you two are all I have. I got arrested in the middle of the night! There was enough of a case built around me alone for a warrant to bust into my house!"
"Aly, you told me when we were completely alone! You told Roy in a bar."
I stop pacing with my hands caught in my hair, staring at the wall farther in front of me.
"F-ck."
"What?"
"Someone could've heard me."
"I mean, I guess. Is there any other leads?"
I change my glance from the wall, to Grace and then towards the floor as a loud groan escapes the back of my throat.
"You know who did it."
"I have an idea."
"Well?"
"I'm not the only Hitman. Not to mention, I know a lot of people with a lot of grudges."
~*
Pulling up outside of your 'typical family looking home' was not the way I planned on spending my day. Especially with Grace, who, might I add, I still don't completely trust.
"What are we doing here?"
Looking towards the obnoxiously yellow door, a scowl makes its way onto my face.
"I had a hit the second I escaped."
"What does that have to do..."
She trails off, but then screams out,
"No!"
I sigh, nodding,
"Apparently, my father isn't who he says he is."
"I thought you said you know who turned you in. I'm not being an accomplice to murder, Alyson!"
"Grace, calm down. There's a reason we're here and it's not to kill my dad."
"Then what is it?"
I sigh, shutting my car door and climbing out of the now cold car. Leaning against the driver's side door, I stare across the street at my childhood home. The door behind me slams shut and I'm joined by my smaller friend.
"Well?"
"I have a feeling someone is trying to set me up."
"How would you know that?"
"I checked the backgrounds of everyone I've ever shot. Every man or woman had a reason to be put onto my list. But, something doesn't feel right."
"What do you mean?"
"After your husband, every victim didn't seem like the same person that was behind their file."
"Are you thinking someone tampered with it and gave you the false copy?"
"That's exactly what I'm thinking. Someone is framing me, and if I continue just shooting first and asking questions later, things aren't going to end well."
I push off of the car and make my way across the street with Grace on my heels.
"What's your big idea?"
"To say hello?"
Her steps align with mine as we walk up the porch steps and stop in front of the front door.
"I though you said they disowned you."
"Yep, they did."
I knock on the door, waiting.
"Then why-?"
"Why do you think I brought you?"
I look down towards Grace with a smirk,
"They love you, I was hoping it would cancel out their dislike for their own daughter."
"You are unbelievable."
Before I get the chance to retort, the door swings open, revealing an older man with short, greying hair. A sad smile makes its way onto my face and I take in the appearance of the man in front of me.
"Grace Phillips! Well, I'll be dammed."
He pulls my best friend into a hug, causing a giggle to make its way through her throat.
"It's great to see you John, it's been what?"
He pulls away from her to sneak a glance at me.
"Ten years."
Queue the awkwardness.
The man and I continue to just stare at each other for what feels like forever. His, a stare filled with no emotion and no hint as to what he's feeling. Mine, filled with guilt and sadness as to what I've missed the years I've been gone. I'm the first one to break the staring, turning my attention to the wood of the deck as I scratch the back of my neck out of nerves.
"Hey, daddy."
I sneak a glance towards my father to see a ghost of a smile on his face. As I'm about to apologize for everything and nothing, he pulls me into a bone-crushing hug.
"There's my baby girl."
I don't know if it was the warmth of his arms around me or the feeling of finally being somewhere I belonged, but the second he did, I started to sob like the child he once knew. A large hand is placed on my back, rubbing soothing circles to attempt to calm me down.
"You're alright, Alyson. Let it out."
I clear my throat to gain some form of composure as I pull away. Wiping my eyes, I rid all emotion from my features as I look at my father.
"I'm fine, dad."
He looks at me filled with sympathy,
"What's with the visit, pumpkin?"
I look towards Grace, losing all sense of why I'm now standing in front of my father after ten long years. She takes the hint, speaking up for me.
"We're just here to talk, John. Aly told me what happened with everything, so-"
"She's not comfortable around her own family?"
I look up from the very interesting wood of the porch towards my father through my eyelashes, afraid of what he'll say.
"You two can come in. Julia is in the kitchen and Riley is visiting tonight, so you two are welcome to stay for dinner."
I walk inside behind Grace with my anxiety creeping up on me with every word crossing my fathers lips. Grace notices my escalated mood and grabs my hand, pulling my attention away from the carpeted floor and towards our entwined hand. She sends me a soft smile and I send a sad one in return.
"Thanks."
"I know you're uncomfortable, but I'm right here with you, okay?"
Before I have the chance to respond, a loud voice echoes throughout the house,
"John!? Who was at the door?"
My mother walks out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a dish towel, but the second her eyes lift from her task and looks at my unsure face, the towel falls from her grasp.
"What is she doing here?"
I sigh, looking from Grace to the floor, afraid to let any words cross my lips. Grace squeezes my hand in reassurance and speaks up for me.
"Julia, its good to see you."
My mother's expression changes from a glare thrown towards me to a soft smile sent towards my best friend.
"Grace Phillips, it's been years!"
Grace let's go of my hand as my mom pulls her into a hug, leaving me to fend off my anxiety by my lonesome. As she pulls away, she grabs my hand once again, which my mom seems to notice.
"Seems like you two are on good terms, all things considered."
Grace speaks up before I have a chance to defend myself,
"All things considered? Julia, your daughter has always been my best friend. I've supported her through everything, even if I haven't spoken to her for years. I'm proud of my best friend."
I smile at my friends small speech and she does too when she finishes. My mother however, glares at Grace instead of me.
"She got kicked out of the military, Grace, for violence! Not to mention she almost married a woman!"
I choke on air while Grace spins her attention from my mother towards me.
If I'm going to defend myself, now would be the time self.
"It shouldn't matter who I want to date or marry, mom. I am a human being with her own feelings and beliefs, it doesn't matter what you try to shove into my head, at the end of the day it's my decisions that make my life. I can choose to be happy or I can choose to be miserable. I loved her, yeah, and I sure as hell would have married her, but because of you two I don't understand what the hell it means to let someone in."
"Alyson, let's talk in my office."
My father cuts off my mother and I's argument, pulling Grace and I towards the back of the house. Opening the door, we follow my father into his office and quickly occupy the two leather seats in front of his desk. He slowly follow suit, sitting in the chair behind the desk.
"So, what was this visit for ladies?"
"John-"
"Grace, I got this."
Grace and I share a glance, speaking with our eyes. Hers said 'are you sure' while mine simply said, 'shut up and I got this. Maybe.'
"Dad, I'm just going to get to the point."
"This is about the contract isn't it?"
I look at my father, completely appalled.
"What?"
"You think I wouldn't know about money on my head?"
"How do you know that I know about it?"
"Aly, your mother is the reason you're not in touch with us. Your brother, sister and I always want you around and I will always know what's going on in your life. Now, I haven't told you a lot of things, honey. One of them being how I used to spend my nights."
"Dad?"
"Aly, your mother is so upset about you getting dishonorably discharged because her and I met in the military."
"You two?"
"Your mother was a nurse for the Special Forces, I was an ammunition specialist. One bad day, half of my platoon ended up dead and the other half badly injured. I got a bullet straight through my right shoulder and lucky enough, your mother was my nurse."
"That explains why mom works in a hospital, but not exactly why you're an accountant."
"I studied the first few years I was in the military."
"And you know about the hit?"
"I made the hit."
"What?!"
Grace and I exclaim, sharing a panicked glance then staring back at my father like he was insane.
"Why?"
"Partly, because I hoped it would be my daughter. The other part so I could see who is killing people throughout the city."
"Well, dad, sad to say both is me."
"I should've seen that coming."
He leans back in his chair, folding his hands in his lap as he stares at them in thought.
"Dad-"
"Why?"
"What?"
"Why are you shooting people, Aly?"
"It's all I know dad."
"Aly, you know better than shooting people. What happened to caring for people, honey?"
"I stopped caring about other people the second they stopped caring about me."
The room was eerily silent as I announced the large elephant in the room. Shaking my head, I stand up from the chair I was occupying and make my way towards the door to storm out.
"Aly, wait."
I stop with my hand on the doorknob, letting my father say what he needs to say before I'm tired of the whole conversation.
"I know you're being set up."
"Obviously, you made yourself a f-cking target. You set me up."
I swing open the door and stop once again in the threshold as a large hand is clamped onto my shoulder.
"You aren't the only one who got that contract, Alyson. Someone else is going to take that contract and try to fulfill it."
"You should've thought of that before you made yourself a target, father."
"Aly, I know for a fact you're the best Hitman that James has."
I freeze,
He knows my employer?
"But you aren't the only one."
What? But the only other one is..
"You fiancé is setting you up for failure, Alyson."
"Ex. She isn't my fiancé."
"It doesn't matter what she is to you, Aly. What does matter is she is giving you all of the high profile hits so you have the police crawling up your ass and as what I can understand, it's working."
"She wouldn't do that.."
"Why? Because she loves you? Aly, you ran away from her two days before your wedding. Then you took your frustration out on a young man less than a month later."
"So wait, you seriously almost got married!?"
Grace finally put her own sense into our conversation, of course, only taking away the piece of information she cared about.
"That's not the point."
"Not the point?!"
My fathers large hand is replaced by a smaller hands grip on my forearm as I'm pulled around to see a distressed version of my best friend.
"Aly, after everything-"
"She wouldn't do it."
I turn my focus away from the girl I now love to my dad,
"She can't hold that much of a grudge."
"Aly, I checked her background and all of the files the CIA and FBI have on her."
"And?"
"She's not the best person, Alyson. I understand, you had something with her-"
"Something!? Dad I proposed to her and two days before our wedding I found her on our kitchen floor with another woman between her legs! I loved her."
The room once again, becomes completely silent. My father doesn't disturb it, but walks from his place behind Grace towards his desk. Grabbing what looks like a file, he walks back and hands it to me.
"Read it if you don't believe me."
I snag the file from his grasp and turn on my heel, storming out of the room and right out of the house. As my hand grasps the handle of the driver's side door, Grace is yelling behind me.
"Are you just going to leave me!?"
"Get in the car."
I swing open the door, climbing in and slamming it shut behind me. Grace is quick to follow into the passenger side and is quiet as I start the car. Staring out of the windshield, I can't will myself to pull away from the curb and go home.
"Aly?"
I don't waver my stare, but I hum in acknowledgment,
"Who was she?"
I sigh, opening up the file and seeing a profile of my new worse nightmare.
"Someone I once called a friend, then a lover, then my future wife, and now?"
I hand her the file in my lap, shifting the gear in the car and pulling away. Hearing a mixture of a gasp and a scoff in the seat next to me, I take it as her first glance was the picture.
"Lauren McAllister"
~*
Hi.
I know, it took me fifty years to update this story and I can say sorry so so much, but I won't.
Like I said, I was just lazy, but it was also the fact I would get to a certain point in the chapter and lose where I was going with it. I stopped a good fifteen times before I actually figured out where I wanted to go.
Anyway,
Lauren, huh?
What could she want with destroying Aly?
I mean, she was the one who cheated... right?
Next chapter will be quicker, I promise!
Thanks for reading.!