Aiden shot Charlie a look of warning then raised his hands in defeat. “I give up,” he shouted. “I'm done with you and your shit, Charlie.”
“Are you for real? Seriously?” She asked.
“Of course I’m for real!” Aiden shouted. He scraped the dining chair across the tiles as he stood. “I can’t fucking cope anymore. One minute you’re all loved up and the next, you’re accusing me of fucking the bitch across the road! What the fuck goes on in your head, Charlie?”
"Look at you, acting like the innocent party in all of this. I know what I saw. How long? How fucking long?”
“You saw nothing because there was nothing to see. It’s all up here.” Aiden tapped his temple as he spun on his heel. “I'm going out.”
Slamming her hands on the kitchen table, Charlie pushed herself out of her chair and grabbed his arm, forcing him to turn to her.
“You know what? I don’t need you or your fucking judgements and I definitely don't need you playing the fucking victim, as always."
Aiden shook her hand off his arm and walked to the door. He had to get out of the house before it was too late.
“If you walk out of that door, you’re never getting back through it!”
“Fine,” he said, as he opened the backdoor. He didn’t look back as he walked through Charlie’s garden. He didn’t need to. He knew exactly where the guy was crouching, trying to keep himself out of sight. It might have worked if it hadn't been for the cat that had set next door's floodlight off. Aiden had walked past the window, caught sight of the shadow that shouldn’t have been there and had known instantly - the contract had been passed to someone else.
Reaching the end of the garden, Aiden opened the single door that led into the garage. He started Charlie's car and made sure to slam the driver's door shut, before making his way back to the garage door. Careful to stay in the shadow of the garage, he waited for the man to make his move. They had run through this scenario more times than he could count, since the day he had told her what he was. Charlie, at first, had been uneasy with having him around and he couldn’t blame her. Nobody in their right mind would feel safe with someone who had said they had planned to kill them. It had taken almost a fortnight but eventually, she had begun to trust him, at least a little.
The moon peeked out from behind a cloud, illuminating the garden slightly. Aiden smirked in the darkness; his new mark was complacent. The upstairs bathroom suddenly lit up, causing Aiden's smirk to become a smile. Whoever the man in the garden was, would think Charlie was alone and in the bathroom and eventually, he would make his way into the house. Aiden didn’t have to wait for long to be proven right.
He watched the unknown man make his way to the backdoor, keeping himself low as he crept. The door opened a slither, then stopped before opening wide enough for him to slide in. He was small-framed, dressed in black and Aiden caught a glint of something metal, tucked into the back of the man’s trousers. A rumble began to build as his wolf growled a warning and Aiden fought the urge to run full pelt, into the house.
She’s safe, he promised the beast.
Aiden crept out of the garage, silently, and across the garden, pausing briefly as he reached the door to the kitchen, listening for any unnecessary sound. Hearing none, he slipped through the door and went straight for the stairs, his feet making no sound at all as he inched his way to the second floor of the house. He could hear his rabbit scuffling around in the master bedroom and Aiden shook his head slightly. Little rabbit, you have a lot to learn about your profession, he thought as he scooched mindlessly into the bedroom.
It only took a moment for Aiden to make it across the room to the built-in wardrobe where the man was standing and at the last step, Aiden allowed his feet to scuff the carpet. The man had no chance at all as he spun around at the same time as reaching for the knife at the back of his waistband. Knocking the knife to the floor, Aiden wrapped his arm around the man’s neck and placed his free hand on the opposite side of his head.
“Nobody but me gets near my mate,” Aiden told him, twisting his neck sharply. Letting the body fall to the floor, Aiden cracked his knuckles before searching through the man's pockets. He was looking for identification but all he found was a photograph of Charlie with her name written on the back.
“You bastard. You fucking knew all along where she was.”
There’s no time for that now…
The beast was right. Scooping the lifeless body into his arms, Aiden carried it to the kitchen then dumped it on the floor. Cleaning up wasn’t his speciality and something he rarely did, but he couldn’t leave a dead man in Charlie’s house. She was worrying enough as it was, without finding a dead hitman in her bedroom and the police swarming the place.
She’s probably going out of her mind right now…
Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he pulled up Charlie’s number and hit the call button. “I’ll be there soon. I’m just clearing the dinner things away.” Hanging up the phone, Aiden searched the house for something he could use.
“Perfect,” he said, finding a large suitcase.
A short while later, Aiden was parked on the deserted beach a few miles away from Charlie’s house, watching a naked, corpse drift out into the darkness of the sea.
Rafael…
Aiden nodded at the voice of his wolf as he turned back to the car. Killing off the contractors was a quick fix but he had to go directly to the source.