• 𝐃𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲 •

• 2 •

valerie

"Clean the guns, and take the light over it to make sure no fingerprints were left behind."

"Milli's blue light? You know she doesn't like it when anybody touches her shit," Jadyn rose a brow at me, opening Milli's drawer and taking out the light. "I don't want shit falling down on me when she snaps."

Again, hung in the air.

"She'll be fine. She won't even notice," I rolled my eyes, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

We were sharing two beds amongst us four in an extended stay hotel, hittin' licks here and there and saving up so that we could at least buy ourselves an apartment. Crime is all any of me and my niggas have known. Houston born and raised: me, Milli, Pey, and Jadyn. We all went to high school together, but our friendships didn't start until sometime after we graduated. The idea to make money this way had always been engrained in the backs of our minds though. Failed success lead each of us to this lifestyle.

"No prints. Milli did good," Jadyn nodded approvingly. Jadyn was the more maturest out of all of us. The levelheaded stud who probably would get somewhere before any of us thought about it. Brown skin, scar on her leg, an undercut that gave way to dark brown locs she loved to pile into a bun, and a few tats. She handled the planning and tying together our money resources for any mission we needed to pursue. You'd look at us four, and think that Jadyn ran shit, and in a lot of ways she did.

But she didn't.

Two quick knocks on the door and I had my gun out while she went to peek through the hole. "Just Pey," she nodded at me, and I put my gun away.

"I come with rations," Pey grinned, her locs swinging, an intricate design at her scalp, as she sat down breakfast on the counter. The hotel had a small kitchen area, almost a dorm set up the way that me and Jadyn's room faced Milli and Pey's room across the space of the sitting area.

"Muffins and waffles and bacon and eggs from downstairs," she looked through what she brought, listing everything out. "Only coffee, and I know it gives you gas, Val..."

I shot Pey a look, "It also doesn't work on me."

"Thought you was Milli," Jadyn said, locking the door behind Pey. Peytyn was a plus sized and muscular stud, with a smooth voice, short, beautiful tattoos, deep brown eyes, and darker skin. She was the unofficial 'gentlewoman' of our group, and handled the moving of any bodies that weren't conscious or serving as our 'bodyguard'.

"Nahh. I don't know where she went. I just know she has the car," Pey shrugged.

"Dig in," I nodded to Jadyn and Pey. "I'll go look for her. She's been gone too long."

"You needa eat, Val. You don't even be...you know, eating much nowadays," Pey said carefully.

"I'm fine," I said firmly, going back into me and Jadyn's room.

"You need to keep your strength up," Jadyn reminded me from the kitchen area. I closed the door so I didn't have to hear anymore of their 'advice'.

One knock on our bedroom door as I slid out of my shorts and put on a black tee. It kind of got hard to get the blood out of the white ones, heh.

"I'll come with you. She's probably just getting some alone time again. You went in on her," someone said, stepping in.

"Because the job was to slit the man's throat, not chop him up into pieces. We coulda lost hard cash behind that- clients are specific," I turned to look back at Jadyn, my expression cold, "She doesn't know when to stop. She can't control."

"She needs support not anger," she said softly. "You know how it feels to...lose control."

"Having an eating issue and seeing red are two different things, Jadyn. She's a fucking psychopath at this point."

"Our psychopath," Jadyn reminded me, like I could forget.

"If you know what she needs, go find her then," I glared.

"Nobody's questioning you, Val. Only your mind frame," Jadyn added after a moment, a rare hint of sarcasm in her voice as she left the room and shut my door.

Emilia, or Milli as we called her, was our wild child. Tan skin, wild wavy hair, Puerto Rican and Black, all abs, and our beloved mental atrocity. She liked things in the way that she liked them, and she handled the torturing and any incriminating evidence, along with the job of keeping our identities as secret as possible whenever we committed a crime.

I finished putting on my clothes, the black tee and black cotton shorts combo, allowing for some of the tats across my golden-brown skin to peek out, sliding on my silver rings, and plopping a plain black bucket hat over my braids, done with only my natural hair. I was exactly five feet, eight inches of pure sexiness, but my dark brown eyes openly admitted to all the pain I've been through. All of the trauma. I think that made me different...I never bothered to hide my flaws. Or my pain.

"Don't pay no mind to Jadyn's bluntness. I can go with you to look for Milli if you want. Take some breakfast on the road," Pey stuck her head in after a moment.

"Not hungry," I mumbled, focusing on placing my weapons neatly into the little case I carried, called Victory.

"Val..."

"It's not like before," I insisted, making sure my back was fully turned to her.

Maybe I did hide my pain, a little bit.

"You said that the last time, then you screwed up the night before your two-year anniversary and relapsed; you were crying at the edge of the tub," Pey stepped into the room. "I don't want that for you again, Valerie."

I crossed my arms across my chest, trying to ignore what Pey said. "C'mon. We'll have to walk since Milli took the car." Peytyn sighed.

"And Jadyn says we can't waste anymore money on buying rides!" the person in question called out from the kitchen.

"Tell Jadyn to shove it," Pey said back as Jadyn flipped her the bird from the kitchen.

I made sure I had everything I needed and Pey and I left the hotel room. We were on our way to the elevators when Milli got off right in front of us.

"We were about to unleash the hounds on you," Pey joked, "You good?"

"Yeah," Milli didn't meet my eyes.

She got off the elevator, standing in front of me like she was still in trouble. And maybe it felt that way for her. She hung her head low, and I lifted it up gently. "Come here, Milli."

We hugged, and I pulled back first.

"I won't do it again," she said solemnly, looking away again.

"It's ight. Yeen my child. Stop apologizin'," I gave her a little shove. "Pey and Jadyn are going out to collect the money from our client. Big estate near River Oaks. Me and you get to go over the evidence again back here- never can be too particular," I smiled.

"Ian gon let the team down again. I promise," Milli stared into my eyes.

"Just act on it. Don't give me no words, Mill."

What do you think about the assassins?
Who's your favorite out of the four?
Do you think Milli will let them down again?
What's your take on Val?