The Scarred Assassin || COMPLETE ✔️||

Chapter 9

"Come on, we've only been doing this for ten minutes," Cadenza exclaims, "You can't be tired already!"

The room is filled with the sounds of heavy breathing and Cadenza enthusiastically motivating us. We've been doing push-ups for the past ten minutes, and before that we still did pull-ups. My arms are starting to ache, but I continue.

"You call that a proper push-up Carter?"

Carter grunts in response and reluctantly continues. My arms are about to give out, when Cadenza finally tells us to stop. Thank God, my tongue feels like sandpaper and my mouth is dryer than a desert. We take a five minute water break before moving onto hand-to-hand combat. We all have to partner up and engage in some friendly combat, before switching to someone else. Cadenza partners up with Liam first, and that leaves me with Carter.

I shift into a defensive position and Carter does the same, before we start circling each other. Carter makes the first move. He springs forward, fist aimed at my jaw. I sidestep his attack and punch his side. I aim a kick towards him, but he grabs my foot before it can touch him, and pulls me towards him, causing me to lose my balance. I don't remain on the ground for long. I quickly jump up and tackle him causing him to fall to the ground.

I try to throw a good punch, but he keeps on moving his face. He elbows me in the stomach. I quickly jump up before he can throw me off. As soon as he stands up, I punch the side of his face, making him stumble to the side. He doesn't remain stunned for long, because before I can land another hit on him, he kicks me to the ground. My body thuds as it hits the ground, and it's like all my energy just evaporates. I just lay there, and Carter leans over me, with a smirk on his face.

"You're lucky," I state, while I try to catch my breath, "I was going easy on you."

Carter laughs at this and extends his hand to help me up. I take it and Carter pulls me up onto my feet.

"Good fight West." he says. I notice that his face is already starting to bruise. At least I threw a good punch there.

"You're not too bad yourself, Jones." I chuckle. We walk over to the other side of the room where Liam and Cadenza were fighting. Liam, like me, is laying on the floor, exhausted and defeated. Cadenza is proudly standing next to him.

"... And that's what you get for calling me weak," she states, "Now let's switch!"

I lean over Liam.

"Ready to get your ass kicked for the second time today?" I ask.

He groans in response.

---

I'm on duty with Cadenza tonight, and right now I'm positioned outside, next to Miss Hart's balcony door and Cadenza is positioned next to her bedroom door. I'm half hidden in the shadows, overlooking the pool and the garden. There is no sign of movement, and the silence is deafening.

Thankfully, I'm armed. I was given a small pistol, "just in case anything happens." It felt so good to finally be in possession of a weapon. Now I just have to stand here and make sure there are no intruders. I'm used to the waiting though, sometimes I would spend an entire day, just camped out on a rooftop, waiting and observing. My eyes dart back and forth, keeping a watchful eye out for any sort of movement. The light coming through the balcony door disappears, leaving me in complete darkness, while the moonlight casts a shadow of the house over the yard, the only light shining through the branches of trees.

The sound of leaves rustling on my left grabs my attention. I glance over, expecting to be greeted by a pair of glowing eyes, watching me, observing my every move, but instead I'm greeted by a light breeze. I shift back into position, standing as still as a statue, and focus on my surroundings.

About three hours into my shift, the sound of a twig snapping fills the air. It's coming from my right. I glance over, and see nothing. Perhaps it was just a cat, but as I'm about to turn around, I hear it again. The sound of a twig snapping. I concentrate and look for the source of the sound again. Completely hidden in the shadows, Carter slowly stalks along the perimeter of the yard, creeping closer the hedge. Once he gets to one of the secluded and dark corners of the yard he stops. I can barely see him now, he's too far away, but I can still hear him. Does he know how loud he is? If he's trying to be sneaky, then he's failing miserably. He would make a terrible assassin, I guess that's why he's a bodyguard.

I'm still keeping a close eye on him, but he's just standing there, waiting. After about ten more minutes, he shows the first sign of movement. He looks around, before he casually starts to whistle, and unless I'm hearing things, I hear another whistle echoing through the still night. I stiffen. He's meeting with someone. Is this person a threat? Am I supposed to do something? Carter's a grown man, he can look after himself.

I hear the sound of leaves crunching and more twigs cracking, except this time it's coming from the other side of the hedge. The sounds continue until it suddenly stops. I'm able to hear some incoherent mumbles, but I can't interpret any of them. Carter's voice becomes louder, as he's growing more frustrated by the second. More mumbling. Carter's body tenses, before he sighs.

One thing is for sure, I have no idea what was being said, but whatever it was, made Carter very frustrated. All I could hear was incoherent mumbles, that I couldn't interpret. Carter turns towards the house, a cold look on his face. I don't need strain my ears to hear what he says next, before he stomps back to the house.

"According to you," his brow furrows, "I'm nothing but a disappointment, I always have been, and always will be," he pauses, "So don't get your hopes up."