She squeezed the trigger and felt the force from the bullet leaving the tip of the barrel vibrate from her arm through her body and into the ground below her feet. She let off a dozen more rounds in rapid succession before lowering the weapon and looking down the length to the paper target at the end.
She set the weapon down and removed the goggles before pushing the button to bring the paper toward her.
This is what she did when she had pent up frustration and Lord only knew how much pent up frustration she had dealing with Piero Albano. He was stubborn, pigheaded, arrogant, and well, the list could keep going, but that would be giving him more of her energy than he deserved. She knew he wouldn't be able to resist the temptation to see his son. Part of her understood down to her core what drove him to make that trip across the ocean. What she didn't like, and seemed to be a disturbing pattern forming, was waking up to him gone.
She smiled with satisfaction when she viewed that all her shots were point blank in the center of the head of her target.
She hadn't lost her touch yet. She might have lost a lot of things, but not her touch.
"Have a good night, Flynn." She waved at the man manning the front desk after she showered. The workout before shooting was exactly what she needed to guarantee a deep sound sleep that evening.
"You too, Anna."
That's what most people called her, by her full first name, or by her last name with 'agent' in front of it.
She tossed her items in the truck, got in, and headed home. Should she stop for food? Nah, she had something in there she could whip up.
Then there was Piero fucking Albano. She wasn't sure if he was calling her by a shortened version of her first name, or if he was calling her beautiful in Italian. The former was disrespectful, but he obviously didn't care, and the latter was personal. It was forbidden like a secret love language or something.
She exhaled knowing good and well that her infatuation with the man wasn't healthy and couldn't end well. She couldn't stop thinking about him though. She couldn't stop thinking about the time he took with her body, it was like therapy like worship. As if time was an abstraction when he was bathing her in his ethereal energy.
Moments later she pulled into her garage, and cut the engine lowering the garage door.
Without Piero out to kill her she would soon get back to work. Her life was finally starting to resemble something normal she was settling into her new identity.
Truth was, Anabella Gauge had been dead for a long time. The moment that truly changed the course of her life. The moment she took her life and Elena's life into her own hands was the moment she died. It almost seemed like a bad nightmare now so far removed from it all. She closed her eyes and let her head fall against the headrest. She could still see it clear as if it just happened.
The misty white smoke leaking out the hot tip of the gun's barrel. The shocked look on the man, she called father's, face, the drop of blood that leaked out of the small hole in the center of his head. Him falling first to his knees, then flat on his face and lastly, the pool of blood that formed around him.
Could have been minutes but it felt like hours as she and Elena held hands and watched as the puddle got bigger and bigger until it finally stopped expanding. Still they stood there and watched. She never understood what they were waiting for. Did they think the man would get up again and continue his treachery? Should she have shot him twice just to make sure? Surely no one could live with that much blood gone from their body.
She started when her phone buzzed.
"Gauge."
"It's Bridgette, with Elena."
"Hola, hermana."
Annabella pulled her fingers through her hair and exhaled. It always calmed her to hear the woman's familiar, accented voice.
"Amor. What is it?"
"There's some really interesting information I was able to pull up from the bowels of the internet. Looks like there was a lot of information published on it, but all the article were taken down. We all know, however, that what goes online stays online so I was able to retrieve a lot of it. I'll send the encrypted file to your laptop. It'll be cool to see the real deal up close and personal."
Anabella grimaced. "That would be a problem considering I don't have it anymore. No, I don't want to talk about it. Thanks for the update. I'm sitting in my car right now about to go inside. Anything else for me?"
"Just one thing." Elena said. There was a pause. "How are you doing after everything? Has Piero's threat been neutralized?"
She swallowed. "Yes. He's over in France somewhere about to ruin his son's life."
More silence before her sibling spoke. "You decided to give him the file?"
She exhaled. "I couldn't very well not do it when that's what we set out to do."
"Do you think he would have shown you the same courtesy?"
She shrugged. "I-I don't know. I can't begin to predict what Piero Albano is going to do." That frustrated her. It made her upset that he was in the wind because she wanted him to have stayed with her. "Listen, I got to go. Should i call you later?"
"No need. We'll talk soon. Try to enjoy your freedom."
"I love you. Stay safe."
The other woman laughed. "Alive. I can stay alive."
"That's good enough." She ended the call with a soft smile on her face. How was this her life? How could she have a super criminal for a sibling and be working for a government entity? Seemed like she was on the other side of the law from her sibling, but things were hardly so black and white.
She opened the door and made her way over the door leading into the house.
She paused when the delicious smell of tomato sauce, like the kind of lasagna or spaghetti, wafted up her nose. She tossed her purse on the bench next to the door and toed off her shoes out of habit before she rounded the corner from the back door to the kitchen and froze in place.
"Piero?"
He turned to face her and a smile pulled up the corner of his lips as he examined her. "Bella."
She frowned through the pet name and made her way to the island counter.
"What are you doing here?"
|:|A/N|:|
Yes, sir. What are you doing there? How did you get into her locked house?
Ok, I know I said this was the last chapter in the previous chapter, but I unintentionally misinformed you. The next chapter, however, is the last chapter. I wanted to take my time and get this ending right the way I wanted it... Hope you enjoyed the read!
VOTE/COMMENT/ PRE-ORDER Impossible Rogue my newest launch coming May 5th. Ebook available on Amazon!
Always my best,
ALEX
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Smoke & Gun (+18) (COMPLETE)
Romance|:| She remembered her last interaction with Piero Albano. He was on his knees before her and she pressed the gun against his forehead . He said the words that she dared to repeat. "Well, what are you waiting for?" |:| Piero had plans to kill her b...
