The Assassin and the Girl From the Coffee Shop Read online

  The Assassin

  And The Girl From The

  Coffee Shop

  by

  Terry Towers

  The Assassin And The Girl From The Coffee Shop

  Copyright 2012 by Terry Towers

  Cover by: Terry Towers

  All rights reserved. With the exception of brief quotes used for critical reviews and articles no part of this book may be used or reproduced without the written permission of the author Terry Towers. Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. Terry Towers can be contacted via her website at www.elixaeverett.com

  Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via internet or other means, electronic or print without the authors permission. Criminal copyright infringement without monetary gain is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. (http://www.fbi.gov.ipr/). Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors imagination and used fictitiously.

  The material in this book is intended for ages 18+ it may contain adult subject matter including explicit sexual content, profanity, drug use and violence.

  Chapter 1

  While replacing the milk bag in the milk machine, Lily's heart filled with dread. She was one of the two women at the coffee shop working the overnight shift and from what she could gather from her co-worker, who was currently in a heated argument on the telephone with her husband, she may be the only one for the remainder of the night. It wouldn't have been so bad if the dining room were closed, the front doors locked and it was only the drive-thru window open, but that wasn't the case. Any lunatic could stroll on in.

  The sound of sobbing came from the kitchen and Lily sighed.

  "Fine, you son-of-a-bitch!" Her co-worker screamed into the phone between sobs before slamming the receiver down. Lily was tempted to go out back and into the kitchen to check on Angie, but what could she say? Was it any of her business? Really? Lily was fairly new at the coffee shop and was just getting to know Angie, so she simply didn't feel comfortable consoling her when she had no idea what was going on.

  There was a rustling of clothing, which Lily knew to be the sound of Angie throwing on her jacket. Damn it.

  Several minutes went by before Angie, who had already removed her headset, brown visor and hairnet emerged from the kitchen, her dark eyes swollen and puffy from crying.

  Lily opened her mouth to say something, anything, but was at a loss so snapped it shut again and waited for her co-worker to tell her she was leaving.

  "I've gotta go home," Angie raised a hand, as though to silence any rebuttal Lily may make. "But I'll be back; give me an hour, tops. I swear I won't be long."

  Giving the middle-aged dark-haired woman a weak smile, Lily nodded. "Take all the time you need. I'll be fine." She took a deep breath in and exhaled. "Honest. I'll be fine. The baker will be here in a couple of hours. I'm sure I can handle the one or two cabbies that come though until then."

  Angie strode over to Lily and pulled her into a quick embrace. "Oh, thank you Lily, I owe you one." She sniffed as she released the surprised Lily and rushed to the front door. "Less than an hour I promise," Angie yelled over her shoulder as she pushed open the door of the coffee shop and rushed out into the parking lot.

  Lily watched through the plate glass window that spanned the front of the restaurant as Angie scurried across the parking lot heading towards her older model Ford Focus. As she watched Angie leave, she removed her visor and hairnet. If she was going to work alone then she'd be damned if she was going to keep that horrid visor on her head.

  Once the visor and hairnet were off she shook out her long golden blonde silken hair, before resettling the headset atop her head. She then undid the restrictive top two buttons of her matching brown uniform shirt and breathed a sigh of relief; she might be alone but at least now she now felt comfortable.

  Taking one more look into the parking lot to satisfy herself that there were no potential customers heading her way, she rushed to the kitchen, into the large walk-in cooler and grabbed several stacks of cream cheese so she could top up the supplies in the front breakfast counter, for the morning bagels.

  With her stacks of cream cheese in her arms she scampered across the kitchen and back out to the front of the store. She made it to the breakfast counter just as a customer strolled in the front entrance.

  Normally she'd have been annoyed at the disturbance considering she now had the work of two people to accomplish before morning by herself, but she took one look at the sexy man strolling across the dining room towards the front counter and decided to make an exception.

  He was tall - perhaps six foot or so - with short close-cut brown hair, broad shoulders, and a lean torso. His eyes were a dark seductive shade of green and his features, hard and chiselled. If she had to wager a guess she'd say he was twenty-eight, close to ten years her senior. He was - without a doubt - the hottest man she'd ever seen and she found her pulse begin to race as she looked him over.

  "Now what did you do to be stuck working the graveyard shift?" he asked as he approached the front counter and flashed a sinfully sexy smile at her.

  Lily could feel her face flush slightly as she shrugged. "Just lucky I guess." Depositing the cream cheese on the breakfast counter she made her way over to the register, to take his order. "What can I get for you?"

  He clucked his tongue against the roof of his mouth as his eyes surveyed the short menu.

  Lily groaned inwardly, hot or not, she hated customers like him. She had work to do, and standing there waiting for him to decide all he wanted was a coffee was a waste of her time. She needed this job, so everything had to be perfect when the day shift arrived in the morning otherwise it was her ass they’d be after. They wouldn't give a rat’s ass that Angie had abandoned her partway through the shift.

  "I guess I'll just have a large coffee, black." He nodded, pleased with his selection and shifted his eyes to meet hers.

  Lily felt a shiver run down her spine as his eyes locked onto hers which immediately ignited a pulsing between her legs. After the span of several beats she broke eye contact and set to work on his coffee as he leaned over, rested his elbows on the counter, laced his fingers in front of him and watched her intently.

  "Have you worked here long?"

  Setting the coffee pot back onto the burner she snapped the plastic cover onto the paper cup and passed it to him. "A couple of months."

  Straightening up he reached into the front pocket of his jeans and pulled out a handful of change. As he sorted through the various coins, a quarter slipped from his fingers and he bent to retrieve it.

  At the same moment that he bent over, something warm and fast whizzed by Lily's face, grazing her cheek and seconds later the glass door of the microwave behind her imploded.

  Mouth agape, Lily jumped at the sound of the microwave's glass door shattering, not even paying any notice to the wound across her cheek. Her eyes whipped back to the front of the store to see a small hole in the glass, which was now cracked, but had yet to actually break.

  "Get down!"

  Everything seemed to happen so fast. Lily had no idea what was happening, but briefly glimpsed the customer as he leapt over the counter towards her with the grace and speed of a panther, and tackled her to the floor.

  She grunted as sh
e hit the ceramic floor - hard, with his large, heavy frame covering her tiny one. The sound of glass shattering came from the front of the store, followed by a light thumping sound as something embedded itself in the wall above the back counter.

  "Come on!" The man was already off her and onto his feet, crouching behind the counter.

  As her eyes focused on him, they immediately noticed the gun he now held in his hand. She gasped and attempted to stand to run.

  "Holy fuck woman, do you want to die? Stay down and follow me," he ordered in a hushed, but firm tone.

  Lily gulped down the lump which was rapidly forming in her throat and nodded. Her heart was racing so quickly, she could actually feel it throbbing within her chest.

  Standing, the customer fired the pistol several times out into the parking lot, each shot felt like a major explosion in her ears leaving her head reeling from the unexpected sound. Reaching down, he grabbed her hand and pulled the dazed and confused Lily to her feet and into the back kitchen with him.

  "Wh…what's going on?" Slightly disoriented, she started to walk towards the doorway which led to the front of the store, but he grasped her forearm tightly, jerking her back to him. He grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around so she was facing him.

  "We don't have much time, so you need to listen to me." His voice was eerily calm, as though whatever was going on was an everyday occurrence to him.

  Lily nodded, but her eyes seemed to want to look back out into the dining room.

  He gave her a light shake and she snapped her eyes back to meet his. "Do you have a car?"

  Lily nodded. "It's out back. Why? What's…?"

  "Good. Give me the keys. Hurry up."

  She hesitated for a moment and then rushed over to her purse sitting on the small round plastic staff table. Digging into her black handbag, she produced the keys to her ancient Dodge Neon and deposited them into his outstretched hand.

  He gave her a friendly smile, which just slightly helped calm her frazzled nerves. "Okay, you need to listen carefully."

  Lily nodded.

  "There are some very bad men out there and they're going to come in here after us, so we need to leave. Now!"

  Lily shook her head and took a step back from him. "No, I can't leave. Who are you? What's going on?" So many questions were racing through her head that she was having a difficult time thinking clearly. Was she in shock? She gave her head a slight shake trying to clear the fuzziness.

  "I'll explain later, come on." He gave her hand a tug, but she remained rooted to the spot.

  "Are you a cop or something?" He certainly didn't look like a cop, but that didn't mean he wasn't one.

  He ran a nervous hand through his dark hair, gave her a lopsided grin and nodded. "Or something. Come on." He gave her hand another tug, but again she remained where she was.

  "What does that mean, or something?"

  The man huffed and rolled his eyes at her. "Listen, maybe I didn't make myself clear a moment ago. We need to go now... if we don't then those bad men will come in here and kill you and me."

  When she didn't respond. He shrugged. "Suit yourself." Dropping her hand from his he raced toward the back door his three quarter length black leather jacket flapping out behind him as he ran.

  Panic overtook Lily. As scared as she was to go with the sexy stranger, she was even more terrified that he might be telling the truth. "Wait!" she cried out as she ran after him just as he was exiting through the back door.

  By the time she was out into the cool night air, her customer was already at the Neon. Panic gripped her. "Wait!" she screamed to him, bursting into a sprint and heading for him and her little car.

  His head snapped over to her direction, but then proceeded to unlock the car and hop in. She made it to the passenger side and was opening the door as the car roared to life.

  "Hurry." he urged, shifting the car into gear.

  She slipped in and hadn't even gotten the door shut behind her when the car tires squealed and they sped out onto the road. The sudden forward jolt succeeded in shutting the door for her. She ran a shaky hand through her long hair as she watched the stranger from the corner of her eye weave her little car in and out of traffic as though he was a racing car driver and her Neon a Ferrari.

  Why had she gotten into the car with him? She groaned inwardly. She didn't even know the man. For all she knew he was the bad guy. She'd just ask him to drive her home. Simple, right? She'd ask him nicely to take her home. Hell, she'd drop him off anywhere he wanted and just drive herself home, and then she'd have a much needed sleep and everything would make sense in the morning.

  She took a couple of deep breaths in and released them slowly. Once she was certain her nerves had settled sufficiently for her to speak coherently, she focused her full attention on him.

  "So is there someplace I can drop you off?"

  He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and shot her a grin. "Nah, that's okay. I have it under control."

  What did he mean by that? She chewed at her lower lip for a moment before trying again. "Well, I think that I should be going home so I think that dropping you somewhere would be the best idea." When he didn't respond she added, "I won't tell anyone, not the police, not anyone. I promise."

  He chuckled, turned his head and locked gazes with her, his forest green eyes on her sapphire blue ones. "You can't go home. Sorry."

  Lily's frown deepened. "What? Why? I have to go home. I demand you take me home. This is my car, my rules."

  His chuckling stopped and he shook his head. "Sorry. Can't happen. Not right now, anyway."

  She tried to remain calm, but a bad feeling washed over her. Was she a hostage? Was he kidnapping her? She took another deep breath in then exhaled loudly. And even more importantly, why in hell was he so calm? If he could be believed and they were running for their lives; she would have thought he'd be showing a little bit of panic in his demeanour.

  "Who are you?" It was a fair enough question as far as she was concerned; he could at least give her a straight answer on that.

  Slowing the car, the customer turned off the highway and onto a road Lily was not familiar with, though considering how frazzled her nerves were and the fact that it was the middle of the night, she doubted she'd have known their location even if she'd been on that road dozens of times before.

  "Oh, I'm so terribly sorry. That was so rude of me, just with being shot at and then escaping in a Dodge Neon, no offence, but not my first choice of a getaway vehicle…" When she huffed at him, he glanced over at her and shrugged with a slight smile touching his lips, "It slipped my mind." He extended his hand to her, while keeping his eyes glued to the two lane road they were traveling down. "I'm Scott."

  When Lily hesitated in taking his offered hand, he took his eyes off the road long enough to read her nametag. "Ahhh, Lily. That's a beautiful name. My grandmother's name was Lily."

  Her brow furrowed as she looked over at him in disbelief. Talk about a Jekyll and Hyde attitude change. Maybe he's psychotic?Oh-my-God, that must be it and I'm stuck in a car with him! She took his hand briefly and then snatched hers from his grip equally as quickly, though not quickly enough to avoid the warm sensation that flowed through her at his touch. She growled at herself for feeling attraction towards someone who was - quite possibly - mentally unstable.

  "Well Scott, who are you really? And why were people shooting at you?"

  Chapter 2

  Scott took another glance at the young woman sitting in the passenger seat and sighed. It was unfortunate that she was being pulled into the madness of his life. It certainly wasn't his intention, but... as the saying goes, ‘shit happens’.

  What was he going to do with her? He had no idea. What did he want to do with her? He snickered at the thought; even in that hideous uniform she was a stunning woman. Her long blonde hair begged him to reach over and stroke it. Her bright blue eyes were the type that a man could lose himself looking into and her figure was nothing short of
amazing; a nice little hourglass figure in compact form.

  "Who are you really?" she pressed when Scott didn't respond straight away.

  "I'm a freelancer," he shot her a smile that usually melted the ladies. To his dismay, it didn't with her. "Of sorts."

  "Of sorts?" she raised a sceptical brow at him. "What kind of freelancer carries a gun and gets shot at in coffee shops?"

  Damn. He didn't want to scare her by telling her the truth, but considering she might be with him for a while, he didn't see that he had much choice. "Well. I sort of..." Again, he shot her his patented Scott Redding ‘guaranteed to make women melt’ smile and again she seemed unimpressed. "I sort of... kill people for a living." When her mouth dropped open, he held his hand up signalling her to hear him out. "But only really bad people."

  "You kill people?"

  "Bad people. I kill really bad people." he felt the need to emphasise that point.

  "So you work for the government?"

  Scott couldn't control the bout of laughter that overtook him as Lily watched him in shock and disbelief. Once the amusement of her question wore off he shot her another smile. "Not for a few years. Fuck politics and fuck the politicians. Working for the government is so dishonest."

  Lily's frown deepened and she shook her head. "You're kidding right? This has to be some sort of joke. This has to be. I want to go home, take me home, Scott!" Her eyes narrowed at him, "If that's even your real name."

  He shot her an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, I can't take you home."

  She remained silent next to him, as he turned the car off the road they'd been traveling and onto an even more secluded gravel road. Thick forest lined both sides of the road and the only light was the dim glow of the car’s headlights.

  The silence lasted all of five minutes before she started up again.

  "Stop the car Scott. I want out! Stop the car," she demanded. Whatever fear and disbelief that had held her captive since the beginning of the fiasco seemed to lose its grip of her and be replaced by anger.