It was supposed to be an easy job for the Saints. A simple in and out. Whack some of the local mobsters, and get the hell out of that house. They had just finished saying the prayer and placing the coins over the men's eyes when Conner heard the noise. It was a low strangled noise that sounded similar to a cry of anguish.
Conner was the taller of the two boys, and most likely the older twin, but they would never be quite sure. Many people who knew the boys assumed that Conner was the older of the two. Conner looked at Murphy and knew he had heard it too. His eyes were searching the room to find the source and finally stopped on a hallway to the left. Murphy looked at his brother and nodded his head in the direction of the hallway. Murphy was only slightly shorter than his twin and seemed to be the "out-there" one of the two.
They looked at their Da and then looked in the direction of the continuing noise. He simply shrugged. Their Da seemed content to let them finish the job and check out the noise, he was already walking away.
"If its another one o' them guys, finish it up quickly." And then Da was gone. The boys looked at each other and followed the sound.
"What ya think it is?" Murphy questioned keeping his gun held up in case it really was another mobster as they crept down the hallway. It lead to a dead end with only one door.
"Fuck, if I knew would we be lookin'?" Conner opened a door that seemed to lead to some kind of basement. The boys both raised eyebrows and then looked back at the stairs. The sound was getting louder and it was starting to sound more like a voice, correction, voices. There was one person that was most defiantly crying from the sound echoing off the walls as they crept down the stairs and there was another voice yelling, but not in English.
They reached the bottom of the stairs which lead to one loan door. It was a large metal door and looked like it was made to be a safe from its general layout. They could clearly hear the voices on the other side of the door.
"Italian." Both Conner and Murphy said at the same time. They listened longer now that they knew what language it was.
"Maria, stop crying this instant. If those men come back and you are crying you will have shamed the whole family, and I will not have that." Said one female voice, the other voice was also female and seemed to be the source of the crying.
Conner turned to Murphy; they pulled their masks off their faces revealing their faces. Both boys had piercing blue eyes but Connor's hair took more after their father's and was a light brown, with Murphy's hair following their mother and was nearly black. Murphy ran his hand through his hair.
"Well what we supose' to do?" Murphy mumbled in Gaelic.
Conner didn't even answer his brother and undid the deadbolt if the giant door. Using all the strength Conner had left he pulled the door from its frame to reveal a dimly lit room. Murphy swept into the room before Conner to asses the situation. A lone light bulb swung back and forth to reveal two figures tied down to chairs.
The first was a woman with long brown hair that waved past her mid back. She had deep brown eyes and her skin was so tan it almost looked black. She was wearing a dark blue dress that was torn on her arms and seemed to have been bunched up around her thighs over time. It was a simple dress, something that more traditional Italian women wear. There was a smaller girl sitting next to her and the cries were coming from her.
The smaller girl had lighter brown hair that was in lose ringlets, her skin was slightly lighter. It was impossible to tell what color her eyes were closed as she cried. She was wearing more modern clothes that consisted of a knee length pleated skirt and a V-neck white shirt, or what looked like it should have been white. It was more torn than the other girl's clothing and was cover in what appeared to be blood, dirty and some kind of other substance that looked like it might have been shoe polish.
It was visible that the girls had been beaten and cut up and the strain of their wrists on the rope clearly showed some bleeding. The boys looked at each other in shock. Smecker had not mentioned anything about kidnapped people or any body else that would be in the house. On instinct the boys had put their masks back on before they opened the door, just in case the people in the room had been a danger to them.
"Christ!" Conner breathed.
The taller girl looked up at them and began to yell in Italian.
"Who in the name of Saint Mary are you guys?" she seethed.
"Your Saints," Conner responded simply picking up the chair not bothering to untie the girl. Murphy pulled the smaller girl off the chair and picked her up wedding style.
"Show off," Murphy mumbled at his brother in Gaelic.
"This one is tied more securely than that one." Conner snapped and proceeded to carry the girl up the stairs, but hell if she was going quietly.
"Where are you taking me and my sister you pig?" The girl in Conner's arms, he had shattered the chair on the stairs and now simply carried her, yelled in Italian.
"Out of this place before all hell brakes lose," Conner responded in Italian.
"You speak Italian?"
"Yes, no be quite. Or I will leave you here." Conner snapped and the girl shut up. He looked over his shoulder to see his see his brother cradling the crying girl who seemed to be mumbling something that no one understood.
"Who are you anyway?" Conner asked the girl in his arms.
"My name is Serena Venizia and that is my sister Maria." She made a head motion towards the girl in Murphy's arms.
"Fuck!" Conner said in English verbalizing his frustration.
"What?" Murphy said quietly, he seemed afraid to disturb the girl in his arms who had just nodded off to sleep. The boys were not surprised that she was asleep; it appeared that she had been crying for hours.
"These are the Venizia sisters," Conner pulled keys out of his pocket that he had lifted from one of the mobsters and started trying to unlock different cars. Finally finding a car that the keys opened, he pushed the girl in his arms, Serena, into the back seat. She was still asking questions in Italian but he had chosen to ignore her.
"Jesus! These girls are considered missin'. World wide search for 'em an' everythin'." Murphy unlike his brother seemed worried to put the girl in his arms, Maria, down and eventually opened the passenger seat of the car with his foot.
Conner got into the driver seat and peeled out of the drive way just in time to hear the sirens rounding the corner of the block. They would need to dump the car as soon as they got the girls somewhere. But the question was where? They had two girls who were currently the objects of the largest world wide missing persons search, but neither of the boys remembered why these two were important.
"So much for this bein' an easy job." Murphy mumbled under his breath as the car took a sharp turn speeding quickly toward the Irish district of Boston.
Smecker just starred at the brothers. He pointed quickly at Conner then changed his mind, pointed at Murphy, opened and closed his mouth a few times before starting to pace back and forth.
"Look, we ar' sorry." Murphy finally mumbled. The three were currently standing in a back aley near the hospital because it would be odd if they were seen together. Especially now that Smecker was the one feeding the MacManus brothers and their dad the names of the local "evil men", while he was still assigned to the saints case. Which made for some interesting investigative work, mostly Smecker "misplacing" any evidence that he found that could lead the FBI to the MacManus's.
"Sorry? Sorry? Is that all you have got MacManus?" Smecker bellowed. "I gave you the fucking simplest job in the world! And what happens? Not only do half the bodies not match the profile because you forget they are in different parts of the house, but you bring in two unconscious girls twenty four hours later. And all you have to say for your selves is, 'We ar' sorry'? Unbelievable!" Smecker had no reached into his own little word and was not really paying that much attention to brother who were now making angry faces at each other in attempt to blame the other for what happened, but not talk. Conner finally got tired of it and slugged Murphy in the arm.
"Stop that!" Smecker yelled at the two. The brothers stopped but when Smecker turned around Murphy punched Conner in the arm and then stepped out of his reach. "How did you even manage to waste twenty four hours before turning the girls in?"
"Well…" Started Conner, but Smecker interrupted.
"Let me guess." Smecker began. "You two were the ones that took the car…..
(Flash back style with Smecker narrating)
"You stole the car that is easy to tell but finding where you dropped it was a bit more difficult." Conner turned the corner and became to pull into their old neighborhood. It was late at night and no one was going to be out on the streets in this part of town so they might be safe, for a while at least.
"Where the fuck are ye gonin' Con'?" Murphy was gripping the side of the door because moving around had already briefly woken the crying girl and she seemed to be crying harder for a few minutes. Her sister was still screaming loudly at both of them.
"Where are you pigs taking us?" Serena yelled from her position in the back seat on her side. He head hit the door as Conner took a sharp turn.
"The ole apartment." Conner yelled over the now screaming Serena. Her sister seemed to fall asleep again or at least pass out when they took another sharp turn. Murphy's curiosities lead him to lift her head and push her hair back to see if she was asleep or passed out.
"Get your filthy hands off my sister you Collenge," Serena yelled in Italian.
"Wha' she jus' call me?" Murphy motioned with his free hand toward Serena. It seemed that Maria was passed out this time, or at least the level of unconsciousness would suggest that she passed out.
"Fuck if I know." Conner pulled up in front of the building and turned the car off.
"Remind me why we're here exactly?" Murphy wasn't budging just yet, but Conner seemed to want out of that car fast than necessary.
"Cuz, we left the mattress and spare clothes when we moved. We can use that stuff right abou' now. And it means these two don't get to see our real place of livin'." Conner swung Serena over his shoulder fireman style. Murphy opened the passenger door with his right hand and then kicked the door open still carrying the sleeping girl. "I don't got a plan as to what to do with them jus' yet." Conner swiftly climbed the stairs skipping every other step and paying no mind to the fact he was carrying a girl over his shoulder. Murphy was close behind skipping three steps; we always did over do things.
(Present)
"What I can't figure out is how you two got those extra injuries, and the one girl ended up with a concussion, that if the doctors are correct she got some time last night, which would be when she was still with you two." Smecker was livid.
"Ye see, we thought they were both asleep after a while." Murphy started.
"The older one had finally shut up and we had even gotten some water and beer in her." Conner continued.
"Beer?" Smecker raised and eyebrow at the brothers.
"It was all we had left at the old apartment." Murphy shrugged. Smecker just shook his head, sometimes he forgot who he was dealing with.
"We untied the little one first, she had been out cold for a few hours and didn't seem to e that much of a danger. But the older girl was screaming most of the time." Conner was fumbling to find his cigarettes.
(Flash back)
"Do you think it's safe to untie the big one yet?" Murphy was trying his best to drink the beer with his mask still on.
"Take your mask off ye fucking idiot!" Conner had ripped his mask off a while ago, but Murphy seemed to think he needed it on. "She's asleep just like 'er sister! 'course ye can untie 'er."
Murphy ripped his mask off and grabbed his knife. He sauntered over to the sleeping girls. The smaller girl was curled in a ball on the old mattress; he had cut her out of the ropes and duct tape as soon has they had gotten into the apartment. But the older sister seemed to scream at them for hours before she had finally given up and let them try and get her something to drink. She had quieted down and now appeared to be asleep. No sooner had Murphy sliced the bonds on her hands and feet than she suddenly sprang up and punched Murphy in the face.
"Fuck!" Conner, being the faster thinker of the two, grabbed a chair and smashed it the girl's head from behind. She fell over instantly unconscious.
"Crazy fuck punched me in the face!" Murphy was pinching his nose as blood slowly trickled down his face. He groaned mentally knowing that any blood either of them spilt had to be cleaned or they had to put ammonia on it.
"Cheer up Murph. I'm sure the ladies will still flock to ye, even with a messed up nose." Conner patted his brothers back as he laughed.
"Fuck you Conner! At least I didn't get the shit kicked out of me by a lesbian, just surprise attacked." Murphy pushed Conner away roughly. Conner punched Murphy's arm. And the normal wrestlings match between the two ensued.
(Present)
"Well that would explain the bloody nose Murphy has and the bump on her head. But this does present a problem, she has seen Murphy's ugly mug." Conner coughed trying not to laugh. Smecker turned and looked at him. "You have no room for laughing Conner, the younger sister got a look at you from what I can tell. She was conscious when you brought her in." Conner stopped coughing abruptly and became rather solemn.
As a joke Conner had made Murphy carry the unconscious bigger sister to the hospital today while he grabbed the smaller one, and she had woken up while he was carrying her into the hospital and looked at him for a good long minute before the detectives Greenly, Duffy and Dolly took over the girl's care.
"The one thing I am still not sure about is why it took you two so long? Why didn't you just bring the girls in after that?" Smecker looked at the MacManus brothers. The two looked at each other and then shrugged at the same time.
"It was Friday night." Conner offered like that explained everything.
"Meaning?" Smecker raised and eyebrow.
"We went te the pub." Murphy lit a cigarette and blew a puff of smoke off to his side. Smecker simply rolled his eyes. Some times he forgot who he was dealing with. These two along with their father was excellent hit-men and did their job to a very professional level. But they were still in their early 30's and seemed to keep up the Irish tradition with a new level of drunkenness. But out of every time he had seen the two get drunk and come in the next morning, they rarely had hang over and on the rare occasion he caught them drunk they were never really as drunk as they should be for the alcohol level's they tested for.
"Look, next time bring any witnesses in as soon as you knock them out. And I mean that, we can't have random people walking around Boston knowing what the two of you look like. So for the next few weeks unless you are scouting for a job or working I do not want the two of you walking around town together." Smecker instructed.
"What about Church?" Conner voiced what both brothers had been thinking.
"Church, you can go together. But when you go out at night or whatever it is you two do to kill time do separately." Both of the MacManus brothers groaned. "At least until we know exactly when these two girls are going and exactly how much they remember. Until then I don't want you walking around together."
"But they are not even out of the hospital." Murphy complained. "How they gonna see us if they're still in the hospital?" Murphy dropped his finished cigarette and crushed it with his foot.
"Murphy, just do what I tell you for once." Smecker ran his hand through his hair, these two were going to kill him one of these days with all the complications. "I have your new assignment, so spend some time working that out. Greenly will contact you when we have more information about the whereabouts of your new target, but till then try and keep a low profile and say hi to your dad for me," Smecker handed the boys an envelope with information about their new hit and other specifics that might help. "I will see you two in a week." And then Smecker turned around and headed back toward the hospital. The brothers started to look through the file.
"Aw, it's another Russian Mafioso." Murphy grumbled a bit.
"Aye, didn't we kill this guy's boss last month?" Conner flipped through the pages and looked to see that they had in fact gotten rid of the boss about a month ago.
"Wait, Smecker said in two weeks…"Murphy didn't finish because he appeared to be thinking.
"And?" Conner now was looking at the police records that their new target had.
"It's Saint Patty's Day in two weeks." Murphy pulled one of the papers out from his brother's hand to look at the picture of the target.
"Ah, Fuck! That's not fair. It also the two year anniversary of when this whole thing started." Conner pulled the piece of paper back and whacked Murphy in the face with it. "Look, I need some thin' to eat." Conner started to walk further down the alley and Murphy jogged to catch up.
The next day the boys were back in the room with their Da. They were going over the information about the mobster and his habits. They were also planning who was going to tail the guy for the next week or so when the phone rang.
"Aye?" Conner answered the phone.
"Where have you two been today?" Smecker yelled into the phone. Conner pulled the phone away from his ear and held it at arm's length.
"We been in the room with Da looking over the new mark, why?" Conner spoke into the phone.
"Fuck!" Smecker yelled into the phone. Now all three MacManus's were gathered around the phone listening. Even Mr. MacManus seemed interested in what was happening and had pulled his chair a bit closer to the phone. "Meet me at the address on the paper's in three hours, and under no circumstances are you to be late!" And then Smecker slammed down the phone.
"Well what the fuck do ye suppos' tha' was abou'?" Murphy was sprawled out on one of the beds that had been close to the phone.
"Looks like we will be going for a little field trip." Mr. MacManus said before he sauntered over to the bathroom.
A few hours later is was pitch black when the boys and Mr. MacManus pulled up in the beaten up old car they used for transportation. The stood in front of a house covered in crime scene tape. Smecker had apparently ordered most of the personnel to leave beside the other detectives that were part of their inner circle. Duffy was waiting for them out side.
"Boy am I glad to see you three. Smecker may just crack this time, wait until you see the damage here." Duffy escorted the MacManus men into the house to find what looked very much like a hit that they would have pulled off.
There were about ten bodies scattered throughout the house and each of them had a giant bright red kiss mark on either their foreheads or their cheeks. They realized that these were the men they had been planning to kill this coming week. Some one had beaten them to it, and they were not normal assigns, they had a mark.
"The infamous Kissing Queens have made their way to Boston." Smecker began.
"Kissing Queens?" Mr. MacManus rasied and eyebrow.
"Two rather famous female hit-men, known for leaving all their victims with a kiss and," Smecker held up a Queen of Hearts playing card, "a Queen of Hearts card. These two have being doing work mostly in New York for the past few years. But then it was assumed they were killed after two females were found dead that matched not only the finger prints but also the lip prints." Smecker stopped and looked around. "But now we have a new pair! Different fucking lip prints, no finger prints and completely different heights from what the ballistics guy can tell me."
The MacManus boy's looked at each other before bending over one of the dead bodies and looking at the kiss mark.
"So what does this have to do with us?" Murphy finally voiced what all three of them had been thinking.
"What does this have to do with you? Everything! These two could start a mob war, because unlike you three these two are still working for the mob bosses. And if there are heirs to the thrones of this style that means not only will there be more FBI agents coming to Boston to look at any and all of this mafia murders but it also means it will be harder for me and the dipshit detectives to cover your asses when you do slip up." Smecker stopped and walked right up to Murphy.
"THESE TWO COULD MEAN THE FUCKING END OF THE SAINTS!" Smecker screamed right into Murphy's face. Murphy backed up a little bit.
"Alrigh', Aye get it. Ye don't havete yell." Murphy mumbled as he crept away.