Any Last Words?

"The next one won't miss," Eve said as she looked down towards Sanderville, who was on his knees. Eve held the man at gunpoint, like she was ready to fire a bullet at point-blank range to the man's head.

"EVE!" Jack yelled.

Eve looked up and saw Jack right there. Oddly enough, there were bullet holes on the window that overlooked the backyard and the city's skyline. It appeared that the gunshot that Jack had heard was just a warning shot, but with there being a few others, it seemed that either she fired more or other shots came through the door and landed on the window.

"Sorry, Jack, but I have my own shit to deal with," Eve said.

"What the fuck do you want, you slant-eyed gook cunt?" Sanderville said.

A huge scowl rose on Eve's face and swung her pistol right to Sanderville's face. The fact that the crime boss used a derogatory slur right to her face made Eve livid.

"Ow!" Sanderville said and lied in a fetal position.

Eve kicked Sanderville in the gut so hard that the old man coughed a bit.

"You want to play that way? Fine, I will make this faster," Eve said as she pointed the pistol to his head.

"Or I'll make it slower," Eve said as she pulled out a knife.

"Eve, please," Jack said.

Sanderville looked up. "Slate, it's you."

The old man lied there all bruised and bloodied. Jack was surprised that Eve hadn't killed him yet, especially with a lot of dead bodies left in her wake in the manor. Granted some of the corpses were at the hands of Jack, but some of them looked to be in cold blood. Most of Jack's kills were in self-defense.

"I'm not here to save you, Sanderville," Jack said. "I got questions of my own."

"Not as much as I do," Eve said and looked down towards Sanderville.

"Fuck you, bitch, you ripped me off," Sanderville said.

Jack looked down at the man himself.

It was crazy. This man had a reputation for doing some nasty shit to his enemies, like carving someone open. Whether it was having his men do it, or getting his own hands dirty, for decades this man ruled Grant City's underworld.

But now I see him and I see a broken shell of a man.

"Go ahead, kill me, I don't have much time left," Sanderville said. "Some of my own men turned on me. There is no reason for me to live anymore. You two are here to kill me. Just do it."

"Not just yet, Mr. Sanderville," Eve said, much to Jack's surprise. "Does the name Danny Yang ring any bells to you?"

"Who?" Sanderville said.

"Danny Yang, he was my brother," Eve said. "You ordered his murder!"

"I don't know what the fuck you're talking about," Sanderville said.

"I knew you would say that," Eve said and kicked him in the gut once more.

Jack went up to Eve.

"Take five."

Eve looked down at the old man and then to Jack. "You're lucky I like you, Jack."

The two hadn't known each other for too long, but it was clear that they had quite a partnership and understanding.

Jack pulled out the chair and guided Sanderville onto his chair. However, Jack drew a gun and pointed it right towards the crime boss.

"You called out a hit on me," Jack said.

"You killed my protégé, Augie Blatz, and my nephew, Marvin Silt," Sanderville said.

"What?" Jack said. His eyes widened, like he didn't expect to hear one of those things.

"What are you talking about?"

"It doesn't fucking matter," Sanderville said. "In a few minutes, some people will storm the place and take all of us out. Just fucking shoot me."

"First of all, I didn't kill Augie Blatz, nor did I kill Marvin Silt," Jack said. "Second of all, do you know anything about the murder of Frank Slate?"

"Frank Slate?" Sanderville said. "Now why would I waste my fucking time on some private investigator? I know he was a cop and he had dealt with some of my men before, but I don't know shit about that."

Just then, I knew that I was back to square one. Jack thought.

"I wasn't done," Eve said as she got back in. "Tell me about your hit on Danny Yang."

"I swear I did not have shit to do with your brother's murder," Sanderville said. "You want the fucker from Mayhem Inc., not me."

"I never said he was killed by someone from Mayhem Inc.," Eve said.

"Fuck!" Sanderville said. "Okay, you win. I knew of your brother, but I didn't order your brother's murder. It was one of my guys. He had been doing side-deals behind my back. He was ready to turn against me. Another one of my men had been working as a snitch for the Grant City Police Department. You already killed some of my men and tore up my fucking house! Just kill me already!"

"Wait, what do you mean that one of your guys ordered the hit on my brother?" Eve said and pointed her gun right to Sanderville's face once again. "It's always up to the top boss. You are the top boss."

"It doesn't matter anymore," Sanderville said. "Like I said, two of my top men turned against me. Some of my best soldiers are dead."

Jack heard something irregular coming from the outside. First there were sounds of gunfire, now there was the sound of running footsteps.

Out of the blue, the door slammed open. Sanderville looked up, as did Jack and Eve. Two men stormed into the office. One man wore an all-black outfit with a clown mask and the other with black pants, purple coat and joker mask. Jack quickly drew his MP5, while Eve dove a little more away from Jack.

The clown opened fire on Sanderville as he pumped seven shots into the old crime boss's chest as blood sprayed all over the room and dropped from his chair as he lied there dead as a doornail.

But Jack and Eve didn't back down as Jack fired at the clown with the MP5 and dropped him without any hesitation. Eve had drawn an Uzi that she had with her just in case and wasted little time in taking out the joker assassin.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Out of the blue from the door, behind was another person and fired right at Eve, who was close to the window. She took a few shots to the chest and fell right out of the window as it shattered and she fell out.

Jack's eyes widened and his jaw dropped in so much shock.

"EVE!" Jack yelled as he saw her fall to the outside.

Jack turned around and saw someone surface from the doorway. It looked like a woman with a mask covering up her face a bit and also had short hair with a silver dye-job. She also wore black clothes, like a black jacket and pants, which covered what looked like a bra top from the top half of her jacket.

"You fucking bitch!" Jack said.

He drew his MP5 and started firing away, but the woman had gotten out of there before any bullets could land.

Jack quickly stormed right out of the office and towards the other door.

What the hell? Jack thought.

Right in front of him, there were more men dressed like the clowns and jokers, as well as some other gunmen with suits and vests. At the center, there was that same woman, as well as another woman who looked the same as well, except she had an open jacket that looked like she had a crop top showing. They were twins. In fact, they Meeshaka and Shadraka, Fahook Ubduhl's personal bodyguards.

I could tell that there was no way out of this. The mysterious twins were that good. One got Eve and she was so quick to get out of there, only to find that I was now fucked. One little fuckup and I will be filled with more lead than all of the bodies in this manor.

"Time's up, Jack Slate." Jack heard a familiar British voice as someone walked up. It was Patch.

"I am so disappointed that I didn't get to kill you or Ms. Adams myself, but someone wants to have a word with you," Patch said. "But maybe I might get the chance to finally do you in very soon."

"I'm not done with you, Patch," Jack said with so much anger in his voice.

"I'm afraid you're wrong about that once again," Patch said.

THWIP!

Jack felt a quick pierce going through one side of his neck. He was shot by a tranquilizer dart.

I felt a burning sensation in a millisecond. The pierce went to my neck. Give it a minute and I will drop.

I would have been dead, but it was clear that someone wanted a word with me before killing me.

"Good night, you little lad," Patch said. "We're going on a little journey."

Patch looked to the ladies. "Tell your boss we're on our way."

"Will do," Shadraka said. She was the one with the zipped-up jacket. She spoke in what sounded like an accent of some sort.

Shadraka got on her phone and made a call.

["We're on our way out, Fahook,"] Shadraka said in what sounded like Arabic. ["We got Slate. Yes, we got it ready for him when we get there."]

Some of the assassins picked up and carried Jack out of there.

I was out. Patch had his chance to kill me. I had my chance to get answers and then maybe kill him. Why keep me alive? Who needed to talk to me so badly that I needed to still be breathing?

In the basement, Shadow crawled around as he heard some chatter coming from upstairs. He crawled up the door at the top where it led into the kitchen. Some of the doors were left cracked open a tad. More chatter was heard.

Shadow used one of his paws to open the doors a bit. Many of the bodies lied around in a bloody mess. For a dog, he could tell that something was amiss.

Shadow went back out the other way into the basement. He ran as fast as he could towards the backdoor, which was still open.

The sounds of cars starting up, as well as a helicopter starting drew the dog's attention. The light shone over the grounds of the manor from the chopper as Shadow crawled into a shady spot so that the brightness of the glare won't bother him. He crawled to get out of sight.

He was stranded. Shadow suspected that someone had taken, or worse, killed Jack. He crawled towards the backyard to stay out of sight for any others.

BARK! BARK!

Something drew his attention in the backyard, but what was it?

It was closing time at The Oar House. Hildy stayed and hung out for a bit. She said that she would lock up the restaurant and that Jack was going to meet her there.

The lights in the restaurant were dim and she was the only person left there to do some final cleanup. One poster on the wall looked like it was for a past boxing card with a double-main event, with one part of it reading, "McElroy vs. Diggs" and the other part saying, "Winter vs. Harwood," and the date reading, "Saturday, July 20, 2001 at the Grant City Arena." Clearly someone had wanted that poster on display, especially with the name "Diggs" on the poster.

Just as she continued to wait, she sat there and wondered if Jack was okay. She was relieved that she patched him up the night before. She also felt relieved that she told him how she felt, but she knew that Jack was right that she needed to support his cause, even though she didn't agree with his actions.

The sound of a door creaking open caught Hildy by surprise as she looked up and saw a muscular man of Afro-Caribbean descent, but also seemed to have come from somewhere in the UK.

But rather than be confused, Hildy tried to play it off as she was greeting a customer.

"Well, if it isn't the heavyweight champ turned rent-a-cop, Rafshoon Diggs," Hildy said. "I'd offer you a doughnut, but we're closed."

"That's real nice, Hildy," Rafshoon said. "You make up that joke yourself?"

"I'm just locking up, I'm waiting for a friend to show up," Hildy said.

"A friend, eh? Who is the bloke?" Rafshoon said.

"No one you would know, just a friend," Hildy said.

"Isn't that nice?" a female voice said. It caught Hildy off-guard. It appeared that Rafshoon didn't come here alone.

Because of Rafshoon's tall and muscular stature, a young blonde woman walked from behind the former boxer. Hildy saw that it was someone familiar.

"Ruby?" Hildy said. "What are you doing here?"

"Actually, we are here on business," Ruby said. "Our boss wants a word with you."

"Your boss?" Hildy said. "What are you talking about?"

Ruby replied, "I heard that you turned down an opportunity recently. I wouldn't have done that if I were you. It's against your best interests."

"What are you talking about?" Hildy said.

"It's nothing personal, but you turn down an offer like this, you may have to face the boss soon," Ruby said.

"What?"

Some footsteps were heard coming from behind Hildy. Before she could turn around, a wet rag went right against her face. After a few seconds, she fell asleep.

Rafshoon picked her up and carried her over his shoulder.

"Thanks, chaps," Rafshoon said to the two men, Boris and Dimitri. "Let's go, Fahook is waiting for us."

As the men walked off, Ruby followed them. A minor look of concern rose on her face. Despite how she talked to Hildy, a mild feeling of guilt went through her veins.