Roman

It'd been a few weeks now and Chanel was adjusting much better than I originally thought although the isolation seemed to be taking a toll on her. She had no one to talk to but me and when I'm out sometimes all day and half the night, she was alone. I felt no sympathy toward her because at the end of the day, it's better to be isolated in a mansion than isolated 6 feet under.

I was working on 2 cases simultaneously. The first was $275k. According to Paul, the instructions were to make it look like a robbery gone bad. Paul hired 2 of his lower tier guys to burglarize various houses in the neighborhood all week so it wouldn't look random once I struck.

I'd been following this guy for days. He'd go to work at 8 AM and go home during his hour lunch break. Today was the day. This was a residential neighborhood so I screwed my silencer on before getting out of my unmarked vehicle. Usually I work only at night but this was an exception. I was covered in black from head to toe with a ski mask on my face in case there were cameras. I pulled out my skeleton key but he'd left the door unlocked.

The kitchen was empty but he'd taken out a loaf of bread and turkey slices. After messing around, I readied myself in the corner. It took about 5 minutes but the target, a pudgy balding 50 year old, came out with his zipper undone and shoes off. He was an accountant at a Fortune 500 company by day and was the financial advisor to a crime boss by night. Once the boss hired a 2nd advisor to go behind and found out he'd been stealing, it was a wrap.

He looked on the table and saw that the sandwich he planned on making was already assembled.

"Your welcome," before he had time to react I fired off 2 shots.

The body dropped to the floor. I walked to stand over him. The sound of him wheezing and gurgling blood filled the room.

"In your next lifetime, remember to cover your tracks..." I said before delivering the final shot to put him out of his misery.

My phone rang which caused me to jump. Paul knew not to contact me when I was on the scene so it couldn't have been him.

Her. I tried to slide the bar but it wouldn't go so I took one of my gloves off.

"Yes, Chanel?"

"Hey, are you busy?"

I looked down at the body. "Not really. What do you want?"

"Uhh, I forgot," she laughed, which drew an eyeroll from me. "If I think of it before you return, I'll text you."

I took a picture of the body and sent it to Paul. This was done so our payment could already be processing instead of having to wait until the body is found. Now I had the task of going around collecting valuables like jewelry, electronics and his wallet to push the robbery gone bad narrative. I stuffed it all in my duffel bag and was just about done here. It was 15 minutes until he was due back at work. His coworkers will probably think he decided to take the rest of the day off so it'd likely be the wife who'd find him when she got home at 4.

I was on my way out when I looked at my bare hand reaching for the door. Shit! I didn't put the glove back on after I answered Chanel's phone call. Fingerprints! Where? Probably everywhere. The doorknobs to each room that I raided, a few countertops, the dresser in the master bedroom.

Quickly, I put the glove back on and retraced my steps, using a handkerchief to wipe everything that I touched. Even though my prints were not on file anywhere I still had to do this. It was the thoroughness I carried out every job with that kept me from ever being caught or even under suspicion.

My 2nd job led me back to Chanel's hometown. Murals of her were everywhere. Flyers for information hung on every pole. Reward: 10k. That was nothing compared to what I was going to make on my next target. 400k, ordered by Kyle on Brett. A pair of young entrepreneurs became self-made millionaires 2 years ago. Kyle was a family man and spent his money wisely while Brett was a bachelor spending his money on cars, coke, gambling and hookers. They were rich but Kyle would be richer if he didn't have to split the profits down the middle with Brett who only wasted it. Because they both equally owned the business, there was no way Kyle could legally cut him out. This is where I come in.

Brett was sort of like Chanel in the way that he didn't have much of a routine and was at a different spot every night. With a newspaper covering my face, I sat a table over from him at an outdoor cafe.

"You know they have the Halloween Fest here so I'm going to be hanging out there all night."

That's when it hit me. It was Halloween. There were some advantages to that. Ding.

CC: I know what I wanted now. If u see any Halloween caramel popcorn balls while you're out. Can u get me one, pls? One of those big bags of assorted candy too. :-) (This phone doesn't have emojis so I have to make them the old fashioned way -_-)

I dropped by the store and made it back home. Giving her a credit card was a mistake. I was only expecting her to buy clothing and necessities. Now the cat was living lavish on my dime. Robot litter box, water fountain, scratching posts, tall shit to climb on, an exercise wheel. Meanwhile I still get hissed at if I so much as glance in its direction. Maybe I could sneak arsenic in his bowl to pois-

"Roman!" she popped around the corner.

Another credit card regret. I should've let her stay in those clothes that she packed until holes were washed in them. Now she was running around in tight ass shorts and revealing tops. It was a distraction but not an unpleasant sight to come home to. Plus she cooked, cleaned, washed and made herself useful so that was a plus.

"Did you get it?" she asked with a hopeful expression.

"No..." her face dropped.

"Oh, you probably didn't see the text," she replied.

"I saw it but I decided to get this instead," I shoved a bag toward her.

She reached inside and pulled out a pink Power Ranger costume. "What is this for?"

"We're going out tonight," I answered.

"Out, out as in out of this house out?" Chanel asked and I nodded to confirm. She hugged me, I went stiff, not used to the contact. Her skin was soft and she smelled faintly fruity like a body wash or scented lotion. I guess she finally realized what she was doing and jumped back. "Oh, sorry."

"Just be ready at 7..."

I wasn't doing this out of the goodness of my heart. She was necessary. Me, a 6'3, 265 pound Samoan would stand out wandering around alone. If I had her with me, we'd blend in and I'd look less suspicious.

At 6:59, she walked back into the living room.

She did a 360 turn to model it. "How do I look?"

"Like a power ranger..."

"What about you?" she raised a brow.

"What about me?"

She looked me over. "Is that how you're going out?"

I looked down at myself wearing my usual all black. "Yes."

"It's Halloween! The least you can do is..." Chanel trailed off to look around. She forcefully pulled my shirt over my head and found a red lei hanging on the wall to place around my neck. "There. It's not much but at least it looks like you tried."

We made the drive. Thank God it was dark. I didn't need her seeing the dedications around town and getting emotional. We stood on the sidelines watching for a good 20 minutes.

"What are we waiting for?" she was becoming more and more impatient.

Finally, spotting Brett, I moved to merge in with the crowd. He made a few stops and I kept my distance, never taking my eyes off of him.

"Wait, are you following that guy in the Joe Exotic costume?" she whispered. "You are! You have me out here being an accessory to your crimes?"

"Be thankful I have you out here at all because I could've left your ass at home," I hissed and heard her grumble under her mask.

"Can we at least make a few detours?"

From what I remember, Brett did tell the person on the phone that he'd be here all night so I had a few minutes to spare. "Fine."

"Caramel popcorn ball and a large witches blood cocktail," she told the woman in the booth, looking at me to pay. Brett was still in my line of vision. Chanel lifted the mouth area of her mask to eat. "Oh my God!"

My head jerked around. "What?"

"Tobias is with Tiffany, you know the bitch that showed up to my funeral! I haven't been dead a full month yet and he's already moved on!"

She took off in their direction and I was on her tail. I couldn't even yell her name out loud to stop her. Chanel broke between them, violently bumping Tiffany out of the way and spilling her red drink all over his white costume.

"Sorry," Chanel changed her voice to a high pitch.

"Watch where the fuck you're going, you stupid bitch!"

"And if she doesn't?" I towered over him.

"I-I-I, uh-" he stuttered.

"You-You-You, uh, what?" I punked him.

"N-nothing, bro," he held his hands up in defense.

"Exactly and I'm not your bro, bitch..."

Chanel was giddy as we walked off. "Did you see his reaction? He looked like he either shit or was about to shit his pants. How dare he use my tragic death for press to further his flop modeling career by day while sneaking around with my mortal enemy by night."

"Told you from the beginning that some would be getting over it sooner than you think," I shrugged. I'm glad she saw it for herself. He'd been practically going on a talk show tour over the last few weeks doing interviews about her death, making sure to plug in that he was a model. Looking around, I made sure Brett wasn't too far out of pocket. "Enough shenanigans and don't ask for another drink because no one told you to do what you did with the other one."

"Ooh, Roman," she grabbed my hand and pulled me in another direction toward a shooting gallery with about 50 cans displayed. "You should be good at this."

The guy handed me the gun and the cans began moving fast. "If you can hit at least 20 of these, you win a prize."

20? Shit, in less than a minute I'd hit all 50 to his shock.

"I haven't seen anyone shoot like that in a long time," he sounded astonished.

"What do we get?" Chanel asked.

"With aim like that, you can pick whatever you want," he replied. She picked a 6 foot skeleton.

We walked by a haunted house and I felt her tug at my arm. I shook my head. "I'm not waiting in this long ass line, Chanel."

"Then don't. I'll stay. You go ahead and do your stalker thing. I have my phone...I'll probably be too embarrassed to pull it out here in 2020 but I have it. If I need you, I'll call."

Looking for Brett again, he wasn't too far out of pocket. I shot her a warning glance. "Don't do anything stupid."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're the only thing standing between me and certain death," she mumbled. "You keep reminding me."

Back on the hunt, I followed loosely behind Brett. Something compelled me to look around and check on Chanel. She seemed to grasp the severity of her situation by now but you can never be too sure. She was still in line and the line didn't seem to be moving. By the time I turned around, Brett was nowhere to be found.

"Hey! You've been following me," a slightly drunken voice slurred on my right. Brett.

It didn't startle me but I was a little surprised. I've never been noticed or confronted. Usually I move around lowkey but this time I had a loud, pink sidekick tagging along and commenting on everything she saw. He probably noticed us from the very beginning.

It was cool. I didn't get this far by cracking under pressure. "I-"

"You go back and tell Cynthia that she can hire however many private investigators she wants, that's not my baby and I'm not taking a paternity test! I bet you're waiting for me to drop a cup so you can steal my DNA, aren't you?" he ranted. I almost laughed.

"Nah, I don't know anything about that," I shook my head. "Do you know a Kyle Johnston?"

Brett's whole demeanor changed. He actually sighed in relief. "Yes, that's my business partner."

"There's something you need to know about him," I said, looking around. "But we have to talk in private."

"There's an alley not far from here," he replied, leading me to his death. I scanned the area as we walked. No one seemed to be paying attention to us. There weren't any cameras on display. He didn't seem to notice me easing on a pair of gloves.

"I don't know, I've just been feeling a weird vibe from Kyle lately so I won't be shocked by anything you have to say about him," Brett said as we stood on the side of the dumpsters. "I hope I'm wrong though."

"You're not, " reaching out, I snapped his neck in one quick motion. The crunch sound was sickening. His body dropped lifelessly with a thud. The coast was clear when we entered but the last thing I needed was to be spotted walking out so after I took the picture, I jumped the alley fence and came all the way back around.

That didn't go as planned. Between removing my glove earlier almost leaving fingerprints behind to being discovered by Brett, I was moving like a rookie and needed to get my shit together.

The haunted house line was gone which meant they were all inside. I waited by the door for Chanel for about 15 minutes and saw people who were in line with her come out. That's when a red flag shot up and I went in to investigate. There was no way she'd still be in here because honestly it wasn't that entertaining unless you're a 5 year old. I knocked out a Pennywise clown that jumped out on me.

My journey came to an end at the back exit. As soon as I walked out, I saw the skeleton I'd won her on the ground. She was nowhere to be found. What the fuck was I thinking leaving her alone. She was probably halfway to the police station right now. I was a fool to think I could trust her. Good thing I had an evacuation plan in order in the event that I was ever found out. I'd have to get to the storage unit where I have personal items and documents on my real identity plus forged documents for a new identity. Then I'd have to call Paul who'd call a private pilot that he kept on payroll to jet me out of here. I'd be halfway across the world in a few hours.

"Roman!" Chanel called out. I followed in the direction of her voice. She was hiding behind a cardboard cutout of a ghost. I felt a sense of relief as I joined her. She was watching her boyfriend kissing the other girl. "Give me your phone."

"Now you know I can't do that..."

"Roman please," she sounded serious, desperate almost and not for vanity purposes like before. Against my better judgement I handed it to her. She took a picture of the kiss.

"Let's sit down for a second," she walked over to the picnic tables. "I had a few fake IG accounts. You know, to creep around or watch someone's story without them knowing it's me."

She typed back and forth to someone before I got suspicious and snatched my phone away to see what was going on.

She'd sent the picture in a DM to one of her friends.

SpamPage101: Stop letting Tobias use your deceased best friend for clout.

Friend: OMG! I knew he was going overboard with all the fake grieving but had no evidence. I'm going to post this with #ChanelCothern and put him on blast to the new following he's picked up since her death. She's probably turning in her grave right now. Whoever you are, thanks.

SpamPage101: No problem.

"Notice how I didn't rat you out or reveal it was me in that exchange?"

"You could've deleted and had her play along," I replied.

"Stop it! If I didn't snatch off my mask to snatch Tobias and Tiffany or run for the hills when you left me unsupervised, I'm not going anywhere. That's why you should consider getting me a smartphone...without all the restrictions like I'm a child..."

"I'll think about it," I said, standing.

"That's all I ask," she hooked her arm in mine.

"I've had just about enough of this shit as I can take. Let's go home."

Chanel looked around. "I don't see that guy anymore. You must've lost him."

"Yeah, he's gone," I replied truthfully.

"I still didn't get my candy..."

"We can stop by Walmart on the way..."

"What?!" she exclaimed. "Not you being nice!"

"Don't get used to it. This won't be happening again anytime soon and you didn't get out of line during this outing so it deserves rewarding..."