An Assassin's Love Story

Call it instinct, years of training, or plain paranoia, but Kai Jackson decided to park a street over from his house.

He shoved his Tennessee Titans beanie down over his head to keep out the cold, as he exited his green SUV.

Kai moved his hand to the back of his jacket and to the edge of his jeans— making sure the semi-automatic was secure.

The cold, crisp air bit him hard, as he jogged across the street and made his way along the meticulously kempt backyards of his neighbors’ two-story skinny townhomes.

His cell phone buzzed.

Kai answered.

“Hello.”

“I miss you already.”

Kai smiled. He knew that sultry voice anywhere.

“I miss you more Daiyu.”

“If that is the case, why don’t you come back over and show me just how much you miss me.”

Kai’s skin was dark like milk chocolate, but he still felt his cheeks flush.

Daiyu was like no other woman he had ever known.

In the six months they had been dating, Kai had fallen hard for her.

“I’d love to, but I’ve got some business to handle,” he said, now peeking behind a townhome directly across from his.

He could see a grey sedan parked in his driveway. His instincts had been on point.

“Hey baby, let me call you back.”

Before Daiyu could respond, Kai pressed the end button.

From what he could see, the sedan appeared empty.

Kai always knew the people he worked for would one day track him down.

The unmistakable sound of the cock from a gun, made Kai instinctively raise his hands.

“If you don’t wanna die, hand over your weapon,” a man ordered. The barrel of his gun pressed into Kai’s back.

Kai obeyed.

He turned his head and recognized the dude.

Scooter Davis — he knew him all too well. The two of them had come into the Agency together and had been fierce rivals for years. There was no love loss between the two.

Scooter didn’t have a conscience either, — Kai did— the reason he left the Agency and all of the killing behind.

The two men walked up to Kai’s front porch.

Scooter gave Kai a shove in the back and he stumbled into the foyer.

“Don’t do anything stupid or I’ll light your ass up in a New York minute,” Scooter warned.

Two other guys whom Kai had never seen, sat in his matching antique chairs with their guns drawn.

“What’s this about?” Kai snapped.

Scooter smirked.

“You left the Agency without finishing the job.”

Kai’s left eyebrow arched up high like a partial McDonald’s golden arch.

“What?! Nah, that’s bull and you know it.”

Scooter smiled, showing off a set of large beaver-like teeth.

“You left some loose strings,” he said.

Kai ran his hand through his short cropped afro.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Scooter slid a sleek, leather briefcase over to Kai.

“You’ll find the details inside. Just so you know, the Director is giving you until tomorrow to complete the assignment you were to do three years ago.”

This could not be happening. He swore off that life.

Kai still struggled with recurring nightmares of the people he’d assassinated for the government.

“Why can’t you do it?” he hissed.

Scooter sucked his teeth.

“Because you have inside knowledge of the target.”

Kai didn’t have a clue what Scooter meant.

“This makes no sense. I was asked to take out a Chinese national and I did! The Director saw me blow up his chopper with him and his family on it.”

Scooter shrugged.

“Open up the briefcase and it’ll all make sense.”

Kai shuffled into the spacious living room with the briefcase in hand.

“If I do this, we’re done! Do you understand? Tell the Director after this hit, I...am...DONE!”

Scooter shook his head.

“Sure thing. You do this hit for us and you’re a free man.”

Kai’s fingers shook, as he fumbled with the buttons on the briefcase. The case popped open and inside, he found piles of crisp, one hundred dollar bills. He quickly counted the money— $20,000.

“This is your first installment,” Scooter said, lowering his weapon. “The Director just wants to make sure you complete your assignment this time. You’ll get the rest when the target is dead.”

For Kai, killing had never been about the money. He actually thought he was helping to keep his country safe— like when he served in the Afghanistan War.

He had done two tours in the Middle East, as a Special Ops Navy Seal.

After his time in the military ended, he was recruited by a special division of the government to topple foreign and domestic threats to the U.S. — by any means necessary.

For nearly ten years, Kai had taken out target after target on the order of the Agency in the name of U.S. security — until he could no longer justify the bloodshed.

The last hit on a Chinese businessman — accused by the U.S. of espionage, theft of U.S intellectual property and murder,— had done a real number on him.

He watched as the rocket he launched, ripped into the side of Zhang Wei’s helicopter with the billionaire, his wife, and two adult children on board. There were no survivors.

The hit seemed senseless and Kai could no longer live with himself.

Afterward, he didn’t give the Agency any warning — he just packed up his bags and left one day.

But, no amount of distance or good he tried to do, ever erased the deeds from his past. He figured his soul was a lost cause — until he met his girl Daiyu. She radiated light. His world seemed so bright with her in his arms.

Kai gushed all over just thinking about his sparkling jade.

His love for her nearly swallowed him whole.

As he got ready to close the briefcase, a black leather notebook inside a small compartment, caught his eye.

He picked it up and instantly recognized it.

Every assassin received a Moleskine notebook— complete with a dossier of their targets and instructions regarding the hits. They were able to add in depth notes as they kept tabs on them.

He flipped through the crisp pages and saw dates, times and activity of the target.

He turned back to the inside of the first page and saw a photo of a stunning Asian woman taped to it.

Kai couldn’t take his eyes off the photo.

Nothing made sense, yet, it all made sense.

The black notebook shook in his hands, as he stared at his beloved Daiyu. The love of his life was the government’s target.

Scooter smirked.

“Well, by the look on your face, I guess you figured out that your little girlfriend is Zhang’s sole surviving daughter.”

Kai couldn’t move.

“This must be a mistake.”

“No mistake. Daiyu Mei Ling is Zhang’s youngest daughter. You somehow missed that.”

Kai placed his head in his hands.

Scooter and his two goons stood in a semi-circle around him.

“So, what’s it gonna be?” Scooter said, in that slow southern drawl of his. “What do I tell the Director? Are you in or are you out? If you’re out, you both die.”

Kai looked down at the screensaver on his phone. It was a picture of Daiyu smiling sweetly. He had no choice.

“I’m in,” Kai said. “Tell the Director I’ll complete the job.”

Kai showered and changed into all black.

He then took off on his black Kawasaki Ninja and sped down Interstate 65 toward downtown.

Doing 120 miles per hour on his motorcycle the entire way, Kai made it to Daiyu’s loft on Fifth Ave in fifteen minutes.

He parked in front of her building and took off his helmet.

Kai left the key in his motorcycle ignition and darted up the stairs.

He hopped on an elevator and went to the second floor.

Kai had a key to Daiyu’s apartment, but when he got to her front door, it was partially open.

He went inside and found the lights dimmed and a Luther Vandross slow jam playing in the background.

He took off his backpack and carried it in his hand. It contained the $20,000. The Caribbean Island would be his getaway once this nightmare was over.

He crept over to the bathroom and could hear the water running.

Kai pulled the revolver out of his jacket.

He pushed open the bathroom door trying not to make a noise.

“You didn’t really think I would be stupid enough to just let you kill me, did you?”

Kai spun around to find Daiyu standing behind him with her own revolver.

Before Kai could react, she pulled the trigger and a bullet struck him in the chest.

The force knocked him off his feet and onto the bathroom floor.

Daiyu walked into the bathroom and stood over him grinning.

“You...shot...me,” he said, completely caught off guard by the ambush.

“You killed my father. You killed my mother. You killed my two sisters. You took everything from me!” she hissed.

She bent over Kai, who held his chest. It was hard for him to breathe.

“ It took me years to track you down, but I finally found you here in Nashville — with a little help.”

Blood ran down Kai’s hands from where he tried to apply pressure to the gaping hole she had just put into his chest.

“How… did… you know?” he said, through garbled words.

She kneeled beside him.

“You live by the sword, you will die by it,” she said, ignoring the question.

Kai watched as Daiyu stood up and dialed a number on her cell phone.

“Scooter, it is done. Now, it is your turn to keep your end of the deal and take my name off the target list.”

Kai saw Daiyu smile. “He will bleed out before anyone ever finds him.”

She then put away her phone and hovered over Kai again.

“You know, you always called me your little light — your sparkling jade or something, but did you know that Daiyu actually means black jade?”

She laughed uncontrollably.

Daiyu then grabbed Kai’s backpack and looked inside.

“You won’t be needing this cash.”

He saw her reach into the side pockets.

“What’s this?” she said. “Two tickets to Belize?”

Kai nodded, barely able to move. He felt his body growing numb and cold.

“For me….and….you,” he said.

Daiyu looked confused.

“But, you were here to kill me,” she said, a little taken back.

Kai shook his head no.

“Could never.. here to... save... you.”

Daiyu placed her hands to her heart.

“Ahhh that is so touching,” she said. “I guess you really did love me.”

He shook his head yes.

She bent down and kissed his chapped lips and whispered in his ear.

“There is only one person who hates you more than Scooter Davis and that is me,” she spat out. “You really should have killed me because the day you killed my family was the day I died anyway.”

She stood up, grabbed the backpack and the tickets to Belize.

“You won’t be needing these where you’re going.”

She sauntered out of the apartment.

Pain shot through Kai’s entire body — as much from the realization Daiyu had played him— as from the gunshot wound.

He heard the sound of his favorite motorcycle roar to life and then speed off — Daiyu’s way of giving him one last middle finger.

Tou​ché he thought.

Kai fumbled for his cell phone in his back pocket. He didn’t know how he found the strength to pull it out.

He pressed 911, as the room began to grow dark.

“911 what’s your emergency?” the voice on the other end said.

“Help...me.”

“Sir? What’s your emergency?”

“Been shot...Dying.”

Kai dropped the phone, and the light in his eyes faded to black.