Chapter 4

Agent James Carter and a few other agents stood in his home searching through all of Angela’s belongings hoping to find something that would lead them straight to her. As James went through all of Angela’s things, it brought back all of the good memories the two of them had shared. The Angela that he knew was a sweetheart, an easy person to love, not this ruthless killer that they had made her out to be. The more James thought about it, if Angela was a professional killer then why was he still alive? Certain things just weren’t adding up to him. As James searched through Angela’s luggage, he came across a picture of the two of them together kissing. He remembered exactly when and where that picture was taken. James stuck the picture down into his pocket. Did he still love Angela? Yes, but would his love for her stop him from taking her down by any means necessary….No!

Agent James Carter had a job to do and he didn’t plan on stopping until that job was done. As the other agents searched through his home, they found a chest in the back of one of his closets that was filled with guns, ammunition, body armor, and all types of other killing instruments. The FBI wasn’t taking this case lightly. They planned on shooting first onsite. They weren’t taking any chances with The Teflon Queen. She was considered armed and very dangerous and every agent had the green light to shoot on site. The more James thought about the situation, the angrier he became and the more he began to hate Angela.

Two hours later James sat at his kitchen table alone sipping on Vodka and Orange Juice as he tried to get his thoughts together and cope with the situation at hand. He had spent all of his adult life searching for a woman like Angela and now that he had found her, he would more than likely have to kill her and that was eating away at him. James reached for the bottle of Vodka, but quickly paused when he heard a noise coming from the back room. He quickly stood up, removed the loose tie from around his neck, snatched his .45 from its holster, and then inched his way back towards the bedroom. James wasn’t sure what the noise was, but he planned on finding out. With a strong two handed grip, and his arms extended, the .45 entered the bedroom first. Immediately James noticed that the window in his bedroom was wide open. He was sure that he hadn’t left the window open himself so that could only mean one thing. He wasn’t in the house alone. James went to reach for his cell phone to call in for backup when he felt the business end of a gun being pressed to the back of his head.

“Don’t even think about it,” he heard an angry woman’s voice growl into his ear. “Cell phone and gun,” the voice said. “Drop them on the floor now!”

“You’re making a big mistake Angela,” James said through clenched teeth. His voice was cold and had a mean edge to it.

“Do it now!”

James tossed his gun and cell phone down to the floor and then slowly turned around to face the woman he thought he’d marry some day. “How could you do this to me? I thought you loved me?”

“Back in the kitchen,” Angela ordered as she reached down and picked up the .45 and cell phone. She hated to have to do what she was doing, but what other choice did she have?

James walked back over to his seat at the kitchen table and poured himself another drink with his eyes locked on Angela. He sipped his drink with a mean scowl on his face as he continued to stare a hole through Angela. “Kill me!”

Angela looked down at James with a confused look on her face. “What?”

“You here to kill me right?” James said unbuttoning his dress shirt revealing his slightly hairy chest. “Well go ahead and get it over with.”

“James you have to listen to me,” Angela began. “I never meant for none of this to happen…”

“You never meant for none of this to happen?” James echoed. “You tried to kill me Angela, murder me and leave me dead in the streets and you got the nerve to say that you never meant for this to happen?”

“It’s not like that James,” Angela tried to explain.

“Then what’s it like? Huh? You tell me what it’s like… Matter of fact, I don’t wanna talk no more. Just do what you came here to do and get it over with.” James was done talking to Angela. The more he talked to her, the more he wanted to kill her.

“I’m not here to kill you James. I’m here to protect you.”

“Here to protect me?” James laughed. “Protect me from who; yourself? Here I am thinking I found the perfect woman to spend the rest of my life with then you turn out to be a fucking assassin; one of the top assassins in the world might I add,” he said giving her a disgusting look as he sipped his drink. “You murder people for a living and now you show up at our… I mean my house talking about you here to protect me. Fuck Outta Here!”

“Please James, just hear me out,” Angela said removing her dark shades from her face so James could look in her eyes and see that she was sincere.

“How dare you come to my home after what you’ve done to me and have the nerve to ask me to hear you out?” James growled. His face showed that he was more than angry; he was hurt, but the more Angela spoke his anger was beginning to overlap the hurt. As Angela stood before him, James wanted to make love to Angela and kill her all at the same time. He had mixed emotions and mixed feelings. He didn’t know if he was coming or going. He wanted an explanation, but he didn’t want an explanation.

“Just hear me out James, please!” Angela shouted finally able to get James full attention. “I’m sorry about everything that happened, but we don’t have much time. We have to get going. The White Shadow is on his way over here to kill you.”

“The White Shadow?” James face crumbled up with confusion. “What’s a White Shadow?”

“I don’t have time to explain…we have to get going,” Angela said nervously.

“I’m not going anywhere with you until you explain everything.” James sipped his drink and leaned back in his chair.

“I work for some very important people James,” she explained. “I was paid to kill you. At first I thought I would be able to, but when the time came I just couldn’t do it. I love you James and I’m sorry and since I didn’t kill you, my employers have now hired the best assassin in the world to hunt me down and kill me,” Angela said with a hurt look on her face. “And now my employers have put a contract out on you to get to me… And I refuse to let you die because of me James. If they want you, then they’re going to have to go through me.”

James stared at Angela for a second not saying a word. He took a moment to let her words sink in and digest. “And you expect me to believe that?”

“James it’s the truth!”

James asked, “So you want me to believe that you’re here to save and protect me when you were the one who tried to kill me… Who are you here to protect me from; yourself?”

“No James, I told you they hired an assassin that calls himself The White Shadow to kill you and…”

“Enough with your fucking lies,” James barked. He was ready to jump up and strangle Angela with his bare hands, rip her heart out, and put his foot up her ass. He wasn’t buying the bullshit story she gave him. She was going to have to come better than that. “Everything you’ve told me from day one has been a lie.”

“James, I’m not lying,” Angela pleaded. “I never meant for none of this to happen…I swear I didn’t.”

“You may not have meant for it to happen, but it did happen.” James sipped some more of his drink. “And it happened because YOU let it happen.”

“Well I’m not going to let YOU die and I’m not going to just leave YOU for dead,” she said drawing out a few of her words for extra emphasis. “I know you might not trust me, but we only have a little bit of time before shit hits the fan.”

“Well if you’re so worried about my well being then give me my gun back so that I can protect myself,” James suggested.

Angela thought about it for a second. She weighed the pros and cons in her head. She knew that there was a fifty percent chance of James taking the gun and putting a bullet right between her eyes, but with time working against her she had to make a quick decision. Angela holstered her .380, grabbed James’ .45 by the barrel, and held it out towards him. “Here”

James grabbed the handle of his .45 and quickly aimed it at Angela’s head. “Down on the floor! Now!” he barked. The fun and games were over. He was tired of playing with Angela and most of all; he was tired of hearing all of her lies. James cocked a round in the chamber. “I said now!”

Angela gave him a sad look. “James, I’m not getting down on the floor. We don’t have much time…Please let me help you.”

“You’ve helped enough already.” James backed up to the house phone that rested on the wall. With one hand, he kept the .45 pointed at Angela’s head and with the other hand he picked up the phone and spoke a few words into the receiver then hung up. “You’re going under the jail where you belong.”

“If you don’t want my help, then fine,” Angela said then turned towards the door. “If you want to bring me in, then you going to have to shoot me in the back.” Just as the words left Angela’s mouth, all the lights in the house went out turning the entire place pitch black. All of a sudden, suppressed rounds tore through the living room windows. All that could be heard was the small crackle of glass raining down on the living room floor. Immediately Angela and James hit the deck and army crawled over towards the stairs. James was seeing first hand that shit could get real, real fast. Once the gun fire stopped, two canisters came crashing through what was left of the living room window. Angela looked back and stared at the two canisters. “Shit!” she cursed as she watched a grenade land on the living room floor. Before she had a chance to do anything else, the two canisters exploded filling the entire house with teargas. Angela grabbed a hold of James and rushed him up the stairs. Angela and James made it halfway up the stairs when a loud blast erupted. The force from the explosion tossed both of them up the remainder of the stairs crashing into a wall.

“Fuck!” Angela winced in pain. She stared up at the ceiling dazed. A cloudy fog of smoke burned her eyes. For a second she couldn’t recollect what had happened or where she was. Angela turned to her left and saw James laying face down on the floor. He too was just now coming back around. The explosion had left Angela and James ears ringing and disoriented.

The sound of the front door being kicked open, followed by broken glass being crushed under someone’s feet snapped Angela back into the right frame of mind. She struggled to her feet and removed her Tech-9 that was strapped down to the small of her back. Angela coughed and wiped the tears from her eyes as she struggled to help James up to his feet. The teargas was quickly taking its toll on the two. As Angela struggled to get James up to his feet she could hear the sound of the glass crunching getting louder and louder.

“Come on baby, get up! We have to go!” Angela said in a harsh whisper.