Second part to the new story.
Images from Google (Free to use)
“I don’t want to do this,” Ash said. She sat on the edge of the bed, looking out over the river, watching a nondescript little boat chug past.
Robin looked over to her. He tied his tie, lifting his chin, trying to keep an eye on his reflection and Ash at the same time.
“Fuckit, can you just please help me with this fucking tie? I’ve tried to tie it three different ways and it ends up with the front piece too short every… fucking… time!”
She reached up, pulled the knot undone and re-tied his tie in a perfect Windsor knot and pushed it up to the top of his shirt. Ash tapped the knot of the tie gently. “There…”
“Look, you’re dressed and ready. This is the last job we need to do. One last job and we’re retired. Justin made sure of that for us.” Robin pulled on her elbow and pulled her up off the bed. He kissed her forehead and with his fingertips touched the little scar just hidden by her fringe. “Then we go to the funeral and we disappear forever.”
Ash looked at Robin, deep in thought, mulling-over his words.
He looked at her and smiled at the way she concentrated, her mouth pulled to one side in a lop-sided frown-smile.
She looked up at him with eyes so wide and trusting that it took his breath. She nodded once and though she didn’t actually smile, at least the frown had melted away.
“Don’t forget your gloves,” he said.
Ash turned back to the bed, picked up her gloves and followed him out of the bedroom.
One last job. The biggest and most difficult they had undertaken. Justin’s pièce de résistance – the top hat on their career. One last job.
Robin opened the safe and took out the envelope Justin had left for them when he finally had to go into the private hospital.
Ash watched him as he tore the top of the envelope and took out the pages.
“That’s a lot of detail for one job,” Ash said.
Robin studied the pages, fanning them out. He handed a few pages to Ash. She folded them and placed them on the sideboard.
Robin glanced at the pages, then at Ash. “Not gonna read it now?” he said.
“I’ll save it for later. I don’t want anything to ruin my concentration.”
He nodded and continued to read. Robin placed a similar amount of pages by the side of Ash’s pages. “I’ll read mine later, too.”
He read the rest of the letter, one page, turned it over to see if there was anything written on the back and then he folded up the page and slipped it into his pocket.
“Come on, let’s get going.”
They went down two flights of stairs and exited the house through the garage door, a strong, sturdy door more suited to a secure building than a stylish house. The door swung closed behind them with a quiet but hefty clunk and Ash went to the passenger side of the sleek Jaguar F-Type.
The garage doors rolled open once the engine had started and they were away to complete their final task for Justin.
“Here, read the letter so you know what we’re doing too,” Robin said, handing the folded page to Ash.
She opened up the page and scanned the words.
“You know where we’re going?” she asked.
“Yeah, don’t need the GPS for this one. Piece of piss,” he said.
“Do you recognize the address?” she said, frowning. “It seems familiar.”
“You’ll know it when we get there. It’s an in-and-out job, no fuss, no mess and no witnesses.”
“I still never figured out how he managed to reconnoiter from his sick-bed.”
Robin glanced at her, then back to the road ahead. “Yeah, but he never let us down, did he?
“No,” she whispered, wiping a tear away with the back of one gloved hand. “He never let us down.”
“The house is sold. The car goes back to the leasing company when we’ve finished. I’ve made sure they’ll do a really thorough deep clean before it goes back on their books. The registration plates will be removed and the original registration will go back on the car. All that’s left to do is the packing and removal of our stuff from the house. We can leave that to a company or we can do it ourselves. Which do you prefer?”
“Right after the funeral, I want to be gone from here. I’m sick of the bullshit, I want to get my hands dirty for a change. Let’s go and buy a farm!”
“A fucking farm?” Robin said, grinning. “We can go and try it out, sure, I’m all for that, but you like your creature comforts too much. I’m not sure you can cope with actual creatures.”
She grinned too. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” she said.
“But, there’s nothing to stop us going to a little farmhouse B&B for a week or so after this. Let us chill out before we decide what we’re doing?”
Ash grinned. Her brightest smile, reserved just for him. She nodded. “Yeah, that’s a great idea. Come on then, what are you hanging around for? Let’s get this over and done with.”
Robin pushed his foot down harder on the accelerator and the Jag gave a deep V8 roar as they overtook everything.