"Do you guys have more than one headquarters?" I asked Flin. We were talking the elevator down to the ground floor.
"Yeah, one here and one back in Clearwater."
"Does your granddaughter know about your job?"
He gave me a glance and responded, "Yes."
I let out a laugh and replied, "For hitman, you're no that great at lying!"
"As a hitman, I didn't need to lie. A bullet to their brains was enough."
I stopped laughing and changed the subject. "How come your granddaughter lives with you?"
"Why do you care?" he asked. He must have been exasperated by my barrage of questions.
"'Cause I want to know," I said truthfully. "I also had a grandfather once, but I didn't get to grow up with him."
He sighed and said, "Her mother's having some issues, and her father is...well he's not in her life."
I patted him on the back, which garnered an unusual response. I calmed him down by saying, "I can relate to what your feeling. It must be hard adjusting to taking care of another person when you can't even take care of yourself, right?"
The elevator was close to the last floor before he said, "Yeah. You're right." We both stood there in silence before he added, "Lily's picking out a car, so she can learn to drive. Do you know how to drive?"
I looked at him and replied, "Kind of?" *Ding* The elevator chimed
"What do you mean by that?" he asked. We walked out and stumbled into a bustling hallway that led to the outside world.
"Before I took up a humble life, I worked at a get-a-way driver. Does that count?" Although I was never good at it. But, I kept that to myself.
We reached the outside sun as it shined on top of all the cars. The shiny new paint jobs and polishes blinded me. "You want to learn how to drive with her?"
I gazed into his eyes to search for the truth. Where did that come from? "I thought you said I couldn't be anywhere near six feet of her."
He patted the gun in his back holster and said, "You still remember?"
"How could I forget?" I shivered thinking about the bullet blasting past my head. I rubbed the area where I felt the heat.
"Good. But, this is an exception."
I breathed and said, "Is she a loner?" He gave me a cold look. I surrendered my hands and humbly said, "Hey! I'm not one to judge! I was just asking to make sure if she's in the right state of mind."
"She's fine. You won't even notice anything wrong with her."
"There's something wrong with her?" I picked up on his sentence.
"That's not what I meant, you little shit. She...she's just a bit emotional, so don't be an asshole."
"Aye, aye, Captain!" I finished off the conversation as he stood by the side of the road to call a taxi.
___________________________________
Flin POV:
I looked at Vincent sitting next to me in the taxi. He drummed his fingers on his knees so fast that they were a blur. He noticed me gazing at him and said, "Please don't rape me."
I leaned against my window and responded dully, "That ain't funny."
"But you were looking at my...at my..." he shyly stated.
"Your hands! You fucking hands!" I emphasized. I looked back at him and asked, "Did you hit your head or something during the Games?"
"Mulitple time, I think. Why do you ask?"
"It's just. When you went into that hell hole, you were...I guess more stable-minded. Mentally able. Calm. You know, those types of characteristics."
He looked at me as if I was a peculiar specimen. "What's wrong with me now?"
I sighed and answered, "It's like you're autistic now. You're all jittery, and...well, different. You actually speak a lot, which is pretty annoying."
"Having autism isn't funny, you know."
"I never said it was."
He sighed and explained, "When I lost the chance to become something great...I guess I turned to the brighter side of things."
I leaned back on the seat now. "And what brighter things are those?"
"I can't really describe it to you. It's more like a feeling that can't be put into words."
"So, it's like drugs?"
"No," he paused before he added, "Well, I wouldn't know."
"Well, whatever it is, don't let my granddaughter catch it."
He waved his fingers in the air in a lewd manner as he said, "But! What if it's contagious?!"
"Then, your body's going to end up six feet below the earth before the sun sets." He gulped and shut up.
***
We finally made it to the dealership where hundreds upon hundreds of cars were lined in neat rows and columns waiting for potential buyers to sweep them up. My old eyes were blinded by the amount of shiny surface that covered the area. There were small vehicles like one-seater cars and motorcycles to giant vans and RVs that were parked along the perimeter. Some of the newest stuff was in the showrooms, most likely the new hovercars. Vincent jumped out of the taxi and joined me at the entrance. "How are we gonna find your granddaughter?" he asked. I smirked. A naive little boy he was. I whipped out my phone and typed in a few symbols.
"Let's go, I have a lead on her," I gestured for him to follow along.
He raised his voice at first, but then quieted down as he asked, "You installed a tracker on your granddaughter?!"
I corrected him, "No, I tossed one in her purse."
"That's the same thing!" he loudly whispered. I ignored him and followed the flashing red light across the ginormous parking lot. We walked for maybe ten or fifteen minutes before we reached a sleek grey car. Where was Lily? I observed the car from different angles, but I did not see her. Vincent's voice rang in the air, "Hey? What's this?" He was holding in the air...Lily's purse!
"Where did you find that?!" I shouted.
"Chill down dude, you might die of a heart attack. I found it on the hood of the car. It was near the window, so you may have missed it."
"Did you see her?"
"Well, I may or may not have? I don't know how she looks like, genius." I ran my hand through my hair. Where was she? Did she get kidnapped? Vincent chimed in and said, "Now that I'm thinking about it, couldn't we have just called her?"
I looked at him and said, "That's not impor- Wait, what did you say?"
"You know, like, call her? On your phone?" He made a handphone and brought it up to his ear. I dialed her number and waited for her to pick up. *Ring* *Ring* The purse started to ring. "Fuck! Her phone is in the purse!" he yelled.
"Why are you yelling?" We both stopped what we were doing and glanced at the car. The door opened and out stepped my granddaughter.