Side by Side with Saints

The sound of a cocking gun, loaded up and ready to go, was like sweet music in my starving ears. The stupid boat ride, the long ass plane rides—so much time away from such powerful creations.

This was the moment I had been waiting for; sadistic and twisted as that may seem, it was true. For so long, I had battled against such evils in many a place; anywhere from Ireland, my true country; Britain, the country I spent eight of the eighteen years of my life; and America, the country I now found myself in.

“Are you ready?” Hunter’s distinct British accent rang through my ear canal, making me shiver with excitement. The last time I had heard those exact words was a time like now.

“Beyond ready.”

“It’s been a while,” she agreed, her voice echoing through the silent, cold laundry chute we found ourselves squeezed in. It’s never a welcoming happy place for a claustrophobic like me, but it was the only way in besides the air vents we weren’t sure we were light enough for or the front door. And, I mean, what kind of killer goes through the front door?

I guess we could try that approach at least once. It’d probably be pretty interesting.

“Oh, bloody hell,” Hunter hissed from under me, piquing my curiosity enough that I went through a lot of complicated bending and twisting to try and look at her.

All I could see was black, though; no thanks to her dark-complected skin. There was also the fact that there was no lighting, she had black hair, and we were dressed in black from head to toe. So, I mean, it was hopeless.

“The rope?”

“Oh, fuck off, will ya?” I asked, glowering down below me into the darkness. “You’ll be eatin’ yer words one day.”

“That rope is hitting me in the fucking face,” she snapped. “I don’t think I will.”

I just rolled my eyes as I continued slithering my way up. It was hard, but I couldn’t stand being in this place much longer. After all, it was why I went first—Hunter kept pushing me up, which lead to bothering my fear of heights. I mean, fuck, what would happen if we fell?

We’d die! Just fucking splat on the concrete floors below us!

“Can you see any light?” she demanded. “This is getting ridiculous.”

I looked up above me and saw that there was, in fact, light so close I actually smiled. Relief poured out of my body and filled up the air so thick that I felt like it was pushing me the rest of the way out of the laundry chute.

“Shh,” I shushed, rolling my eyes again for no real reason. It wasn’t like she could see me anyways. “Yes. We’re close. Are you blind? I mean, my gosh, it’s so close. How could you not see it?”

I heard someone yelling in a language I didn’t know, probably French . . . which meant Hunter understood every word.

We were both fluent in many languages; Irish—a language I knew much better than her, but she still understood—German, Italian, Spanish, and she can speak Russian where I can speak French.

One day, I just knew that her ability to speak Russian would come and bite me in the ass. I just knew
it, and you know, I never actually thought about the fact it would’ve happened when we were going after some Russian mobsters.

“I see their feet,” I breathed. Adrenaline started pumping harder through my veins than it had in months, and it felt enticing. The moment we had spent weeks preparing for was here, my time to rid the world of some of the scum.

Out of everything they were saying, all I understood was the word Boston, the current city we found ourselves in.

Stupid Russian-speaking people.

Well, while Hunter might have been below me, gloating because she could understand them, I got to gloat myself. First one out was the first one who gets to shoot first, and I was the first one out.

“Aw, fuck you!” she exclaimed because she caught on when I got out.

The people heard her, but I already had my two .45 mm sigs with silencers in hand. With insane accuracy taught to me by Hunter herself, I took my first shot.

One, shot through the middle of his head.

Two, two shots; one through his left shoulder, and another through his right eye.

Three, a single shot directly through the heart.

By four, she was up shooting too, and to her delight, there were four more guys in here, besides the fourth one I shot, who I killed with a few shots shot miscellaneously around his body.

She got to shoot three people before we ripped off our ski masks, a little intimidation factor I suggested throwing in a couple jobs ago. It worked because seeing our faces always seemed to get them all worked up.

The one guy left was the big guy. He was the one we were really here for, and his lackeys were just a bonus.

“Get on your fucking knees,” I commanded, not giving him much option as I hit his spine with the butt of my gun.

Hunter laughed, a much more sinister laugh than people were usually comfortable with. “I’m impressed. You’re learning.”

“Only from the best,” I smiled, but I looked back to the man and let the smile morph into a smirk. “Any last words?”

He began speaking out in Russian, but somewhere in there, I heard something about Irish people, I think. It sounded like it anyways.

“Do you have a problem with Irish people, you bastard?” I hissed, but I had just about had enough. So, while he continued ranting, I cocked my gun and positioned it on the back of his head, and Hunter did the same. “What are his last words?”

“Basically fuck you and that British bitch with you,” she sighed, but she sounded beyond bored. Sometimes, it pissed me off when she acted like she’d rather watch paint dry than be where she was, but this time, it was kinda amusing.

“Well,” I snorted, and I pushed the gun tighter against the back of his head. “You can just go fuck a spider then, mayte.”

And with those final words, the two of us pulled our triggers, splattering his brains and the fronts of his eyes all over the carpet in front of him.

It was absolutely disgusting, and I’m sure my face showed it. “Fuck, Hunter. That shit’s nasty.”

She rolled her eyes and put her gun in the thigh holster. “Are you serious, Brynk? You’re still disgust—”

A cocking of a gun got both of our attention, and we jumped around to see two men—fuck! They weren’t men! They were the MacManus brothers!

Conner didn’t look much different at all—those same blue eyes, a little more built, the same light brown spiky hair. Murphy had cut his dark brown hair, but like Conner, he wasn’t all that much different. They looked a bit older, but that was it.

I don’t think they recognized me, which wasn’t surprising considering how much different I looked. I mean, last time we had seen each other, I was a short, not fully developed, light brown haired eighteen year old girl struggling through high school. I was constantly picked on because I hadn’t finished growing by eighteen, and apparently I was disproportional and stupid looking. That’s what some loser guy told me anyways.

Conner wasn’t really paying much attention to me, though. His eyes were on Hunter and occasionally over to me, but he seemed more focused on Hunter.

He was in a state of shock, too, and slightly angry. “What the fuck? Who the fuck are ya? What are you fucking doing? Fuck! How the fuck did you fucking pull this off?”

“Watch your fucking mouth!” Hunter yelled right back at him, standing close and on her tiptoes so she didn’t feel so short.

But Hunter’s words kinda rang silent because Conner wasn’t really hearing her. Like everyone else around him, he started looking around. The room was empty of most life but big enough for an entire party of people. There was blood everywhere and at least nine dead bodies.

Why were they here, though? It was a question I’m sure they were asking, too, because they stopped talking and just stared between us.

Before I could get a word out, six guns all pointed up, two of which were pointed towards me, even though mine were safely put away.

“Put the fucking gun down!” Murphy ordered Hunter, and I just laughed at him. Murphy? Barking orders? I never listened to him, and that wasn’t changing now. “Put it down!”

“No!” Hunter shouted back, and to make matters worse, she pulled the hammers back so her guns were ready to fire. “You put yours down, bastards! Both of you! All the guns!”

Conner snorted. “Your friend over there is no help. It’s two against one here, mayte.”

That just made them start yelling again, all three of them at once. I couldn’t understand what exactly they were saying. It was hard to distinguish, even if I was able to pick out their specific voices.

Finally, though, I was able to have a logical thought amidst the chaos. What if someone heard us and came up here? It would be a fucking disaster, for all of us, and I just found these fuckers again. I wasn’t gonna lose them just yet.

Before Hunter understood what I was doing, I took both of her guns out of her hands and shot them into the nearest corpse. When she turned to me to protest, I shook my head and gestured to the scene.

“While you geniuses were all yelling at each other, I decided that maybe someone should shut you up before the entire fucking city hears ya,” I informed them, rolling my eyes again.

“Well if yer fucking girlfriend wasn’t so loud,” Murphy scoffed. “We wouldn’t have this problem. And if you two fuckers weren’t fucking around in our fucking business, we wouldn’t have a fucking problem, now would we?”

I rolled my eyes and gave him a smirk I knew he recognized—you could tell by the way his eyes widened. “Your business? Murphy, Murphy, Murphy . . . we didn’t get in yer fucking business, alright? We were here first. But . . . before anyone says anything, I suggest we get out of here and off to somewhere where there won’t be a need for witnesses later, hmm?”

“Who the fuck—?”

My eyebrows rose. “Later, Murph. Later.”

I think Conner recognized me because he almost smiled. His eyes were wide, and he was beyond confused, but I think he knew who I was.

He didn’t say anything, however. Just nodded at Murphy and put his gun away. Murphy didn’t look happy about it, but he did the same.

Then, of course, Hunter has to be, well, Hunter, and she pulled two more out of her boots.
I had to take those from her too before Conner and Murphy pulled theirs back out, and fuck, it was just a huge mess.

“Come on, Brynk,” she whined, and Murphy got it then. Conner got confirmation, but Murph knew at that point, and he got a huge grin. “I wasn’t going to shoot them. You always take away all the fun. It’s because they’re Irish, isn’t it?”

I snorted. “What? You think I’m doing this because they’re Irish?”

“You know damn well those guys are Irish,” she said, and her eyes narrowed. “What the fuck? You’re so racist! You show such favoritism towards anyone with even a remotely Irish accent . . . or an Irish name.”

“Bullshit,” I sighed. “Hunter, stop it. It’s not because they’re Irish.”

“Okay, so maybe that’s exaggerating, but you’re so racist when it comes to anyone but Irish people!” she exclaimed. “I mean, I know you’re Irish too, but what the fuck? I’ve known you forever! I—”

“Oh shut up,” I interrupted, something she listened to for probably the first time in our entire life together. “It’s not racist, or whatever the fuck it was you were just blabbering about. For one thing, people could walk through that door any second now, and for another, I’d really prefer you didn’t shoot the two remaining Irish friends I have. I mean, they’re hot, and you know it. Just get over it and be nice for once.”

Murphy smirked whereas Conner turned a special shade of red. It was always fun to do that to the poor guy—tell him he was attractive and watch him turn the color of a tomato.

Hunter rolled her eyes. “Um, no, but whatever.”

That was code for, “Fuck yeah they are, but they’re right there, so I can’t agree with you.”

Right about then, she pulled out yet another gun from I don’t even know where, and Conner and Murphy were both immediately alert and ready to kill.

I actually threw my head back and moaned, staring straight up at the ceiling. “Whatever. You definitely think they’re hot. Get the fuck over it and put that thing away!”

“That’s what she said,” Hunter and Murphy snickered . . . in unison.

And you wanna know something funny? Conner and I both rolled our eyes and scoffed, “Idiots,” at the same time.

Holy shit. This was just too weird.

While Hunter and Murphy looked at each other, their eyes wide in similar horror and confusion, Conner and I gave each other nervous smiles and just looked at each other for the first time in years.

It had been a while. I missed seeing those eyes lock in mine, that smile that he got whenever they did. There was always something about that smile that messed me up on the inside.

The moment was quickly broken up, though, when there was a knock on the door. The four of us immediately stopped what we were doing and pulled our masks back over our head as quickly as we pulled a gun out.

Conner peered through the peep hole and immediately let out a breath. “Fucking look who it is.”

Murphy immediately looked through as well, and like his brother, he let out a breath of a laugh. “We’ve gotta fucking mess with him.”

Hunter and I didn’t know what was going on, but the two of us hid in the corner and got out of dodge.
Whoever it was out there, he was a friend they trusted with this mess, and I wasn’t gonna get in the way of their fun.

Hunter looked uncomfortable, but she didn’t mention the idea of leaving. She stood beside me in the corner, eyes on the guys as they threw the door open and yanked their friend inside, but she didn’t try and get away. She didn’t try and make a move somewhere else.

She just stood by my side and trusted that they were alright. That we would be alright.