Noxious Lies

Nox

My last job was simple. Two men in a café, two shots each. One in the head, one in the chest. I was in and out in three minutes. Now the client wants the witnesses dead. I don’t kill innocents. Or at least I hadn’t before this, but the money.... this job is enough to walk away after. The first one is easy. But the second one? I made the mistake of watching her first. Instead of killing her as I was paid to do, I am now in her apartment listening to her open the front door. Instead of a bullet to her brain, it’s a sedative in her neck. Instead of a grave somewhere, I have her in my spare bedroom in my house while I make her food.

Lilah

I just wanted a warm drink and a quiet table to read the rest of my book. I never saw his face, only his mask.

Black with three white slashes across it.

It’s been a few days, everyone asking me if I was okay, if I was sleeping, the cops checking in to see if I remembered anything else. So it’s a pleasant change when the hot guy with the tattoos and eyes that look like starbursts comes into the bar. It’s a little odd when he is somehow at the restaurant I have a brunch “date” with a friend at. But weirdest of all, when I mutter to myself in my empty apartment about needing to leave a light on when I work late and he agrees with me. Shocking when he comes into view wearing the same mask I described to the cops after the murders. Confusing when a feel a sting in my neck before my world goes black.

Noxious lies is a standalone. It takes place in the same universe as The Deadly Little Thing trilogy. So there will be character crossover, but can be read on its own or before.