Rat_Smiley looked himself over in the hotel room mirror.  He admired the way the loose grey suit helped to conceal his slightly rotund belly and his sidearm.  He ran his fingers through his short dark hair, letting it fall haphazardly.   A small smile eased across his face, giving proof to his nickname, Rat Smiley.

Perfect, he thought, I should just blend in to the scenery now.  He picked up a folder sitting on the nearby vanity to read over the information once more.

He ticked off each piece of information on it as he read adding what he knew about him:

Jake Ricci -A numbers running bookie Wise Guy who turned out to be pretty stupid.

Age: 23 -Old enough to know better.

Skills: Great memory.  Good with numbers.  -Unfortunate for him.

Family: None known.  -That explains what I'm doing.  Nobody to account for his actions.

Special Message: None  -Makes the work easier.

Instructions: Keep it clean, no trace.  -That makes it a little harder.  I can't just waste him and run.  But what I'm getting paid for this, it's worth it.

After that was a series of information on his known hangouts, apartment address and associates.  -Seems he associates with quite a few outside of the family.  That might explain his fuck up.  Someone must have talked him into "doing the right thing."

Finishing with the papers, he tossed them into the metal trash can from the hotel bathroom.  He quickly surveyed the room to make sure he had cleaned up after himself to make sure he didn't leave anything important to be found.  When satisfied he took the trash can outside the room and locked the door behind himself, leaving the key inside for the cleaning crew to find.  The lights from the parking lot of the run down hotel dimly lit his way to his car.  A car he purchased with cash just yesterday for this job.  He pulled a small can of gasoline from his trunk and poured a splash of it into the trash can.  After taking a quick glance around to make sure no one was watching him, he dropped a lit match into the can.  The dull thump of the gasoline igniting echoed slightly and caused Rat to wince.  Better get out of here now.
He quickly got into his car and headed for the first place he thought he could find the soon to be late Jake. 

Rat pulled up to the run down apartment building where he first found Jake.  He was just a mouthy kid at the time, but he showed some intelligence.  Clearly not enough or I wouldn't be doing this.  He grabbed a small box of chocolate from his glove compartment before heading into the building.  Rat noted that the front door locked was broken.  Told the damn kid to pay someone to fix it.  Guess he can't do anything right.  He stopped at door 2B and loudly knocked on the door.  To his surprise the door was not latched and opened to his knocking.  Instincts kicking in, he pulled his gun from under his shirt and carefully entered the apartment.

The place looked like it had been rolled.  Chairs and tables were overturned.  Cupboards and drawers were opened and some pulled onto the floor.  Garbage was everywhere.  And the worst part was the smell.  It smelled of stale urine.  

Placing the chocolates box onto a countertop, he continued to explore the apartment.  First making sure no one was hiding behind doors, he checked the kitchen and bedroom before he finally came to the bathroom.  What was going on became very clear.  Jake was passed out in the tub, his light snoring signaling he was still alive.  The pile of drugs sitting on the sink and scattered about told the rest of the story.

Shaking his head, Rat went and locked the front door.  Again, I told him to not use the product.  Stupid kid.  Probably got drugged out of his mind and started talking to people he shouldn't and now he's got me in this situation.  He returned to the bathroom with the chocolates and sat down on the closed lid of the toilet.  Rat leaned over to the bathtub and turned on the cold water and waited.

It took a couple of minutes before the either the cold water or the sound woke Jake from his stupor.

"Huh?  What's going on?"  Jake slipped trying sit up to turn off the water before he noticed Rat sitting there quietly.

"Hello Jake."

Jake froze like an animal caught in a cars headlights.  Dammit kid.  You now you fucked up and you were doing what?  Getting high in your own apartment?  "You look like shit Jake."  Rat just stared at him and waited for him to talk.

Jake's mouth opened and closed several times before any words came out.  

"I'm sorry Rat. I didn't mean to do it.  I had so much to drink and this really beautiful girl asks me if I wanted to have fun.  A few hours later I was bragging to her in bed about everything I had been doing for the past month." He gave a lop-sided grin. "I had no idea she was from another family.  I thought she was just some regular broad.  That is until she left." Jake looked down to his belly, not looking Rat in the eyes.  "She said, 'Tyler sends his regards.'"

Rat closed his eyes briefly and shook his head  Dammit kid!  I thought you were smarter than this.  "It wouldn't be so bad if that was all that happened.  But something you told her put some very high people in a bad situation.  What made it worse was your name was attached to it."

Jake's face paled.  "No.  Rat.  I'm sorry.  I was an accident.  I'll go away and no one will ever see me again.  Please!"  His panic becoming evident as he tried to rise from the bathtub.

Rat just lifted the box of chocolates he had.  "Calm down kid!" he barked.  "I'm here to talk.  Eat a chocolate and relax."  He opened the box and offered it to Jake.

After a moments hesitation Jake took one of the chocolates and carefully smells it before a mumbled, "thanks."

"Look Jake.  This is some serious shit and we need to take care of things quickly.  I'm going to ask you questions and you are going to give me answers.  It I don't get the truth, you get a bullet in the head.  Understand?"

Jake nods and pops the chocolate into his mouth.  "Okay.  What do you need to know?"  His words a little slurred from the chocolate in his mouth.

"Are there any more here besides this pile of crap?" Rat indicated the sink.

Jake nodded, "Yeah there's a large bag of coke in my mattress."

"Next, do you have any cash.  Like a pile you could use to get out of town?"

Jake yawned, "No, I had blown most of my money.  I was going to sell the coke."

"Good." Any moment now. "You look tired, take a moment and rest.  I'll go get the coke and some of your clothes together."

Jake just nodded and laid his head back down in the tub and closed his eyes.

Rat just stood there and watched him for a full minute before speaking.

"Jake."  and then louder, "Jake!"

Jake did respond beyond a light snore.  

Rat sighed.  "I'm sorry kid.  But you can't run from this."  He pulled a small knife under his shirt and quickly made cuts on both of Jakes wrists, carefully keeping the blood from himself and spilling into the bathtub.  "Don't worry, you won't feel anything and you won't wake up.  The drugs in the chocolate will see to that."  He wiped his prints from the knife and dropped it into the tub.

Rat then collects the bag of coke that was hidden in Jake's bed mattress and comes back to check on Jake.  Rat just waits several minutes until he hears Jake's death rattle and he finally stops breathing.  "I'm sorry kid.  But at least you probably won't be going to hell.  You didn't live long enough for that."

Rat left the apartment building, got in his car and left, to go report his job was complete.