La Joya, Texas

“Strongbow, why are we in the desert at night and can’t dance?” Rica griped hearing the loud music from Alicia Su’s bar, two hundred meters away. The bar stood as the sole structure for miles in that desert, and the only sound.

Rica cleared her black hair and peered through her powerful rifle scope into the bar window. “Cool, check it out!” she whispered to Strongbow, her M24 rifle.

Through her scope Rica watched her beautiful mother, Reyna Rai, on the dance floor. Reyna, in a tight red dress, danced with a man named Carlo Paz, his crew and some good time girls. But when the song ended, Reyna stopped dancing and left the bar. And Carlo Paz panted after her.

Reyna stepped outside to her BMW, her red dress lit up in Rica’s scope. Rica saw Carlo follow Reyna and grab her, with lust.

“You brute!” cried Reyna.

“Reyna! Why you fly out out here to give me problems, hunh?” said Carlo holding Reyna close.

“Carlo, you’re so macho and dim!” she smiled.

“Girl, you see I’m on top of the world out here. I got money, drugs, who's gonna stop me?” he said palming her ass.

“The Texas heat must be getting to you, boy! You forget who I am!” she answered touching his nose, he liked that.

“Niña, I know who you are. You La Diabla, and now that you here you work for me-“

“Work for you?” Reyna chuckled and pushed him away, “Carlo, why would I work for you when the price on your head is so high, hmm?”

Carlo heard Reyna’s words and he also heard the black SUV roar into the parking lot behind him. And that’s when he knew.

“Reyna, you villainous bitch! You set me up!”

“Yup, I sure did!” she laughed.

Carlo reached for his gun, not concerned with the SUV or the armed goons from the Toro Cartel exiting the truck. He wanted Reyna dead.

Too bad, Reyna felt no ill will toward Carlo, this was business. Ignoring him, she flicked her hair back and whispered a name to the night desert, “Rica…” And the desert responded with a pop.

Carlo never heard the pop. Nor did he feel the full metal jacket, traveling at two thousand feet per second, enter his forehead and exit his skull. He felt nothing, and never would again, when he dropped dead on that parking lot. A perfect headshot by Reyna Rai’s precious daughter, Rica Reyes, age eleven.

Carlo’s people heard the shot and ran into the teeth of the Toro crew gunfire outside. The Toros murdered all of Carlo’s men in that parking lot, a bad scene.

Reyna saw this and floored her BMW two hundred meters south into the black desert. She opened her passenger door and a petite Rica Reyes, dressed in tactical gear, hopped in and tossed Strongbow in the back seat. Reyna raced the BMW from the scene and into the night.

Next Job

Still excited Rica bounced in the car when she spoke, “Mom! Did you see that clean headshot?” she asked Reyna.

“I sure did baby, and did my red dress shine in your scope?”

“Hell yeah, you shined like a stop light, and that Carlo guy couldn’t keep his hands off you, so me and Strongbow popped him! And that’s why he’s dead, heh heh!”

“Of course you did, because you’re my clever girl!” said Reyna, love squeezing Rica’s face.

“But Ma, those Toro guys aren’t going to hurt those girls in the bar are they?”

“No baby, the Toro’s know better than that. Only your contract mattered tonight.” Reyna answered.

“My contract? Carlo wasn’t my contract he was yours! Hmph!” pouted Rica. But Reyna, always quick, love squeezed Rica’s cheek and teased her.

“Aw, what’s the matter little anime girl? You want to be recognized, hmm? Well it seems you have been.”

Reyna displayed a white business card with one Chinese character, 鬼 ghost. The sigil provided a means to contact and hire her, if one knew how.

However, Someone took a marker and blacked out her ghost character and hand drew another character, 貓鼬 mongoose, Rica’s sigil. This meant someone requested Rica for a job.

“Mom, is this a real client?” asked Rica.

Reyna smiled at her.

“Easy baby, right now it’s a protection job, but it may turn into something else, can’t say right away," she said to Rica.

"Protection job, hunh?" said Rica, and imagined herself, a pre-teen Chicana girl trying to protect some big dude. A ridiculous thought, but still.

“Don’t worry I’ll protect him!”

“Haha, I’m sure you will Ms. Marvel, and you’ll do it in a Catholic school uniform!”

“What? Why would I wear a Catholic school uniform? This client gotta schoolgirl fetish or something?” asked Rica, suspicious.

“It’s more than a fetish baby-face, and as a bonus you get to do homework too!” said Reyna.

“Homework? What kind of job is this?”

“Your first official one, killer! Hee hee!”

Rica beamed with pride at Reyna's confidence in her ability. She balled her fist up and gave an evil smile.

"Don't worry, whatever the job is, I'm ready!"

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Characters Based on the The Rifle Villain Reyna Rai from our short film The Devil Her Due- Starring Actress Thuy Ho

Below Actress Thuy Ho as The Villain Reyna 鬼 Rai firing her rifle JEZRIEL