On their break during another uninteresting night at work, J.J and Katy were talking about the job for Spence and where it could lead them. He clearly had connections and the girls liked the thought of working alongside a major corporation but at the same time, it totally defeated the purpose of setting up their own private protection firm. There was nothing better than being your own bosses but sometimes working for someone else had its perks… like a medical plan and lawyers. Spence had told the girls that this would be a 4 month job in all and should they be in any need of legal advice or medical work as a result of their employment then the company would ‘take care of it’.

“It sounds like a good deal to me Katy. If all we’re doing is following this girl and tracking down the guy, maybe flexing our muscles if we come up against any trouble and eventually dropping them off when he wants them brought in, we can’t lose. It’s a win-win situation for us as we get to make powerful contacts and earn some serious cash at the same time,” said J.J with a smile.

“I know but you seem to forget the last time we got an easy job, it ended up as a bloodbath and we were framed by some very angry Mafioso types. Jacqui, I would love it if we could work legitimately without having to do shady deals like the Robertson job or this one because doing risky jobs can get you exposure to all underground figures worldwide. That means in theory that our names and faces could be passed back to The Don and we could then be set-up. I’m not sure about you, but being caught and taken back to California, dead or alive, is not something I ever want to experience unless it’s of my own free will,” replied Katy, showing her emotions for the first time in months. They had after all created new lives for themselves 3 years ago and Katy was understandably concerned for her family back home. Sure she had told them she was going away with J.J for a while but telling them never to contact her, she would call them had hurt the most. Her mom had the most comforting voice she had ever known; her dad could always cheer her up no matter how down she was feeling; she even missed Bruiser her golden retriever despite the fact the dog had always growled when she walked past.

“Katy, take a chill pill. You think I don’t worry about getting taken out by the mob? I do… frequently. Every day when I wake up, if there’s no horses head lying next to me, or nobody standing at my bedside with a pillow or silenced 9mm or garrotte then it’s a good day. I have no doubt that our past will catch up to us but you can’t focus on that and that alone” replied J.J. She too missed life back home but had been able to adjust more to life in Scotland, probably because being a few years younger than Katy had meant she was more inclined to go out and party than stay in and clean their weaponry thoroughly every weekend , whether it had been used or not. She knew they had to be careful but where in the handbook of life does it say you can’t go out and let your hair down once a week even for a few hours?

Not even dignifying that with a response, Katy sat patiently with one eye on the inbox and the other on the bar where an apparent busload of students had just walked in and were already quite raucous and obviously drunk. They could at least walk in a straight line but it was the volume they spoke with and the fact there were maybe 20 or more of them, Katy was sure there would be trouble. “How about you take a nice little walk over to the bar and make sure this lot know that they’re not the only ones in here and ask them politely to pipe down?” Katy barked out of frustration. It wasn’t directed at J.J deliberately but if she didn’t vent some of her anger now then later she’d get a recurrence of her stomach ulcer and that wouldn’t help at all.

Shaking her head in disbelief that Katy was taking things way too seriously, J.J walked over to the bar and spoke to one of the more sober youths, advising them that if they didn’t calm the rest of the rowdy group down, they would be ejected from the bar without a second thought. Things settled down a little as the night went on but it wasn’t going to stay that way as there appeared to be some friction between two or three of them. It was more handbags at dawn than anything else but as J.J and Katy approached the feuding pair got separated with one being taken to the bathroom and one outside for fresh air. Nonetheless they still went across and had a word.

“Excuse me young lady,” Katy said to one of the youths at the bar, “Your group were told to keep the noise down and to show some respect to the other paying customers. If things get heated again then you can find yourselves a new bar to fight in, are we clear? What’s your name anyway?”

With a slight tremble in her voice, the youth replied “I’m Dianne Gabriel, but I am not with the rowdy group that came in. I’ve been here for a while sitting at one of the booths by the entrance”. She looked a few years older than the others to her credit and looked very timid in comparison to them. She made her way to the bar, ordered her drinks and returned to her corner booth with a female friend, much older than her.

“Damn, I never noticed she wasn’t with them but she was at the bar at the same time they were so I just put 2 and 2 together,” said J.J in a sheepish smile.

“Yeah and you came up with 5 as usual!” laughed Katy. Their attention though changed from the light-hearted teasing of each other to the gents’ bathroom door nearly flying off its hinges and out came one of the youths that had been overly drunk and fighting earlier on. He made his way over to them and sat down on the stool next to theirs.

“Ladies, you’re looking mighty fine tonight (hic). How about I… buy you… (hic) a drink and we get to (hic) know each other … a little better…?” he said with an overly obvious wink before he started shushing them as though it were some kind of secret.

“How about this asshole, you back off and get yourself together or I throw you out of here on your ass and you get the honour of being the first person to piss me off tonight?? Your call…” said J.J who was clearly in no mood to be hit on by a guy at least 7 or 8 years her junior. Sure she was only 26 and being hit on by late teens was fun, this guy could barely form a coherent sentence and was reeking worse than a brewery. Had she ever been this drunk when she and Katy had been late teens in California?

“Martyn!!! What the hell are you playing at? I thought I told you to stay in the bathroom and relax for a while?” said a young brunette walking from the gents in a rage. “I’m so sorry if he’s offended you in any way. He’s an idiot when he gets drunk and doesn’t know what he’s saying… though that’s not specific to when he’s had alcohol. Leave these people alone and pull yourself together man because I’m not stopping you getting another beating if you make an ass of yourself”.

Katy smiled, she liked this girl and to an extent she reminded her of herself when they were younger. She had always been the protective one when it came to her friends but if they needed a kick up the backside, she would have no problem issuing it. “No problem hun, what’s your name anyways?”

“I’m Michelle,” she said. “I’m really sorry about this. We’re all just celebrating that we’ve finished our exams and the boys are getting a little out of control but I promise you’ll have no further problems tonight”.

“Michelle what’s going on?” said another of the youths who had been outside with the other fighting moron. “Is everything alright? Are these people bothering you?” He put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close to re-assure her. “There will be no more problems, it’s sorted out,” he said in an un-necessarily aggressive tone of voice.

“James, just leave it. They weren’t bothering me, they were making sure I was alright as Martyn and I had a bit of a disagreement. Go see to him, I’ll get the rest of the group together and we can enjoy what’s left of the night. I apologise again ladies for the disgraceful behaviour,” said Michelle as she walked back to the pool table where everyone else had gathered to watch the scene unfold.

Not long afterwards the group started to filter out to the street and make their way home with Katy and J.J watching eagerly to make sure no further trouble flared up. They had been looking forward to getting some action this evening (the fighting kind) but were sadly disappointed. Still, the night was young and the bar didn’t close until 0300hrs so that gave them around 5 hours to find a fist fight.

“So girls, what’s this you two have been talking about? You planning on leaving me on my own again to carry out some more of your ‘private protection’ work?” said the voice of Kevin Curtis, the bar owner. He said it with a smile of course, because he knew they would always come back, if not to work then for the banter they all shared. He’d hired them as bouncers after a few weeks of them setting up shop in Dundee. One night, they had been in looking for work when a couple of rich-boys decided to try it on and see if they could get lucky. What started as innocent fun eventually escalated into a fist-flying frenzy and, to the amazement of the bar-flies, it was the guys and not the girls that ended up being embarrassed and running with their tails between their legs. Curtis had later told Katy and J.J that those men had been bothering him and costing him custom for the last few weeks and so if they wanted a small-time job working security for him, they were more than entitled to it. He couldn’t pay them much but would be able to sort out suitable accommodation for them, free of charge. Needless to say the girls agreed and had managed to get themselves one hell of an apartment and a start in this strange new place.

“Oh Kev, you know we would never leave you in the shit. You’re like a father to us and we would always clear it with you before carrying out any extra work. You gave us a roof over our heads and cash in our back pocket when we moved here, so why would we all of a sudden just pretend like you’re not important to us?” asked J.J with a cheeky smile.

“Yeah,” said Katy. “Besides, the last time we went out and did a job, we left you with the place for one night and when we came back it looked like a bomb had hit it” she joked. In all fairness, there had been a bit of a mess when they returned from the Robertson job but that was down to the decorators, who co-incidentally finished the job before schedule when the girls paid them a visit. “In all fairness though Kevin, we do need some time off during the day so that we can collect on a contract from our other job. It’s a good deal and should give us enough to pay you back at last for helping us out in the beginning”.

“Don’t be stupid girls; I never gave you money to get it back. I helped you out because I saw something good in you and that’s been returned to me tenfold by you two becoming like family to me. We’re even, trust me on that and I’ll have no arguments Jacqui. If you need some time off, that’s fine. We shouldn’t be too busy over the next few weeks during the day, it’ll be the nights though that I’ll need you the most. I can still give you 2 nights off but could we make them a Monday and Wednesday instead of two together?” he suggested. The girls agreed as this was a fair deal. “Right, I’ll get back to the bar and you two stay there and look mean”.

Katy returned to the computer and J.J returned to the bar, taking up her seat on the far side, giving her full view of the room. She saw Dianne get up and make her way toward the door with her older companion. She heard a beep on Katy’s laptop and made her way over to see if it was anything exciting. It appeared that an email had come through from Spence at long last, with the details about the girl they were looking for. She was approximately 5ft 4 inches tall, 150lbs with a slender build, long black hair and turquoise blue eyes, with a nose stud and lip ring being the only decoration she wore (and by decoration, I mean make-up). It took a few minutes but when it hit her, she rushed to the door and looked around to see a car taking off but no sign of the person in the photo… Dianne Gabriel.