“I wish I had more time to work at the animal shelter,” said Susy while looking at us with a straight face. “They keep hounding me to come back in.” Nathan laughed while I awkwardly smiled.

“Why should you be cautious when it's raining cats and dogs?” said Nathan, after a small pause he continued with “If you're not careful, you could step in a poodle!” They both giggled.

“What’s with you both and puns today?” I asked?

“Paw-don me. I’m just kitten around.” said Susy.

“It drives me mutts.” I spoke.

“I think I have it after my father. My mom always jokes that I am just the female version of my dad. I think she is right about that.”

I started to pack up and said, “I have to go now, I’ll collie you later.”

“Thanks fur everything,” said Nathan.

I drove straight home, there was not much traffic, so I arrived a few minutes earlier than normally. I found my mom cooking; She was nearly finished but I decided to help her with setting up the table.

“Hi mom. How is father today?”

“Better than yesterday. The new medication seems to really help him. He plans to eat with us today.”

“That is good to hear.”

I could hear father coming slowly, after his spine surgery he was bedridden for nearly six months. He is still limited in what he is allowed to do, one day he walks just fine, the next he barely moves and is in terrible pain. The surgery wasn’t cheap either, so I helped them to pay for it.

“So, how was your day today?” he asked me.

“Good, there was not much to do today, we mostly just spent time together. Cats love to play too, you could come sometimes if you want. Animals are good for mental health.”

“Perhaps I will.”

We had turkey today. During lunch my phone buzzed, I ignored it for now. My father doesn’t like for us to use phones during dinner, he is a firm believer that dinner is a place for family to socialise, I agree with him.

After dinner I checked my phone, and when I did, I nearly got a heart attack. There was a picture of my house and a message ‘Aoife Brosnan – come to the restaurant at 41 Main ST, Chapel Quarter at 10 am. DO NOT BE LATE. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST BUT AN ORDER” I double checked the receiver number; It was not my private number but my VOIP burner one. SHIT! I went to my drawer and took a laptop from a hidden compartment, after I logged in into TOR and went straight to the HUB. There was the same message here. Didn’t it provide full anonymity? How the hell did someone track me down? For what?

I responded with ‘OK’. It looks like I cannot refuse. I doubt they are planning to kill me in the restaurant in broad daylight.

I could barely sleep that night.

In the morning I took a shower, I didn’t even eat anything, I went straight to the restaurant, I was nearly ten minutes early. I tried to go in, but I was stopped by a bodyguard who went in my way.

“It’s closed,” he said.

“I have a meeting here.”

“I don’t think so. Go away you midget.”

I got an urge to kick him in the balls but that would not be smart. I took my phone out and quickly sent a message to the person from yesterday. ‘Some muscle head is blocking my way in.’ Not even 20 seconds later a person arrived in the doorway.

“Aoife Brosnan?”

“Yes.”

“Come in.”

I went in, more muscle men waited inside, they surrounded me and searched me over.

“Live your gun with me.”

Having no other option, I reluctantly gave them my gun. I was guided to a sole man in the restaurant that was clearly enjoying his meal. I knew this man, no single soul in this city was unaware of what he was. Ciaran O’Neill, businessman and a boss of a local mafia. How he was still unmolested by police was beyond my understanding.

“Miss Aoife Brosnan. I was afraid you would not arrive. I am positively pleased. You can sit here,” he gestured with his hand and the server came in with a tray. He placed a meal next to me without a word and quickly went away.

“I insist you eat it; Eoin is an amazing chef. “

“That asshole bodyguard didn’t want me to go in, he even called me a midget.”

“I am sorry to hear that. Sean isn’t a paragon of intelligence; I will instruct him to apologise to you on the way out.”

“Brilliant power move by the way.”

“You do not seem to be afraid of me, do you?”

I did not respond to his provocation. Instead, I asked him. “What do you want from me? How did you even find me?”

“Of course, but before that I must congratulate you with the perfect handling of the previous targets. All three, done like I asked, no witnesses, nothing other than your weapon that would betray your involvement. Can I ask you something? Why do you use that weapon of yours? “He took my weapon from below the table and inspected it thoroughly, one of his bodyguards must have placed it here while we were talking. “Surely you know that The Shades will be able to link all the murders together, don’t you?”

“Why does it matter? Why am I here?”

He placed my gun on the table. “Silenced revolver, it looks ancient, though well maintained.”

“It’s Nagant M1895, out of production for decades. It's unimportant where I got it from.”

“It’s your business card, isn’t it? You like the idea of someone knowing that they can’t catch you. It’s your ego, your pride doing it. As for why you are here, it’s because I want to employ you.” I was surprised, why would he want me to work for him though? “I know you are wondering how I found you. It was simple, once I ordered you to take out the targets, I just had people watch that house, I knew you would have to be there at one point.”

“It was that easy?”

“Though we had to double check because your identity was surprising. Courier, volunteer in animal shelter and supporting daughter. To see someone so petite to be the one we were looking out for. To pretend to be a courier with a package, smart, you are either familiar with how things go around in this world, or you are smart enough to come to the same conclusion. I commend you for changing your plates, that was clever to do.”

“Why do you want me to work for you?”

“You see, the people you killed last time, that man. He was someone who started to talk about matters he should have kept quiet. People that were not supposed to learn certain things, did. I had to make sure to punish so stupid behaviour, his family had to pay so next time. Other people will not only think about themselves but about people they love. That works a lot better,” he paused and continued to eat. I was reluctant to take a bite but to not offend him I decided to comply. The dish was smoked salmon. I really love fish. “The problem arrives in the fact that most of my men are known to work for me, most are thugs. They are not skilled like you in killing people and avoid punishment for so long. And you have a certain brand, once people know you work for me, my business will go a lot better. I want you to work with me so you can get rid of certain pests that need extermination. Later there will be a very big job, perhaps the biggest in your career but for now I need you to get rid of someone else.”

“Who and how much do you pay?”

“Brian O’Connor, once my friend that I recently learned has done something that I explicitly prohibited him from doing. Tomorrow he will be on his yacht, “he paused as one of his people came with a bag and handed it to me. I looked inside and there was a red dress and high heels “, he ordered three prostitutes for tomorrow. You will take the place of one and kill him, your name will be Riley Ryan and there is ID inside the bag, oh and you cannot use your gun. He will surely have people search you over so you will need to be creative. I will pay you 1.5 times what I paid you last time. I can see a bright future for both of us. Any questions?”