Ϫ
Haiden was stunned and impressed. She’d made the shot, if that had been her and she’d disappeared in thin air. Not only that, she’d been in a crowd when Davisson went down. Had it been her? Could she have gotten that shot off? There were just so many people. Perhaps he’d been tracking the wrong woman.
Everything inside him, told him she was the shooter, and yet, it had seemed an impossible shot, at least from his vantage. He made it down to the street and left the area. He didn’t want to be within a mile of this place when the cops came. He kept the security cameras in mind when he exited and walked away. He had sunglasses and those concealed his constantly roving gaze.
If that was the woman, she was good, damn good. So why did Lawbreaker want her dead? She was a shooter, like him. A pro. She hadn’t been stalking Davisson, as Lawbreaker made it seem. She wasn’t some scorned woman, damnit. No, she’d been sent to kill the man. How did Lawbreaker know she was an assassin? Had he hired her? Had someone else hired her and Lawbreaker was trying to mitigate it? He didn’t like that, he didn’t like walking into something like that blind. It was deadly work.
He’d have to let Lawbreaker know and he’d have to send out his weapons and get the hell out of Dallas. It had been a total bust, but the woman had peaked his interest. Who was she? He’d need to go surfing the Darknet once he was home.
Ϫ
When the crowd began to run, she ran with them, her face a rictus of fear, mirroring theirs. She made her way from the area and ran, along with others up the road and away from the mayhem. She flagged a taxi and gave her location. It was a fast food place, up the road from the hotel. She got out and went in to the establishment, and headed to the bathroom. Tossing her mask into the trash bin, she put her wig back on, and put her glasses away, and pulled off her mustache and tossed it. She then applied lipstick and then exited the building and walked back to the hotel.
“Job done.” She texted Nobu.
“Any problems?”
“No, but felt that feeling again.”
“Glad you’re safe. Stand by.” He texted and she waited. He was letting Lawbreaker know the job was done. And also, to confirm flight information.
“Okay, got confirms on your flight. Head home Chickee. Be safe and don’t linger.” Nobu typed and disconnected.
In the hotel room, Imani broke her gun down and put it back in the box with the other items. She sealed it up and packed her things. She went downstairs and got the address for FedEx and then checked out and went to ship her gun home. Within an hour, she was on her way to the airport. She looked down at her hands and was surprised to see them shaking. That unnerved her more than anything else. She’d never had shaky hands, never. Each evolution of the job had its adrenaline bumps, but she’d never come away with a deep gnawing fear.
She took a deep breath and tried to settle herself down. She’d have a long talk with Nobu when she got home and maybe do a little more research on either Lawbreaker or Davisson.
Five hours later, she walked into the door. Nobu was playing on the gaming station. He looked up and smiled, then saw her face and paused the game. He got up and came over to her.
“What is it?” He asked, his face contorted with concern.
“I don’t know. I think we need to take a closer look at Lawbreaker and Davisson. I don’t know, but maybe Lawbreaker had another hitter there, in case I failed. I just don’t know. Why was it so important that Davisson go down?” She asked, biting her lower lip. She pulled the wig off and tossed it on her small suitcase. Raking her fingers through her short hair, she followed Nobu into the operations room.
“You think maybe someone was there, maybe competing? Maybe someone else hired the hitter, maybe Davisson pissed off a lot of people?” Nobu said, pulling his chair out and sitting down in front of his computers.
He clicked around and looked on different sites. The same usual political back and forth, though nothing incendiary.
“Maybe you need a vacation Ima, you’ve been going at it pretty hard. Why don’t you go see your folks, take a week and relax? You can get yourself together and come back fresh.” Nobu suggested.
Nibbling on her fingernail, Imani focused on the screens before her. She hated feeling this way, it spooked her. Fine, she’d go see her parents, it had been a couple years anyway and she enjoyed visiting Greece.
“Make reservations and car rental, I’ll give my mom a call and let her know I’m coming. God help me.” She grumbled.
Nobu laughed and turned back to his computers. Imani left the room and dialed up her mother.
“Hi mom, it’s me.”
“Ima, honey, it’s good to hear from you. How are you dear?” Her mother purred from thousands of miles away.
“I’m good mom, I was thinking about coming for a week, to see you and dad.”
“Oh, your dad will be thrilled. When do you think you’ll be here?”
“Give me a day or two. I’m getting a rental, so I’ll just drive to the house.”
“Okay honey, we’ll see you then, I love you honey.”
“I love you too mom, kiss dad for me. Tell him I love him.”
Imani disconnected the call and sat on the couch, letting a
