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| I think I am going to use this picture for the cover. Of course to do that I will have to pay the good people at shutterstock first. |
Chapter 1
The blood on her hands was not her own. It belonged to the idiot who now shared his guts with the sidewalk because he could not follow the simplest of instructions.
“Damn it Jack,” she shouted with disgust into her link, “Where do you find these guys? Put up flyers at the Headquarters for Incompetent Assholes?”
“Rin? What happened? What did you do?” came a voice in her ear. “You were supposed to call me before you went out.”
“I forgot,” she told him as she turned on her camera and showed the scene to him. A slightly overweight man lay face down on the sidewalk coloring the pavement red as his blood leaked from a large hole in his abdomen.
“Shit Rin, if you keep killing these guys I’m going to run out of places to hide the bodies,” he laughed into her ear.
“If you would move Eco back to nights I wouldn’t need these guys,” she reminded him.
His laughter quickly faded and she could hear him mumbling to someone off link. “Cleanup’s on the way,” he told her all amusement gone.
She wouldn’t stick around until they got there. She knew she should, she knew she was supposed to wait until she saw the van but she had too much work to do. Her mark had once again escaped her and she did not have the time to explain to the cleaners why she had gutted the worthless bastard.
“Gotta go Jackie boy,” she smiled.
“You are going to have to file a report,” he tried to tell her, but she cut her link contact before he could get all the words out. She was too busy hunting to worry about reports. Besides, that was what they had a day staff for.
The mark had ditched his link, thus eliminating her ability to track him electronically and now it was going to take her all night to locate him, if she could locate him at all. It was so much easier when they did not run. As she ran from the alley she could hear the cleaners arriving and cursing to each other about how if she was going to continue to make these sorts of messes they should make here stay and help clean them up. She laughed to herself and picked up her pace. She was too busy cleaning up everyone else’s messes to clean up her own.
At the age of twenty-four Rin was one of the best assassins in the city. She was hired straight out of school by Aidan & Jayani, Licensed Assassins against a host of other offers from competing firms. She was an expert marksmen and she loved to shoot. Her affinity for shooting was discovered at the tender age of nine when she had figured out how to pick the lock on her father’s antique gun cabinet. Cracking the access code on the door to his indoor shooting range had been child’s play for a child whose father had designed it himself. The first time she had pulled that trigger had been the best moment of her life. The sound and the power were intoxicating. She wanted to feel like that all the time.
Her parents found her late that night, curled up on the floor of the shooting range, fast asleep, snuggling a Smith and Wesson like it was a teddy bear.
Her father tried not to make a big deal about it. He was a little proud she had been able to overcome the security system. Her mother was strikingly less calm. Her father just carried her to her bed and, when she was safe beneath the covers, he changed all of the locks. Meanwhile, her mother paced about the house muttering to herself about what the neighbors would think if they found out.
They did not discuss it the next morning when the sleepy-eyed little girl emerged from her princess-perfect room. Her mother hoped that if they did not bring up the problem it might go away on its own. Better to act as though it never happened than to risk trying to deal with it. Her father, on the other hand, was not so naïve. He knew action must be taken before the problem became what he had seen it become before in his family. He’d had a sister that reminded him of his daughter in every aspect of her personality. He did not wish his sister’s fate on his young daughter.
So, several days later, after much discussion amongst themselves as to what should be done, Cade Owens pulled up a chair next to his daughter as she sleepily ate her oatmeal.
She immediately knew something was wrong. Her father was never home for breakfast.
“Katarina,” he started, “Your mother and I have been talking.” She did not look up from her breakfast. She was afraid of what was coming. He continued, “We feel that your education is being neglected here at home and that with my working and your mother’s busy schedule and your brother being away at school you aren’t getting all the attention you need here. You understand, you must grow up to be an accomplished young lady and a good education is the first step.”
She continued to eat while trying to act as though there was nothing unusual about the conversation. She was nine years old. She cared very little about her education or becoming an accomplished young lady.
“Katarina, are you listening to me?” her father demanded. Rin looked up, nodded, and returned her attention to her chewing.
“What I’m trying to tell you, is that your mother and I think it’s time you were enrolled at HillGrove. We really feel like you will be able to blossom there.”
She nearly dropped her spoon, but managed to regain her composure and finish the last bites of her breakfast. She stood up from the table and wiped her face on her napkin.
“I’ll go pack.”
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