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"Um Thank you?"

"You’re welcome" He reached out with a hand to motion for me to step by him "Is this your floor?"

"What floor is it?" I sounded like a dumbass A complete dumbass

"Fifth" His , just watched et out of your way" He stepped aside and I realized that he was being polite while I had been staring again

"Thank you" Taking a breath, I stepped out of the elevator and was going to head to the flat, but found

"I hope you enjoyed your drink at the café" He held the door open with his hand while his eyes traveled over e to look down and check what I earing I was pretty sure it wasn’t anything that should garner that much attention

"I-I did" I cleared my throat and smiled at him "Thank you"

"Ah, there it is" He stepped back, letting go of the door, and pressed a button "You have a lovely smile"

"Thank you" I felt my lips curve upward even more just as the doors closed I walked back to the flat, a little pep to ain, the compliment was a nice one

I LEANED AGAINST the wall of the elevator and fiddled with the lock picks in ht eyes and killer smile had been a nice surprise I’d barely been able to take my eyes off her when she came into the little café Her chipper American accent and friendliness with the staff had been char, I’d decided to send her a drink--a s up a dreary day In a city this large, I hadn’t expected to see her again Certainly not in the building whereback to business, I ran over what I had found Song’s apartment had been spotless, but I’d expected asto not n was that he was too clean There wasn’t a porno or single inappropriate email on his hard drive, but there had been a key tracker I’d had to disable I had enough in the portfolio I’d received to be convinced of his involvenal I’d reached the ground floor and I stepped out So about this hit felt off and I was uneasy I’d learned over the last few years to trustthrough the doors, I nodded to the doorman and made my way around the corner to my hotel I’d decided to stay close so that I could do a little nment It wasn’t a fancy place, but more than met my needs Hell of a lot better than the last place I stayed Bangkok had been a dirty nightmare

I pulled atthe passwords one of my contacts had sentleft everyand took one of three routes to a small office in Canary Wharf He wasn’t varied in which path he took each day The man had fallen into a pattern that would be his ultiet to hies, I paused on the car he drove Other than a bullet, a bo Even if it was much messier--which would probably ot up to pour myself a drink Any pi as he had didn’t have an easy death co the harsh life my mother had lived, I never turned down the chance to kill a pimp I looked down at the amber liquid in my cup and frowned He certainly didn’t deserve an easy death Then again, most of the people I calanced back at the iht in large amounts of money These weren’t the women you would find on the corner or in a dark alley No, you’d find them on the arm of a parliaot rid of them for some reason And in ways that had been particularly painful for the victilossed over blue eyes They would have been pretty before she died, would have shined with seduction and the prohts, and behind that would have been the bored gaze of a person doing their job I’d seen the type before

My thoughts drifted back to the blue eyed girl in the elevator and I tried to push her out of uarded I’d seen the surprise in her face when I ran into her at the apartment, her self-consciousness when I’d looked her over, her e at me It had all been there like an open book, beautifully written in the delicate lines of her face

Monsters didn’t belong with the innocent I was looking at pictures of dead call girls I ood at it, I reminded o around, and I was like the vultures that cleaned up the carrion on the side of the road I got rid of the diseased pests that el; I liked what I did The satisfaction of taking out the garbage But I knew better than to think I deserved a happily ever after There would be no picket fence in ht sh the rest of the infor, his contacts, and the people that worked in his office, before deciding what type of bomb to use on his car I had several options, but I wanted one that would ht with me, I pulled out some of the pieces I needed and set to work Tiny wires, a burner cell phone, and explosives It didn’t have to be complicated, just effective