“I am having so many feminist emotions. Ok, I get the whole feeling empowered and wearing whatever you want thing. That’s fine. School dress codes are stupid and I agree. But there’s also a huge history of women feeling like we need to be sexualized and wear like 2 inches of cloth on our bodies so I don’t think people should feel like they need to dress like this. But also… your words are doing things to me and your reaction is making me want to wear this all the time if I know you’re going to look at me like that. I’m feeling so conflicted,” she moaned.
Jillian kissed her back. “Oh, that pisses me the fuck off. Don’t worry. I’ll give you the final shot, but I’m going to fuck him up first if I can get away with it.”
She very easily entered the club, ready to put on her drunk girl persona, but as the doors closed behind her, her blood ran cold. The assassin didn’t have a good feeling about it from the moment she walked in, but she pushed the thought away and trudged in the direction of her target. She plopped herself into the empty stool beside the man, spinning around and giggling at herself. “Hey there handsome,” she slurred her words the best she could. “My friends left me and I lost my wallet. I’m so thirsty. Wanna buy me a drink?”
He looked her up and down, leering uncomfortably at her body. Jillian cringed internally, but her tipsy character maintained the same attitude on the outside. At least it was working. He smirked. “Sure thing, gorgeous.” He ordered her a gin and tonic, and she tried to keep her eyes on him while watching the bartender mix her drink at the same time. That was always the name of the game. Trust no one.
She made small talk with him, but after her first sip of her drink he became increasingly more suspicious. Jillian figured it out quickly, but her brain didn’t seem to be moving in time with her body. Her heart was racing, her movement sluggish, but no longer the fake drunk kind.
“I’m not a fool,” he hissed at her, two men coming up behind the stool and grabbing her. It didn’t take much strength to hold her back, her efforts to fight off weak and her vision blurring. One man slipped a hand up her dress and she prepared for the worst, but instead of doing what she expected he simply took the gun strapped to the inside of her thigh. Actually, that was probably the worse of two options. They were going to kill her. Fuck. “Er—” she tried to yell, but it came out as a mumble as words failed her.
“Oh no, I’m not saying you have to dress like this... Well, okay, I am for this specific circumstance, but any other time. You do you, my love.” She winked. “You can keep the dress, okay? Maybe we’ll retire it from missions after this and just keep it for ourselves.”
She watched Jillian walk away into the club and Erin leaned back against her car. Now was the point of the night where she had to play the waiting game. They had mics, but she didn’t expect to have to need to use them. The man Jillian was trying to get a hold of in there usually had any girl he wanted in his grasps in under 5 minutes. This was going to be quick.
Her head was pounding as the loud music flowed out into the night. For the parking lot of a packed nightclub, it was unusually still. Erin looked around and noticed no drunk girls stumbling out to use their phones, no one outside taking a smoke break, no one hooking up in the alley behind the building. Something was off.
Call it intuition, or call it common sense, either way, Erin got up and grabbed her gun. She switched off the safety and walked quickly over to the main entrance. She kicked the doors open and aimed her gun straight ahead. She had expected gasps and the music to shut off. She expected yelling and maybe some gunfire in response. She expected to hear Jillian complain about how she was ruining the plan. Instead, she was met with silence.
The crowd, although massive, seemed not to notice her. It was almost as if they were all in a trance of some kind. Either that, or just very good at their jobs. She didn’t suspect they were going to attack, but she kept her gun pointed anyway as she walked inside.
She scanned the crowd and felt her stomach drop as she didn’t find Holtzmann anywhere. In fact, she hadn’t noticed any familiar faces, which is unusual for her. The mob queen has quite the contact list in this city. She noticed a kicked over stool in front of her and ran forward, noticing a spilled drink of the ground.
A tap on her shoulder forced her to whip around and place the barrel of her gun right up against a large, dark-haired man. She was sharp, exact, she could pull the trigger whenever she wanted. “What the fuck is going on, here?” She demanded, her voice having to be loud over the music that still played.
“He said you’d come.” The man said, offering her a piece of paper in his palm, holding it out for her to take. “Everything I have to offer you is here. You’re free to leave now.”
Erin, although her eyes never left him, grabbed the paper and backed out of the emergency exit next to her. She didn’t stop until she got back into the car and made sure it was locked. No one had followed her. No one was watching her. She looked down at the slip in her hands and read it, a hollow gasp escaping her chest as she felt her body shake.
We have your partner. If you ever want to see her again, drive away now.
tangentwithtanner
