A quick look through the eyes of someone else!
A few weeks earlier…
"James De Santa," Miro read the name off the screen. "That's the job you told me about yesterday, right?"
Felix nodded, as he straightened out in his chair.
"And the pay?"
He pulled up the details of the job, earning a laugh from Miro.
"No wonder no one's accepted it. For that little money, it's not worth anyone's time dealing with losers' online drama."
"The client did provide some incentive on why it'd be a job worth taking," Felix glanced at her before pulling up some in-game voice logs of their potential target.
Miro crossed her arms over her chest, listening in to the rather colorful language she was hearing. "And what did you find? Is this legit or am I about to kill some kid over an online spat?"
"Ohhh nooo this is very legit. I could send you hard drives of this kid running his mouth and being a piece of shit. He's some rich kid living off daddy's money in Rockford Hills that probably feels like he can do whatever he wants because the world owes him a living."
"Ahh, so it's one of those guys," Miro rocked on her heels. "Alright. Tell your boy I'll do my community service. Send me the details, I'll have it done by the end of the day."
After taking her leave and sorting through the rest of the day, she was packing up for the gym when she got the final details from Felix about her target. Ahh nothing like a pre-workout rush to get the blood flowing. Making her way, she got a cab to drop her off a ways from the house, opting to walk the rest of the way. As she strolled along, she looked over the details one last time. According to Felix, their target's I.P address had been online all day which meant the home address was the way to go. Only problem was that others lived in that residence. She had the option of luring him out or sneaking in, nothing she hadn't done before plus it was quicker. She would need to take extra precaution as to not alert the others in the residence though, especially if she didn't want to have more casualties than intended.
Quick job, quick money. Now onto getting on the property. Rockford Hills, even she knew with her limited knowledge that those were some pretty fancy houses. Felix told her the house bordered some very busy streets, so it'd be hard to hop a gate or suddenly disappear behind bushes to then hop a fence without looking suspicious in daylight but that there was a more vulnerable area on the southeast side by the tennis court. Awesome. With that fresh in her mind, she was all ready to get this done and be on her merry way to the gym… that is, until she passed by a taqueria that had a sign out advertising its horchata.
The temptation hit her hard. Oh how she could just savor it… along with the concha being advertised alongside it….. Fuck it, pre-workout carbs. The dude wasn't going anywhere.
Half an hour later…
"The fuck is this shit," Miro stood in the middle of the empty residence after sneaking her way in. She had entered through an open bathroom window and immediately noticed how quiet everything was. Slowly proceeding, she easily found her target's bedroom only to find it empty. Slowly sneaking around, she found the whole place to be empty. Great. Now she was left with two options, wait it out, or come back later. Well wait, it wasn't like this person was worth a lot of money and her time for her to wait it out and play predator. She'd come back some other day. Now that she knew that the bedroom was right next to her escape route, it would be an easy in and out.
With that over with and her back on the street, she started making her way to the gym when she got a call from Felix.
"It's off!"
"What?"
"The hit! It's off!"
"What?"
"Where are you?!"
"Going to the gym," she replied slowly, weary of his urgency.
"Did you kill the De Santa boy?!"
"What?"
"The client called the hit off! He had some second thoughts and apparently was afraid of whatever consequences there might be, so he called it off."
"Psh, I'm a professional. There would be no consequences. But no, I went to the place and it was empty. Guess everyone's time was wasted today."
Stuffing her phone into her bag, she reached a crosswalk and nearly did a double take at what she saw. It was a man in his underwear stumbling around looking a little disoriented while yelling out some stuff she couldn't make out. This city never ceased to amaze her. Everyone was just ignoring this man, minding their own business. He was probably homeless. Why else would people just ignore? But… homeless people didn't really look like that. That guy looked, clean.
Shaking her head, it wasn't her business either. But she couldn't help but glance over, curious as to what led for this guy to end up like that. But still, nope. She kept glancing over and noticed a cop approaching. Nope, still not her business… But what if this was a misunderstanding or the guy was a victim of something. The cop had no way of knowing that. He just needed any reason to throw a transient in jail. Ohh she'd feel hella bad if this dude was some good dude and she let this cop take him away. Ughhh.
She ran over, calling after the officer to get his attention. She explained that she knew the man and when questioned why he was near naked wandering around, the first thing that popped into her mind was to say that he was on some very strong medication.
"Have you ever seen those wisdom teeth videos where they're all messed up when they wake up? Yeah, it's kinda like that. Can't take your eyes off them for a second otherwise they wander disoriented into town," she laughed slowly, hoping he bought it. Much to her relief he did. He let her off with a warning for the public indecency, whatever the fuck that meant, the man wasn't naked. But whatever, the cop was gone and now here she was with this man that now upon closer inspection was definitely on some trip.
She tried talking to him and offered him a bottle of water, but it was as if she wasn't even there. He just kept stumbling around, cursing some dude named Jimmy while she followed right on his heel. It wasn't until he stopped and lied down and just stared up at the sky that she had a feeling he'd be coming to soon. She was sitting next to him, scrolling through her phone when she started to hear him groan. This was it. She just knew it. Preparing for it, she called a cab for the man just to be safe.
When he slowly started to get up, she bolted upright to help him if needed. Good thing too because he puked and started to look around, appearing dazed but more conscious than before.
"Oh hey, are you alright?"
There was a small internal sigh of relief when he spoke for the first time. He asked where he was and she answered. She also remembered she still had the water bottle in her hand, so she offered it to him which he gladly took. She explained their little situation to which he thanked her. She actually felt good. He was just someone having a bad day… which reminded her of the suero she had in her bag. She had it for post workout but gladly offered it to him. He would need it more. That shit would work wonders especially after whatever trip he was on.
After some more light back and forth, the cab finally arrived, getting their attention. She paid the driver while the man got in. After their final goodbyes, the cab took off, bringing that to an end.
"You did good Vianey, you did good," she sighed to herself, looking at the time and noting that it was a little too late to get a workout before work. No biggie at least the time hadn't been a complete waste.
A few weeks later…
Miro lip synced to the song playing on the small portable speaker as she leaned back in the chair, feet propped up on the white foldable table. She was with the rest of the crew at the food truck under the usual overpass, getting ready to prepare for the day. She nearly fell back when the big man himself, Don Juan, shouted her name coming around the truck.
"Go to Felix now, we just received an open hit on him," he explained. "Hector, go too," he commanded to one of the men listening in from the truck's open window.
She immediately stood up. An open hit, huh? Guess they weren't the only ones offered the job. First come first serve for the prize.
She and Hector immediately took off with Hector behind the wheel. She tried calling Felix, but he wasn't answering. She wanted to think that it was too soon for anything to have happened, but there was no way of being sure with all the other groups basically making up 'Murder Inc' of the area.
"Felix must have really pissed someone off if the call basically went to everyone in the underground," Hector commented.
Miro nodded, pinching the bridge of her nose. "And it's not like we can just let him die, no matter how much of a pain his stupid antics can be for us."
Arriving at the building, Hector tossed Miro an earpiece as he pulled up around the back. Felix hadn't answered any of the calls so entering up through the fire escape was the best option. Miro went on up while Hector circled around the block looking for anyone suspicious.
Miro basically leapt her way up the railing until she reached Felix's open window. She slid in just in time to see Felix trying to fight off a woman on top of him, strangling him with a rag in one hand and trying to stab him with her knife in the other. Miro's presence was instantly known as the woman flung the knife at Miro's head. She barely managed to move aside but had no time to breathe as the woman was lunging at her with another blade. Miro could hear Felix coughing, trying to catch his breath as she evaded this woman's attack. This bitch was fast, Miro would give her that. But unfortunately, too open and sloppy. She had to control the woman's hand in order to gain control of the altercation. After the next predicted lunge, Miro used her knuckles to strike down on the back of the woman's hand just as she was retracting her blade, causing it to fall out of her hand. But the attacker caught it in the other and went to lunge at Miro, but Miro was able to cross block it and roll the woman's arm into a joint lock, pressing down on the middle finger bone. The woman flung her knife once again into her other hand just as Miro snapped her wrist. She lunged up from her lower angle but with a stomp to the quad of her leading leg, Miro caught her forearm and with another joint lock, broke her other wrist, disarming her and sending the blade into the woman's left upper quadrant where some of the big abdominal arteries resided.
"Finally," Miro let out a big sigh of relief, ignoring the cries of pain at her feet. "Felix, vamos," she motioned him along to the window. "Hector get your ass around here. Felix, gogogogogo."
"But what about-?"
"She's got two broken wrists and is bleeding out from major arteries in her abdomen. She'll be dead by the time someone in this building is finally brave enough to bust in and investigate the noises," she quickly collected the knives before exiting out the window with Felix close behind. They swiftly and quietly made their way down as Hector pulled up and took them away. They stopped at a nearby overpass near a homeless encampment to catch a breather and a quick check up on Felix.
Miro stretched and popped her back upon stepping out of the car. "I liked it better when I didn't have any friends. Didn't have to make my way across town to save their asses from other assassins."
"Yeah yeah," Felix waved dismissively as he opened the door and sat sideways out of the car.
"But hey," she stood in front of him, "You good?"
Felix looked up at her, nodding.
"Are you good?" Hector came from around the car. Upon Miro's confused expression, he pointed at his cheek.
Miro touched her cheek, mirroring Hector. There was blood on her fingers. The fuck? When did this happen? Wait- Did she actually get cut? That raggedy bitch! She looked at herself through the car window's reflection, trying to find any more cuts if the blood was just now seeping out. Luckily, she only found another on her forearm. Thank god. Wetting some tissues, she wiped off the blood and recollected herself while Hector and Felix settled back in the car. She told them to go on ahead because she wanted to check something out before they regrouped. She had to make sure a body was carted off before she could be fully satisfied.
Collecting her bag from the car, they went their separate ways with some deuces. She figured she'd walk around, hoping to hear sirens eventually and sure enough. Heading back to the scene, there was emergency personnel along with the usual nosy crowd across the street that flocked to flashing lights. She settled in amongst others on the sidewalk, trying to hear if they had anything interesting to say. When paramedics emerged with a covered body on a stretcher, the crowd then started to chatter. Satisfied, she rang Hector to let him know she was on her way back.
Weaving through the crowd, she nearly ran into a guy that suddenly stepped in front of her. He was about to snap at her, but the words caught in this throat as they stared at each other. This guy… looked familiar… really familiar… wait… no way… Her face lit up upon recognizing him.
"Hey, you're that guy! Hi!" she smiled up at him. He introduced himself and she did the same as they shook hands.
Wow, just wow. She never thought she would ever see him again after that day. But man was she ever glad she had stayed. He looked great, very handsome, fancy suit and all. She wasn't saying he was ugly before, but it wasn't like she was checking him out when he was half naked on a trip cussing out some dude that was probably responsible for the state he had been in. She had just been making sure he was ok, and he was. And now they were here, with him talking to her and her spacing the fuck out. Shit!
"I'm sorry, it's just… wow, you look great! Way better than that other day," she smiled up at him.
He held his arms out and let them fall to his sides, thanking her for the compliment. How cute, he was bashful. But in all seriousness, she was glad he was alright. When he literally tried to pay her back, she immediately refused despite his persistence. She helped him because she wanted to, and any form of payment would make her feel as if she had only done it for the reward. After another back and forth between them, he finally pocketed the money but still seemed insistent on making it up to her, so he offered her lunch. It wasn't necessary by any means but perhaps if she took him up on this significantly smaller offer, that would sate him. That and she was starting to get hungry. Working racked up an appetite.
As they started to make their way to the café, they casually walked passed the people lining the sidewalk as if she wasn't the one responsible for the scene across the street. With some light conversations here and there about this and that, the lunch was very enjoyable. When he revealed he was retired, she called bullshit. No way this dude was retired. Yeah, he seemed older than her, but that wasn't to say he looked old. Especially enough to be retired.
After some more light conversation, her phone rang. Fuck. One look at the screen… fuck. She had to take it. It was Don Juan. At first, she thought she was going to get chewed out for having run off. But instead, he told her she had consultations to attend to.
Oh. Well that was alright. But ugh, that meant she had to bring an end to her lunch with Michael.
"You don't have to pretend to be bummed out," he joked.
She scoffed at his jest. She had actually enjoyed herself and he was really good company. When they reached the oh so dreaded goodbye, he offered his services to her to still try to make it up to her. She was going to joke about him giving her a ride but refrained… but then again…
"Say no more. Let's go," he led her to his car and took her to where she needed to go without question.
Arriving, she thanked him one final time and told him to take care. The rest of her day progressed as it normally would have, some meetings here and there, 'business' discussions with Don Juan, helping prepare the truck for the night of business next to the pier, and looking over 'special orders'. Of the orders that had arrived, one had interestingly enough come from the boobie bar in town and another from some very 'barrio' parts.
It would turn out that the cholos needed someone gone and they were willing to pay a lot of money for it to be done. The boobie bar was more a case of a passive stalker turning aggressive and beginning to affect business because the star was growing concerned over her safety. No worries there, Miro was all over it. But no one failed to specify that she would have to dress the part.
"So you had to dress like a stripper?" Felix laughed as he lied on the couch of her loft, having settled into his temporary residence after the events of earlier that day. The place was very spacious and open plus he had company in Miro's dog, a Golden Shepherd named Daisy.
"No, I had to dress like a hooker," she plopped down on the adjacent couch as Daisy hopped up and settled in next to her. "I talked to the chick and she said this guy had a thing for 'special girls' and ran a route to pick them up. She told me that if I dressed similarly to her, I could probably get his attention and deal with him then. Obviously, I don't have clothes like that, so she told me there'd be a bag of clothes for me at the strip joint."
"And what about the cholo?"
She groaned. "He wasn't there. I'll try again tomorrow before we full on hunt him down."
Felix nodded before turning his attention back to the laptop on his chest.
"Have you found out who ordered for you to get clipped?" she asked, getting up to get ready to crash for the night.
"Not yet, but I think I have an idea. I'll keep you posted," he waved as she walked off.
She lazily waved back, reminding him the couch pulled out and to not be lazy as to not want to put in the effort to actually pull it out. But ultimately, she could give less of a damn. She was tired as fuck and her bed was calling her name.
The next morning could not fuck off for just a few more hours. She felt well-rested, but also like she could have done better with just a few more hours of sleep. That was the laziness talking and unfortunately for that, Miro's baby wanted her breakfast.
"Ok ok, vamos Daisy," she slowly got up and trekked down the stairs, greeting Felix along the way. After going through the morning routine, she sat lazily at the table watching some noon TV report by Weasel News.
"Hey Vianey," Felix spoke up from the couch.
She lazily glanced over at him.
"You remember when we first met and started working together and eventually got well acquainted that we made some agreements amongst ourselves?" To her nod he continued. "Well I think you'd like to know someone was snooping around your stuff."
Eyes narrowed, she was listening intently. "What kind of stuff?"
"San Fierro and Scarlett Jauregui kind of stuff."
She immediately went over to him. She didn't need to say anything. He already knew.
"It wasn't that long ago. First it was your school records at San Fierro. Initially, I thought it was just a random scroll through files in which yours passed by. But when the bank stuff got probed into as well, that's when this felt as if someone was looking for you. To add, the probing address came from here in Los Santos, Murrieta Heights. It's relatively close actually."
"Who."
"The same guy who put the hit on me."
Ahhh, now this was getting interesting. So all she had to do was go and take out this guy-
"No no, don't kill him. Just like, give him a scare."
"But this dude wanted you dead. Also, if he's probing into my shit then surely he must be with them. I can't have them on my ass already."
"I doubt it," Felix waved dismissively, "But if he is, then he's not the person you'd be after."
After some rational train of thought and a plan later, she found herself in Murrieta Heights. She had to wait for Felix to give her the open window for entering the residence undetected. Not even twenty minutes later…
"Felix, what's the last known location of one Michael De Santa?" she got in the car and began driving off into the city, eventually being directed to a movie theater. Comparing showtimes and how long Mr. De Santa had been in the theater, Felix gave her an estimate on when he would come out. It could be a while. Taking the chance to stroll around, she came across a familiar looking red car. It reminded her of the one she rode in yesterday… Michael's car… Michael… Michael De Santa…. Noooo.
Coincidence. Surely. Michael was a common name.
"Felix, could you ummm, could you by any chance happen to have a picture of my dude?"
Leaning against the car, she waited a few minutes until Felix sent her the picture. Fuuuuuuuuuuck. Of course something like this would happen to her. Is this what she got for finding an older man attractive? The higher powers could go fuck themselves.
She wasn't sure what to do. For certain she couldn't just leave it be. If he was associated with them, then it would only be a matter of time before more started showing up and potentially coming after her. Fuuuuck! She needed to think this through. She needed a blank space… Fernando Cruz, her target from the night before was a start. That would definitely clear her mind.
Taking Michael's car for herself, she went in search of her target, made surprisingly easy work of him, and returned just in time to wait it out behind the driver's seat. The door opened and with a soft groan Michael got in, phone in hand. That's when she made her presence known by pressing Cruz's gun into the back of Michael's head. She ordered him to begin driving then questioned him once they had started moving along. He seemed oblivious to her questions, denying association with anyone. When she kept questioning, he admitted to having been curious is all.
Curious? Sure Jan. She wasn't buying it. But then he mentioned their first meeting, insisting he wasn't with anyone out to get her. Fuuuuuck. She wanted to believe him. She really did. But this wasn't something she could just so easily tuck under the rug. Ultimately, she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and tucked the gun away. If this did come back to bite her in the ass, she could easily find out where he lived.
She climbed into the passenger seat, expressing her relief at not having to kill him. Getting comfortable, she slid down on the seat and reclined slightly as she looked over the info Felix had sent her earlier.
"So who do you owe money to?"
Wut. She glanced over at him and he repeated himself with more of an analysis on her situation. This fool…
She couldn't help the smirk. "My my aren't you as nosy as you are perceptive."
He knew a little too much about these kinds of things. Now she was certain he wasn't the standard law-abiding citizen. When he offered her a way to make money, she turned him down. She already had her job… and looking at his info, she now knew his. She also now knew something else that just crossed her mind. That one kid she was supposed to kill a few weeks ago… ha, holy shit.
"Hey, if you're so informed, would you happen to know a guy named Michael Townley?" the grin spread across her face at his reaction. "Apparently that guy really knows his way around getting money." It just kept getting better. He reached for her phone, but she held it away from him and pushed against his face with her free hand. When she mentioned Luden- however the fuck you say it, he reacted once again. When they stopped at an intersection, she tucked her phone away, bid him farewell, and got out of the car.
Back on the sidewalk, she recognized the street. She was getting hungry and if memory served her correct, the alleys could take her straight to a hot dog stand that should have been setting up by this time. She could make it there then back to the food truck before Don Juan got on her ass.
"Miro!"
Son of a bitch. She turned around to find a gun pointed at her. Bruh.
He was touchy that she knew that info about him but in all honesty, it all meant shit to her. She could care less. They each played their own separate games for any information on the other to even be useful. Yet the gun was still pointed at her. The way it was pointed… definitely arm. She sighed exaggeratedly, nearly whining. He wasn't going to shoot her. He didn't even look like he had the slightest intent to shoot her. And this definitely wasn't the first time she'd had a gun pointed at her.
Ah speaking of gun! She remembered Cruz's gun and tossed it to Michael. Something to add to the certain collection. When she mentioned Cruz in the trunk of his car, he appeared caught off guard. Well whatever, she had to get going.
"Ciao love," she waved at him. "I really need to skidaddle on out of here. I'm late for work." She turned around and started to walk away but she heard him call out Vianey, ooooooooo she stopped dead in her tracks. So it really was him!
With narrowed eyes she slowly turned back around only to find the gun now pointed at her head. She stifled a laugh. So now he was serious? Bitch please. She began to slowly approach him. His body was steady as a rock. But she knew he wouldn't do anything to her. She had been in more precarious situations. He would need an intent to kill if he wanted to do anything to her. Yet here he stood, firm yet unsure.
When he called her out on her words, she took him down, brandishing her personal weapon at his neck while sitting on his chest and digging her foot into his wrist. He let go of the gun to ease the strain on his wrist and basically submitted. But she wasn't budging. She could just kill him right now. Just the slightest bit of force for, oops, decapitation. It wasn't until her phone rang that the moment was gone.
With a groan she answered and sure enough, had to get going. She got off of him and helped him up yet for some ungodly reason, he was still offering his services to her. Christ.
When he brought up Cruz in the trunk, she had already forgotten about that. She came into town prepared to dispose of two bodies, but one of them was standing right next to her and well, yeah. He sighed, looking as if trying to collect himself amongst everything going on. She didn't even say anything, just started walking away. Reaching the end of the alley, she lucked out having immediately hailed a cab.
"Miro!"
Fuck.
She didn't even bother turning around. She got in and was surprised to see him squeeze in right after her. Dude was surprisingly fast. She told him to get out, but he refused, tossing money to the driver and ordering him to make as little stops as possible. Aha, smart. She wasn't going to be able to get away from him like this. And she didn't have the money to gain leverage with the driver. She had a feeling she wouldn't be getting rid of Michael anytime soon. If she gave him a random location, he would probably still follow as he had already. That would be a waste of time that could have gone into collecting her payments.
"Take me to Del Perro Pier," she gave in, slumping into the seat. Ugh, whatever. She'd figure something out.
