Disclaimer: I don't own Human Target and intend no copyright infringement.
"I was hired to find out if she was in some kind of trouble", Harry explained, wiping sweat beads off his forehead. "Her father wanted to know if she was getting mobbed at school or taking drugs or something. Easy gig, you know? Peace of cake for a man of my abilities." He wiped his forehead again.
"Dude, when the boss of one of the two most powerful criminal organizations of the westcoast hires you, there's nothing harmless about it."
"I figured she was only a girl, sixteen, how much trouble could she cause...?" Harry buried his face in his hands.
"Judging from the fact that you had Nelly hide at the farm, a lot. Now tell us what happened, Harry." Chance poured his shaking friend a stiff drink. Italian gangland boss Luciano Galotti, archenemy of Tony Bevilacqua, was involved in this. Trust Harry to attract the wrath of the worst people available.
"Galotti had noticed that his daughter was losing weight, her marks were suddenly dropping, all in all she seemed absent-minded and worn down by something. So I got hired to find out what was wrong with her and I don't know how..."
Winston and Guerrero both rolled their eyes more or less openly. This was Harry. The possibilities of how things could go wrong were potentially endless.
"...I don't know how", Harry repeated, "but she figured out I was following her and set a trap for me."
"She set a trap for you?" Winston shook his head. "A sixteen year old girl?"
"Kids can be quite cunning." Harry was indignant. "And she's Luciano Galotti's daughter after all." He paused. "It was a really mean trap."
"What happened, Harry?" Guerrero was losing his patience fast.
"She made me... made me..." Harry's voice trailed off, the rest of the sentence became an incoherent jumble.
"We can't hear you, Harry..." Winston was getting impatient, too.
"It's okay, Harry, spit it out, nobody is going to judge you here." Chance gave his friends a pointed look of the warning kind. This was serious. Next to Tony Bevilacqua, Luciano Galotti was the worst man to piss off this side of the continent.
"She made me talk", Harry confessed, hanging his head in shame. "Made me spill the beans about her father hiring me."
"A sixteen year old girl made you talk? How in the world...?" Another strict glance from Chance silenced Winston, but Guerrero's professional interest had been woken.
"What did she use? Drugs or devices?"
"Guerrero..." Chance was getting tired of this. He really wanted to help Harry, but he was losing precious time with Ash over this. In hindsight, his son's questions regarding his job and the methods he was using seemed more than a bit odd. Had Joubert hinted at something? They needed to talk about this again.
"Extension studies, dude. You can never know enough about other people's weaknesses."
Chance urged Harry with a nod to continue.
"So I told you what her father had hired me for. She was shocked. Started paving the room for ages, even went outside for a while, said she needed a breath of fresh air..."
From the look on Harry's face they could tell the worst was yet to come.
"When she came back, she said she was seeing a boy her father would never approve of. She said him hiring me proved to her that he would never let her make her own choices, he would control her and not let her be happy."
"The boy have a name?" Guerrero voiced the all important question.
"Adriano Bevilacqua", Harry said flatly.
Tony Bevilacqua's grandson. Dammit.
"But that's not all..."
"Harry, what could possibly be worse than getting involved into an issue of that kind between teenagers of rivaling families?" Chance poured himself a stiff drink.
"Sandrina, Galotti's daughter, told me that she and Adriano woud never be allowed to live in peace together and thus they're now going to the only place where they can be together forever...after that she left. I tried locating her or Adriano, but both have disappeared...found a note in Sandrina's room...hid it from her father." He showed the note to the others. It was a suicide note.
A long silence followed. Two young lives, lost to idiotic tragedy... Finally Winston spoke up: "You know, from Galotti's point of view you could be blamed for that...you spilt the beans...and I guess Bevilacqua wouldn't argue that point."
"Tell me you can help me." Harry was practically pleading.
"I can make it quick and painless...", Guerrero offered.
Chance, who was in the process of rereading the note, shook his head.
"Yeah, not helpful, I know", Guerrero said. This was a damn dire situation.
Chance shook his head again. "That's not what I meant", he said.