Geoff sighs as he sits in his penthouse. It's rather lonely up here. Griffon didn't want to move in yet, wanting to get a few things taken care of at home before she does. He doesn't blame her: they've only been together for about five months. He gets up and goes to the minibar and gets himself a drink. He picks up a phone as it rings.
"Hey Burnie. What's up?" He says, taking his drink to the sofa and sitting down, flipping on the TV.
"Dude, there's someone you need to check out. I don't know how Luna found her, but she's fucking amazing." Burnie Burns says excitedly.
"Whoa whoa whoa! Who the hell are you taking about? Also, in case you haven't noticed, I have a girlfriend." Geoff says with a cold edge.
"No no no! She's, uh…" there's a shuffle of paper, "she's a mercenary. She's pretty handy with a gun but also phenomenal at handling anything that flies. Miles found her and she just went on a mission with us. Absolutely recommend her."
"Alright what's her name and where can I find her?" Geoff grabs a pen and some paper.
"Her name's Jack, short for Jackeline. She works at the florist downtown… what's it called…"
"Say It With Flowers?" Geoff suggests, having gone there a few times to get something for Griffon.
"Yeah! That's the place! She's the ginger that works there."
"Yeah I've seen her before." Geoff nods and writes that down.
"Alright… now you have to order a specific bouquet for her to know it's a job. It's called a mourning glory, then "deliver" it to the site of the job at what time."
"Is that a pun?" Geoff raises an eyebrow as he writes that down too.
"Yeah… her coworker makes them constantly. You can't go in without her saying "God dammit Barb!" at least once." Burnie laughs.
"Alright. Thanks for the intel. I'll make sure to ask for her on the next mission." Geoff says, then hangs up. Interesting… this could become a very lucrative business partner indeed.
††††††††††††
"Jack you have another customer!" Barbara Dunkleman calls out, one of Jack's coworkers.
"Thanks Barb!" Jack waves and takes her place at the cash register. The next customer is a man in a well-made suit and a well-groomed mustache. "Hello sir, how may I help you?" She asks cheerily.
"I'd like a mourning glory, please." He says, which makes Jack freeze for a quick second. Oh. He's one of those customers.
"I'm sorry sir, we don't have that." Jack says, as she normally does, to make sure it's a real job.
"I was told by a friend you do. I believe you've seen him here before? Brown hair, glasses, usually has some stubble, name repeats itself?" The man raises an eyebrow and smooths his mustache, showing off the tattoos on his hand.
Jack nods. Alright… trusted source. She remembers Burnie Burns well, if only for his unusual name. "Ah… alright sir. I'll get that to you as soon as I can." She takes out a pen and paper and writes the order down.
"Deliver it here," he gives an address, "at 8 in two days."
"Yes sir." She nods, charges him the usual rate of $20 plus tax, and then sighs.
"So he seemed important." Barb says after the man leaves, leaving the shop empty, per usual on a weekday afternoon.
"Yeah… got one of those orders. It's in two days." Jack shakes her head. "Maybe I should give up that lifestyle."
"I won't tell you what to do. Frankly, it's your life and do as you will, but be careful, alright? Your second life is what keeps this place open." Barbara shrugs.
"Well, then I just have to keep it up." Jack chuckles. "Give you a job, since you can't make money with godawful puns."
"I could become a comedian." Barbara muses, starting to get a couple of the bouquets ordered ready.
"See, they have to be funny for you to be a comedian." Jack snickers.
"Hey at least I have a sense of humor!" Barbara purses her lips. "You're just a stick in the mud. You don't know jack shit about comedy." She looks genuinely upset for a moment, before she snorts. "Jack shit."
"Goddammit Barb!"
††††††††††††
Jack checks her silenced pistol, making sure it's all in working order. It is, so she holsters it then grabs her belt of nonlethal grenades, such as flashbangs and smoke grenades. She's not a big one for loud and noisy explosions. Stun them, blind them, then move in for the kill. That's how she works. She then grabs her trusty pocket knife, flicking out the blade and checking it for rust or damage. Once again, her equipment is in perfect working order. She hums in satisfaction as she clips it to her belt, adding a crowbar for forced entry on her back.
She checks her watch. Almost time to go. "Alright… do this then I can get a good sum of money… put some towards the shop and ship in some new flowers, then put the rest to moving to a nicer place." She murmurs to herself as she looks at her apartment. It's in an… okay part of Los Santos. Sure it's not in the "nice" downtown area with the penthouses, and certainly not the ritzy north area. But the crime rate is less where she is, and she can at least walk to work without too much fear of getting jumped. Which is why she keeps her knife on her at all times.
She straps on her body armor, altered to accommodate her bust, then she slings on her red leather jacket, the leather adding a bit more protection. She leaves her apartment, locking it right, then grabs her motorcycle and rides out to the "delivery" point.
She pulls into an alley to stash her bike as she gets close, and then sneaks to the point. She looks around, finding a building that's lightly guarded. Good. Seems like they aren't expecting anyone. On light feet, she steals her way over to the side of the building and checks the windows. No one is nearby. She's immediately put on edge as her brain starts to think more, perhaps too much.
They could either be confident in their safety, or they could be planning an ambush, to trap her then execute her. She shakes her head and she uses the crowbar to pry up the window, breaking the lock on it with a bit of force.
She slips inside and pulls out a smoke grenade, the chemicals modified to make it a knockout gas. She walks down the hallway and looks around a corner, but again the place is empty… what the hell? She's even more on edge now. She puts the knockout gas away and then pulls out a flashbang, walking towards where she hopes the target is.
It takes some time, but then Jack arrives to a door where there's a couple guards posted outside and she chucks the knockout gas, waiting for them to pass out. While she does so, she hears footsteps coming from several directions and she quickly dives into an empty room before the feet pass her. Seems like it was an ambush, then she hears cries and coughs, before it gets quieter. Seems like a few of them were knocked out.
She opens the door and peeks out, about a dozen conscious guards are looking around, five know unconscious. She pulls her head back into the room before she's seen and looks around for a way to move without being seen. She spots a vent, but dismisses it. She can't fit in there. She listens, hearing the guards move and then the sound of different doors opening. She dives under a desk and freezes just as the door opens, hoping her black clothing will keep her hidden. She controls her breath so it's nearly silent, her heart pounding as the sound of three sets of footsteps walk around the room. She quietly unholsters her pistol, readying it but not cocking it. The click would give her away.
"Why the fuck are we doing this?" One of the guards grumbles, checking around but not searching.
"Because someone is trying to kill the boss. Or do you think that knockout gas was an accident?" Another guard snaps in reply, actually searching if someone is in the room, frustrated with the others.
"Hey, maybe they bailed. This is a waste of time. I agree with Kate." The third responds.
"Thanks Ally." The first, Kate, replies, sounding triumphant.
Jack hears the footsteps near her position and as the banter continues she cocks her gun.
"Well fuck you guys!" The second guard huffs loudly, masking the click of the pistol. "Here I thought I could work well with you, but no, you have to be a pain in the ass!"
"Oh calm down James." Ally says playfully. "It's just some teasing."
"We don't tease while on duty, in case you forgot what the boss did last time he found someone goofing off. He was in the infirmary for three weeks." James reminds the two ladies, who fall silent.
In that moment of stillness Jack can feel her heart pounding, blood roaring in her ears… how could they not hear it. She can see the feet of James, see them tense as he prepares to crouch. It's not or never. She kicks him in the dick then as he collapses she shoots him in the head, then she diverolls over the body and shoots both Kate and Ally. Ally goes down with the bullet slicing through her neck, hitting the jugular. She bleeds out in moments. Kate, meanwhile, lets out a cry of pain as her shoulder is hit, Jack's aim just a little too low.
"You cunt!" She screams before she starts firing at Jack. Jack rolls out of the way but lets out a cry as a bullet hits her right arm, lodging in there. That'll need medical attention. Shit. She swaps hands and fires again, having trained herself to be ambidextrous. The bullet hits its mark and Kate goes down with a bullet between the eyes.
Jack lowers the gun, panting, taking a moment to collect herself before she sprints from the room and to a different one, the open door marking it's been searched, and she presses herself against the wall as she listens to the trample of feet. So the other guards had heard that, huh? Meaning they'd be on the lookout for her. Meaning she's stuck here for now.
She pulls out a couple flashbangs and sticks her thumbs through the rings on the pins, ready to pull it then throw them, wanting to give herself an opening. She grits her teeth as pain flares from the bullet wound, but the adrenaline is doing it's job to keep the pain mostly muted. She can definitely feel the blood dripping down her arm. But guards first, injury later.
As the footsteps get close she takes a calming breath and pulls the pins on the grenades, lobbing them. As the cries go up as people are blinded she sprints through the throng of people and drops a smoke grenade behind her. Damn. That was her last one. Let's hope this ends soon, she thinks.
Her grenades do well to cover her tracks, and she managed to bind her arm enough o keep a blood trail from happening. See? Completely stealthy.
Thank god, she sighs in relief as she sees she got away. She dashes in light feet back to the way to the target, chuckling softly as she sees the way is clear. She gets to the door and with quick fingers she types the password, having received it from a friend. She opens the door and slips inside, closing it behind her. She creeps forward and then frowns. The room is empty.
Fucking hell. If this is a dead fucking end... Jack thinks angrily, continuing onward. She sneaks through a few empty rooms, listening intently, before she freezes as she hears a sound from behind a closed door. She presses her back against it and listens closer. Alright, seems she's found the bathroom. This'll be interesting.
She takes a deep breath and opens the door softly. There's a man washing his hands at this point, head down and back to her. Perfect. She closes and locks the door before she sneaks forward and then she pulls out her silenced pistol. She covers the man's mouth with her hand before putting two bullets into his back. After searching him for anything valuable, she leaves the room and climbs out a nearby window, vanishing into the night.
††††††††††††
Mr. Ramsey soon became a regular at Say It With Flowers, usually asking for a mourning glory, but getting a bouquet for his girlfriend as well. However, with the frequency of the visits, Jack can't help but wonder if maybe there's something else. If maybe he and his girlfriend are fighting and Jack's taken his interest instead. She can't be sure.
After a couple months of irregular jobs she finally confronts him about it after a rather surprising and sudden phone call. "Mr. Ramsey?"
"Just Geoff is fine. Look, I want to ask you something. Something improbably."
Jack swallowed hard. If she's correct, well, this could cause a lot of issues. "I wanted to ask you something as well." She admits, and Geoff falls quiet. He could pick up the tone in her voice.
"What is it?" He asks, wondering what the hell it could be.
"Well, I don't think we should work together anymore. I don't want to hurt Griffon like that." She blurts out.
"Hurt Griffon? Why would you..." Geoff stops himself as he catches her meaning, then he starts laughing. "You think? Oh God no! Nononono! Nothing like that!" He shakes his head, despite knowing she can't see it. "All those visits and jobs weren't because I was hitting on you!" Geoff protests.
"Oh thank God. It was getting really awkward." Jack chuckles. "But what were they fore, then?"
"I want to start my own gang, kinda, and I was scoping you out. That's why all the tasks were different, or most were," Geoff explains. "I wanted to know how'd you'd fare against anything that was thrown your way... and I'll be honest, I may have called the cops on you a couple times."
"That was you?!" Jack says in surprise. "What the fuck I nearly died!"
"I had to make sure you'd hold your own against them! And you passed with flying colors, I might add."
Jack sighs. "Fine. You're off the hook this time Ramsey. But you mentioned a gang... I'd be the first member?"
"Yup."
"Alright, count me in!" Jack laughs as he gives a cheer. "We have a name?"
"Yeah, the FAHC."
"The fuck does that stand for?"
"Sorry Jack, that's a secret."