Day and Night

Chapter 31

Anna 'Anastasia' Colton was a hitter for Mace Malone. She had been recruited a few months ago, and had been lured away from her earlier boss by better money. Personal loyalty wasn't something she really did.

(Mind you, she had killed at least one boss for trying to screw her over. There were some things you just did NOT take.)

Anyway... she was waiting for the boss to assign her another hit. Taking out Hernadez a few weeks ago had been WAY too easy. That evening she was out casing another target for Mace, checking out the logistics of the hit.

People often didn't think about all the planning it took for carrying out a good hit. You needed to scope out the target, figure out where you could hit them, their schedule, and most importantly how you could escape clean. No hitter wanted to get a target then end up being taken out themselves by either cops or bodyguards.

Watching him eat at a fancy restaurant from a nearby alley Anna frowned, "Way too damn public," she muttered to herself.

"Hiiiii," a cheerful voice came from behind her.

Anna yelped, spinning around as she went for her concealed pistol.

Hyena swiftly reached out and grabbed her by the throat, the woman smiling at her in a distinctly crazed way.

"Hurk," Anna made a choking sound, struggling to get her gun out.

Hyena cheerfully noted, "If we were intending to let you live, I'd use you to send a message back to Mace."

'Oh hell, fuck..,' Anna thought, struggling.

"But I guess YOU are the message," Hyena added, and with her inhuman strength snapped her neck wetly.

As things went dark, Anna wished she had at least gotten off a shot at the bitch.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"They did WHAT?" Mace Malone blurted.

"The Pack killed three of our hitters," Dimitri told him, "Anna, Cortez and Smith."

"Fuck," Mace blinked. He had liked Anna, as far as it went. She was efficient and non-messy in nailing a target. "How do we know it was the Pack?" he checked.

"A bystander spotted Jackal leaving the scene for Smith," Dimitri said.

"Fuckers. Goes that mean Pack is directly working for Dacon?" he wondered aloud.

"Could be they're just working as mercenaries," Dimitri pointed out. He added, "The cops know that they're associated with us, so I expect the Detectives to come."

"Just what we need," Mace muttered.

They were based in an office building downtown, as part of his 'merchant' cover. The building was owned by the Illuminati, hidden through various shell companies. He had a good sized office and such, though much of the rest of the suite of rooms went unused. Mace wasn't stupid enough to store incriminating files there.

"Did any of 'em have families?" Mace asked.

"Cortez. Estranged wife," Dimitri told him.

Mace grunted. "So no one to come at us later?" he mused. He then asked, "Which detective is investigating?"

"Catherine Devane," Dimitri relayed, "Redhead, slightly older, NOT bribe-able at all," he said to him briskly.

"We tried?" Mace had to ask.

"A previous boss tried to pay her to look the other way," Dimitri related, "she wore a wire to the meet, busted his second in command."

"Ouch," Mace made a face. He decided, "Increase the bounty on the Pack. I want their heads, whomever they're working for."

"Yes sir," Dimitri agreed.

"And we're going to have to find new hitters, too," Mace muttered. He might need to contact his bosses in the illuminati, too...

"I'll put the word out," Dimitri agreed.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"You did WHAT?" Jessica Nicholes blurted.

"I kissed Ms Destine," Alicia admitted.

It had started as a conversation about why Alicia would leave such an important position as Dominique's assistant. Jessica was honestly curious, plus she wanted to know if something could spill over onto her. Then Alicia blurted out THAT.

Jessica shook her head, "Wow. Just... wow."

Alicia looked sheepish.

"Mind you, I can't blame you," Jessica admitted ruefully, "she's hot."

Alicia looked at her in surprise, "Seriously? I hadn't thought you..."

"And I didn't think YOU were either," Jessica pointed out reasonably.

"Ah. Point," Alicia admitted.

"And if you are interested in the boss, it does make sense to not be in her direct chain of command," Jessica noted, being in Human Resources.

"Good to know," Alicia nodded.

"And other than that, I'm staying out of it," Jessica said firmly. She added, "Let's get to it."

"Right," Alicia nodded, and set to work.

Alicia quickly discovered that Jessica's last assistant had utterly messed up her schedul;ing. Which certainly explained why the woman was cranky. She was also heavily overbooked, which Alicia started taking steps to fix.

"Just checking, do you prefer back to back meetings all morning?" Alicia poked her head into Jessica's office to ask.

"God no," Jessica noted. "It just seemed to work out that way, according to Maxine."

"Right. Fixing it," Alicia nodded and went back to her desk.

Lunch rolled around, and Alicia got her usual. Then she put another order in, asking it to be delivered to Dominique's office.

"Why am I not buried in whining people?" Jessica asked later that afternoon.

"Maxine had you overbooked. I've spaced the apointments out a bit," Alicia reported. "Do you have a time of day you want appointments to stop?" she checked.

"You can do that?" Jessica blinked.

"Yes ma'am," Alicia reassured her. 'I can't tell if Maxine was screwing with her, or just very bad at her job,' she thought mentally.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Dominique's first full day without Alicia was pure hell.

The young man was polite, if timid, but seemed inept. Tho admittedly that was probably just in comparison to Alicia. The only bright spot was the surprise lunch Alicia sent over, and even that was a bit spoiled by eating it alone.

"Ms Destine, I'm heading home," the young man said, interrupting her thoughts.

"Right, thank you Chris," Dominique said, glad she remembered his name. A bit guiltily she added, "Sorry if I was in a bad mood today."

"It's fine," he smiled weakly. "Good night."

Dominique finished her paperwork, noting she was done later than usual. Probably because her daily apointments hadn't been as well managed.

Her phone ringing got Dominique's attention. She saw the number and smiled, "Alicia?"

"Dominique," Alicia sighed. "Has your day been as awful as mine?" she asked lightly.

Dominique couldn't help but chuckle, "You realize this is YOUR fault, right?" she pointed out.

"I'm really sorry," Alicia sighed. "I was wondering... could we go get dinner together, maybe?" she asked tentatively.

"I'd like that," Dominique agreed willingly. "Should we meet up somewhere or...?"

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Dominique opened the door to a smiling Alicia, holding her cellphone. "Hi," she smiled as she hung up.

"That was easy," Dominique chuckled. "Let's get out of here," she decided.

"This does feel a little wierd," Alicia noted after Dominique locked up her office and they took the elevator down.

"I need to figure out how to relate to you seperate from work," Dominique agreed willingly. "I'm okay with that, though."

"Me too," Alicia agreed as they hit the ground floor.

"I could call a car for us," Dominique suggested, "or there's some nice places to eat nearby. We could walk over."

"I'd like that," Alicia agreed, taking one of her hands.

To be continued...

Notes: Wanted the Pack to do something, and I wanted Tony Dacon to actually hit back at Mace. So I combined both things.