Friendly Fire

CHAPTER 4 : JADE

Moving to River-View was the best, rush decision she could have made well if she wasn't chasing down a target. The town was tucked away between two hills. It was almost like it was a town made for hiding. Geographically, the town was situated on what seemed to be a riverbed. On either side of the town were what looked like canyons but were just folds of land. She was lucky enough to arrive when the sun was setting and it was a sight to behold as the sun looked like it was trying to fit between the folds. It was not hard to locate the bank and the realtor’s office which were strategically placed a block away from each other. It took a few hours for her to get her finances in order and marched next door- block rather- to the realtor's office where her next step was to find an apartment that would be easy for her to track her target. Minutes later, she was seated in the realtor's office, Mr. Leland Greene it read, and she hoped that wasn't a mistake.

“Hello, welcome to Greene-Realtors, how can I help you this lovely afternoon,” Mr. Greene greeted with a smile.

“Hi, I am Jade. I am looking for an apartment to rent, a not-so-grand kitchen, a balcony and It should also be furnished. I have no time to go furniture shopping. While we are at it, it should have a gym or pool,” Jade stated without stuttering and was not surprised when the realtor was all but gawking at her. She was used to it, people, men especially, were always shocked whenever she spoke so calmly yet with so much confidence. Seconds later, after the realtor had recovered from his shock, he rapidly tapped at his iPad and turned it so Jade could look at the few slides he had. Without thinking much of it, she picked one apartment building that stood out to her.

“Well I am happy to inform you that this building actually fits all your requirements, it is a little expensive though, are you sure you can manage?” Mr. Greene asked with what looked like worry, smugness, or was it attitude- in his eyes Jade couldn’t tell. There and then, Jade pulled out her platinum credit card together with the identification and handed it over to the realtor who at this point was openly gawking.

“Uhm, this will take a couple of days to process while we do our customary background checks and other nitty-gritties,” Greene spoke. Jade nodded in agreement.

“Where and how can we reach you as you wait? he asked.

“I will be staying at the motel across the road, if you need anything here's my card and my lawyer's number,” Jade answered.

“Right. So just fill in this form and we will contact you in three days.” Greene said while offering Jade a folder. She filled out the lease form and took her leave.

While waiting for all the procedures and what not to be completed, she booked a hotel nearby so she could decompress. It had been a long week for her. First the totally unplanned move her ex-target suddenly uprooted themselves and that meant she too would be moving, then the accessing and transfer of all her precious items from one storage, to finally getting a room close to her new self-appointed project.

She hoped to never get contacted for a take-out again. She wanted to live a soft peaceful life and had been considering retiring after this job. Running away from her past, so that she could start over, that was her wish. And for once, she wanted her wishes granted. Wanting to retire as a hitman, woman, in this case, was not as simple as it seemed. Most of her contracts were passed down to her by her aunt which meant she was her boss. The main reason she did what she did was so that she could avenge her parent's death. as a hitman, she could get access information even before the authorities did. Lately, all her leads were dead ends. Whenever she thought she had a lead on the drive-by shoot-out, the witness ended up dead or she got contracted for some job. By the time she came back, whatever she had gathered ended up being useless. it was getting exhausting and time-consuming but mostly suspicious.it was easy for her to just retire and begin a new life.

Retirement to her meant she would have enough money to be whoever she wanted. the first thing on her list was a shot at companionship. she didn't even know whether she had a heart to love anything or anyone so she would start with a pet, or a plant, something that dint demand too much of her attention. her former housemate thought her life needed something cute and colorful. Her current career was anything but cute and colorful hence her need to retire. She didn't think she had parental instincts to take care of anything living and breathing, it would die of neglect. other than her aunt, who couldn't stand people, and her experimental roommate, she was a loner. The most contact she had with anyone at a given moment was when she got her tattoos done and that took 16hrs. She never envied the happy couples she saw on the streets or in movies. Memories of her parents were getting vaguer every day. Were they happy? Did she want that for herself? Was retirement really the solution? She couldn't help but feel like she would be abandoning the one person that saved her. These questions kept her up most of the night but the one she couldn't figure out was, why powerful people wanted a single parent taken out? There was more to it and she would be damned if she was going to let it get past her. Until she figured it out, there would be no retiring or soft life for her.