Chapter 7

The pain returned and it felt worse than before. She couldn’t help but let out a moan. Nicole still couldn’t open her eyes. She just felt her arm being lifted and another shot given to her. The agony faded as she fell into a blissful rest.

“I’m taking a few weeks vacation in the Bahamas to rest up and mend my back and jaw. That bitch did a number on me,” Nicole explained to her superior.

“I think you deserve it, my dear,” Zachary said as they sat in his office.

“I’ll call ahead and get you the best room possible down there. Also this rest and recuperation was for the damage done while you were on the job,” he told her.

“I’d like to sit on my ass for a year,” she said. “Perhaps find a lover who can give me all the loving I need. And I need a whole lot.”

“You’re a slut, aren’t you?” Zachary chuckled.

“Takes one to know one, doesn’t it?” Nicole laughed. “I’ve seen you with that hot brunette on your arm. She reminds me of Hedy Lamarr. She is one foxy woman.”

“We’re only friends,” he declared.

“Yeah, right!” Nicole got up to leave. “I bet she fucks you silly whenever you want. I’ve seen her with you at that party a year back. When she looks at you, there’s love in her eyes. I bet she loves giving you blow jobs too.”

“It’s more like lust, my dear,” Zachary smiled.

“Love or lust. It’s the same thing,” Nicole said at the door. She flashed him a bright smile then opened the door to leave.

Nicole stayed at the D.C. Hilton for a week. Her facial bruises which she hid with makeup, were allowed to heal naturally. She didn’t want to go to the Bahamas to show herself in a bikini with black and blue marks on her face, ribs, or back

News reached her that May was an important link between the person supplying the information the U.S.’s secrets and the ChiComs. Killing her cut the smooth running line in two. Like ants walking single file and one takes his finger to separate that line, you see the confusion of the ants trying to re-establish that file. Unknowingly, Nicole had broken that chain and she was wanted but no one knew who she was. There was no such agency listed anywhere for natural born assassins. All they knew she was tall, beautiful, and a redhead.

Upon reaching the vacation paradise, a man delivered her a package.

It was a glock with a silencer. Her hush baby. Small enough to keep in her shoulder strap handbag but it packed a wallop if she needed it. She took it everywhere she went. To the beach, to a bar, to somewhere she could get a good meal, and to a gym where she could brush up on her karate.

“Good afternoon,” a man smiled at her as she sat at a bar having a Singapore Sling. She looked up at him. He was a very good looking man with long black hair, dark eyes, and a well muscled body. He wore shorts and an unbuttoned shirt. What intrigued her the most was his French accent.

“Good afternoon,” she replied.

“First time here in the Bahamas?” he asked.

“First time in three years,” she answered.

“Pierre du Lach,” he introduced himself.

“Nicole Black,” she smiled.

“May I please buy you a drink?” Pierre inquired.

“Another of these,” Nicole showing him the glass that was empty.

“A cognac for me and another one of what the lady is having,” he told the bartender. The man nodded and went to fill the order. “What brings you down here?”

“I’m on vacation,” she said.

“What do you do?”

“I work out of Washington as a lobbyist,” Nicole smiled.

“For what organization?”

“I’m free lance. I’ll take my clients’ interests to the Senate and House.

I give them my pitch to convince them to vote my way or to put it in a bill earmarked for the President’s desk.”

“I see!” the man grinned. To Nicole she saw that Pierre hadn’t any idea what she told him. Either that and wanting to get into her panties or he feigned to have no knowledge on the subject. His eyes were hard for her to read.