Renee took a glass of champagne from the tray as the waiter moved slowly through the crowd. She scanned the crowd with a deep sigh before sipping her drink. Formal affairs were the worse but it was a nice change of pace. It was almost weird to see this many adults in a room looking at each other and not at a phone.

As such, her eyes met her accomplice. A different waiter on the far side of the room. He turned towards a small group of men talking, first with his body, then his head. That was the signal. She looked into the group of men, hoping the mark would be facing her. Renee moved through the crowd towards the men, smiling and nodding at people until she felt a hand slip something into hers. She diverted a few steps to lean against the bar, discreetly but quickly looking around. She looked back at her accomplice and gave a nod. She waited a beat until she saw the mark separate from the crowd. Good.

Renee looked at the note in her hand and nearly panicked.

“Nice to see you, Shadow.” That’s all it said. That’s all it needed to say.

“My, you look absolutely stunning, Renee,” a man behind her said. She sighed. The bartender left but not without swiping a decent stack of bills that were set down behind her first.

Renee turned to face her stalker, “I’m sorry. You are?,” she said with a smile.

“Oh cmon. Don’t you know who I am?”

“Yup, I just don’t care.”

He looked down at the needle positioned just a millimeter from his gut. She was good. Better than he was informed.

“That’s supposed to be for the gentleman coming this way for what I can only assume is a whiskey—“

Renee cut him off as she leaned into him. She pushed the syringe some, but he was right. This wasn’t for him.

“Go to the bathroom, Cobra. Die in peace or maybe you’ll just be sick enough to get carried out of here.”

He took a deep breath and nodded. She retracted the syringe and hoped it came out clean. Her stalker walked away and she quickly positioned herself behind the bar as her mark approached.

“Now, I do not believe a woman as beautiful as you are here to serve us tonight.”

“You’d be correct. But the bartender has seemed to skip off and well and some of us lived humble lives once,” she said with a smile. “What’s your drink, kind sir?”

“Scotch, oldest thing you got.”

“Um, that would be the Senator over there,” she said with a discreet point and a smile.

He turned quick enough for her to finish off the syringe behind the bar, into a glass and pick it up. She reached for a good bottle of scotch and poured him a double.

“Generous,” he said with a smile. “You look new to these things?”

“These things, yes. Not much else. Renee Dubois,” she said holding out his drink.

“Ah, mon cherie,” he said in a bad accent, “Reginald Green,” he replied as he took her hand.

“Oh, not that Green, surely?,” she said as he took the drink. “The big man behind the clean energy brands?”

“Yes. It would seem it was destiny,” he said with a chuckle before taking and kissing her hand.

“Indeed,” she said. A satisfied grin claimed her face as he knocked the drink back like a pro. If he wasn’t such a thief, this could be an interesting conversation. She took his glass, letting her fingers gently brush over his before pouring another double for him and one for herself.

“Well, to a brighter future,” she said before clinking his glass, and knocking the drink back.

She had him hooked. Old men weren’t that hard to impress. He took her hand and guided her around the bar. Renee looked around for her stalker. Satisfied that she had lost him, she found her accomplice and began walking Mr. Green toward the back of the room. They’d stop here and there to indulge in the small talk of the regulars. The men nodded, never asking who she was. The women stared her down, not daring to ask but suspecting the worse. It was the perfect cover. Just another woman. Just another gold digger. But she had to count the seconds that passed. She had to get him close to that server’s staging area, had to get the timing right. Hoped there was just enough to get him to pass out or die. The employer didn’t care which and neither mattered for the pay.

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D. Ondria

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