Ulio

I smiled at Ulio and said, "I have another john coming in an hour. I can't go with you but we can make do with the alley behind the bar, if you'd like?" I moved my hand up and down on his chest and walked further into his space. He got a good look at my cleavage and leered at me.

"I would have loved to have you for the night but I guess we gotta work with what we got, huh?" He said it all to my breasts. I was going to make it painful for him.

I laughed and pulled him with me to the back door that led to the alley. Once outside, I let him fondle my breasts to stop him from reaching inside my dress where my daggers were. He didn't see it coming as I lodged the push dagger straight into his stomach through his shirt. He paused everything and looked down at the wound as I twisted the dagger to enlarge the wound.

His hands were still on my chest when he pushed me against the wall and put some distance between us. He removed a gun from behind him but I was already running towards him. I held his gun wielding right hand with both my hands and pushed it up just as he fired a shot. He was trained enough to expect it and punched me in the stomach with his left hand. The punch wasn't too strong because of the dagger lodged in the left side of his belly.

I jumped back a little from the punch and twisted his right hand forcefully, fast enough to make it painful. I lowered his twisted arm to break his shoulder bone as he screamed and let the gun go. He jumped back again to put some distance between us.

"Who are you?", he said through gritted teeth as he tried to stop the blood flowing through his stomach wound.

"No one you need to know."

I smirked and ran at him to kick him with my right foot. He dodged as I expected and I jump-kicked him with my left leg at his shin. Before he recovered I punched him in the face.

"Aah", he screamed and limped back. He looked at me and asked, "Did someone pay you to kill me? I'll pay you more. You won't get anything from this. There are powerful people who are my regular customers and I have people who will use all my connections to find you."

"They won't be able to touch me even if they find me."

He was trying to stall me with words as he moved slowly toward his dropped gun. I moved in too and kicked the gun away as he tried to pick it up. He held my support leg, when I kicked the gun, with his left hand and pushed back to make me lose balance and made a run for it. Towards the gun.

'Okay. Bad decisions, Eli. Don't play with your prey when fighting a contract killer.'

I removed another dagger from my left leg and threw it at his back just as I thought about my mistakes. The dagger pierced through clothes and skin, and entered his heart. He finally collapsed then as blood came out of his mouth. He was still alive, but barely.

I removed my daggers from his body, turned around and left Ulio to die like he would have left me.

Before I left the alley, a dangerous voice called out, "Eliana de la Cruz."

I paused, unable to move from shock. I hadn't sensed his approach. Where the fuck was he hiding? Is he back to kill me?

"Turn around, Bee."

I was scared shitless. I was always a good fighter and I had improved quite a lot in the couple years I hadn't seen him. But there was something about him that made all of my instincts scream danger. I had no explanation for an irrational fear of Miraj Giovanni.

I took a deep breath, turned and asked, "Why Bee?"

The lighting in the alley was scarce and that's why I had chosen it. But now it was working against me. He was standing in the darker parts and I could only see his outline.

He chuckled. "You'll know when I feel like telling you."

I nodded and said, "Uh huh." Like the dumbass I was. "Okay then. I'll see you later." I continued, to cover up my embarrassing conversational skills. I turned around to leave.

"Not so fast, Bee..." I think he was lightly laughing as he spoke, "I need to know why you killed my go-to assassin. Better yet, tell me when you became a cold-blooded killer? One that was trained enough to take down a professional with ease."

Well, that was a shit-storm of bad luck I wasn't expecting. Damn that Ulio.

I decided to face the guy finally and have a conversation. I didn't like that I felt like a rabbit talking to a tiger. In an attempt to explain and avoid confrontation, I said, "He wasn't prepared which made it easier. And I didn't know he was one of yours, Miraj."

He smiled at me and replied, "I know. So why did you kill him?"