Comradeship

The next time Hunter woke up, Naomi was sitting beside his bed with her head lowered. She was scrolling through her phone while eating the grapes from the small box on her lap. She seemed lost in whatever she was seeing, for she did not notice Hunter's gaze on her. She looked up from her phone only when he tried to get up.

"You are awake." She chirped, and Hunter wondered what had got her excited.

"Yes. When did you come?"

"Maybe twenty minutes ago, not sure, though. How do you feel now?" Noami placed the box on the stand beside his bed while Hunter watched her keenly.

"Better."

"Good. I spoke to the doctor and you will be discharged in two days. The man who you fought with shot you perfectly in the shoulder and you hit your head quite hard. I am surprised that you survived such a deadly attack." Naomi sassed while Hunter stayed silent.

This was precisely what she had said in his past life. He remembered her words like the scene had happened just an hour ago. Immediately, he was overwhelmed with feelings he could not comprehend. Only he knew how scared he had been to think that he would not be seeing Naomi anymore before he lost consciousness at the warehouse.

"You might need to rest another day after you are discharged. We can start work the next day." Noami stopped blabbering when she saw Hunter lost in thoughts.

"Hello, Mr. Hunter." She snapped her fingers in front of him to gain his attention. "Are you here, or is your brain already traveling away from the Milky Way galaxy?"

This was new. He had never heard these words from her before, and Hunter chuckled.

"I seriously feel you need to consult a psychiatrist once you are discharged. You are acting weird." Noami gave him a suspicious look, only to find the man grinning at her widely. "Are you a creep 'cause you are creeping the hell out of me? Why are you smiling like an idiot?"

"I am just happy." Hunter's reply was instant, and Naomi did not know what to say.

"Anyway, from now on, we will be working together. While I work behind the scenes, you will do all the killing."

"I know." Hunter nodded, completely forgetting that this was Naomi's first time mentioning their comradeship.

"How do you know this? I never told you this before." Naomi narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"Ohh," Hunter cursed himself for his slip of the tongue. "I guessed. I am just lucky that I was right." He shrugged lightly.

"You sure are weird. I hope I am not dealing with a lunatic. I already have one, can't tolerate another. Now, back to the topic."

Hunter was glad that Naomi did not dwell on the topic more and listened to her attentively.

"We will choose our target together, and don't be reckless like last time. You need to be careful. Your second mission is still incomplete, and Ryan has not assigned it to anyone yet. Do you want to take it up or will you drop it?" Naomi raised her brows enquiringly and Hunter thought for a while.

"I think I will continue with the mission. I cannot give up just because I lost an opportunity once."

"Good thinking but will not always work. You were careful enough to use a disguise last time. So, we won't have any problem. Our target will not recognize you if you come in front of him like this. I will find out what his schedule is. Then, we can plan together the apt time to end him."

"Sounds fair."

"Yes, I have another hitman working with me. He is called Wolf."

Hunter smiled as soon as he heard the familiar name. Although their first meeting had been quite bloody, they slowly became good friends.

"You might meet him someday, though I don't know when. Nobody other than Ryan and I have seen him. He is quite secretive and extremely skilled. He has already completed seven missions until now."

"Impressive." That was all Hunter could manage to say. How could he say that he already knew everything Noami was speaking about? How could he say he was familiar with Wolf and had already met him? The girl would freak out for sure. Though it would be a sight to behold, Hunter was in no mood to take that risk. He did not want to be called a lunatic by his own people, although he was close to being one in Naomi's eyes.

"Currently, we do not have any missions offered to you. So, you can chill until then. I will inform you once I receive a mission, and we can decide if you want to proceed. And yes, I forgot to add this point. You can take private missions too if they seek us out other than what the association sends us. Let's talk about payment now."

Hunter knew what exactly was going to happen next. But he still acted along. "Payment?"

"Yes. You have yet to sign a contract regarding your pay split with the association. Ryan sent me here with the contract. You are free to negotiate the pay however you want with your client. The hitman association will not interfere in this matter. But you will have to give twenty percent of whatever you earn to them."

"Fair enough." Hunter nodded without arguing, and Naomi was stunned by his immediate response. She had expected him to question her about it. But Hunter had agreed to it without any complaints.

"Great. I will be taking some percent of your pay too."

"How much?"

"Thirty percent."

Again Hunter had no issues with it and stared at Naomi, who was giving him a strange look. He remembered his past life, where he had haggled with her until it became a huge argument. He now realized how silly he had been. Although the missions initially were simple with less pay, he started earning loads after his tenth kill. His life changed after he killed his target, and he began to earn millions.

"You sure are easy. I should have raised my bar." Naomi regretted it when Hunter did not argue again.

"You lost your chance."

"Yeah, whatever. Do you have any questions for me?"

"Not that I can think of."

"Cool. I have added my number to your phone. You will be using a new phone." Naomi handed a sleek black phone to him. "You can call me if you have any questions. I will meet you after two days."