Chapter one

Kimberly brought out a pan of freshly baked muffins from the oven,and carried it to the display glass where she was arranging the hot pastries when the door opened.

She turned to their new customer and said.

“Welcome to Angel’s bakery. How may I help you?”

“I’ll like a cake.”

“What’s the occasion?”

Kimberly inquired.

“My daughter’s seventh year birthday.”

“That’s nice. We have some freshly baked cakes of different sizes and shapes in our catalogs. Please come with me.”

She said while leading the slightly overweight woman in her late thirties to the cake section.

After browsing for a while, the woman picked a medium sized naked cake in the shape of a heart, which Kimberly carried to the dressing table.

“What color of frosting should I use?”

She asked the customer.

“White. With pink writings”

“Alright.”

She immediately set to work, moving the icing can with dexterity as she beautifully coated the cake. Twenty minutes later, she was done, with it.

Yellow star candy was sprinkled on it, while ‘Happy Birthday Emily’ was written on its centre in pink.

“Please make your way to the cashier over there while I package it ma’am.”

She said while pointing to her coworker over the counter.

The woman returned shortly with her receipt and picked up the cake in a paper box with the bakery’s logo on it.

“Have a nice day.”

She called out to her as she made her way out of the day.

“You too.”

She replied with a smile.

Kimberly looked at the clock on the wall and saw it was 12:05. She removed her gloves and went into the manager’s office which was opened.

“Hello sir.”

“Hi Kimberly.”

“I’m leaving for the vet clinic. My dog is sick, but I was able to get an appointment for 12:45pm. I sent you a text last night that I would be leaving by twelve today.”

“Yeah I got your text. No problem, the others will cover for you. We don’t have a busy day.”

“Thanks.”

She said as she left his office into the changing room where she removed her hair net, apron, face mask and the bakery’s T-shirt with name tag attached to it.

She changed into her blouse and carried her hand bag as she strolled out of the bakery into the hot Atlanta’s sun.

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    Kimberly raced up the stairs of the dilapidating three story building, with a large suitcase in her hand. From afar, it looked like it contained a  saxophone or any other similar instrument, but what was in it was far different.

She got to the top floor, packed her brunette hair into a tight pony tail and opened the suitcase. She removed a baseball cap from it and forced it on her head which was a tight fit. Next, she brought out a pair of black leather gloves and hurriedly wore it as she checked her digital watch.                    The time was 1:11pm, which meant that she had four more minutes to execute her mission.

She removed the last thing in the suitcase which was a sniper gun, as she maneuvered the long weapon towards the window and looked through the scope at a high class restaurant about four hundred metres across the road.

          There was very light traffic by this time of the day in the city of Atlanta, which made the job easier for her. 

She stared down the rifle for several seconds as a couple cars passed by, briefly obstructing her view from the restaurant’s entrance.

The time was now 1:14pm and she could make out some movement at the glass door which opened as two huge Japanese men in black suits walked out, followed by another of average height behind them. 

        She moved her sniper slowly to the right as the men made their way across the parking lot to their black sedan. Looking through the scope of the magnified glass attached to her weapon, she held her breath as the chest of one of  her target’s bodyguards appeared on the crisscross mark, which was immediately followed by the bald head of the yakuza boss.

            She moved the gun slightly once more to the right while maintaining the crisscross mark on his head before she squeezed the trigger. A second passed before the man dropped like a log, which prompted his men to instinctively draw out pistols from their inner jackets as they scanned the area for where the bullet came from.

Kimberly immediately returned the gun and leather gloves into her suitcase before making her way out of the building through the emergency exit at the back.

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         Kimberly entered her four story apartment building and made her way through the elevator to the top floor. She walked across the passage that had three doors on both sides till she got to the last door on the left were she stopped to produce a key from the back pocket of her Jean pants, opened the door and entered her two bedroom apartment.

She was immediately welcomed by Rex, her three months old Rottweiler who wagged its tail excitedly as he followed her into the masters bedroom. 

She sat on her bed, kicked of her sneakers and stared at the picture of herself in combat fatigues on the blue wall. It seems like ages ago when she was in the marines, when it had actually just been seven months only.

           She was interrupted from her thoughts by a chime from her phone. She removed the phone from the drawer beside her bed, typed a six digit password, and saw an alert of ten thousand dollars worth of bitcoin sent into her crypto account. Her boss had gotten news of her job well done and had paid her promptly as usual. 

This was the second job she would be doing for the Italian mafia. The first was a month ago when she took out the head of the Mexican cartel in the city.

         She had no problem killing these people as they were not innocent men either. In her own way, she felt she was making the city safer by eradicating these criminal elements.

She got up from the bed, removed her clothes and walked into the bathroom where she took a long shower. Few minutes later, she was applying light makeup in front of her dresser mirror beside her bed. She took another look at the mirror and admired herself for the upteeth time.           Her blue eyes were accentuated by the eyeliner she had applied. Her high cheek bones were also well defined which gave her quite a strong facial feature. She was quite beautiful and she knew it.

Today was one of those days she decided to unwind. She called Mike her Uber driver, placed more food in Rex’s bowl, then wore a fitted red gown that matched the color of her lipstick. She then picked up her purse and turned off the lights before leaving the room.

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          She found her ride already parked on a corner beside her apartment building block. She walked gingerly on her six inch high heel towards the grey Toyota Camry, opened the door and entered the vehicle.

Mike lowered his sunglasses and stared at her from the rear mirror.

“Someone’s looking extra hot this evening.”

“Shut your big ass mouth and drive.”

“Ok ma’am.”

He replied mockingly.

“Where to?”

He asked.

“My usual.”

She replied as the car sped off into the traffic.