‘When are you returning when you leave tomorrow?’ Henry asked Tarasha who was sitting in the living room and listening to the network news at six. He dropped the tablet device in his hands on the three seater before sitting beside it.


‘I’m not planning to stay there more than twenty four hours,’ she replied, taking a look at him as he sat on the chair. She noticed he just had a change in hairstyle and had shaven his beards.
‘So that means you’ll be back by next tomorrow?’

‘Yes, I should.’
‘Alright, I guess I should just leave this till tou return.’
‘What’s it? Why don’t you say it now?’
‘It’s nothing big, I told you sometime ago that I needed to find a way to see my parents and calm them.’
‘So have you found the way?’
‘Well, I’m just going to visit them and explain things to them.’
‘I hope you know you have to go there disguised.’
‘Yes, I do.’
‘When are you planning to go?’
‘I thought of planning that with Cole, I was going to discuss it with him tonight.’
‘Tonight?’
‘Yes.’
‘Cole’s out already and won’t be back until midnight.’
‘You sent him.’
‘No, he went to the club.’

‘Oh well, I’ll discuss it with him tomorrow then and we’ll get back to you but I believe it’ll be this week?’
‘Huh? You’re going to see your parents this week?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then it has to be your Dad alone.’
‘No the both of them, in fact my mum is the one I need to see.’
‘How are you going to do that?’
‘I found out she’s going home this week.’
‘Then you can’t see her this week except you do it on her journey home.’
‘I don’t understand you.’
‘Don’t you think the officers would be expecting your visit?’
‘Hmm…’
‘They’ll expect that you visit her if you’re still around and would stick around to wait for you.’
‘That’s true.’
‘Choose another day, you could get into trouble if you make it next week.’

____
Cole drove down the road silently, glancing at his phone from time to time and wondering if he was going to ever receive the call from Patricia. He couldn’t go back home as he already requested permission to club all night. The previous plan he made was to take Patricia for dinner at a restaurant and then talk her into spending the night in an hotel with him but speaking with her minutes ago had changed his plan totally. He had learnt that she was still living with her parents and was sure it’ll be quite difficult to convince her to spend the night with him, and she also sounded over the phone like someone who wasn’t used to night outings and that got him surprise because the impression she had given him about herself with all her seductive moves was that she was no different from a runs girl. He decided that if he got no call from her, he was going to eat somewhere and then spend the rest of the evening at a club and his night in an hotel with a prostitute.

The call he had been hoping for finally came in, earlier than he thought it would. He quickly searched for a space by the road side and pulled over. By the time he held the phone, it had stopped ringing, he dialed back her number.
‘Hey Patricia,’ he said into the phone.
‘Hi, should I meet you around that car park now?’
‘Yes, you can. And you can also tell me your address so that I can come there for you.’
‘Oh! Don’t bother about that, I’ll just meet you at the park.’ she said.
‘Okay, no problem.’ he said and the call ended. He put the phone back beside him and took in a deep breath, he wondered if he was really going through the stress of taking her out just for se*x or if he was beginning to like her. He didn’t know what it was. Earlier that day, he was irritated by her moves and just wanted to teach her a good lesson by having a violent sex session with her but now it was all different, he craved more than the sex, he craved her presence and attention. If it was only sex, he could choose to go to a brothel where he would have several options of girls with different assets and some more even endowed than she was. He realized that he was attracted to her in the first place because of her sexiness but now, something different was attracting him and whatever it was, he was determined to find out.

He took a quick glance at his wristwatch to check the time, it was ten minutes to seven. Then he looked at the side mirror before turning on the trafficator to signal to coming cars his plan to move into the road.

Not too long after he got on the road, his phone began to ring again. He glanced at the screen and it was her number calling again. He looked around the road to see if there were any traffic officials on the road who would stop him for disobeying by answering a call while driving. He found none but still decided to stop somewhere before answering the call.

‘What’s up Patricia?’ he said into the phone.

‘I just wanted to find out if you are close by already, I don’t want to stay waiting for long.’ she replied.

‘I’ll get there in eight minutes time,’ Cole answered.

‘Okay.’
_____
‘The guy already left the house before you called the first time,’ Dave said to Lizzy who just ended the call with Victor. He was still dressed the same way he was buy Lizzy had freshened up and worn a new dress – a slim fitted gown which stopped just on her knees but was split on the right side, revealing her right knee up to the thigh. She also arranged her hair in a new fashion and was still busy with her makeup tools.
‘So what we got is the wrong location?’ she asked.
‘Yes, we heard sounds of cars on both occasions. I think he left home when he called the first time.’ Dave said with a tired look.
‘We didn’t think about that,’ she said with a light smile. ‘You can’t predict criminals sometimes, especially those that work with top level intelligent organizations such as this.’

____
7:16pm
Cole felt the cold wind blow on his body as he rested his bum against the boot of the car. He looked up quickly as he felt something cold touch his hand – a drop of rain, there were no signs of rain in the clouds. He closed his eyes and took in a breath of the cold air rushing against his skin.
‘Hi,’ a voice sounded right in front of him and he opened his eyes quickly. And there was the most beautiful person he had ever seen standing at his front, even the darkness of the night couldn’t hide her beauty. The reflection of light from the car wash and other buildings some distance away helped to reveal her perfect figure and the shadow formed beside her revealed the same beautiful shape and elegance.

His heart throbbed for joy as his eyes scanned her body from head to toe. Everything about her was mind blowing and even the smile on her face was angelic. He stretched out his hand towards to receive her. His eyes scanning her body again as she walked elegantly towards him.

He imagined how it would feel like touching the sexy thigh he could see through the split skirt and how it would be when his hands moved from her thighs to the middle region and his fingers touched the strings around her waists.

He quickly shook off his lustful thoughts with a smile as her fingers touched his, he moved her hand gently to his lips and placed a light kiss on the back of her palm.
‘I’ve never seen one as beautiful as you are,’ he confessed, pulling her into a warn embrace. He didn’t feel like letting her go, he wished to remain under her influence with the scent of her perfume fighting air for space in his nostrils and her b-----s touching his chest with her chin on his shoulders.
……………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………
‘Here,’ Patricia handed over the item list back to the waiter who stood by their table to take their order. ‘You can ask him what he wants,’ she said to him.

‘Just give me the same thing she ordered for,’ Victor said to the waiter with a smile, refusing to collect the paper the waiter was handing to him. The man bowed slightly and walked away, leaving the two to themselves for a brief moment.

The restaurant was one of the bests and most expensive in town. It was known for its provision of a wide variety of food and drinks, both Nigerian and popular foreign dishes. And that was the reason it received high patronage from visitors in the country as could be seen at that moment. The environment was quiet and serene. The workers were always well dressed and attentive and they answered the customer’s queries and requests always very quickly.
Victor kept his gaze on the Patricia’s face without saying any wordsand both looked into each other’s eyeballs like kids who were amazed at the inverted image of themselves formed on the retina.
‘Is this how you’ll stare at me all day?’ Patricia asked with a chuckle.
‘I’m just amazed,’ Victor said, releasing a breath.
‘Amazed at what?’ she questioned.
‘Amazed at your beauty, never seen one like this.’ Cole said and licked his lips as he adjusted his seating position and placed his right elbow on the table.
She smiled at his comment and made a shy face as she relaxed her back, also examining his face. ‘You could flatter a dead body till it blushes.’

‘No, I’m saying the truth.’
She wondered why he sounded like a gentleman instead of the rough assasin she expected him to be. Ever since he had picked her that evening, all his actions have been contrary to what she expected and she found it hard to believe that everything was going so smooth. For her, it only meant two things; either that Victor was falling for her easily like Dave had predicted or that he already suspected her and was playing along to get her trapped. If the former was true, then it meant that the fall of Samantha Osman was really close but if it was the latter, then she needed to pull out totally or apply extra care or her life could go with it. However, one thing that gave her more confidence was that Dave was close and was listening to their conversation.

‘Here,’ the waiter spoke out to their hearing, announcing his arrival with the tray containing their order, a waitress was standing behind him with another tray containing the exactly the same substances in the first.

‘Wow!’ Victor exclaimed with his mouth widely opened as he saw the food being served on the table. He looked at Patricia’s face in surprise, ‘You requested for Amala and reedy?’
‘Yes, what’s making you so surprised. This is what I was making at home before you called.’ she replied, already beginning to unwrap the food.
‘What the h***!’ he said, still in surprise as his was being served. He began to imagine her in the kitchen preparing the Amala like she claimed and he presumed that she must be a good cook. Thoughts of settling down in the future after saving a lot of money began to drift into his mind, he wondered if it would ever be possible to settle down and if he would find someone as beautiful as Patricia who could also cook well. He began to calculate in his mind how much he had in his Bank accounts. He was a millionaire already as he had been able to save a lot since he began working for Tarasha and also had less time to squander the monies on drugs and women like he used to do when he was with Don Dan. However, squandering the money or getting it out of the Bank account then was important so as not to draw attention of the authorities if he had so much in them, but working with Tarasha, he had learnt and was able to keep the monies in foreign accounts with a different identity. He remembered Benny as he thought of his previous lifestyle of squandering monies on girls and partying again, Benny was his partner in the act. Benny was now no more, same as Aisha. An assassins life could never be predicted, it could end at any time, so saving money for the future shouldn’t even be part of his focus because he wasn’t sure he would have that future. It was important that he enjoyed his life to the fullest; party as much as possible, drink as much as possible, sleep with girls as many as possible and also buy all expensive things he could find.
‘Hey Victor,’ Patricia was waving her left hand at his face as he looked lost in thoughts. She was already eating her meal while he just stared absentmindedly.
‘Hey!’ he forced on a smile, coming back to himself.
‘What are you thinking about?’ she asked after swallowing the food in her mouth.
‘Was I thinking?’
‘Yes, you were thinking. You were far away from here.’
‘Hehe, it happens sometimes,’ he said, now unwrapping his own food. ‘I was thinking about my friend who used to love eating Amala,’ he quickly added to stop her from asking more questions. ‘Died few months ago.’


‘Oh! Sorry about that. He must have been so close to you, ‘ she sympathized.
‘Yes, she taught me how to eat Amala.’ he added, now thinking about Aisha who really Mac’s made the first Amala and served him with the soup he enjoyed.

‘She?’ Patricia seemed more interested about the friend now. ‘She must have been so important to you.’
‘Yea, kind of.’ Victor replied.
‘Can I know more about her?’
‘We have to finish eating first,’ Victor reminded her of the food, taking a mold in his hand.

‘Yea, sorry for my bad manners.’ she apologized in low tones and continued to eat.
It took them some minutes to finish eating and the plates were taken away by the attendants.

‘So, when did you start working with EasyShoppers?’ Victor began the conversation.

‘Just this year,’ she replied without much enthusiasm in her voice. She bit her lips slightly, thinking on how do change the subject of the conversation. She couldn’t allow him continue asking her questions about EasyShoppers because she didn’t have many answers available and wouldn’t like to say something contrary to what he already knew about them.
‘So, you’re new there. EasyShoppers is really a…’
‘Shh…’ she hushed him playfully, putting a finger on her lips. ‘I don’t entertain people when I’m invited on a date.’
He raised his brows. ‘I don’t understand,’ he shook his head gently. The waiter arrived at that moment and dropped on the table, two packs of juice and two cups.