The woman sitting in the passenger seat of my car is mad at me. Not because I was an assassin who killed her husband, ex-husband she had reminded me last night, but because I slept on the floor of our hotel room. A room that only had one bed.

“You’re not going to say anything?” Lena asks. I can feel her eyes boring into the side of my head.

The traffic jam we’ve been stuck in for the last 10 minutes is making it too easy for her to push this conversation.

“I’m not sure what you expect me to say,” I reply.

“A beautiful woman threw herself at you and you didn’t even blink an eye.”

“A widowed woman was going into shock after the man who killed her husband forced her to come with him.”

“A  woman long tortured was finally free,” She replies. I look at her, but I turn away quickly at the emotion in her eyes.

“I was hired to kill him. I murdered your husband. That doesn’t bother you?” I ask.

“Do you know who hired you?” She asks, ignoring my question.

“I never know who hired me. The likelihood a real name is given is pretty damn slim. Would you let your identity be known if you hired an assassin to do your dirty work?”

Again, she ignores my question and asks, “Is your real name Robert?”

I look at her, really look at her. Everything about her was a temptation my hands wanted to lay claim to.

She was beautiful. But I couldn’t have her.

“That’s my secret, darling,” I say, looking away again.

“I’ll tell you my secret if you tell me yours,” she says flirtatiously.

When I don’t say anything she continues, “He beat me, you know. I lost my child because of him. I still didn’t leave. Didn’t think I could,” She says, putting a hand to her stomach. “I knew I needed him gone when I found out I was pregnant again.”

Realization dawns on me.

“You hired me?” 

“Wouldn’t you have done the same?”

“And I was a ride for you. That’s why you put in the request that I abduct the wife.”

“The only money I had was what I paid you. He made sure I had no access to the accounts, even in death. He had very good lawyers.”

“So, what, you thought you could seduce me? Try and take back the money?”

“No. I just have a thing for gingers,” She says with a wink. “But you also have a kindness in your eyes I haven’t seen in a very long time. I’ve learned to trust my gut.”

My gut was telling me the same thing.

“My name’s Sebastian,” I say, offering my hand.

“Nice to meet you Sebastian. Now, can a girl get a nice assassin like yourself to take a her out…to dinner?” She says, laughing at her own terrible joke.

“Lucky for you I just got paid, darling.”