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The evening sun set behind the horizon, amber and shadow claiming Winter's apartment as its own.
She'd spent the afternoon visiting her mother who, visibly pleased that Winter would be going back to work, kept smiling so brightly that Winter dodged specifics of her "job" with a gentle deflection toward her mother's recovery.
"Don't worry. Just focus on getting better, so we can live together again," she said, watching as hope sparked in her mother's tired eyes.
Back in her apartment, Winter stirs a tall glass of iced cocoa as a part of her battles to lift her mind to conflictual images: her mother and the new "venture".
Just then, her laptop chimed, jolting her from her thoughts.
Her heart pounding, she sidled over to the screen, fingers hovering above the trackpad. She took a deep breath and clicked into the notification.
There it was. Job request applied.
The profile was the simplest, blankest, and shocking.
Karina was the target's name — a breathtaking socialite, with photos full of designer clothes and high-society parties and vacations at the most exotic places on earth.
Most importantly, Mayor's daughter.
Winter's eyes spread wide, a small smile playing at her lips as it sank: her first client was real. She hadn't expected things to get so on the nose, but here she was, with a request sitting in her inbox.
But as she scrolled down, her smile faltered.
The request was odd.
Instead of an assassination, it was a kidnapping.
Specifically, a broad daylight abduction at the airport.
Instructions were even accompanied by a warning that they "didn't trust others" and would "handle the rest" themselves.
Winter squinted, a bit insulted by the suggestion that her only role would be to kidnap this girl and hand her over like some rookie.
She couldn't resist, and before she knew it, she was punching in the number that the text gave her in her phone.
The line rang twice before a low voice answered - the greeting on the other end weirdly cryptic.
Without warning, Winter attacked her grievance, "Exactly how am I supposed to kidnap someone in broad daylight? From an airport, no less! Do you understand how impossible that sounds?"
The voice on the other end scoffed, muttering something to her about how she was "incompetent" and a "wannabe."
Winter's jaw clenched. She'd never backed down from a challenge before, and she wasn't about to start now.
