Perfect Target

Chapter 1 - With Fame

“I'm a sad girl, I'm a bad girl”

— Sad Girl, Lana Del Rey

CHAPTER ONE

I gulped the cold liquid eagerly, sighing in satisfaction. I felt my body relax as the drink started to do its thing. There was always comfort and sweetness that could be found in its bitter taste.

I lifted my head and noticed a man staring at me from across the bar. He was average looking and judging by the way he shamelessly checked me out, clearly a pervert. I smiled at him charmingly and his eyes widened in awe as he licked his lips disgustingly, making me want to throw up. Definitely a pervert.

This is what made men easy targets.

Their delusion that men could never be easy targets.

Sitting alone in a bar, sipping expensive wine in my even more expensive dress, all I could think of was whether a smile would be enough for my new target too, or if it would take more than that to trap him.

If fifteen months ago someone had told me that I would be in New York one day, thinking of ways to dupe a rich businessman, steal his money and disappear from his life forever, I would've laughed in their face.

But that was exactly what I was doing today. Exactly what I had been doing since last summer.

I was a con girl. I manipulated people, gained their trust and then robbed them off.

Sick, I know.

Sometimes life knocked the wind out of you with the most brutal punch and it was sadist enough to do it when you were in your most vulnerable state. Some of us, the sane ones perhaps, let that make us braver, welcoming every hit with a courageous smile on our faces. But others got tired of being targeted and decided to turn the tables. Instead of bravely welcoming more hits, we decided to hit back even harder.

Life was cruel and in order to survive, you needed to be crueler.

It wasn't about money, it was about the game. My targets were typically rich bastards who didn't value their money at all, simply because they had always had too much to ever care. I hated those kind of people. The ones who believed money gave them the power to own anything and anyone they wished.

Money could make people inhuman.

hypocrite.

I ignored the voice in my head. I knew it was selfish, but this was the life I had chosen for myself and now there was no going back.

Still, sometimes I felt guilty and there were only a few ways to diminish that feeling. There were people who needed this money way more than I did, so a portion of it went to various charities and donations.

Not going to lie, it made me feel like some modern day Robin Hood. Only my kindness was out of my own selfish reasons, tainting it too.

There were certain boundaries that were needed when you led this kind of a life. For me, there were three simple rules that had never been too difficult to follow.

First, don't get attached. Don't start caring. And don't fall in love. These were the things my target was supposed to be doing, not me.