The fuck?
The three dots remained on the screen, growing increasingly annoying with every passing second
What was he, writing his fucking autobiography?
The digital clock in the corner of her laptop rolled over another minute. She drummed her fingers against the granite countertop, checking the chat every few seconds.
Her stomach churned impatiently as the three dots kept blinking and she started chewing on the back of her pen.
Did he fucking go away in the middle of the text?
Then a single word.
Wait.
That's what I've been doing for the last fucking hour, asshole.
She slammed her laptop hard on the granite table counter, half frustrated and half mad.
That's it.
I'm fucking with his entire account.
Shayna's fingers hovered above the keyboard before pulling back.
Nope, that would be a spectacularly stupid thing to do.
"What do you want ?"
Shayna blinked at the screen, incredulously.
This man seemed way too casual for a professional assassin.
Or maybe she was overthinking it.
"I want to hire you ", Shayna typed, " To find information on a person. "
"That's not my job ".
"How about just finding the whereabouts of a person ?" Shayna typed furiously.
I'm fucking paying you for doing half your job, you idiot.
"That's the same thing", Shayna could almost feel the smug expression on the other man's face," And just a reminder, every word of this conversation is costing you 15 dollars ."
Shayna's eyes went to the growing total in the corner of the encrypted payment window, and she physically winced.
"Why are you this desperate for money? " Shayna could not help but scowl," Aren't you like extremely rich?"
"That was 180 dollars ", Lynx replied," Unless you want to waste more of daddy's money, tell me the details ."
Shayna imagined grabbing a masked man's face and shoving it down a bathtub full of water.
"There is someone who's after me ", Shayna wrote, weighing how much to tell him.
"Care to elaborate, daddy's little princess?"
This fucker.
"I don't know much about this person. But I think he's been after me for the last three days ."
"Huh ?" the man typed back. "If you're just here to waste my time, then I'm blocking you."
Shit.
"No, listen to me ", Shayna wrote desperately," There's something that I did that I shouldn't have done."
Shayna grimaced the moment she hit send. If she sounded any guiltier, she might as well mail him a written confession.
"Obviously ", the man typed back, " Why would you otherwise contact me ?"
Of course.
"Like really bad ", Shayna typed, still hoping that she wouldn't have to specify.
"I'm a fucking assassin, sweetheart, just in case you didn't notice ", Shayna could almost feel the sarcasm dripping from his voice," It is a judgement-free zone."
"Looking at you, probably a casualty with a stepmother or sister ?" he typed.
Fuck, I'll have to tell him.
" Not that bad ", Shayna replied," I just stole a large amount of money from a foreign bank account. "
The three dots appeared and then disappeared.
"How many days ago did you say? ",
"Three", Shayna replied, cautiously.
"And you don't know the person you stole from? ", he texted.
"No, it was an accident ", Shayna replied, trying to sound as convincing as possible.
"How do you not know the person you stole money from ?"
Because the person who knew is in a fucking grave right now.
"My sister wanted me to test some exploit she wrote," Shayna typed after a long pause. "She told me the account was abandoned and that the transfer would fail. It didn't."
That was the most absurd fucking lie I have ever come up with.
Lynx waited for a few moments before typing again.
"On Friday night ?"
"Yes", Shayna replied, just relieved that he did not ask any counter questions.
There was no response from the other side. The typing indicator kept appearing and reappearing.
"Listen", Shayna said, her fingers tightly crossed, " I can give you 40,000 euros to get the job done.
The three dots finally appeared again.
He really is a gold digger.
"What is the approximate amount of money you stole from this person ?"
Shayna hesitated for a moment.
"Why do you need to know that ?"
"Well, you've already provided me pretty specific details to work with, Your Highness, so any extra details would be completely useless to me. "
Fair point, I guess.
"Around 7.6 million ", she replied.
"7.6 million euros on Friday three nights ago? Lynx confirmed.
"Yes ", Shayna texted back.
"And you just want the information on him?", Lynx typed back, appearing slightly confused.
"Yes", Shayna confirmed, " Including any small or insignificant details you can find. I will pay you accordingly. "
"Why don't you just kill him? That way, the threat is completely gone. "
There wasn't even a hint of malice in the words. If anything, he sounded practical.
"That is none of your business."
"You do remember you're not talking to some skeevy hitman off the streets, don't you ?" Shayna could almost feel the threat in the text," You're not gonna want me on your bad side ?"
It's alright, Shayna. We can just curse his entire three generations after this whole thing is over.
Annoying Lynx was probably the criminal equivalent of hiring a snake to get a mouse out of your house.
And expecting the snake to listen to you.
I gotta think of something.
"I don't want to kill him", Shayna texted, truthful for the first time that evening, " I just need information on him so that I can blackmail him."
"To do what ?"
Shayna was just about to text 'kidding' when her phone rang by her side.
It was Munay.
"Yeah, Munay ", Shayna began immediately, " Don't worry, I got Lynx, and I explained everything to him. We even discussed the.....
"Listen to me", Munay whispered urgently, " How much of the whole thing did you tell him ?"
"Not the entire thing ", Shayna replied confidently," I just told him the money and time I stole that money."
"The exact time and money ?", Munay crooked, her voice flattening dangerously.
"Yeah, but don't worry", Shayna said hastily, her fingers still busy on the laptop," He thinks I'm some rich brat named Seera Jones ."
"Are you still talking to him right now ?" Munay asked, her voice slightly faltering.
"Yeah, but as I said, he doesn't know. "
"Oh, he knows ", Munay's voice deepened with concern.
"What the hell are you talking about ?"
"When I was looking around for Lynx, I came across Knox, who's his friend. So, I thought I would get him to ask Lynx for a favour without revealing myself. "
"But he ended up revealing something else ."
Munay paused on the other end, and Shayna could feel someone's dry leaves in the background.
"You know how the person you stole from is rich, dangerous, ludicrously secretive and probably extremely murderous ?"
Shayna stopped as she suddenly realised what Munay was pointing at.....
"That can't be true", Shayna gasped.
"Except it is ", Munay sighed. " Lynx is the one you stole all that money from three nights ago."
"And now he knows you're trying to go after him."