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"Whenever you're ready little tigress, it's all on you like I said. I'm just here for the ride, so do what you need and want." I lazily waved my hand in the air almost dismissively as I leaned back in my chair with my legs crossed at my ankles.
Huffing, she narrowed her eyes briefly at me before darting them to the small grocery store across the street from us. "He is still in there."
"Good girl, you caught on." Even though I was hands-off with this, I figured just a slight nudge in the right direction wouldn't hurt.
I purposely chose the cafe at the specific timeframe for a reason. After weeks of observing and tailing him, I had the target's routine down. So, I knew he would be making his weekly grocery trip to a very particular store around this time of day.
"One of my sources got back to me while I was on break. Told me about how there were consistent charges every Monday around 1300 to a small ma 'n pop store. I didn't need the assistance, but thank you." The small smile she quickly flashed at me was unexpected but appreciated.
Although speaking about her sources, Lev still hadn't dug up much, which usually wasn't a good thing. Her sources were well guarded, which only furthered my festering suspicions about her.
Who the hell is Hanna Lee?
Chapter 7
Hanna
"Can't believe you got a tracker on him. Fucking ballsy."
I couldn't help but grin proudly at Lev's little compliment as he and I, along with Stepan, crowded around a tablet to follow a blinking red dot as it moved through a map.
Scoffing, Stepan looked at me with hard eyes. "It was risky and reckless." He still wasn't happy about my little stunt yesterday with our target, Jorge.
After we had tailed him around town for a bit as he ran his errands, I decided—much against Stepan's wishes—to stick a tracker on Jorge, almost literally. I mean, I could've settled for sticking one on his car, but I didn't want to go get the equipment for it. So, I did the quick little 'oops, sorry' bump into Jorge when he exited the smoke shop and expertly tacked on the small tracking button under the back collar of his jacket.
Well, Stepan wanted to see how I operated, and that's how I went about things. However, I was riskier than usual because, typically, I'd tail him for a few days to a few weeks before attempting to stick something to him like that.
Chuckling, Lev patted my shoulder and grinned widely at me. "But it gets the job done. Well, no wonder her clearance rates are fast." At least Lev could appreciate my work, yet I found myself disappointed and pining for a certain blonde's praises.
A small part of me wanted to hear the words 'good girl' fall from his lips again. He probably didn't mean it that way yesterday, but the two words still unintentionally affected me.
"Just be more careful next time, and let me know what you're planning," Stepan said in a low voice before sweeping his hand across the lower half of his face and settling it there.
"Oh careful there bratok, you're starting to sound like you care." Lev teased his brother with a hearty laugh, earning a sharp glare from the older Volkov.
A slight shift softened his eyes when they landed on me momentarily, making my chest tighten again with eager wariness. Then, in an instant, the shutters were back in place. "Just shut up and focus on the target."
"So, what's your plan to apprehend him?" Lev asked with a slight tilt of his head as he handed the tablet back to me.
Taking the device, I studied the target's position on the screen for a minute before looking up at the two pairs of beady, blue eyes boring holes into me with the intense curiosity sparking within them.
"Whelp, I'm gonna ask him nicely, and if he decides to not take the easy way then I'll just get a little dirt on me." I said casually with a slight shrug of a shoulder.
Unfortunately, violence wasn't the answer to everything, and not every bounty target will put up a struggle. Some targets were more than happy to go along to avoid a punch to the face, and some were really innocent and had no idea about missing a bail hearing and such. Those were the boring ones, of course, but they were a nice break between the blood-pumping ones.
"Ugh really? You're going to try the diplomatic route like Stepan?" Lev's disappointed eyes rolled with his groan of complaint.
With a quick flip of the bird, I snarked back, "Well, I have to have a good reason for chasing and beating his ass. The law doesn't like it too much when you just beat their asses right out the gate." Still, we had to abide by the law, even to catch a lawbreaker without constraints like how cops had it. Unfortunately, being a bounty hunter didn't mean going completely rogue to the law.
"You seem too excited for someone who's going to talk." Stepan noted, keeping his studious eyes trained on me.
"Because he's going to bolt, so I'm just preparing myself." I just had to do things 'by the book' for the sake of the report later and to show Stepan I could do things mostly correct.
Jorge didn't have a good track record, and from what I gathered from others who have gone after him, he was a runner. Well, he won't get away from me, that's for sure. I was prepared for a chase. My muscles ached from the anxious tension as I sat in the car with the two brothers.
"Can I go get him now?" I didn't mean to sound so eager, like some child asking for their reward, but the adrenaline started to buzz at me for a release.
Chuckling, Stepan's lip twitched into a brief smirk as he unlocked the car's doors. "Go get 'em little tigress."
