"Where we go?" Paloma asks Viktor as she enters the car, attempting to twist her braid into a bun so she could easily tuck it into the cap. Maybe she should cut her hair, not as short as the hair a lot of women were sporting now but something shorter than her waist length locks.

"Docks." The older man responds as he starts to drive. "Got trouble."

Trouble usually meant someone was being a problem, like they were late on payments, or stole a shipment, or as she had recently saw - someone was almost going to expose them. It had been maybe two months at this point since she joined in this, and it was worth it. The extra money was good, it paid better than the cooking job she had but that didn't mean she was gonna quit it just yet. Thankfully her grandfather had been going to sleep early, giving her time to sneak out of the house when Viktor needed her help with something.

"Need glasses man?" She asks as she manages to twist the braid into a bun and tuck it under her cap. "Ugh, need chop hair."

"Yes, he come with us." Viktor responds. "And maybe hair need cutting."

Mordecai was waiting for them outside of the diner, looking at his watch in annoyance before he got into the car. "You're late." He comments as he snapped the watch closed before tucking it away and seats himself in the front seat.

"Grandfather no sleep." Paloma responds as the car peels away from the curb. "Wait too long."

"Your English is better now."

"Gracias."

They drove the rest of the way in silence, until they arrived at a large dock where another car was waiting and a man stood next to it, clutching a small gun in his hands.

"Be ready." Mordecai warns as the car comes to a stop. "No shooting yet. Paloma, stay here just in case."

The younger woman huffs in response but does as she is told, watching as the two men got out to talk to the other man, who was looking very frightened. As they talked, the new man suddenly points his gun at an unphased Mordecai, who calmly shoves it aside and Viktor snatches it and tosses it to the ground. Paloma immediately scoots to the right side of the car as the man is grabbed and dragged to the back of the car and shoved into the backseat with her.

"Tie up please, and keep him quiet." Mordecai says as he enters the front of the car.

The man sobs as Paloma grabbed the rope by her feet and starts to tie it around his wrists and around his arms before grabbing a large piece of cloth to tie it around his mouth in attempt to silence him. Viktor is outside, attempting to do something with the other car before it lurches right into the river.

"Where we go now?" Paloma asks Mordecai as their companion returns to the car.

"Somewhere far, and you have the honors tonight to do something useful." The older man responds as Viktor gets back inside the car. Guess tonight was her turn to dispose of this man after the two were done interrogating him.

As they are driving, the bound and gagged man starts edging away from his side of the backseat. Paloma just shifts herself towards the door, trying not to kick the seat in front of her.

"What are you doing?" Mordecai asks.

"Move." She responds. "Crybaby move too close."

The older man glances behind and frowns. "I told you to sit to the left. A bit of common courtesy - is that so much to ask while we are chauffeuring you about?"

Oh boy, he was about to go into one of those rants again. One thing Paloma had learned from being around Mordecai was that he liked order, things had to be specifically perfect. For one, he would prefer if there were three people in the car, whoever sat in the backseat had to sit exactly in the middle and it was either her or him. The one time she even dared to sit a little more to the left or right, he looked ready to yell. She wasn't sure exactly was up with him to be so obsessed with things by symmetrically perfect, but it was often better to do what he asked. At least to her, a calm and quiet Mordecai was a better Mordecai to deal with than an agitated one.

"Did we not establish the line of symmetry is right there between you and Miss Alvarez? And do you not realize that your blithe disregard for this is throwing the geometrical spacial harmony in here completely out of kilter?" The older man continues. "Is this what you want? Is that what you are trying to achieve, hmm? ASYMMETRY??"

Paloma glances over at Viktor, who just rolls his eyes and shook his head. He seemed to used to this, it wasn't so unusual. The bound and gagged man immediately scoots away from Paloma and back to his side of the car.

"Yes, that is an improvement." Mordecai says before turning his attention to the road.

Paloma glances at the man, who had glanced out the back window and proceeds to start crying. But that was stopped when Viktor turns to glare at him, a low growl sounding in his throat that sent the man scooting away and bumping into her.

"I saw that, you did that on purpose!" Mordecai snaps at the driver accusingly.

"Alvays they are crying in my ear!" Viktor snaps back.

"Why don't you admit? You never liked symmetry!"

"And you! Noise, noise!"

"No fighting!" Paloma tries to yell as the men start attempting to assault each other, causing the car to swerve violently as they fight, their passengers sliding left and right in the backseat.

"¡Basta! No more!" Paloma yells again as she tries to steady herself. If these two didn't stop, they were going to get them all killed and that was definitely something she didn't want.

With a yell, she flung herself across the front seat to grab ahold of the steering wheel and swerved the car right into a nearby corn field. The car came to a stop and Paloma let out a sigh of relief before sliding off the front seat and threw open her side of the car door to fall to her knees.

"You...okay?" She hears Viktor ask as he and Mordecai climb out of the car, both looking very disheveled.

Paloma couldn't help but feel a surge of anger at his question. They wouldn't be like this if he and Mordecai acted out like this. If anything, she was not okay.

"¡Malditos idiotas! ¡Podríamos haber conseguido que nos mataran si no lo hubiera hecho! ¡¿Qué carajo les pasa a ustedes dos?!" She yells angrily as she yanks her cap off to smack both men with it. "¿Me veo bien? ¡No estoy bien! ¡A menos que ambos mantengan su temperamento bajo control, nunca me subiré a ese maldito auto con ninguno de ustedes, idiotas!"

"I don't think she is." Mordecai whispers loudly and flinches when Paloma grabbed him by his messed up tie.

"You! Give gun!"

The older man rolls his eyes but does as he is told and removed his coat and suit jacket to remove the gun holster he wore and hands it over to her, the guns still tucked into it. Paloma glares at him as she slips the leather harness on before trudging back to the car and yanks the rope bound man out into the corn as he let out muffled sobs.

"Talk, then I shoot." She instructs as she slammed the car door behind her.

Viktor nods and grabbed their prisoner to drag him off into the corn stalks along with Mordecai. After some time, Mordecai returns and beckons her to follow. Paloma followed him into the corn until they find the man kneeling on the floor and sobbing loudly.

"What he say?" She asks.

"His gang is the one trying to hijack our shipments we're getting from the Bahamas." Mordecai responds as he adjusts his glasses. "So, we're going to send a message to the gang as a warning and keep an eye on them for a few days to make sure they don't keep on stealing from us."

"I shoot him?"

"Yes."

Paloma removes a gun from one of the holsters and loads it before making sure she is a good distance from the man and shoots. She Then goes forward and prodded the body before checking for a pulse. Once she was sure he was not alive anymore, she stepped back to let the two men remove something from the body and walks back to the car to open the large trunk tied to the back and opened it to grab two shovels and a small wooden box before walking back to them.

"Here, and for you." Paloma says as she hands Viktor a shovel and Mordecai the box.

She and Viktor set about digging a deep enough hole for the body, allowing Mordecai to roll it in before they all covered it enough to pat it down so it wouldn't look suspicious. Once that is done, they climb into the car and drive off.

----

"I think she's still mad at us." Mordecai comments in a low voice to Viktor.

It had been maybe over a week since the cornfield incident, and since then Paloma had remained silent with the two of them whenever she was in their vicinity. Well it seemed to be worse with him, every time she even looked at him, she gave him a gaze similar to one Viktor often wore and would just shove whatever she was giving him into his hands or roughly snatch it from him. Today he and Viktor were back at the cafe having lunch, and it seemed like the younger woman's childish antics were getting worse. She refused to take his order, which had forced Mitzi to take it instead, and she had unceremoniously dropped a plate of his toast in front of him.

"Maybe you." The older man responds. "You started it."

"Preposterous!" Mordecai scoffs. "You kept making that man cross the line of symmetry!"

"Alright that's enough!" Mitzi scolds as Viktor stands up and she hurries over to them. "Do explain why Paloma is in such a foul mood, she seems to have scared some of the guests with her sour expressions."

"It's nothing." Mordecai tries to assure her. "It's-

"Girl mad at him." Viktor interrupts. "Me too, but more him."

"Now what did you do to upset my best cook and waitress?" Mitzi asks with a frown and turns to Mordecai. "Care to explain?"

The man lets out a huff. "It's something that happened during one of those jobs, I'd say more but there are strangers in the diner."

"I see." Mitzi mutters. "Have either of you bothered to apologize to her for whatever happened?"

"I try." Viktor responds with a shrug. "She still mad, don't blame her."

"And you mister Heller?"

"I've done nothing wrong!" Mordecai protests. "I don't get why she's keeping this up, one might have thought I took that beloved book of hers and ripped it to pieces and set it on fire in front of her!"

Mitzi frowns. "Fine, but I'm going to ask her myself. Don't forget to pay your lunch bill."

Mordecai just rolls his eyes as his boss' wife hurries off to the kitchen. A few minutes later, she emerges with Paloma in tow as both women sport upset faces.

"Told you, she mad." Viktor says.

"Yes because you two nearly got her and yourselves killed!" Mitzi snaps. "Really, fighting in the car while driving in the middle of nowhere of all places!"

"He caused it!" Mordecai protests.

"You start it!" Viktor snaps. "They alvays crying in ear!"

"Well perhaps next time you have a second backseat passenger, you should have Paloma sit behind you Viktor." Mitzi suggests. "And she told me you had started the whole thing, Mordecai. And from the sound of things, you have yet to apologize."

"Is that why she's been so passive aggressive with me lately?! This petty behavior is ridiculous!"

"And yet it caused something bad to happen. At least say sorry."

Mordecai lifts his head to glare at Paloma, who meets his gaze with an equally angry glare. Damn this stupid woman. "Fine, you want an apology? A proper apology?"

"Si." The younger woman responds, finally breaking her silence and leans forward. "And be genuine."

"Go on Mordecai." Mitzi says. "She's waiting.

"Fine. I apologize."

Paloma rolls her eyes. "Best you can do?"

"That's all I am giving you."

"You do know you can do better."

"Leave be, he won't do more." Viktor says with a dismissive wave. "I know."

Paloma frowns again but shrugs. "Fine, but he should not be surprised if I put something spicy in his tea if he does that again."

Mordecai sputters. "You did what with my-"

"She didn't do anything." Mitzi interrupts. "Now, you both are somewhat friends again, try to find a better way to deal with your....symmetry problems in the car to avoid car accidents."