My room was a converted reception room on the ground floor of a two-storey house with my window facing the main street. So, anyone who walked past my window, talking loudly in the middle of the night could interrupt my slumber. But a few raps on my window screen at 1.00 am on a quiet night was really meant to wake me up.

And when the tap grew louder, I forced my eyes open before scanning around the dimmed room to adjust my eyes. Despite my blurry vision, I could see a tall silhouette behind the window through the blinds, sending jolts to my brain that I yelped and fell off the bed. As I cowered to the floor seeking sanctuary, the taps went persistent and a muffled voice outside the window calling my name, "Zahida. Zahida!"

It must be Nick. Who else would call me by my first name?

My senses regained and my vision adjusted. I looked up to the window and the visual of Nick gradually emerged from the silhouette. I reached for my bedroom door and went straight to the front door. As I opened the door where Nick stood in front of it, the early winter draft gushing into the passageway had caused me to shiver.

"How do you know where I live?" I asked drowsily.

"I summoned the leader of minion for your address," he mocked. "I'm your boss, what do you think?"

"Yeah, that's a stupid thing to ask," I said, embarrassed by my half awaken consciousness.

"We're sending out armaments to the folks at Afghanistan," he continued. "Do you want to–"

"I'll get ready," I cut off, my consciousness flickered to the mentioning of 'armaments'. I got myself ready while Nick waited for me in his SLR.

Along the way, Nick briefly explained the procedures of transporting the armaments for shipment to Afghanistan just to amuse me. But he left out intricate details of the logistic process like he was holding out on me. As I probed further, he either evaded my questions or limited his answers to 'They need to be done in an utmost diligent manner without getting caught.'

"Then why do you tag me along for?" I asked.

"I just need a company," he chuckled. As I was about to open my mouth to speak, he continued, "But you need to stay in the car, you'll be safe here. They don't trust new faces, especially pretty naïve-looking ones. Maybe next time I'll let you join us."

So, am I pretty naïve, or pretty and naïve? I wasn't sure if that was an insult or a compliment. I gazed through the tinted window, hardly see where we were heading as it was too dark outside. I only knew that we embarked on a quiet road through dark woods reminded me of some thriller films I've watched before.

Nick suggested for me to take a nap since it'll be long journey, but I was too excited to sleep. He took a couple of Redbull from a hidden compartment between us, offered one to me and opened one for himself.

He took his iPhone and connecting it to the car's audio system to play his Spotify playlist on shuffle. A sound of a few slow strums emitted from the car's audio speaker followed by a familiar male voice singing the intro of 'Never Not'.

I turned to Nick, surprised by his choice of songs. "Lauv? Are you serious? Is that supposed to lull me to sleep?"

"No, it is supposed to quell my stress and anxiety away," he answered frankly.

"I thought you would quell to... rock, rap or anything explicit that could enrage you," I said.

"There's a lot about me you don't know," Nick's tone was calm yet firm. "I don't like it when you generalise me as aggressive."

"Sorry," I said, wiping the grin off my face. "I've never met a gangster in person before so I assume that they're hostile. But you guys commit crimes, threaten and take people's lives."

"We are, but we aren't inimical against civilians. Not my team. We don't do bank heist or prey on innocent people. We target the specifics," he clarified.

"More like hitmen?" I asked and Nick responded with a nod. "Was I being spared?"

"You aren't even on that list to begin with," he answered briefly. "Never had the heart to."

"But you ganged me up at Heald Grove," I countered.

"I was trying to break you, but I figured you aren't that easy to crack," he said.

"But did you hold any grudges against me? Especially when I confronted you?"

"I'm used to being confronted," he answered. "I just never got it from a female before."

"You weren't jealous of me kissing Milla?" I braved another question to which he scoffed.

"You didn't kiss Milla, she kissed you," he said. "The way you touched her was obvious you had no feelings for her."

"I like her but I'm not gay," I objected.

"Why are you saying like being a gay is an offensive thing? This is a liberal country, Zahida. Everyone is free to be what they want and what they want to do with themselves. So, stop judging people for what they are, what they do or how they look. You should understand and respect their choices."

"But you called me it," I reminded him.

"Yeah, I was just messing with your mind," he smirked.

"What kind of person do you think I am?"

"Well, for a start, you showed me that you wanted to be treated equally like a man. And so, I did. But I realised that I went a bit too far on the bashing. And then, you went all emotional and reckless for Abs, got me all confused with your personality. So, I'm not quite sure who you are right now," he shrugged. "Why don't you tell me about your interesting self?"

"There's nothing interesting about myself," I rolled my eyes upwards.

"Not if you think that way. Like the rest of us, there's always something wonderful in every inch of you," Nick said pessimistically.