That day they stayed inside, Merleah and Hayley talking about the random-est of things, and watched Murder Mystery as well.

"I totally knew he could speak English" Hayley smirked, and Merleah, who had her jaw dropped, squealed and threw a popcorn at her face "shush"

"I did though"

"Yeah, because you're John Wick aren't you? Now shut up and watch the movie" she snapped and turned back, missing Hayley's smirk.

After the movie finished Merleah stood up "That movie gave me a headache, and you weren't helping it" she pointed a finger at her threateningly. Hayley laughed, remembering

"What else are friends for? Certainly not supporting you when you want to date a guy with pink Barbie shoes and a fetish for girls' socks"

And with that Merleah cackled in remembrance, "His name is Austin, and he's with Ash now" but before Hayley could say anything in surprise of how Ash was drop dead gorgeous and model material and Austin was a nerdy girl, she added "And he's finally hit puberty, which transformed him into Alex Pettyfer I'm telling you"

"Don't believe that" Hayley's eyes were widened

Merleah smirked and then rubbed her forehead "I'm going to have a shower, feel free to do whatever the hell you want" and she walked off into another room.

Hayley stood up and went after her "What am I supposed to do here?" They were in her study room, as it led to her bedroom and washroom both.

"II don't know, play with Jonah"

"Your dog?" she raised an eyebrow

"uh huh"

And there was a bark from behind her which made her flinch. She loved dogs; they were adorable, but only from a distance. Otherwise, she was shit scared of them, and the plenty of chases she has had in her life proved it all. Merleah had gathered her stuff and stepped into the washroom, leaving Hayley behind awkwardly.

After five minutes of standing around doing nothing but looking around, a notice board in the far corner hidden behind a stand caught Hayley's eye. Moving closer to see what it was, she saw that it was all sorts of information on certain things – work stuff most likely – but it fascinated Hayley. There were pictures stuck to the board with red strings attaching them to pieces of information, locations, everything.

And that's when she saw a little pocket on the corner with papers sticking out, attached to a red string that led to a newspaper article with a heading as:

'HOMOCIDES CONTINUE, BUT ALL LEAD TO DEAD ENDS'

The headline was what caught her eye, because she remembered reading it a year ago as it was based on a man she had murdered to confirm that there were no leads whatsoever, which she was sure of anyway. Confused, she looked next to the article and saw another flyer, dated back three years ago of another killing, this one not being on Hayley's hit list, but a sense of recognition had hit her seeing as though the killing lead to a dead end.

Another assassin.

Going back to where she started (the pocket), she lifted the pictures out of it and stared down at them. They were shots of people with their faces half covered/off guard/ CCTV footage of someone standing over a body looking up at the camera: some which she was so sure Merleah had taken herself.

She tried to recognise some of the faces, although she had only met a few assassins she worked with in all those years. But no, none she recognised, however a breath she had in her throat had released after she looked through the bunch of them, relieved she wasn't in one of them.

Regardless, Hayley scrunched them into her pocket and looked at the other things pinned to the board, and checked in the pocket again to see if she had left anything. There was a tiny paper, so small she could've easily missed it, but then unfolded it into her hand to see what it was. It was scribbled on, and she read it:

'54 killings in the last six months, something got to do with Kyle's uncle and Hayley's dad. There are no fingerprints because these people have none, neither did them two.'

On the other side it said:

'Hayley isn't the girl in the mental asylum. Went there yesterday and was kicked out by security but saw girl with blonde hair, not brown.'

Oh, shit.

"Er, Jarvis?" she touched her ear com, but there was no reply. "Jarvis? Hello? I really need you right now" Hayley whispered staring down at the paper. 

But Jarvis wasn't there.

This meant that Merleah clearly knew what was going on, and who knew? Maybe she had called someone as well. Just in that moment she heard something behind her. Hayley's head whipped around, and she came face to face with the end of a gun.

Feel free to let me know what you think, I'd really appreciate it if you could vote, share and leave a comment! Thank you so much :)

P.S. from now onwards, this book will be in Hayley/Fiona's POV! I'm really excited because now that it'll be in her perspective you'll see things, feel things, know things the way she does... the way the assassin AND the way the innocent young lady behind the mask does.

Sorry if it has been dragging on, but I promise the next chapter is the last that has to do with Merleah, and more background stories/flashbacks shall be included so you are not confused on her personality. Also, new characters, more missions and (drum roll) the other protagonist/main guy will be introduced very soon.

Thank you, again x