“What do you mean, you missed?” Jordan looks at the two local assassins he hired to take Nora Midnight out.

“Look, I managed to wound her. Why do you have such a hard-on for a stupid high school teacher?” Ping looks at Jordan with a puzzled look on his face.

“Because she isn’t just some stupid high school teacher. She’s a trained killer and the people who hired us to take her and her wife out want her dead. Her wife knows too much about the case and Mrs. Midnight is sticking her nose into a matter that should remain private.” Jordan couldn’t believe how messed up this job was getting.

If the Ionita brothers had done their job like they were supposed to. They wouldn’t be in this mess right now. As for the other matter with his sister and her stupid stepdaughter. That matter will be handled soon, hopefully.

Jordan looks at Ping and Wong “I’m giving you two guys one more chance to end that bitch’s life. She has children, use one of them to lure her to you. When she comes to rescue them, kill her.”

Jordan hands a photograph of Nora’s children to the two of them. It had Ginger, Christina, Melody, Carol, and Tiffany with her newborn. It looked like a family picture.

“Which one do you want us to kidnap and trap her with?” Wong looks at Jordan.

“Choose, for yourself. It shouldn’t be that hard. At least four of them go to the school she teaches at. So, it shouldn’t be too hard to trap one of them.”

“Alright.” Wong figures the red hair one or the younger blonde one should be easy to grab.

Ping and Wong turn and leave Jordan’s office to scout out their prey. They wanted to get paid for this job and get the hell out of town for a while. They knew the longer they stayed, the greater the chances they would be caught.

D&M Garage:
Nika was underneath a car changing the oil in it when she feels her legs grabbed. Whoever grabbed her ankles was squeezing them hard, as she is yanked out from under the car. A huge foot is pressed against her chest as she looks at the two men standing and kneeling near her.
She recognized them right away, as being the Ionita brothers, Owen and Lucas.

“Bitch! Where are our cars?” Lucas had his big size thirteen boot pressing against Nika’s chest.

“They aren’t in my coveralls, you stupid gorilla. Where do you think they are?” Nika was trying to get her pocketknife from her pocket.

“You must be one dumb bitch, to think we wouldn’t figure out that you were responsible for stealing our cars.” Owen kicks Nika’s side.

Nika screams from Owen’s steel-toed boot, hitting her side. She manages to grab her pocketknife, from her side pocket.

“Don’t you just love it, when they scream, Lucas?” Owen looks down at the painful expression on Nika’s face.

“Yeah, it sounds so wonderful.” As he presses harder onto Nika’s rib cage.

Nika pops open the knife and stabs Owen in the side of his right leg. She feels Lucas lifting his leg to stomp on her chest, she slices across the front of his leg, as she rolls out of the way.

Owen and Lucas were caught off guard by Nika’s attack. Lucas falls backward from being cut and caught off guard. Owen looks down at his leg to see how serious the cut was. He tries to grab Nika as she rolls out of the way.

Nika hurries to get up on her feet. Her chest was hurting from Lucas pressing against it and her side hurt like hell, from Owen kicking it. She looks at the two of them “you dumb bastards, should have paid what you owed to Big Al, you dumb ass red necks!”

Nika was pissed as she watched both men. She knew problems like this arose, but she was hoping that they would have gone to Big Al to make some sort of arrangements with him.

“You are one dumb bitch, bring a knife to a gunfight.” Owen pulls out the concealed 9mm Glock he had and shoots Nika twice with it.

Nika feels two bullets enter her body. One hits her in the chest and the second one hits her in the left shoulder, shattering her collar bone. She drops to the ground onto her knees, dropping her pocketknife.

Owen walks over to Nika and looks down at her “I’m not going to kill you bitch, but I want you to remember what happens when you steal from us.” He shoots her in the upper right thigh.

Sirens could be heard coming their way. Owen walks over and helps his brother up off the ground. They walk over towards a black jacked up 4x4 pick-up truck they came in and get in. They leave before the police could arrive.

Nika watches as Owen and Lucas drive off. She could hear the police sirens as they got closer to her place. She vows that if she lives through being shot. She will get her revenge on the brothers.

Officer Hicks and Officer Swan arrive at the location they received sounds of possible gunfire. When they pull up to the old D&M gas station.
They spot a young girl in mechanics coveralls bleeding on the ground. They knew who the girl was right away. She was a known car thief and the owner of D&M repairs.

“Dispatch, we need a rush on an ambulance to D&M repairs. We have the owner Nika Sweetflower with several gunshot wounds. She has one to her chest, upper left shoulder, and upper right thigh.”

“Ambulance is on route, car 125.”

Swan looks at Nika and Officer Hicks “is she going to be okay?”

“If I can stop the bleeding. Grab my paramedic bag from the trunk of my patrol car.”

Swan runs towards Hicks patrol car and grabs his paramedic bag from the trunk. She knew Hicks had paramedic training from his time in the
Army. He and Officer King were the only two licensed paramedics on the police force.

She rushes back towards Hicks with his bag and drops it next to him. She watches as he grabs items out of it and goes to work, trying to stop the bleeding from the wounds on Nika’s body. The gunshot to her chest came close to puncturing the main artery going to her heart. If it had been a millimeter more to the right, it would have severed the artery.

“Where is that ambulance?” Hicks looks up at Swan.

“Dispatched, what’s the location of the ambulance?”

“It’s four minutes away, car 126.”

Swan looks down at Hicks “it's four minutes out.”

Hicks keeps working on Nika and manages to stabilize her, just as the ambulance pulls up. He looks up at the EMTs as they come rushing over to Nika’s body.

“I’ve managed to stabilize her. She has three gunshot wounds. One to the chest, one to her left shoulder, and the last to her right thigh.”

The EMTs noticed that Officer Hicks managed to stabilize the woman. The two EMTs get the stretcher and put her on it and load her into the ambulance. They leave and head towards the hospital.

Officer Swan looks at Officer Hicks “you’re going to need to change your uniform. There’s blood on it.”

“Yeah, I see that.”

Nora’s Hospital Room:
Detective Hopkins looks at Nora as she lays in the hospital bed. He couldn’t believe she had been shot in the parking lot where she taught at.

“Nora, who’s after you now?”

“I have no idea, Dennis. I’m not involved in anything important.” Nora looks at her friend.

“Come on Nora, I know you better than that. What are you involved in?” Dennis looks at Nora with a skeptical look on his face.

“Honestly, I’m not involved with anything. Here’s what has been happening to me and my wife lately. We’ve been followed and almost ran off the road by two green muscle cars belonging to the Ionita brothers. I and Kelly think it has something to do with the Hamlet case. Ever since her law firm got the case, things have been happening to her and me. The other thing I’m concerned about is a student in my class that is being treated as a red-neck stepchild. I asked Detective Hardcastle to look in on her and see if he can get her to tell us about why she is living in a 10 x 20 shed in the back yard of where she lives. I doubt that the person who came after me, had anything to do with that.”

“So, you think it has something to do with the Hamlet case?”

“Yes, I do. Everything that has been going on lately, has been because Kelly’s law firm accepted that damn case.” Nora was a little pissed.

“Well, until your shoulder heals. I’m going to ask you to sit this job out.” Detective Hopkins knew she wouldn’t listen.

Nora just looks at Dennis “you have to be kidding me. I’m not sitting anything out. The bastards shot me.”

“Nora, you don’t even know who they are. How are you going to go after them?”

“Tik Tok know who they are. There isn’t a deal or contract in this city he doesn’t know something about.” Nora knew Tik Tok had his fingers in everything in Memphis.

“You know Tik Tok? He doesn’t talk to anyone unless he knows you and can get something from you.” Dennis has tried several times to see
him.

An evil smile appears on Nora’s face as she looks at Dennis. She knew him, because of Cheshire and Jack Bounty.

“You have to know the right people, Dennis. He fears four people and I am one of them.”

“Well, if you are going to go and see him, I’m coming with you. Because right now you’re in no shape to be scary.” Detective Hopkins wants to ask Tik Tok a few questions about a former case he worked on.

“Fine, I’m not going to argue with you.” Nora figures having Detective Hopkins with her, might be an advantage.