"You really are a damn good assassin," said Nadia as she poured tea into my mug. We were sat on her balcony, which had gorgeous views of London, having afternoon tea, as I had promised. The spread was beautiful, there were mini cupcakes, sausage rolls, sandwiches with their crusts cut off, scones and sweet pastries, like croissants and pain au chocolates. She poured tea out of a beautiful yellow teapot with blue flowers intricately painted on the side, into mugs of a similar style.

"You were right not to underestimate him, he was a good fighter," I said, sipping my tea. We talked for a while. She asked me about Rome, I told her about Rome, I asked her about the company, she told me about the company.

"You know, Nadia, I always have loyalties to you."

"I know, I saw the tape you send me of you being tortured, you refused to say my name, and I really respect you for that. I know I can trust you with anything."

"I will always still carry out jobs for you, big ones, like this, where you need me. I owe it to you."

She took my hand, and looked straight into my eyes, "no Savannah, I owe it to you. You introduced me to your father, you took me home on that playdate, and together you taught me everything you both knew. You made me into the person I am today. I will never forget that." I put my hand over hers, which was still holding my hand, and I smiled.

"I like talking, we used to be so close, but we have distanced. I have a big thing about trying to be tough. It is hard being a woman in this profession. One of the reasons women are such great assassins is because they are so underestimated, but it also means other assassins underestimate us too. It is, unfortunately, a man's world, but I am glad we can have chats like this."

"I know what you mean," I said, thinking back to what Loretta said to me before I left, empathising with her situation.

I told the Russos not to call me at any point, and to let me call them. I didn't want my job compromised in any shape or form, but I hadn't called them in a long time, and they knew I was supposed to have finished the job long by now, so they must be worrying, like little babies. I excused myself after afternoon tea to go to one of the quieter rooms and called the home phone number.

"Hello?" spoke Donna's voice.

"Hi Donna, it's Sav," I said back.

"Sav! Oh my God, we were so worried," I told you, "are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine Donna! I'm in London, meeting with a friend, I will fly back tomorrow, I just wanted to tell you all I was okay!" I heard Fabricio's voice in the background asking who was on the phone, and Donna reply saying that it was me. He asked if he could speak to me, but I had a feeling he was going to be angry at me or something, something I had very little time for, so I quickly said to Donna I had to go, and I hung up the phone.

"I heard about the turf war between Don Sandrino and the boss of bosses Domenico Pagnotta. Must be hard?" asked Nadia as we sat eating dinner.

"Yeah, it's hard for them, I don't really pay attention to the details though. I just do the cybersecurity and if they point at someone to kill, I'll kill them."

Nadia chuckled, such a rarity, "if you are head of their cybersecurity, no one is getting in there!"

"I hope not."

"Haris Velic was very, very pleased with your work in Bosnia. He, too, knows about the turf war in Italy, and knows that I have an assassin working there, he doesn't know it is you. He has said to me if they ever needed an ally in Bosnia, he would provide it, simply because you are connected in some way to the company. He is also trying to think of many ways to pay you back, as you refused money."

"Kasim tried to kill a baby."

"Ah." Nadia knew how I felt about hating the murder of innocents, and she despised it too, "I would've said the same. No amount of money is necessary for saving a baby."

"Exactly," I agreed.

After a couple minutes of us silently drinking, eating and looking at the view, I turned to Nadia and asked, "have you ever seen a film?"

She looked at me confused, "one or two, when I was very young, my father never let me or my mother watch anything, so sometimes when he was drinking to his death at the pub, we would sneakily watch a film. Once he came in mid-film and it was... bad. They all disappeared into a locked cabinet after that, and I've never felt any interest in them for a while."

"I've never watched them either, except one or two as well, most of my free time was studying or training with my dad, he said films were a waste of time."

"I guess we both had... interesting fathers," she shrugged.

"Do you want to watch a film now?" I asked. She looked at me confused, again.

"Now?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"Okay, sure, let's watch a film." Nadia didn't have any films in her penthouse, so we went to a local shop that was just about to close, and asked for their recommendation, for the first film we should watch after basically never watching a film before. Firstly, the man in the shop couldn't quite believe it, but then he gave us some ideas. He told us about series like James Bond, Star wars, Back to the Future, Jurassic park, he said these were pretty classic. He also said Godfather, ET, Schindler's List and Forrest Gump were great films too, and for someone who has never seen a film before, these would be a good place to start. We bought them all.

After choosing one at random, by Nadia closing her eyes and picking on, it was Back to the Future. We made popcorn, and poured wine into our glasses, watching the whole series that night. I was hooked.

"I guess I understand what the craze about films is," I muttered to Nadia, half asleep.

"Next time you visit, we will watch, until we get through all these films," muttered back Nadia, also falling asleep.

"I've had such a nice weekend," I said as my eyes fluttered closed.

"Same." We were both out like a light. Long story short, I missed my flight.

My phone buzzed waking me up, it was Fabricio. "Where the fuck are you? We all were waiting at the airport to pick you up, and you never came out. My sister and mother are so upset, my mother made you a fucking welcome home meal!" he screamed down the phone. It was so loud, and I was hungover, I had to pull the phone away from my ear.

"Something came up," was all I said, which incited a lot more screaming from Fabricio. I tuned it all out.

"Are you fucking listening to me?"

"No, my head hurts, I need a paracetamol. I will see you when I book another flight." He started screaming again at my nonchalant attitude, but I cut him off by hanging up. He called me back, like five times, but I was not about to pick up the phone. Yes, I said I would fly home tomorrow, but fucking hell it was never set in stone, anything could've happened in Bosnia, I could've had to stay later or got really hurt or anything. I always appreciate someone cooking for me, what I don't appreciate is being surprised with cooking, and then being made to feel guilty for not going out of my way to go to something that I didn't even know was happening. Finally, me not being there doesn't render the lunch useless, it is still edible, I hope. God, my head kills, and I am just not in the damn mood for this. I went into the spare bedroom, pulled down the blackout curtains, popped some paracetamol and slept till after lunchtime.

There were exactly 39 missed called from Fabricio when I woke up, and my phone was in the middle of being called when I looked at my phone. I picked up.

"Thank the fucking lords you picked-" I interrupted him.

"My head fucking kills okay, I need sleep, I need food, I am not getting on a plane. Yes you are my boss, but I took the job because I thought it would be interesting and I was bored, but if you and your family are going to keep me on some kind of leash and get angry at me when I miss surprise lunches, or a flight once in a while, then I can't do this-"

"Sav-" he cut me off, but I cut him off when he opened his mouth.

"Let me talk. One thing I love is my independence, and the moment it starts to be taken away, or people scold me for having it, like I am a naughty three-year-old, I will leave."

"I understand. Now listen to me-"

"No Fabricio, you have said all I wanted to hear earlier. I am not in the mood, nor will I ever be, to be made to feel guilty."

"I'm sorry," he said, "I understand if you don't want to come back."

"I am going to fucking come back, just leave me the fuck alone for one fucking day my head kills for fucks sake," I felt that emotion again, anger, ew.

"Okay. I will see you when you are back."

"Yes, see you then." I hung up. I punched the wall next to me, causing an indentation in it. This family is so damn annoying. They actually have so many emotions. I meant what I said about independence though, I love it so much. I moved to London with Nadia when we were sixteen, starting our business immediately. We always wore masks, firstly so that no one knew we were women, and secondly so that we could be safer, before we understood the field. Even though we were living together, we had a lot of independence, and never relied on eachother, except me on her for cooking every evening. Even when I was younger and in Russia with my father, he never watched over me, I had independence coming out of my ears. I moved into my current flat when I was nineteen, and now I am twenty-four. I never had to be around anyone if I didn't want to, and most of the time I chose not to. No one expected anything of me except to complete my jobs, and I didn't have to set aside any time for anyone to please them. The Russos are expecting a lot from me, and it is harder than I realised. I know being a fucking badass is admirable, but it is also really hard. They watch my every move, some because they think I am sexy, some because they want to learn, some because they are in awe, some in hatred, some with love in their eyes, some with sadness, and it is so hard to get it right. I hate having an audience. At this rate, I don't think I'd make it to Christmas.

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