Then I started doing the Reddington gigs, and well, it didn't always go quite as perfectly as it could have. There was nothing wrong with the job itself, but the relationship crisis it almost brought with it made me desperate at times. But then again, Damon is what he is, and I just had to accept it and move on.
The kill jobs, as I called these neutralizations of targets, were kind of something that actually felt right to do. I felt like I was dispensing justice to those who didn't get it. These guys would never be brought to justice. They had too good lawyers, and also, because the victims weren't really people, they couldn't be prosecuted.
Maybe one day, someone will bring about a change, maybe a new law that will guarantee justice for all those victims. But before that, I was dispensing justice; Adam and Magnum were taking gigs from Reddington, and he was pleased with it. These jobs were important. They gave me a mission, a purpose, and money.
The Reddington gigs were the easiest because all I had to do was dress sexy and seductive, go to the bar, take the target with me, and finish the guy off in an alley with a gunshot. Once I'd shot the guy, I'd register it on the reader, and a couple of minutes later, there was always a car to dispose of the body.
I also did other gigs if there happened to be a gig with enough money; I had a motorbike and often stayed in a hotel when I did gigs; I was on my own even part of the time. I was more and more independent. It gave me freedom like no other.
With Damon and me, it went relatively well. Although we both had our own gigs now, and for some reason, we didn't happen to work together. The nature of these gigs was such that they didn't suit Damon. Even though we hadn't reached the end of our relationship, he was very possessive, especially when it came to strange men.
This was the relationship crisis. We went to the gig together at first. He wanted to do a couple of gigs together and see how good I was. I chose my own clothes. I wore a short black leather skirt, fishnet tights, a short black top, and a pink denim jacket over it. Damon had agreed to dye my hair black and curly with his dental products.
Damon drove us near the first bar and was wearing white jeans, a black shirt, and a black leather jacket. He was quite a revelation. There were actually two targets in this bar, one female and one male, so Damon got to deal with his victim while I dealt with mine. He would go in first, and I would come in after a while.
I waited in the car for about five minutes before I started to walk into the bar. Surprisingly, my target looked like a Finnish singer, Hector, a tall, bearded, burly man with a low voice and dead eyes.
I walked, sexily in my high heels, to the bar next to this man.
The man looked at me momentarily and said, " Hello, you have eyes like a galaxy, dark and mysterious.."
I smiled and said, " Thank you. No one has ever said that to me." Even it was one most used pickup lines that these scumbags used.
The man looked at the bartender and said, "I'll pay what the lady wants?"
I said, "Tequila sunrise, please."
The bartender made a drink and asked me, " I never saw you here before; I would remember you are a sight to behold."
He was flirting with me too. Young stud, probably trying to earn money as he was studying. I let my pretender side play around, make my notes on people.
I laughed huskily and sipped my drink. The target touched my hand, and I heard the glass shatter somewhere; I turned my head slightly and saw Damon looking at me; the waitress cleaning up the broken glass near him. Jealousy started to show again. I tried not to roll my eyes.
He took his own victim out first, kissed her on the neck, nibbled her, and let his teeth make little cuts, so she moaned. I didn't care, as I gave him time to do his thing, how he would kill his victim, whether he would drink her to death or shoot her.
Ten minutes later, I told my victim, " How about we go outside? There's an alley over there; I could take a quickie..."
The man looked at me fiercely and said, " That's fine, then we can go back to my place."
I laughed and started to walk out, sexy, slow, lazy almost. We went into the alley. I saw Damon waiting in the shade and motioned with my head that he could come. He slid out of the shadow like a ghost, eyes black. There was still blood on the corner of his mouth.
When he came and said, "Oh baby, the next meal, well, I'm still hungry,"
He attacked the man, sank his fangs into his neck, and started to drink; it wasn't more than five minutes when he released his grip, and the victim was dead. I registered the kill, and we waited a while as the cleaning van came and took the victim away.
We walked up to our car. He said to me in the car. "Baby, you know what, at the rate you're going, I'll be lucky if I'm first!"
I was silent for a moment, then said, " I didn't suck my victim's neck and ear when I took him out of the bar. I do my job, I use my looks for it, but I don't fuck with them!"
Damon looked at me momentarily and left to drive to the next destination.
And then said when we got there, " You know what, Mimi, I will not watch you be like a fucking whore or some fucking temptress and charm men all over the bar! I don't trust you in that respect because you're so fucking inexperienced, but you know what a man can do to you to make you yield to temptation."
Apparently, the seduction work of strange men got his blood boiling. Even though I'd never even kissed a strange man.
Damon said, "I'll leave you to make your list, get yourself another ride, and we'll see if you're even a virgin when I get you into bed. Get the fuck out of here and whore yourself."
Passionfruit stank in a car, no wet dog. I rolled my eyes, trying to think what to say to make him calm down.
I exited the car and said, "You could trust me a little more; you know me. You're being unreasonable with the jealousy."
To which he replied: "Trust, Mimi, trust you? Remember how eagerly you kissed Adam? Remember, whether I'm being unreasonable anymore."
I replied in a rather pissed-off voice, " Fuck, it's been over a year now; try fucking forgetting and not always dragging the old ones along every fucking time!!!"
Then I got out of the car and went on my way to the gig by myself. I didn't stay to listen to any more protests. I was tired of trying to come up reasons for him to trust me. If he did not trust me so be it.
Then he went off again somewhere. I don't know what gigs or what Damon was doing. He just wasn't always home. I got another motorbike, and I kept on doing my gigs. I was focusing on my work. Doing what I was good at. Relationship was not one of them.
I informed Adam, and he actually laughed and said, "Congratulations, you had your first actual fight as a couple; that's where it starts, Mimi. Don't think that's your only fight."
Yeah, I didn't think so. I did something like 5-10 items a night and every day, so I got a pretty damn extensive list done. Then, there were always bonus items on the list. Those got you more money, but they were more challenging. Well, they weren't more difficult for me, maybe a little more time-consuming as they were often on a different schedule and not so easy to seduce.
I was on a gig now in Nevada. The joke between Adam and me was that I would tell him where I was every time I called, and Adam would be sorry he didn't get to take me there sooner. He or Bran had houses in every part of the state, but I just liked to check into a hotel, spend a few nights there, and move on.
I could walk around town all night, keep my motorcycle at the hotel, walk down the streets of town, and sing Boulevard of Broken Dreams in my head. That was my gig song.
Then, when I changed states, I would sometimes even hit the same place where Adam was, and then he would always demand me to come to the house. We would go to the sauna, and Adam would put me to bed when I did gigs at night, and I didn't sleep much by myself. And sometimes Damon was in the house.
I'd been doing gigs for several weeks when I started looking at the calendar. Time flies when you're busy. I tried to make things work with Damon. I really did.
When I started doing these gigs a little over a month ago, he'd been very temperamental ever since. Grumpy, accusatory, cranky... Even though I communicated, I tried to make it so I was in the same state, and we could spend time together.
I invited him to a hotel sometimes to visit. He might come and talk for a while, get me some food, and put me to bed holding me, but then I'd wake up alone. There might have been a note on the table: "Sorry baby, rush gig, don't message me. I'll let you know when I'm free."
Somehow, I felt like Damon was pushing me away, so I tried to spend every moment in his arms, even though it wasn't so natural for me. I tried to kiss him every time I remembered. I didn't know what was wrong with us or what else I could do. But I decided to arrange a time now that I wouldn't do any gigs and would concentrate on us if Damon was available.
I had just finished a rather demanding list and was looking forward to taking some time off work and maybe enjoying Damon's company a little more if he was around at the same time. The list had been brutal, and I was efficient, but the mileage was accumulating as I was visiting eight states in a month. Yes, I was getting many people out of it; I was doing bonus gigs if the right ones came along, and they always put money straight into my bank account, so my bank account was growing steadily.
I had been talking to Damon now and then, trying to convince him I wasn't attacking anyone else but him. He always believed me for a moment and almost apologized for his behavior. He could plead that he was an asshole, jealous, and I shouldn't believe everything he said because he wasn't always thinking.
I was just hoping as I drove exhausted to the house that Damon would be at the house. I called Adam and Bran to let them know I was coming and I was now off duty.