xp_logs | MIXTAPE: 'Highway Girl'

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This was an area of New York state where you never saw a suit, especially not three kilometres up a gravel road, tucked back in the brush and leading to a few scattered houses off the lake. But yet, there was Kevin, standing with his hands in the pockets of his Tom Ford suit, looking completely casual, ignoring the armed men, seeming to fit in as easily here as he did in the middle of the city. He gave her a nod as she appeared in the doorway.

Suits may not have been a common occurrence out here in the woods, but Sarah didn't seem at all surprised to see him. Had she been expecting someone to try to find her? Not really, but she wasn't surprised Sydney had done it seemingly without even breaking a sweat.

Except now he was standing outside the house and people who did not know him had guns trained on him like that would do anything.

"Sydney, please come inside before someone is stupid enough to shoot you." She held the door open, had another thought, and stuck her head back outside. "And Francis, tell Sebastian he is keeping his shoes on."

"I would hope so. These are Jimmy Choos." Kevin said in an off-hand manner as he stepped inside. "It's a nice place but you can't help but consider the Apalachin vibe. You don't happen to secretly have a Canada Dry bottling license, do you?"

"Oh, I don't actually care if you keep your shoes on. I just told Sebastian you aren't here to have sex with me." The front door opened to a wide living room perfect for entertaining on long summer nights. On the television in front of a blanket draped couch, Netflix was asking if anyone was still there."Also, what are you suggesting about my family?"

"Just leaning into the mob princess past." Kevin said, not bothering to elabourate on a point in mob history that happened almost forty years before she was born. "So, you mentioned that you're feeling a little unsure whether or not you want to keep working with us."

"Well, yes, I needed some time to think about who I am?" Sarah sighed, and sat on the edge of the couch to collect her thoughts. "Like I went from being one person with my Family, to a totally different person with you all-- overnight. And I'm not even sure how real the first person was. My life was remarkably curated."

"That's fair. And when we brought you in, the first thing we leaned into was your mob connections because that was an immediate need." Kevin said. He sat down and placed the expensive looking leather satchel he'd been wearing on the floor and reached in, pulling out a bottle with a clink of glass. "Can I interest you in a drink?"

"Are you sure you don't want something from the still?" Sarah paused, decided she was never going to be able to read that poker face and sighed. "I'm kidding. Yes please." She moved toward a dark wooden cabinet against the wall and pulled out two glasses. "I don't blame you all, you know. If someone with information I needed suddenly showed up at my doorstep I might have done a whole lot worse. Asking nicely is only step one."

"Canadian Club. It's an old man drink. But I think you might appreciate it." Kevin pulled the bottle out and filled two glasses. "It's okay if you want to walk away, but I don't want you to. You are talented, and I don't say that often."

Sarah raised an eyebrow. "Am I actually talented, or did you all try to go to Antoinette for information by yourself and she called you cops and told you to get the hell out?"

Kevin grinned; a feral one, out of the side of his mouth. "No. We have sources in organized crime in New York. Not as good as some of yours, but enough to keep us in the know." He passed over a glass and then drained his before refilling it. "I started in this world as an assassin. A sniper. A trained soldier designed to remove obstacles. But I was better than that. That's how I see you."

"Better than a sniper? Obviously. You know who my dad is, right?" She smiled over her glass at her own joke and considered asking if he could go back and report to everyone that she was actually funny. Except coming from Kevin it probably wouldn't have had the intended effect. Damn. "So tell me how you see it. Because I'm struggling to pin that down."

"You're capable of more. But we haven't leveraged it and you've done everything possible to convince us that we shouldn't." Kevin said, the ice rattling in his drink. "So if you come back, I promise we'll use you properly."

Sarah nearly argued that she hadn't done everything, but she had kind of quit so maybe he was right. "Look. I don't have much of an imagination, so being vague and expecting me to see the possibilities is not going to go well. I go back and what? We tell everyone 'Oops, sorry, not just a mob Princess'?"

"No, that's a conversation I have with Colbert. But when things get hard, you don't fall back on 'just a mob Princess' as an excuse and work at it." Kevin said. "Analysis, languages, and most importantly field work. It's time to get you out past New York."

“You say analysis and languages, but the last time I went out of the country with you all we were running from very angry zombie people.”

"Yeah.. that was... ok, fair. This job gets weird. I'm talking about the more boring shit that doesn't get interrupted with zombies as often to train you."

Sarah downed her drink. "I'm going to ignore the fact that you just casually said 'as often' for my own personal sanity. I mean, I know I have bones on the outside where they aren't supposed to be, but you have to draw the line somewhere.

"You're smart enough to know by now this life has an entirely different set of rules. But I see a young woman who is incredibly able to handle it. So that's my offer. Prove me right, and I'll pay you nothing close to what you're worth and put you in a thousand situations that make no sense at all." Kevin said, and took a long sip. "And you might be part of saving the world. In a real way. So, you tell me. Does that sound worth it?"

"Now who's doing 'anything possible to convince someone they shouldn't'? We really need to work on your pitch." Sarah glanced down at her phone which had been buzzing notifications for the last fifteen minutes. Sebastian. "So I come back and get a say in who I am, or I stay here and I am somehow too fragile and too dangerous at the same time."

"My pitch is designed to push people away. This job is too hard to trick people into it." Kevin said. "Let me make a very out of character statement. I think I can help make you extremely good at this. I want to make you extremely good at this. If you'll let me."

"If I've learned anything, it's that you can't "make" me anything. Even my dad couldn't and I would jump in front of a bus for that guy." The phone buzzed again. "But, I see your point. I'm certainly not doing anything for myself staying here. It's just sometimes easier to fight the same battles you grew up with. It's familiar. Unsurprising."

"Let me try a different angle. I can teach you the skills you can't learn anywhere else so you can make yourself into who you want to be professionally. That work better?"

"So I'll get to make the decision myself. I like that." She gave the buzzing phone an exasperated look, and held the power button until it went silent. "I turned it off instead of throwing the damn thing in the lake. My personal growth journey is going great."

"I've seen worse, and I've been around a hundred years." Kevin said, draining his drink. "I want you to fight me every step of the way. I want you to make this process hard. Because the person I think I can help turn you into will be unstoppable." He topped up their drinks with a grin.

Sarah rolled her eyes, and took another sip of her drink. "Fine. First things first, you have got to stop talking about this like you're some sort of fairy godmother."

"Bibi-bobbity-boo, baby." Kevin said with a smirk and a salute of his glass.