I don’t wish for us to cross paths, but if you continue, our meeting is imminent.

Upon leaving the house, Khailani found the note stuck between the two panes of the window. Annice didn’t know nor needed to know about it. The KVG leader anticipated the consequences of partaking in today’s mission. Any more notes hinting to Khailani’s fated encounter with the White Rabbit altered no plans. Despite the recent attack at the warehouse, the team intended to rendezvous with the truck there. 

Annice and Khailani were wary. Talia promised the attackers wouldn’t come again, but Dean’s bright smile and assurance that he’d run if he sensed anything wrong placed them at ease.

Khailani did quietly hope Annice would call off the raid even as she positioned herself in an empty office room several blocks from the targeted drug dealers. She removed the note from her back pocket and studied it. 

The crumpled note was handwritten. No “white rabbit” tag at the end of the message. Compared to the others on white printer paper, this one was torn from the page of a celebrity magazine.  The letters had to be traced over multiple times to stand out from the text already on the page.

Talk about tacky. 

With a defiant yell, she shredded the paper and allowed the little bits to fall to the concrete at her feet or drift lazily out the open window.

White Rabbit was in some forensics room or morgue. He was dead. That’s what she concluded early this morning.

While scoping out her strategy on who to snipe first, she spotted him. 

Her bravado shattered. 

No. 

It’s fine. 

The masked man was guarding the entrance. He only happened to be wearing a white rabbit mask. 

Oh God. He looked at her. He looked at her. How did he spot her from that far away?

Khailani knew better than to ignore her gut instinct. Breathing out, she aimed at the White Rabbit.

“You’d be killing the wrong guy if you pull the trigger,” a gruff voice said behind her.

She spun around and shot at the man. 

He deftly avoided it. 

Dropping the rifle, she reached for the hand gun. 

One shot.

Dodge.

Two shot. 

Dodge.

He shot. The bullet nicked her shoulder, and she dropped the gun.

“If you need to kill someone…” He pocketed his revolver and picked up her discarded rifle. “…Make sure you have the right mark.”

As she held her shoulder, he fired of two shots. 

He didn’t wait for the dust to settle to tell her, “This is a nice rifle. A little heavy, but it’s solidly built. The color on it is pretty, and it’s not even painted.” 

Who knew the White Rabbit would have a fascination with gun aesthetics? Khailani watched him remove the clip and examine the bullets.

“Interesting. It’s like Russian roulette. Don’t know which one you get unless you fire.” He popped the clip back in and held the gun out towards her. “I won’t ask where you got it, but you might as well return it. You won’t need it anymore.”

Unsure if the man was going to end her, she stared hard at him and listened to her heart strain against her chest. He didn’t move until she reclaimed the rifle. 

“Unluckily for me, they don’t accept returns,” she muttered. “How are you so certain I won’t use it again?”

She stiffened seeing the revolver aimed at her once more. “Razor City doesn’t need a vigilante group, and I have a monopoly over the hitman jobs. If someone needs a person dead, they go through me.”

“And what if someone wants you dead?”

“Then they acquire permission from the Boss.”

“Boss?”

Khailani could tell he was smiling behind the mask from the way it lifted and how his eyes twinkled in the darkness. White Rabbit lowered his weapon. 

“This is your final warning. Walk away from all this. You have a fire that burns for justice, but this isn’t the way to get it. Find another way.”

“And if I don’t stop?”

White Rabbit laughed. “For a person whose life was spared, you have a lot of hypotheticals.”

“I like to consider all my options,” Khailani retorted. 

White Rabbit shook his head. “I’ll be in your shadow, and you’ll be out like a light. Now excuse me. I have to clean up a few things and head home.”

He walked forwards to the open window and jumped. With a gasp, she lifted herself up against the window sill. They were seventeen stories high! He wouldn’t…but he did! 

White Rabbit dropped into a roll when he hit the roof of the adjoining building and continued his sprint. With another leap, he was out of view.

Khailani waited a few moments expecting him to pop up on the street. He didn’t reappear again. 

Checking her shoulder for blood, Khailani noted that there wasn’t much and picked up the sniper rifle. She aimed it towards the factory to see the chaos White Rabbit created.