I get behind the wheel. And I sit there for a minute trying to figure out what we are going to do. Carmen turns in her seat. I can feel her eyes on me waiting for my response to her inquiry.

“So how much?” She asks wincing as she tries to put her seatbelt on.

I play dumb.

“How much for what? A tank of gas? You tell me. I am not from around here.”

“Funny. You want to be funny at a time like this. I am asking you a legitimate question Shane!”

‘I know I am sorry…………how much? It depends.” I put the Rover in drive and head off the farm. How can she be so calm about this? Why is this not hitting her?

“It depends on what?”

She is getting irritated.

“On the job, on how you want it done….I don’t know it just depends. I never handled this stuff.”

“This stuff. You never handled the day to day affairs of being an assassin? How very….”

“How very…I don’t understand.”

“Shane that is the difference between us both. From what you have told me, you excepted this life because of fear.”

“What’s your point?”

Now I am getting irritated.

“My point Shane is of course you did not handle the day to day stuff. That would mean knowing more than you needed to know. Right?”

“Look Carmen lets get something straight and very clear. I am sorry about what happen to your family. I don’t have the feelings necessary to say how sorry I am or words to express how bad I feel but let’s get something straight. You don’t know shit about my world. You have no idea. Don’t sit there and presume to tell me what level of involvement I was willing or unwilling to partake in……………. You want to know how much?”

“Yes.”

“A million an head… that’s what I made in the latter days. In the beginning I made shit money. I did not take the job for the money. They provided everything for me so I had no real expenses. The better I got the more I got paid. The less attention I drew to myself the more I made. The last three heads I pulled in……………..I don’t know somewhere around 5 million…….. So you can’t afford me anyway.”