Standing across the street from the butcher's shop, Briya smoked her cigarette and waited for the last customer to leave. When the woman, who was rather chatty, finally did, she crushed her smoke out under her shoe and jaywalked across the avenue. 

The bell chimed over the door as she entered. She hated places like these...they reeked of offal, old blood, and innards so heavily that she could never understand how people immediately went home and ate whatever it was they'd just purchased here. Approaching the counter, she nodded to the man behind it. 

The butcher shop was a front for a black market weapons dealership, which...made some sense, actually. But this dealer had a hobby, as well. Beyond buying, selling, and fencing all manner of destructive things, he created. In particular, he created knives. Briya had commissioned him to make something special, and after he returned her nod and went to retrieve it, she turned and silently stepped back to the door, where she checked the street, left and right, through the glass before quickly locking the door and flipping the sign to closed. It was closing time for most businesses anyway, and that was the way she had planned it. 

Stepping back to the counter just before he reappeared, she placed her purse upon it and smiled as he unfolded the cloth and showed her his newest piece. It was a dagger, honed to a point and sharp as hell, but with a handle similar to brass knuckles and, most interestingly, a blade that pointed not downwards, but upwards.

"Not sure how you're going to fare with the blade pointed the wrong way, but the customer is always right, I suppose," he said, cocking an eyebrow at her. Briya smiled innocently and downplayed her accent as much as possible while trying to sound Brooklyn born and raised.

"Well, a woman's gotta defend what's hers these days, you know? All kinds of scary people out there in the streets. See, let's say I go home to my apartment okay, and I catch some guy trying to pick the lock on my front door? Or jimmy the window of my car? What am I gonna do, call the coppers and wait around, hope they get there in time? Nah. See, what I would do," she said, coming around the counter with a playful smile. 

"What I would do?" She continued, picking up the knife and securing a firm grip on it, testing its weight, while making it look as if she were admiring the shine of the blade under the overhead light, "I would-"

She had barely let the last word out of her mouth before she was suddenly behind him, yanking his head back by the hair with one hand, while driving the blade smoothly into his arterial vein with the other, then sliding it quickly back out again. He dropped immediately, his blood pumping so high into the air that it well exceeded Briya's height. She'd turned away just in time, and now stood several feet away as the life drained out of the butcher. 

"I would pay my debts, is what I would do," she said, her gypsy tongue returning with a thick Romani accent. Killing wasn't her forte, but orders were orders.

"Short-changing a New York crime boss in an arms deal? You are not a wise man. Just a dead one," she finished quietly. Wiping the blade clean on some fresh butcher paper, she wrapped it back inside the cloth it had come in and grabbed her purse. As she left, she flipped off the lights and locked the door behind her. 

Once outside, she pulled her collar up, kept her head down, and walked several blocks in the dusky evening light before catching a cab. She was already in the backseat and had opened her mouth to give directions by the time she noticed another presence in the backseat next to her. 

"Well now. What might you be doing here?" she asked with a tiny smile.

Offers a cigar to Briya and says ''it feels good to relax'' cracks a smile to Briya ''so do you always sit other persons cab and by the way you look good on what you doing maybe one day we can do a business together right?'' gives a signal to driver and says ''Drive us to any local pub'' looks back at Briya ''You got some free time for me huh?''

Briya blinked, accepting the cigar. It took her several minutes to light it properly, as she wasn't accustomed to cigar smoking, but it gave her time to sort out her thoughts.

This man had clearly seen what she'd just done. He wasn't the authorities, and he didn't appear to have blackmail in mind. It might do her well to go along and see what he did have in mind.

"My apologies for overtaking your taxi. Yes, a drink might be nice right now," she said, glancing down at herself and hoping there wasn't any telltale blood spatter. The knife in its protective cloth weighed heavily in her lap as she drew on the cigar and blew the smoke out of the partially opened window.

Wintery New York blurred by until the cab came to a stop in front of a nondescript little pub. Briya exited the back of the cab and stared at the cigar in her hand...was it okay to walk in with one? She supposed it was. Standing on the sidewalk, she waited for Vincent Capelli to round the back of the taxi and join her at the pub's front door. She could hear music and spirited chatter going on inside, which was typically great cover for discussions of a...less legal variety.

Vincent pays for the taxi and slowly gets out of the car and moves towards Briya. ''Come on let's get in'' signals briya to get in with his head they sit in the back corner of the bar, bartender came to ask for what they gonna drink Vincent turns his head to bartender and says ''Get us a 2 budweiser.'' turns his head back to Briya and extends his right hand to Briya and offers a handshake ''Name is Vincent Capelli my friends calls me as Vinny Caps'' sniffs his nose. '' I think we got some common point huh?'' as he smiles to Briya, bartender gets to drinks for Briya and Vincent, Vincent takes a large sip from his beer and turns his views to Briya and tries to make an eye contact with her, ''I just want to know about you more if its okay for you''.

Briya returns the handshake as two beers are set on the table before them. 

"Briya Young," she responds, glancing around at the early evening crowd of drinkers. It was a Friday, and they seemed happy to be off for the weekend. There was a ball game on the radio behind the bar, but the noise level was too high for her to make out which sport it was. It afforded more privacy, anyway.

"About me? Well. I come from a Romani family, who I do not see much anymore. My family is a crew in New York, now. I am skilled in thieving, more specifically lockpicking, graverobbing, safecracking. But I am now expanding into other talents," she explained.

"Whatever you saw back there, before I got in the cab...that is not my usual work. But I do whatever my boss tells me to do," she smiled, taking a sip of the beer in front of her.

Fix his collars and smiles back to Byria ''Looks like you got a lot of talent maybe we can do a business together right?'' takes a large sip from his beer and looks at Byria ''I'm into drug business and doing small time jobs too but I got the expand the business so we gotta make a big move you and me.'' cracks an smile to Byria ''so whats your decision Byria?''

This could work. 

"Be warned, I never stay in one place for too long. I am a gypsy, after all," she winked. 

"I welcome any business opportunities that allow me as much travel as possible. If you are in the business of narcotics, this might be a good partnership, as I'm constantly flying or driving all over this country. I prefer not to soil my own nest in New York, but I have been known to do a job here and there in my home city if I know the risk is low, and the payout is high. Not often, but it does happen from time to time," she said, her fingers absently going to the filigree necklace around her neck, freshly stolen from New York's biggest, most famous cemetery. What a job that had been...

"I think we have a deal, Vinnie Caps," she said, lifting her glass of beer in a toast.