For Kate Logan, it started out as a normal Thursday night. Lacking a phone call from Briya, she went to the casino. Lost a bunch of money. Had a bunch to drink. Everything was smooth; she didn't even have to reach for her revolver once. Everything was smooth, that is, until she saw Briya walking in between the tables. She was moving so quickly her hair seemed to stream behind her, and there was something extra in her eyes that made Kate immediately pick up her chips and move to cash out. By the time Briya reached her, Kate was tucking a few bills into the pocket of her jeans, her gun visible for just a moment before it was covered again by her long, brown coat. She adjusted her hat as she looked at her boss.

"I'm guessing by the look on your face that you're not just coming over to buy a girl a drink..."

Her voice dropped.

"The old godfather? Time to finally pay him a visit at his place?"

When Briya had moved in from New York, a few of the locals had taken exception. One man, in particular, had styled himself as Godfather of Summerlin. He and Briya had stayed out of each other's way for a while, but sooner or later they'd have to settle things.

Sooner, it appeared. Much sooner.

Kate grinned.

Briya tried to return the smile; what came instead looked more like a grimace. She'd filled the last two weeks with attempts at putting off what was now inevitable...a confrontation that one of the two people involved wouldn't walk away from.

Too much business, too much travel, too many drugs and drinks had blurred the hours into days and the days into weeks. The misfire back in Philly had got her doubting herself, but she'd run out of time to dig herself out of that mental hole in the ground. If she didn't do something in the next couple of days, she would lose any power over Summerlin that she believed she had. The only saving grace was the one standing in front of her now. She could do this, if she had Kate's help. Maybe.

"I'm not sure what to do about this," she said, staring at her left hand as Kate took a seat across from her. "Shooting southpaw to save my life," she laughed quietly.

"What can I do to better my odds, here?"

Kate narrowed her eyes, trying to think of what John would do. She wished he was here. Instead, she just sighed. She'd have to do it her way. Finally, she grinned. 

"Come on, Southpaw. Grab a few bottles of something you hate to drink and pick me out up front in a couple minutes. You drive."

She drily continued as Briya laughed under her breath.

"And while you're driving, tell me about you and shooting. How good were you, really? And what's it like now, after the injury?"

Briya smirked, then agreed to do as instructed. After a few moments in the stockroom, she came back out, hauling a case of crappy vodka that had been left by an optimistic vendor who would be better off selling paint thinner.

Once the booze was tucked into the small trunk, she accepted the keys from the valet and pulled the car up to the casino entrance next door. Kate got in, and they were off.

As she drove, Briya spoke.

"I was decent with my right hand. Better with knives, but decent with a gun. Some of us back in New York tried to intercept a load of gems that had just arrived in the harbor. Everything was going smoothly until the rival boss showed up unexpectedly. When he raised his gun, I raised my hand...they call that a 'defensive wound', I'm told...anyway. My hand slowed the bullet, which passed through it and busted a rib instead of killing me outright. I can't hold a gun steady at all, much less shoot with it. Been training with my left ever since. Not terrible, but not great, either. Well, you saw, at the range. I've got a long way to go," she said as the car travelled further into the desert. A turn here and there, and Vegas was but a memory behind them as they eventually came to a stop on the hard-packed earth. Briya got out and walked in a slow circle, surveilling the nothingness. A slight breeze pushed her hair off her face and she breathed in deeply. Clean. Dry, but clean. 

Stepping over to the trunk, she popped it open and pulled out the cheap booze. 

"Just set them up willy nilly, or did you have something else in mind?"

As Briya drove, Kate stared out the windshield. If she looked down, or at something inside the car, her stomach lurched. But if she could see where the car was going, she could pretend that she was on a horse with a firecracker up its ass and it didn't seem quite as bad. Cars, she'd started to get used to. Planes... never. There wasn't an explosive big enough in the world to make a horse fly. Not in one piece, anyway.

She listened, staring, as Briya talked. She also thought about how John would know exactly what to do... and how she'd have to try to manufacture her own way, which would hopefully be close enough to what John would have done. As the car rolled to a stop, Kate popped out, walking around front to the hood of the car, which was pointed at the setting sun. She sat on the front of the car, trying not to think about how much it cost, before patting next to her for Briya to join her.

She kept thinking for a bit, and Briya respected her silence. The sky in front of them was awash with reds, oranges, purples, and gold as the sun sank closer to the sand. The hood of the car was pleasantly warm.

Finally, Kate spoke.

"Okay. I think I've got this figured out. Let me tell you how I see it, and then we can go from there."

She leaned back, resting her elbows as she reclined, still looking forward at the sun.

"Back in Philly, when you were supposed to take down, uh... shit. Frankie? Tony? Whoever. Something happened in there, and it wasn't my place to comment on it. Until you asked me to help, so now I suppose it's my place. Look, I saw you shoot. You're good. You're not amazing, but you're not shit either. You're a pro. I know you've been practicing a lot with your left. Physically, you're there. Mentally, you're not. You're in your own damn head about 'Oh holy shit it's my left hand'. Back in Philly... was that really a gun malfunction? Or did you just freeze up? There's no shame in it. You're startin' over, losing your confidence, and you're in a position where you're expected to BE confident."

She paused, pursing her lips for a moment.

"Look, maybe it was the gun. You don't have to say nothin' about that. My point here is that you've been practicing your ass off. Physically, your left is there. But you keep think of it as shooting with your left hand, rather than just shooting, ya know? 

Kate glanced over at Briya.

"If you want my professional opinion, your hand is fine. I'm not saying you could outduel 5 guys at once, but your hand is still deadly. We've just got to get you to smooth out your thinking. You up for trying to do that? Am I right? Wrong? Cold? Hot?"

She popped her eyebrows, grinning.

She made it sound so simple. Heaving a sigh, Briya shrugged. "On all accounts, yes, you're correct. I'm just not sure I understand how to rewire the circuits in my head, you know? That's a whole lifetime, over twenty...okay, thirty," she said at Kate's smirk, "years thinking about dominance and non-dominance. How would you suggest I go about that, exactly?" She asked, propping her feet up on the bumper and wrapping her arms loosely around her legs. She briefly thought about cracking open one of the bottles of lighter fluid sitting on the trunk, then thought better of it.

"The big idea is to hit you with something that takes up so much of your mental processing that you don't have time to overthink things. To be honest, if you were a fella- or single- I'd just get you naked. Get you so self conscience about that, that you don't even have time to worry about whether it was your left or right. Maybe give you a little motivation..."

She smirked, getting caught in a daydream.

"Point is, it's really hard to shoot naked. It's hard to think about much else when you've got a breeze on your ass. I think that's a Shakespeare quote. Anyways, that's not really an option. You don't seem like the type, and your Brancer there might bury me out here. So back up plan. You got a favorite song? Something you know by heart? Something meaningful, with a lot of emotional connections?"

Briya blinked, her head tilting to the side like a confused dog as she listened to Kate's explanation of nude shooting. The corner of her mouth twitched in barely suppressed laughter before she got herself back onto the correct mental track. Once there, it didn't take her long to come up with the answer to the question she'd been asked.

"Sure. 'This can't Be Love'. You know, that Nat King Cole tune? I know that one pretty well. What am I supposed to do, sing it while blowing someone's face off?" She asked, only half kidding. It didn't sound like it would work as a very good diversionary tactic, but she'd try just about anything.

"Singing it while blowing someone's face off is definitely an amusing image, but no, it's not the vocalization that matters."

Kate crossed her arms.

"Your brain is getting in the way of your hand, Briya. Your hand knows what to do- you just have to keep your brain busy with something else. A few minutes before you shoot, repeatedly visualize it happening- see the future- what is your hand doing? What are your eyes doing? What is your arm doing? Your body? Then, in the time before, you need to distract your brain. Now I'm sure John would have something more perfect for you here, but this is all I've really got. "

"You could try running through the song in your head."

"Or you could try... prayer. Don't laugh. Prayer works- John said so. Not because of a higher power helping you kill someone, but because the act of praying distracts the mind from what's currently stressing you the fuck out. Make up your own prayer, if you'd like. A list of qualities, a list of people you care about, a list of shit you need from the grocery store."

Quiet for a moment, Kate recites.

"I do not aim with my hand; she who aims with her hand has forgotten the face of her father.
I aim with my eye.

I do not shoot with my hand; she who shoots with her hand has forgotten the face of her father.
I shoot with my mind.

I do not kill with my gun; she who kills with her gun has forgotten the face of her father.
I kill with my heart."

She paused again.

"We'll still do some physical practice- I did notice you're not lining yourself up perfectly, but the biggest thing here is going to be you finding out how to occupy your subconscious. We could also just do whatever we can to make you physically uncomfortable to distract you as well. But all the shit we're doing here isn't going to prove anything. We'll only know that in the heat of the moment. When we're done here, maybe we can go practice on someone a little less protected."

Her eyes lit up.

"I've got just the man in mind. But yea, those are the ideas I've got. What do you want to do?"

"All of those things. I want to do them all until we find something that works," she said, moving towards the trunk again and lifting out bottles. She began to set them around in a semi-circle in the dirt at varying distances. After a few minutes, a dozen bottles stuck up like teeth in a mouth in dire need of dental work and she was walking back towards Kate and the car, wiping the palms of her hands down her jeans.

Back to the bottles, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply. In, out. A movie began to play backwards in her head: a bottle exploded, flying back whole again. A gun raised, now lowered. Briya herself facing the bottles, then turning away. 

And then the movie played forward, and she moved. Opening her eyes, she pulled out her gun and flipped the safety as she turned, then fired. The bottle she'd chosen, one in the middle distance, didn't explode, but a puff of dirt rose close to it, and the bottle actually rocked a bit. Looking at Kate, Briya shrugged. 

"Not bad. Start with less lofty intentions, maybe?" She smirked, then turned and repeated the process. This time, after the deep breath, she sang into the wind.

"This can't be love, because I feel so well," she crooned as she turned, lifted, fired. One of the closer bottles shattered skywards.

"No sobs, no sorrows, no sighs." Another one, this one further off.

"This can't be love; I get no dizzy spells," she continued on, this time hitting the very furthest bottle.

"My head is not in the skies." Dropping her teacup grip, she fired with her left hand unsupported, exploding the bottle nearest. Beyond satisfied, she turned back to Kate. 

"Let's save the prayer for the guy. He needs it more than I do," she grinned.

Kate grinned her rare, authentic smile as she slung an arm over Briya's shoulders. She had, perhaps, explored the cheap vodka; regardless, she seemed pleased.

"Let's save the prayer for the guy. He needs it more than I do," Briya said with a grin, matching Kate's.

"He does.... you know, you don't need to sing it... just needs to be in your head... but you can't argue with results, eh?

They made their way back to the car as Kate sighed. Before they started moving, she fished a piece of paper out of her pocket.

"So there's sort of this shitty business deal I got roped into... thought I'd have complete control of something, but it only takes effect when the swindling asshole bites the dust. Fortunately, I don't think he knew who he was dealing with or he would've known better. Anyways, there's this bar in Summerlin, few minutes north of the casino. The guy lives in the apartment above the bar. 99% he's alone, since it looks like he's never brushed his teeth in his life. Shit, even when I was out hiking in the desert I managed to do better. So yea, if this guy goes down, it'd give me ownership of the building. If you could drop me off somewhere to establish my alibi, he could be a good test for you. Hell, you could probably take him down with your bare hands."

She leaned back in the car, staring out the windshield.

"So kill two birds with one stone? I get my business, you get a practice run for You Know Who?"

Briya climbed in and nodded. "Sounds like a plan," she said, starting the engine and pulling the car back onto the dirt road. After several long minutes, they were back in Summerlin, heading towards the northern edge of town and the shoddy bar Kate had mentioned. Pulling to the curb a few cars lengths back, Briya stared at the place through her windshield.

"Well. It's, uh. I'm sure you'll make a ton off the locals," she said amicably as two day drinkers emerged, repeatedly bumping into each other as they tried to maneuver their way down the sidewalk. Briya's eye went upwards to take in the upstairs apartment. Was Kate intending to live there? She hoped not. The casino hotel room offer was the better choice, but she couldn't force Kate to take it.

Popping open her car door after checking, reloading, and re-checking her gun, she tucked it in her waistband and walked around the car to Kate's passenger door. Kate looked at her, confused, and rolled down the window.

"What are you doing? I'm supposed to be out finding an alibi," she said.

"And you will," Briya replied, handing her the keys to the Silver Ghost. "You'll be out there getting a speeding ticket in your new car. Or, more realistically, you'll be getting a ticket for reckless driving for plowing into someone's bushes. Either way, you're alibied," she grinned. passing over the keys. Kate continued to sit there stubbornly, and Briya looked over her shoulder at the upstairs apartment window.

"I would suggest you move your butt. If he happens to look out here, the car will be a dead giveaway that something's up. Particularly if he sees the driver," she said, walking backwards, away from the vehicle, and leaving Kate no options. The flare of anger and...fear?...that flashed in the other woman's eyes made Briya chuckle.

Two engine turnovers later, Kate was lurching away from the curb and flipping Briya the bird as she rolled slowly down the street. Briya wasted no more time and let herself into the bar, pulling a couple bucks from her pocket and ordering a beer, and then asking where the restrooms were. The tender nodded his head at the back, never even making eye contact, and she thanked him and went in that direction, surveilling the room as she did. Just a single barfly remained, half asleep in one of the greasy booths off to the side.

Once in the short back hallway, she bypassed the doors to both the toilets and what looked like either an office or storage room, and headed for the door that she knew would lead upstairs. The cheap lock holding it closed was popped easily with her bare hands; the wood in the molding around it was ancient, unpainted, and dry with wood rot. Shaking her head at all the money Kate would have to invest simply to keep her customers from getting hepatitis, Briya crept the stairs silently until she came to the top of them, and to another door. Delbert Calemine's heavy frame creaked the floorboards as he approached the other side of it, and then stopped.

"Who is it? Private residence!"

Briya took a deep breath and sang.

"My heart does not stand still, just hear it beat,"

"What?! The fuck you say?"

"This is too sweet to be love. This can't be love, because I feel so well,"

"The fuck you playing at, lady? Who sent you?" He asked, the sound of a lock springing loose on the other side, and then the door was opening.

"I love to look in your eyes," she said, and did. He looked back into hers, then at the gun rising towards his face, utter incomprehension keeping him frozen.

"I love to look in your eyes." She finished, then shot him between his. Before he'd fully fallen to the floor, she pushed past him and headed for the exterior entrance and down the rickety stairs that barely remained attached to the outside of the building, while shoving the gun back into her waistband and fluffing Brancer's shirt out over it once more. Turning left at the bottom, she walked casually down the street, waiting until she'd gotten a few blocks and into a more heavily trafficked area before hailing a cab, whistling "This Can't Be Love" the entire way.

Kate Logan was pissed.

The string of profanity that emerged from her mouth as Briya walked away was a symphonic orchestration of obscenities that had never been arranged before in the history of man- and would likely never occur again. As the car slowly lurched forward, the masterpiece of cursing slowly trailed its way down the street of Summerlin.

As it bumped against a curb, and old woman caught "-goddamn ass fucking bitch-" and stared as the car moved past her, traveling at approximately 5 mph. 

A couple young boys, throwing a baseball back and forth, let the baseball drop to the ground, forgotten, as the most expensive car they'd ever seen scraped against the curb, moving inch by inch. The blonde woman driving punched the steering wheel several times as she scraped past them.

"ASS! CUNT! GO! GO IN THE FUCKING ROAD!"

The Ghost scraped against a mailbox before it responded to the wheel and turned, too strongly, out into the road. A swift dramatic correction later, it was pointed back in the right direction, still traveling at a steady 5 mph, except when the driver slammed on the brakes.

Cars behind her laid on their horns, receiving even louder cussing in return as they passed her. After what seemed like an eternity, a taxi cab drove past her and she noticed Briya's face in the window, surprised. Kate had only managed about five blocks in a straight line. 

Seeing Briya exit the cab, Kate glared at her, slammed on the brakes, and opened the door to exit. She'd only made it a few steps before she realized the car was continuing on without her, bumping lightly into the back of a parked car. 

It only took a couple minutes for Briya to get back in the car and get them on the road again, her passenger's eyes shooting daggers in her direction.

"So. That went well," Briya said, biting her lip so hard that it threatened to bleed. If she laughed like she wanted to, a confrontation with her rival was the least of her worries.

"Your problem back there is no more. A couple witnesses that never even looked at me, so there shouldn't be any repercussions. Guy like that, I don't think anyone's gonna look too hard into it anyway. Plus, you know. I know some people who can get it filed and forgotten as 'unsolved' a bit faster than normal. Congratulations on your new bar. I think. It, uh...hmm. Might need a bit of rehabbing," she went on, pretending that Kate wasn't looking at her that way. Biting her lip again, she concentrated on the road as the car meandered towards the hangout of the self-proclaimed 'acting godfather of Summerlin'.

It was a dry cleaners, and as they drove past it to case the joint, Briya saw two goons hanging around out front, letting her know that the pretentious fuck was indeed there. Briya circled the block, pulling up to an abandoned  appliance store on the next street over. Behind it, she could just spot the rear of the dry cleaners. 

Once more, she checked and reloaded her gun. Deep breath. Turning to Kate, she smiled.

"I won't make you drive, but keep the engine running. I'm going in the back, and coming back out the same way, if all goes well," she said as she opened the car door and stepped out. Before her feet even hit the sidewalk, she was singing in her head. 

Kate sat in the car for a moment, waiting. It felt like an hour. Her anger was bleeding off, and she found herself looking at the house with concern.

She'd give Briya a few minutes.

Then she'd walk in and try to kill everyone.

Briya emerged moments later, running full bore as if she held the lead in the running of the bulls. Gunshots sounded behind her, but she didn't slow or flinch...just kept on until she hit the car, literally, and slid across the roof on her ass. Seconds later, a bullet pinged off the fender and she whipped the driver's side door open and threw herself inside. The car was squealing away before she'd even closed the door, momentum slamming it shut for her.

Panting, she turned to Kate with wild eyes and a huge smile. 

"Well, I-"

Glass exploded inwards from the rear window as the self-proclaimed godfather's now-crewless goons continued to fire at the Silver Ghost as it barreled down the street and took the first corner available at a high rate of speed.

"Damnit! This poor car. Anyway, I did it. I don't think he had enough people under him for me to worry about any backlash," she said, still smiling, "but I'm ready for them if he did! Woo!! Let's go have a lot of drinks," she said, continuing to drive at a blistering speed that had Kate turning an alarming shade of green next to her.