Sin City.

Everyone was silent. Athena turned to Jason. His face was firm, he didn even turn to look at her. His eyes were

fixed on Alpha. She could feel the tension rising. For some reason, she sensed that Jason was not happy.

”How can you not know who he is? ” Alpha asked as he

went to get a bottle of water from a far off dispenser in

the room. All eyes were on him. Athena was about to ask

again when she felt Jasons hand on her lap underneath the table. He didn shift his gaze from Alpha. She understood the message.

”Come on,of course I know who he is. I was just trying to

see if you guys can take a joke and clearly ur all as

serious as a heart attack. Jeeez guys,lighten up ” Athena

said as she looked at the brothers. She felt Jasons grip on her lap easen.

”Good,now we can get back to business, ” Alpha finally said.

”Which is? ” Jason asked breaking his long silence.

”Handling the case on our hands. Mikhail, please hand over some of the details of the case to Jason. He should give us a way forward by the end of the weekend first thingMonday morning. ” Alpha said as he answered Jasons question and turned to the couple, ” Mr Magraff, I assure you this case in the best hands. ”

Mikhail picked out some documents from his briefcase

and handed them to Jason.

”What should I expect to see? ” Jason asked as he lightly

went through the papers.

”This guy barely knows what he is up against and you

expect us to trust him with this case ? ” Mrs Magraff asked half shouting and half saying.

”Mrs Magraff.. ” Djokovic finally broke his silence.

”Stop with the formalities, you can call me Belinda. ” She

cut him off.

”Okay,Belinda. Please calm down ” Djokovic told her.

”Calm down! You want me to calm down! My husband is

about to be charged with our own daughters murder and

you expect me to calm down! Her killer is still walking

scot-free while my daughter lies in the morgue and you

expect me to calm down! They have labelled my husband

as the Serbian Slayer and.. ”She was now shouting with

tears in her eyes

”Silence! ” Her husband cut in, ”please stop shouting ”

Everyone was silent again but Athena couldn help but

notice that Jasons grip had tightened at the utterance of

the Serbian Slayer.

”Honey please, let these people do what they do best.

Shouting at them will not help in solving anything. At least I know that someone is still willing to help us. We must have faith in them ” Mr Magraff said to his wife and then turned to Alpha, ”I just hope lve come to the right place ”

”We won let you down. ” Alpha said his voice now carryingsome seriousness in it. ”Jason, I hope you
e ready for your first case ”

” Ill need somewhere with some privacy to be able to go

through the files. The front desk is not the ideal kinda

place to go through such sensitive details concerning this

case ” Jason said as he removed his hand from Athenas

lap and placed it on the table.

”Athenas office is quite spacious. I hope she doesn mind sharing it. We could have your things moved over by the end of the day ” Alpha said now looking at Athena who was clearly not expecting that. She was about to protest when she realized that it would give her more time with Jason.

”No objection from me ” she said as she turned to look at

Jason.

”Well, with that settled I guess we now wait for Monday.

But before l forget, Jason, we have a hearing tomorrow.

Should we ask for more time or should we go to it? ” Mikhail asked

”Let it play out the way it was supposed to play. Don

change any thing. ” Jason answered.

”Are you sure about that? ” Belinda intruded

”Do as he says. I trust him. ” Athena answered before

anyone else could, ”so should you ”

”As you wish. ” Djokovic said as he arranged his briefcase. ”We should all get some rest. It has been a long day for

some of us but at least now I know we have some hope. ”

Alpha said as he got up to walk the Magraffs and the brothers to the door. Jason was still in his seat when Athena walked to the door. She saw this as the right moment to talk to him in private. She walked behind the exiting pairs and said to Alpha,

”I would wish to have a moment with Jason, in private.Ask Kay that no one should disturb us. ”

Athena closed the doors and turned to face Jason. He still didn turn to face her. She could see that he was deep in thoughts as his fingers played with the documents on the table.

”Who the hell are you? ” She asked butJason didn move. He didn even show that heacknowledged her presence in the room. She started walking towards him and pulled back his chair so that he could face her. He raised his eyes to meet hers.

”You know exactly who l am,so why are you asking what

you already know? ” Jason asked after a few seconds of

silence. She noticed that he still wasn smiling. His demeanour had changed to a cold one.

”Bullshit! You know exactly what Im asking about. Alpha

isn the kinda person to shower anyone with praise the

way he just did today ” she went on

”Well, maybe he was in a particularly good mood today. Or maybe you are getting a bit jealous ” Jason said as he settled back into his chair.

”Jealous you say? I know exactly what you
e trying to do

and this time you ain gonna succeed ” she leaned over and placed her hand on his shoulder.

”What am l doing? ” He asked amidst a smirk.

”You are answering my goddamn questions with a question every time ” Athena said as she started to raise her voice

”I don get the logic of how you want to know who l am

when in the first place you are the one who accepted to

share an office with me. My belief is that you did it without anyones influence on your decision. Or am I wrong? ” Jasons face was now becoming friendlier.

”No,but you can expect me not to wonder who you are. I

mean,no one and nothing ever shocks the Krovaçic brothers, yet when they heard your name I swear I saw

fear and shock in their eyes. Plus you also got uncomfortable when Alpha referred to you as The Ghost of Europe and not overlooking the fact that you nearly dug your fingers into my leg when you heard the name Serbian Slayer ”

Athena leaned even closer to Jason with her eyes fixed to

his and asked again in a low yet serious tone, ”So l ask

again,who the hell are you? ”

She instantly saw his eyes become cold once again and as

if he had sucked the life from the room his look sent chills down her spine. She took her hand off his shoulder and

stood straight. Jason rose to his feet in front of her. She

had never seen him like this. All her courage melted in an

instance just from his look. He raised his hand and placed it on her neck. He slowly pushed her back and backed her up to the door.Her heart was racing fast and her breathing was irregular. She did not know what his intentions were but from the ice cold look, she knew that she was at his mercy and he could do anything he wanted.

He moved closer such that his body pressed onto hers,

leaned into her right side and spoke in a deep yet terrifying voice, ”Don be scared by me. Instead, you

should be more afraid of what you don know but seek to

find answers to ”