MISS PIERCE

c h a p t e r 1

"I have." She replied briefly and casually. The thought of having a man shadow her every move was annoying enough. Knowing that said man would eat, sleep and live in her house was a whole other subject.

She glared back at her duplex house, feeling it suddenly wasn't as big as she liked. Not big enough to put sufficient space between her and her guard, that is.

"Wait for me at the pier, I'm in Bel Air and will be in there in ten minutes." Evelyn lied.

"Of course, Miss Pierce. The Yakuza are willing to assist you in your time of need."

Glancing at her phone she hung up and got inside her pick for the day; the blue, Italian make sports car.

Briskly pressing the button for the ignition she raced out of her property onto the winding streets of mountainous Beverly Hills. She knew the roads by heart and had no trouble engaging the risky curves at high speeds.

The vehicle responded smoothly to her requests wherever she steered it to turn.

Now having left behind the comfort of Beverly Hills, the houses started getting smaller, then turned to apartments, and finally warehouses, denoting her proximity to the docks and the industrial district of the city.

Minutes flashed before her like nothing as she finally decelerated her car to full stop in her pier, immediately gaining her attention from the the lowest yard worker to the highest payed supervisor. All this did was annoy Evelyn as she saw them waste her time.

Time that she was paying them for.

With the quick shut off of her engine she got out the door and quickly took in the scene before her.

"If you do not get back to work I will see to it that you each wash my car with toothbrushes until it glows!" Taking her threat seriously, the workers returned to their routines and tried their best to ignore her presence.

The cool air blew gently against Evelyn's face as she walked down the pier. She glanced to either side where her massive ships from all over the world docked to load and unload cargo. She took a sense of pride in knowing that all this was the result of her arduous work.

"Miss Pierce!" yelled Mr. Cole, Evelyn's assistant. Enthusiastically he ran to meet her and once he reached her walked beside her; mirroring her pace with some difficulty.

"Talk to me Cole. What's the status?" Evelyn stated plainly still working towards the mountain of empty crates.

"Senia discovered a crate that was not empty from this shipment. According to the manifest its L-O-O was Singapore."

"Forget the location of origin Cole, what were its contents?"

Nervously Cole tucked a finger in his collar and ran his hand behind his back. His inconfidence earned him a slight growl from Miss Pierce.

"Well? What is it?" She asked less patiently this time, now only a few steps from the crate.

But before Cole could open his mouth to speak, Evelyn got her answer as she grabbed the iron handle and opened the door.

At first, scant light entered the big metal box. But soon enough, its contents became all too obvious.

Cocaine.

"The Zifengs seem to be getting sloppier in their work. They left this behind." Senia materialized beside Evelyn; one hand in her coat pocket, the other holding out a bag containing a shiny black object.

"What's that?" Evelyn inquired, glancing over to the bag and then to Senia.

"A gun. Possibly of Polish make. From the looks of it," pausing, she examined the gun through the bag.