The Bullet and The Rose

A/N: All previous unrecognized names are mine.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> I own Seda and her family.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> That’s about it.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> This happens a little bit before the movie
“Snatch” takes place, thus the reason a few characters are still alive.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> I heart reviews.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Give them to me.

Prologue

14 June 1999

Dear Casey,

There is an old adage that warns
you against mixing business and pleasure.
Apparently such a concoction will cause irreparable damage to your life,
although I find it difficult to see. My
business is my pleasure.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> No, I am not a call girl or a stripper or
anything of the sort. I am a shop
girl. I specialise in urban fashion and
antiques you probably couldn’t afford, but the real trade is in contraband.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> I don’t like dealing in drugs, although I can
get them, and cigarettes and alcohol are not lucrative to a one-woman
show. My thing is guns.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Weapons and explosives bring in quite a
profit, not to mention cheaply acquired if you know the right people or are
willing to trade favours for merchandise.

I can’t say I’ve never slept with
anyone who did me a service. A few years
back I was involved with an IRA operative who convinced me to add bombs and
other such goodies to my storeroom. He
taught me all he knew before sufficiently angering someone and receiving a
bullet in the brain. I don’t really miss
him, in fact, we had little in common.
But the sex was good and it helped my business, so why not?style='mso-spacerun:yes'> I had fun.
I would like to think he had fun too before someone blew the back of his
head off. I would doubt he’s having a
good time right now, ha ha.

You asked me once if I have ever
been in love. That question, that damned
question! The more I think about it, the
more I realise I’ve never really been in love with anyone.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Of course I’ve been “in lust” or just plain
fascinated, but love – never! It’s too
complicated, too messy; I just can’t have anything like that in my life right
now. Maybe I’m frigid.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Maybe I’m afraid.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Maybe I don’t want to wake up one morning and
all of sudden it hit me: “Fuck, man, I’m in love.”style='mso-spacerun:yes'> And then I’ll go about my business and one
day a man will come into my shop and blow my fucking head off.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> And then what?style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Then nothing.

So that, Casey, is why I will never
fall in love.

Until later,

Seda