Black Widow (2014 series) #7

Flashback many years to an incident in San Francisco: Black Widow looking for a missing gun in an alley was confronted by Daredevil. She told him she was working for Nick Fury, he accused her of lying based on her heart rate. He wanted to know if she no longer drew the line at hurting people. She insisted she is one of the good guys. He detected uncertainty in her voice; she insisted she knew right from wrong….

Today: Natasha prepares for the day, her manager Isaiah talking to her, setting up a transaction. He suggests calling Daredevil for backup but she insists she is fine. And we see a dead man in her bathtub, a bullet hole in his forehead….

Meanwhile in New York, Isaiah is feeding Natasha’s cat when he receives a call from his sister Carrie and they arrange to meet for lunch over the weekend….

On a pier Natasha meets with her contact who suddenly reveals he knows she is a SHIELD Agent. A sniper fires at her but she jerks the man in front of her and he takes the fatal bullet while she drops into the water and swims away. The sniper flees over the rooftops, unaware that Nat is following him. She catches up with him and they crash through a window. She demands to know who hired her and he insists it was a blind job, his usual method. She threatens to shoot him if he is not more forthcoming. Daredevil appears to inform her he is telling the truth. DD wants to know why she is threatening to kill an unarmed man; he can no longer read her heartbeat which means either she has perfected lying or she no longer knows the difference. DD suggests she leave town while he is still unsure….

Three days later, she is preparing for her next assignment while chatting with Isaiah over the phone, musing about retirement. Later, Isaiah gets a call from his sister Carrie: he apologizes for missing their lunch. She worries about his total commitment to his only client and whether what is coming for her will catch him too. He owes her nothing. But Isaiah insists they all owe her something, him especially. She needs people she can trust as the world is full of people she can’t…..