The Target (Complete) - Watty Awards 2014

Chapter 13 - Ten in Two - Part 2

I stood in the church, dusty and bloody. The man smiled grimly at me. He wasn't exactly my favorite person in the world. And, he definitely wasn't invited to this party.

"Rosa," he smiled. "I've missed you."

I sighed, "I wasn't expecting you."

"You called my contact and didn't think he would tell me about it." He chuckled. "You know I couldn't miss an opportunity to see you. Especially when I met you, your name was Lola. I wanted to see the new you."

Manuel Rodriguez, former child prodigy, newly appointed hitman for the Peruvian government, and my ex-boyfriend.

Honestly, I don't think we actually broke up.

"Nice setup you have going here. You should have called me."

"Why? So, you can have the first crack at killing me." I snapped.

"No." He said, sincerely.

I rose my eyebrow and looked at the pistol, pointing at me.

"What, this," Manuel lowered his weapon. "It was just so you won't try to kill me before I got to talk to you."

I sighed, "So, what do you want?"

"I want to help."

"I don't need your help," I snapped.

"The tow truck outside says you do," he smiled. "You have a lot of people hunting you down and I'm assuming you don't have much time to get it done. Am I right?"

I rolled my eyes.

"I'll take that as a yes. And, I bet none of them know you sent the burn notice..."

He stared at me, waiting for an answer. When I didn't respond, he already knew. There wasn't much I could ever keep from him. That's what I hated most about him.

"...Instead of having them all chase the real target, you have them chasing you." Manuel continued. "Then, you could take them out one by one. Nice. So, what was the plan?"

"Everyone has routines and they all had meeting places that I was going to be." I smiled. " I just had to bet them there."

He shook his head. "How many?"

"How many what?"

"How many of our friends have you killed," he asked.

"They aren't my friends."

"How many?" He yelled.

I sighed. "Today, four."

Manuel huffed. "How many left?"

"Six."

"Does that include me?"

"Yes."

"So, five," He exhaled, looking at the ground. "How long?"

I looked at my watch. It was now 1:12 and time was still running.

"Just over 45 minutes."

His head popped up, "What? That's not much time."

"That's why I need to stop talking to you and get going."

He rushed forward and I stepped back, pulling out my gun. His golden eyes grew wide.

"Are you going to shoot me?"

"Don't tempt me," I whispered.

Manuel slowly walked to the first pew. He pulled out a dufflebag and slid it over to me. I looked at it, hesitant.