I met Larry at my place during the weekend. It was a hot and sunny Sunday. Larry had called and said that he had made contact with Sancho and would love to talk to me about it. I knew it was going to be a physical meeting, so I excused myself from Marvin, telling him I needed to get something at my apartment. Marvin wanted the bodyguards to go with me but I told him I could take care of myself since it was quite obvious that I had been doing that for both of us.

From the look on Larry’s face, I could sense the anxiety at which he would have been waiting for me. “What is the matter, did anyone threaten you?” I asked.

He was quick to talk and there was tension written all over him. Larry was trying to cover up something and it was not in his character to do so with me. “Cassie, you know I have been with you for a very long time, and I would do anything to stay by your side,” Larry said, and then there were a few minutes of silence as he paused and was now looking at me.

“Larry spit this sh*t out!” I said as I was already getting frustrated at him.

“The Martinez Gangs are coming for you. They have already placed a marker on you internally amongst the gang members and Sancho was asked to place a contract with the Contractor. There is no way out, Cassie.”

“Did you meet with Sancho as I ordered?” I asked.

“Yes I did,” Larry said.

“Has he placed the order with the Contractor?” I asked.

“I don’t know but he agreed to meet with you tomorrow,” Larry said.

“Hmm, okay, I have to make it count, if he has not placed the order yet,” I said, looking at Larry, who was truly concerned about me.

“What do you intend to do?” Larry asked me.

“I intend to use the favour I had with Sancho. I was supposed to kill him but I let him go, I refused to kill him so that he could meet his baby girl. His wife gave birth that day,” I said.

“Wow! So he owes you a great debt then, but the thing is, he is not in charge and will not be the new leader,” Larry said.

“Why? He was number three in their rankings. What happened?” I asked.

“Zach had planned to kill Sancho and Sanchez in order to get his nephew Lisandro as the new head,”

I was shocked at the level of scheming in the Martinez Gang. One thing they are known for is their order and that was why they grew faster and stayed longer than any other group. Sancho and Sanchez were twins and their father, Martinez, was the leader before Zach. He was not the Martinez who started the gang, but he was a great leader.

“That means Sancho’s life is in danger again. They are going to kill him because if they don’t, he will forever be a threat to Lisandro’s leadership,” I said.

“You have a point, but I hope he will listen to you,” Larry said.

“He will, it may not be easy, but he will. I would be saving his life again and he has a choice to save mine,” I said.

“I don’t want the whole Martinez Gang coming after you,” Larry said.

“I do not think they will send the whole gang after me. Why would they want to waste resources when their headquarters is in New York? They would send the gang members here after me and that is still quite a lot. If they get that contract from the contractor, then that makes it very easy to get me and I will need to stop when I see Sancho,” I said.

“It will not be easy, Cassie, it is not that straight,” Larry said. He could see the expression on my face demanding an immediate explanation of what he had just said.

“Well you killed his brother, his twin brother Cassie!” Larry said.

“It was either Sanchez or me, I am sure he would understand,” I said.

“Well, Sanchez was the number one on the Contractor’s ranking of assassins,” Larry said.

That was the bomb Larry dropped on me and it exploded like hell. I killed number one, thank goodness! It was in a contract and I can argue that. It looked like the Contractor wanted to put me in a web of dangerous positions so connected that I could not come out of it. It also meant that I was now Number One. Larry could be right. The gang would come for me with all they had if they knew I was number two and killed the number one who was also their leader.

“I need to see Sancho, I hope he understands, we both have to make choices,” I said, not necessarily speaking to Larry but just making a point.

“You never told me you were promoted to number two and that you had killed every assassin ahead of you,” Larry said. He was really bitter that I had kept quiet before now.

“I am sorry, I was waiting for the right time,” I said.

“For the right time to get me killed! Cassie, you sent me to Sancho without prior information. Are you doing all this to protect Marvin? Because I don’t get it,” Larry said vehemently, making his point.

I thought about it for a moment. Could it be that I have allowed my emotions to interfere with my decisions, thereby putting everyone in a terrible situation? Well, it was the contract I was executing and I didn’t give myself the contract of killing these people.

“I am an Assassin and killing people is what I do at the right price,” I said without looking at Larry. It was not my fault that I had these kills, they were all in the line of duty.

“So why haven’t you killed Marvin?” Larry asked.

“I don’t have the documents yet,” I said.

“Bullsh*t! Cassie, you can tell that to someone else and not me. You, I know, would have gotten the documents and done the job. If I can see it, so can the Contractor,” Larry said.

“You mean I have the documents and don’t want to kill Marvin? Now, why would I do that?” I said.

“Cassie, I know you. Can’t you see that you are being played by Marvin and the Contractor? And gosh! Please stop lying to me about the documents, I am your clean-up guy, not a dumb fool,” Larry said as he got to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of beer as if it would calm the already tense discussion.

Most of the things Larry said were true. If I had killed Marvin earlier, maybe we would not have been in this situation. But the situation has placed me as the Number One Assassin in the industry. I should be protected, not marked as a target.

“Cassie, if you don’t come clean with me, I may have to leave you. I don’t want to be killed for the wrong reasons. We will all die one day, but I would love to die my way, not like some chaff,” Larry said.

I looked at Larry with so much intent that he could see that something in me had woken up. I just realized that I am Number One and it would not please everyone. How I got there was justified, so why did the Contractor give the go-ahead to the Martinez Gang to come after me?

“Larry, there are so many deceptions going all around and I wanted to be sure I can trust you, I am sorry,” I said, with my eyes shining with purpose.

“You know you can trust me, Cassie,” Larry said.

I went to the fridge, took out a beer too, and started telling Larry the things I thought I could tell him. I told him how I fell in love with Marvin, and how I wanted him to have an heir before killing him, that is, if I could. I also told Larry how I felt the Contractor was using me to get a document he may want to use for himself.

Larry already knew about Uncle Jonah, Mr. Ross, and Shantel. I told him how I intended to make Sancho the new leader of the Martinez group who would make me an ally. I also made sure he understood that this was all I could reveal as of now and that I would tell him more as time revealed itself.

“So do you want to kill Marvin or not?” Larry asked me.

“That, for me, is a choice I have to make, weighing all the options,” I said.