Quentin, you selfish fuck.

Dale said he left me a couple of presents. They had better be something good. I have time. The fun won't start without me. If I just try to bowl myself right down the middle of the problem I'll get the girls killed. I can't let that happen.

I swing off the highway and drive toward Dale's weapons cache. This had better be worth my time.

Using a key I took from his office, which must have been blown to smithereens by now, I open the storage locker door and roll it up. It hasn't been opened for a while; leaves and spiderwebs cling to the bottom.

This locker is more of a garage, big enough to house a car. Everything is covered with dusty drop cloths that throw up curtains of grime when I yank them off. It's all standard stuff, crates of weapons. No help. I can pack it all in the Impala's trunk and never get it anywhere near Santiago.

Damn it, Dale, tell me you had something.

Nothing, just weapons and a laptop. No time. I need to meet up with the crazy bitch who's going to drive me to my torture appointment.

Fuck.

It's not a long drive from the cache. I don't care if I'm being followed anymore, although it would be a little ironic if some other assassin took me out and claimed the bounty on my head before Santiago could get to me. The sick bastard would probably find that amusing.

I'm to meet this woman in public at a cafe in the Old City, probably to make sure I don't attack her. Santiago thinks everyone is like him, a totally sick fuck without the slightest hint of scruples. I don't hurt women. I have rules.

He doesn't.

What the hell. I park the Impala in a garage so she won't get towed (for a while, anyway; I'm probably not coming back to her alive) and walk down to the corner of Third and Market where there's this pizza place.

Crazy Bitch Lily is sitting at a table in the corner, eating a slice of pepperoni pizza. I walk in, sit down at the cast-iron table, and give her the death stare.

"Hello," she says.

"I can see you're all choked up."

"Been stewing on that one a while, I see."

"Better than dumping your drink in your lap and saying, 'Ice to see you.' I considered that one."

She snorts. "I'm sure you did."

"Are you going to sit here and watch me squirm or can we go get me tortured to death now? I want to get this over with."

"Want some pizza?"

I glance down at the mostly uneaten pie on the table before me.

Lily shrugs. "I'm not going to poison you. Santiago wants you for himself."

"Kinky," I declare, and take a slice of pizza.

"You're in a weird position," she says, chewing. "You want to throw all sorts of threats at me about your woman, but you can't because I'm a woman."

"That's right, I won't hurt you."

"Stupid."

"Yeah." I chew with my mouth open. "That's me. We gonna get a beer or get this over with?"

"Let's go," she says, rising. "You understand what happens if you bail on me."

"Yeah, I understand."

"Good, I don't feel like chasing you."

I stand up and follow her out. It's blazing hot out, the sun baking down on the city streets, hitting the brick of the buildings and warming them up to oven hot. I start to sweat. She doesn't.

"What happened between you and Santiago?" she says, glancing at me as I walk beside her.

"We had a falling out."

"Over what?"

"He had two apprentices at the time. Only one of us was going to pass the test. It was never said but I knew it all the same."

"You had to kill the other one?"

"No, he did, and I swore if I ever saw him alive again, I'd kill him. He just laughed at me. Santiago de la Rosa can never be killed, he'd say."

"He says that a lot. Who was the guy?"

"Girl. Like you. You alone?"

"I'm the only one."

"You're not freelancing yet."

She shakes her head.

"What'd he do after you returned from your failed mission? You tried to kill me and didn't succeed."

"Nothing. He said we'd correct the problem. He said you were his most dangerous pupil and it was a mistake to send me alone."

"Oh," I say cheerily. "I guess he didn't tell you what that means."

"No, what?" she says, a hint of curiosity in her voice.

"It means he's going to kill you, too. He doesn't tolerate failure, Lily. Is that your name, Lily?"

"I gave it to you true. I was there to kill you, after all, not much reason to hide my name. Professional courtesy, and Santiago is not going to kill me."

I walk with her to a parking garage and my instincts make me scan all the exits and corners.

"Have you told Santiago we're coming?"

"Yes, of course. I'm not an idiot. If I don't make it back, your women are dead."

"Right, right. How much time would you say we have?"

"It's an hour drive."

"Call him and tell him there's traffic, it will take longer."

"Why should I do that?"

"I have a story you need to hear."

"I'm not interested."

"I'm offering you this as a courtesy. I'm trying to save you."

"Why?"

"You're a woman."

"So?"

"You want the answer to that question, tell Santiago we're going to be late."

She stops and fishes out the keys to the car.

"Get in, Mulqueen."

I sit down in the front seat of the car, and wait. Outside Lily has a clipped conversation on the phone before she gets in with me. She starts the car and wheels around to the bottom of the garage.

"I've given you maybe an extra twenty minutes. Think that'll work?"

"Yeah. I'll make this quick. When Santiago first took me in I was twelve years old. He already had another apprentice. Her name was Samantha. She was a year older than I was, and I was just starting to notice girls, so it made things a little awkward even in Santiago's place. He still at the villa?"

"No, we move around."

"Yeah, figures."

"So you got close," she says as she eases the car to a stop at a red light. "So what?"

"We got close. It was an awkward teenage thing. We spent a lot of time together, shared training, did homework together. Lots of math."

"Yeah, there's a lot of trigonometry involved in sniping."

"Chemistry for poisons and explosives, the works. You know the drill. We competed a lot. She was very tomboyish. It was a weird thing because we were basically in killer school.

"Still, it wasn't real. It was like a game. None of it felt real, the target shooting, the sparring with rubber knives. Neither of us shared much about our pasts. All I knew about her was that her parents died. I didn't tell her much more about me."

"Then what?"

"Two horny teenagers in close proximity, mostly unsupervised. Do I need to spell it out?"

"No."

"Santiago gave us condoms. He wanted it that way. I'm surprised there isn't a boy that trained with you."

"No, I've always been alone."

"Anyway. He blooded us at sixteen. Not together, thank God. Even then some part of me didn't want her to see me do it. I didn't want to see her do it either."

"You're delusional," Lily sighs. "This kind of poetic bullshit is what Santiago wants us to give up. Nobody is innocent, Mulqueen."

"I was. You were. Santiago de la Rosa is twisted, Lily, and he wants to make us like that which twisted him. This needs to end. He needs to be stopped."

"Shut up."

I sigh and shift in the seat. "You know what the blooding was like. Mine went poorly but it went. I think he decided then I was the useless one, but I kept at it, kept up with the training. Started going with him on missions. He never took us together, only singly. You know why he did that?"

"No, why?"

"Because even one witness fucks up his sick little fantasy world. He goes on and on and on about himself in the third person, and Santiago de la Rosa this, and Santiago de la Rosa that, and he's afraid if two people hear it together they'll realize how full of shit he is. He's not an artist or a poet. He kills people for money. There's nothing amazing about him. He's just an asshole in a mask. A sadist. He's not training you, Lily. He's playing with you. You're a toy, and when you don't amuse him anymore, you'll be dead."

She glances at me. "What happened?"

"When it was time to end our apprenticeship we were each given a mission. Separate. Yet we were given the same target."

"What?"

"Same target, different methods. It was a game to him, you see, and it was rigged. Only one of us could win. I don't even remember why the guy had a price on his head, he was nobody, but I was standing over his corpse when Sam came in the room through another door amped up to kill this guy, and it was then I knew."

"Knew what?"

"What he'd do to the loser. That was the purpose of that final test, to break the 'winner' completely. To make them like him. He didn't care who it was. I told Sam to run. I begged and pleaded with her to flee, told her I'd cover for her, but she went back anyway. We went back together. Then do you know what happened?"

"No, what?"

"Santiago said to Samantha, 'You were not ready. It was a mistake to send you alone.' She actually looked relieved. She never saw it coming. He shot her in the back of the head and told me, 'You killed her, Quentin, by besting her. I was only the instrument. This is a life where only the strong survive.'"

Lily swallows. I can see her throat bobbing.

"He didn't send you to kill me, you dumb bitch. He sent for you to be killed. That would be his finest act, make me break my rule against killing women. When we get back where we're going he's going to kill you and tell me it's my fault and that you were dead once you stepped into that bar to meet me, and whether it was by my hand or his, it's my fault because I angered my employers and damaged the reputation of Santiago de la Rosa. Those'll be his exact fucking words, Lily. I know how he thinks."

"Be quiet," she says, but her voice is shaky, panicky.

"I will. Gotta say one more thing. If you want to make it out of this alive, you can help me get my girls back. I am not Santiago. I won't kill you after you've outlived your usefulness. Or you can hand me over to that creature and let him play some sick game with me before he kills us all. He won't even save you for last."

I sigh sadly. "This isn't even about you. You're set dressing. You're a prop in someone else's play, Lily. Is that what you want to be?"

Rose "What?"