Alex’s POV

Well, the bang had echoed and a deadly silence came over the street. I was still thinking and standing so it wasn’t me! The guy who was about to shoot me was now writhing in pain on the floor.

“God!” He shouted, clutching his right shoulder.

“Who do you work for?” A female voice shouts as she walks up to him and puts her foot on his wound, without pressure for now. I begin to walk towards them both, curious who this amazing woman was.

“Please!” He begged. She put pressure on her foot touching the wound and he let out a yelp.

“Who do you work for? Where are you all hiding?” She shouts at him. This girl is impressive. Her foot stamps on his wound and I wince for him.

“Ok! OK, please, just stop!” He begs. “We’re waiting in a garage a few roads down. There’s a guy we’ve been told about, he’s our hit.”

“All of you? For one man?” She questions. He hesitates so she puts more pressure on his wound.

“Yeah! He’s got a great reputation!” He said hysterically.

“What’s his name?” She says, looking down at her foot.

“Err… Alex or something?” I stopped and put my hand on my head, confused. She stuttered and stammered.

“Wha-Why?”

“Why you want to know?” He questioned back, her reply being standing on his wound.

“He’s my hit!” She shouted at him. Oh shit! I’m in trouble.

“What? Our whole firm is after him! Why are you here?” he said, confused as well.

“I dunno! Who’s your whole firm?” she questioned. There was a pause before he screamed out in pain as she put all her weight into a stamp onto his wound.

“We work for T.H.O” I felt sick. That’s who we worked for, although we were never allowed to know what it stood for, for some strange reason. Why were my own firm going after me? I ran up to them both and looked down at him. Oh My God…

“Frank?” I said to him.

“Alex? Oh shit!” He said back, receiving a stamp on the shoulder for swearing I assume.

“Frank, what the fuck? Why’s the whole firm after me?” He answered me simply.

“Des.” That one word was enough.

“Why?”

“Dunno, you were the text we all received. All five of us from the other side of the country as well as your family replacements…”

“Replacements?” The woman piped up, looking to her I suddenly realise who it is. Alyssa.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” She stops me by waving her hand in my face.

“Huh? What replacements?” She said stamping on his wound so hard I’m pretty sure I heard her foot contact the pavement.

“5 replacements… You know for the guys you lost?” He was pretty bemused at the fact he knew more than us about our own firm. A smirk grew on his face but a silenced shot to his head ended that. Asshole.

“Alex!!” Ally whispered angrily to me. “We were getting information!”

“Pfft. I got it already. 5 replacements cos we’re going to die too. Now I’m off to that garage to die as my job description would imagine, rather than sneakily in the middle of this road. Thanks.” I say as I turn and walk off.

“Shit!” I hear Ally say to herself, followed by her footsteps approaching me. I turn to her.

“You’re not coming in with me! You’re-”

“Don’t you dare… Don’t even say it. We’re gonna murder these assholes, find out what is going on with Des, then we’re going to be normal… Ok?” She interrupted me with wise words. I nod. Standing outside the garage we load up each weapon, taking a few of choice as we get ready to burst in and try to get information. After a quick nod to say I was ready, and one from her to say she was too, I kicked the door open and opened fire, bodies dropping to the floor like flies. They weren’t ready, why? BANG BANG BANG. Another down, and another until there were only two left, quivering on the floor.

“Count your blessings…” I say as I hold my gun to the head of one and Ally does to the other.

“What the fuck is going on?” Ally hisses at them. “Why’ve you all been given the same hit?” The boys remain quivering on the floor.

“Tell me!” I shout at them. It is only then that they realise who I am.

“Alex?” One of them manages to say, his voice shaking.

“Tell me why you all want me dead…”

“It’s not us! We all got the same text! We only got hired a week ago!” The other said, voice shaking too.

“Yeah. I woke up today to a text that said it was a special mission…”

“So Des wants me dead?” I question.

“I guess… Either that or someone has given him big bucks and he doesn’t care.” The other said. I wanted to smack him in the face for saying that but Ally’s booted foot got to his face before I could even think.

“Hey! Come on! He was only being honest!” The other guy said, sticking up for him as he clutched his nose.

“Who would want me dead?” I said to myself but loud enough for everyone to hear.

“Well Colin did, but he’s dead now…” The one without a bloodied face said, but Ally’s boot reached his face too.

“How did you know about Colin?” She shrieked at him.

“We used to work for him!” He said nasally.

“Des hired you? When you originally worked for Colin? And Colin was hiring all his group to kill me? And Colin almost killed Des?” I couldn’t work it out in my head, I admit it, but I hoped saying it aloud would make it easier for me. “So that means…?” I say, hoping someone had worked it out for me.

“Des was working with Colin?” Ally said, gobsmacked. Suddenly it all made sense. The reason Colin knew where we were was not cos he managed to trace Des’s phone, but because he could ask Des, or Des could give him the same text we received as a reference. The way Colin could snap up any people we didn’t kill, cos he was always mere minutes behind us. The way Colin knew who Alyssa was despite never knowing her cos he was out the door before she came in. The way the presents under the tree got there with none of us knowing. The way he knew losing Des would affect us, so pretended to kill him… Which means…

“Des is THE bad guy?” I say aloud, as if the penny finally dropped. The two guys on the floor rolled their eyes as if to say ‘Finally!’. But that also meant that anything I’ve heard from Des recently was just a ploy to alienate me; Like Alyssa killing my dad. “Oh shit! Ally, I’m sorry! I just didn’t think…” She shook her head.

“It’s alright, it’s only just made sense to me too!” She smiled, a little giggle let out embarrassedly.

“Where’s Des?” I question them. They both look at each other then look at me shaking their heads.

“I know you know!” Ally says scarily.

“I-I… I don’t know!” One says, trying to fool us. Ally pulls the trigger at her one and the shot was aimed at his leg. He lets out an almighty scream.

“I know you both get along, so you…” She said pointing at the one I was paired with. “You tell me or he dies. You have 5 seconds.” She raises her eyebrows at the guy. He panics.

“Ah, ok! I’ll tell you! Just don’t kill us!”

“If you don’t try and kill us, we’ll leave you. We’ll even tell Des you escaped from us.” I say, trying not to scare the shit out of them like Alyssa.

“There’s a second hit happening around now, three roads down on Smithfield Street. Des is gonna set up in there...”

“What an aptly named road!” I joke, bearing in mind the town we’re in is called Smithfield.

“You better run…” Ally says as she cocks her gun, ready to take another shot. The guy I was paired with gets up and helps his friend up and bolt for the side exit. We watch them leave.

“What the fuck?” I say to her, she shrugs.

“Des? Why?” I shrug to her questions too. We’re stopped in our tracks by a shot echoing through the streets. This must be where Des is gonna hold out, but what he’s not thinking about… Is me!