Target

Chapter 7: The Conversation

Was this a date? Or was it just a normal dinner like we usually had. I couldn't tell but by the way Dean looked at me, I had a feeling he thought of it as a date. My mind told me to let him grow fond of me, but was it worth it. No, make him hurt. What are you thinking Raven. I should let him be in as much pain possible, yet I felt the big lump grow in my throat again whenever I thought of it.

"What were you doing in the cold?" He looked at my hands, still half covered with my gloves. I hesitantly slipped them off and put them in my jacket pocket, it felt as if somebody took away the biggest part of me.

"I like it..." I took a bite of my steak. It was better than what I had at the house, it made me question the price of the food in this restaurant. I avoided making any eye contact. I didn't like the comfortable silence that hovered around us in our little private area. Even Dean didn't speak. "Why did you plan to go out for dinner alone?"

"I had a feeling you would show up..." I knit my brows together as he gave another soft smile. Why would he even know that I would show up? Does he think that I have some sort of connection to him, a friendship? It hit me right away, he did think we were friends, maybe more. But why did I feel comfortable with it.

"I guess you know me well..."

"I guess I do... Raven, I was wondering..." I looked up at him, taking a sip of the red wine in front of me. I didn't drink but for some reason I loved wine. "What would you think if I told you something so important that nobody but myself, my bodyguards and my parents know about?"

The attention I lost thirty seconds ago was back. A secret that he kept would be something that could give me more of an upper hand when I killed him. More knowledge on the best way to carry out the assassination. "I would assume you trust me and be great full that you do." The half truth in my response made me want to barf.

"There is someone out there that is trying to kill me, they hired an assassin to kill me... I took a job." I knit my eyebrows together, he couldn't know I was trying to kill him right? I was sure he saw me stiffen when he made his statement, but he seemed to take it as me being afraid for him.

"What job?" He probably could not even hold a gun, there was no way he became an assassin in the last month. There was no way he found out I was going to kill him. Dean was smart, but not that smart.

"I started working as a secret agent. Learned how to use a gun for my own protection about a year ago... Now I'm doing research on who would want me dead. My family has had so many enemies but there is only one that would even want me dead... Veronica Zeller." He glared into thin air, I swallowed another sip of wine. I was happy that I lied about my last name when he asked two weeks ago.

I told the man my full name was Raven James, not Raven Zeller. Now as he was sure that my mother was after him, I'm happy that I lied to him. However, he somehow knew how to use a gun, he somehow was a secret agent. For assassins, secret agents were the worst types of people to be in company with. They can see right through all acts.

Dean clearly was not as smart as he seemed to be. He couldn't see through my lies, he could see that I was using all of this information to take advantage of him, to trick him into liking me.

"Don't go getting yourself killed..." He gave a wide smile, as if he knew how to fight against an assassin properly, as if he could win against someone who killed their entire life when he only learned a year ago. "Do you know who the assassin is?"

Me. He didn't know that. He has never seen me with a gun, nor with blood covering my pants and boots. He didn't know that I could kill whoever I wanted and paint them in their own blood without wanting to throw up. I could shoot them in the head with a smile on my face because of the pitiful sight.

"One of her adopted children... she could never have her own..." I nearly snapped at him in that moment. I was her child, I was not adopted like Bailey or Rose. He was only right that she had raised me. That she had taught me to kill him and only him. Everyone before him were only minor targets in an attempt to scare him enough to corner him in the future.

My gut wrenched, I felt like I was going to hurl as I thought of his corpse. I hated the feeling not because of the body but because of the person it belonged to. I don't understand why I was bothered by killing him, I should be looking forward to putting my bullet through his skull. But, I'm not... at all.

I hated the feeling of the butterflies that filled my stomach every time he tried to get physically closer to me. The way he always tried to find something good about every situation, including this one. He knew he might be killed, yet he still had a smile on his face as he ate more of his dinner.

"I hate thinking about it though... I keep hearing about the assassinations of some people my family has worked with and I'm planning on at least trying to catch sight of the assassin next time they strike." I froze up, I always uncover my face when I'm about to take the final blow. If he were to even catch sight of my eyes he would recognize me. "Raven... Are you alright?"

"Fine..." He gave a soft smile and signalled towards the piece of chocolate cake covered in vanilla icing and glazed strawberries. I never ate a cake before, I was never allowed to eat anything unhealthy. No cake, cookies, or anything of the sort.

"Are you going to try it?"

"I never had cake before." His eyes widened and a soft smile came on his face. I felt my face heat up, I didn't know this feeling. I only knew that his chair was moved to the same side of mine as he grabbed my dessert fork from beside the plate. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to get you to have chocolate cake... I brought you out so I'm going to make our first date memorable." I didn't consider this a date, but if he were to get himself closer to me the easier it would be for me to kill him. I let him cut a small piece of the cake, grabbing a strawberry with it and held his hand underneath the fork to not drop any of the desert.

He brought it up to my mouth, telling me to open my mouth to eat the cake. I parted my lips to bite the cake and strawberry off of the fork. I chewed it in my mouth, savouring the taste of the chocolate mixing with the strawberry. I never had tasted something as good, but so very unhealthy. I didn't get why I was enjoying this, but I wasn't enjoying having Dean around right? I was enjoying the cake that Dean gave me.

Throughout the night we talked about whatever he wanted, or at least he talked. Yet, only one thing stayed on my mind. Dean was a secret agent and who knows when he will catch me in the act of assassination. How much harder will I have to work to make sure my cover isn't blown and how hard will it be not to kill him too early if I do get caught?