“Why? What’s up?”
“My cousin, Manos, the big show-off, is winning the contest and has suggested a wager on the final round that Barney doesn’t want to take.” She reiterated, “He sent me to get you.”
“To do what exactly?”
“You know what. He’s always known you’re the better shot and can win. And he wants Manos beaten so bad, it’s written all over him.”
“He’d never be so insensitive that he’d let it show. You knowthat,Ellie.”
“Maybe. But I know him, and it’s all he can do not to wrap the rifle around Manos’s bragging neck. I’ve never known my cousin to be such a jerk. He deserves to lose. Will you come?”
Sophia hesitated.
“Please. For Barney.”
“Well if you’re going to put it that way, of course.” She followed Ellie back to the crowd at the far end of the yard where Eric had set up a shooting range very much like one would see at the Olympics. Marksmen aimed at targets at distances of ten, twenty-five, and fifty meters, and the best shooter won the round.
Barney and Manos were now competing at the furthest targets. They both used gleaming,fairly new.22rifleswith quality sights. Sophia could seeat a glancethey’d been cleaned and well taken care of. In fact, they were better rifles than what one might expect at most competitions, and she understood that if faulty equipment wasn’t the reason why Barney was losing, it had to be that Manos was a better shot.
Which would explain why he wanted her to enter. When it came to winning, she’d always beaten him in the past. And from the look on his determined red-faced expression, plus the fact that he couldn’t resist a challenge, he wanted to put Manos in his place more than he wanted it to be him who did it.
As she walked through the crowd, relatives and people who had seen her prowess and were glad she’d shown up, muttered phrases like,“go get him, honey”and“now we’ll see some shooting.”
In time to hear Manos throw down the gauntlet, she had to hide her distaste and pretend not to be sickened by his egotistical behavior while he tormented Barney. “Come on you wuss, let’s make the bet two hundred euros. What do you say?”
“That’s too steep, Manos. It’s a friendly competition.” Barney, who was notorious at being a spendthrift, wore a horrified expression.
“Okay, then, one hundred euros.” Manos took out his bulging money clip, counted five twenties, and forced them into Ellie’s hand. “Here, honey. You hold the money, but don’t put it away, cause I’ll be taking it right back along with Barney’s donation in a few minutes.”
As soon as Barney saw that Sophia had returned with Ellie, his smile grew, he winked her way and said, “I’ll take the bet on one condition – Sophia gets to shoot this round for me.”
Stunned, Manos looked from Barney to her, and then back at his competitor. “You want her to be the one to take the defeat. That’s not very kind of you, Barney.”
Sophia, wincing at the disgusted tone that Manos accused Barney with, decided it was time to put an end to the foolishness. “Okay, how about I take the bet, winner take all, and we shoot two out of three to give you a bit of a chance.”
Manos, not liking her tone nor her challenge looked around the cheering group and shrugged. “Fine with me, but instead of you paying, promise me you’ll have dinner with me and my children at my home.”
Crapola!Now it suddenly dawned on her that if she beat him in front of everyone and took his money, he might lose interest in her, and she’d be up the creek trying to get close.
Yet losing to him would be impossible for her to live with.
Son of a bitch!