20 YEARS AGO...Michael ran down the street corner, looking behind his back. His pursuers were hard on their heels and they came for him. He knew if they caught up, they would kill him without second thoughts. He winced when he made a sharp turn to his left to try to lose them, the knife wound he had in his stomach was slowing him down. "You there! Stop!" "Stop there!""Get him around the bend?"Michael looked back and continued running. Just a little further, just a little further and he knew he might stay alive. Sparks flew in front of him and he realized that they were shooting at him. Michael crouched and continued his escape to the safe zone. When he took another turn to a side street, a van pulled up and he was relieved that help had come. Thomas opened the door. "I'm so sorry, I'm late, are you hurt? Jesus, fuck!" Michael jumped inside and lay flat on the floor. The Van's driver floored the pedal and the vehicle sped away from the shooters. "Get him to the hospital, he is
Arthur was nervous about the quick summon to Thomas' office where he stayed. The men on either side of him in the elevator refused to tell him anything. Their straight face and thick necks bothered him. Well, it was to be expected. The convoy had been attacked when he was with them. Thomas Bolton had given him the simple duty of escorting it, and he failed at it. Arthur momentarily forgot about the men that were there with him. "It wasn't my fault!" Arthur vexed out. "What?" One of them asked. The other one looked like he wanted to devour him on the spot. "Nothing, I'm just thinking out loud," Arthur replied. It sounded very ridiculous. The guard turned away from him and kept his eyes on the floor numbers.The lift opened and they stepped outside, coming to a large door that the men pushed open. "He is waiting," they said to him.Arthur walked past the large door, into Thomas' office. Thomas was there, smoking cigarettes and he didn't even look up when Arthur walked in. The two
The meeting was a breeze and Arthur was grateful that he wasn't asked technical questions. "Geez!" Chris loosened his tie as he walked into the corridor with both women at his side. "Welcome to your father's world," Monica said. Chris looked at her. "It's hectic. I want to take a break from this.""Just one and you are like this? Pathetic," Rose mocked him. Chris turned to her. "Mind you, I'm your employer." He gritted his teeth. "Correction, I work for your father," Rose retorted. Chris stopped and gave her his full attention. "Well, I'm his son, whatever belongs to him is also mine.""Well, I'm not yours, I answer directly to your father. If your father said I should whoop you up, I will happily do it," Rose popped her knuckles. "Guys, you are taking it too far. People will see you fighting," Monica warned them. "Give me a break, maybe I might just teach my father's dog a new trick," Chris accepted the challenge. It was crazy how a few taunts escalated into this, they reall
The scraping sound of metal in a metal box that was hurting towards the earth at thirty kilometers per hour was scary enough to induce shock in normal people, but somehow, the three of them all kept their calm, praying that the emergency brake would come on. "Come on, come on," Chris muttered. He held the walls for support as they went down. "Come on, come on, come on," Rose looked up at the ceiling. "The brakes are taking too long now," Monica said. She removed her heels and rolled her sleeve up. "Let's wait one more—"The elevator came to an abrupt stop and Chris lost his balance and landed on the floor. "Shit!" He cussed and stood up. The emergency lights dwindled. Rose and Monica were already taking initiatives towards the next step. "Help me up," Monica said to Rose. The latter bent down on one knee and acted as a support while Monica climbed to the ceiling and loosened the bolt so that an opening appeared. She climbed on the roof of the elevator and examined the cables.
"Rose, we can't ignore these signs, we have to act. And I suspect Arthur," Monica complained as they walked to the car. "It's too obvious. Arthur is crazy, but he doesn't have balls to pull it," Rose said. "He might have balls, I mean he was with the convoy and he even came to work, when he knew that all of us were against him," Chris jumped into the conversation. "Either way, we can't act until Mr Bolton comes back. I have to report to him." Rose opened the door to the security department and walked in. Chris was about to follow, but Monica held the sleeve on his rumpled shirt. "Yeah?" Chris turned back. Monica released her hold on him and looked away. "No—Nothing." She shook her head. "I will be going to the maintenance department to know what really went wrong with the equipment," she said. "You sure you don't need me to escort you? I mean we were just in an accident.""You seem to forget I'm your bodyguard," Monica smiled. "It's alright, I will be back soon. Don't leave Ros
Arthur kept an eye on his rear view mirror and took a left turn. It hadn't gone as planned, but they will be suspecting him now that it failed. Thomas Bolton wouldn't understand that he was trying. The balls of that old man. "I should have never taken that loan, I wouldn't be fighting an old geezer's war," he grumbled. His luxurious duplex home came into view and he slowed down, easing his foot on the brake and parked into the driveway. He would just have to try again later. There was still time, he could do it again, Arthur thought. He brought his keys out of his bag and held the door knob, but the door opened. Arthur looked at it puzzled. He remembered closing the door that morning. The TV was on, somebody was watching anime in the living room. He turned back and looked at the alarm sensor on the fence. It was off. Maybe it was Mabel, maybe she finally wanted to spend time with him. But she returned the keys to him after their last fight. He slowly opened the door and held h
Sarah waved at the black SUV as it approached her. The black license plate and the unusual numbering pattern on the plate signified it was one of Michael's cars. Rose lowered the windshield and flashed a bright smile at her. "Nice Corvette." She nodded towards the vehicle. Sarah smiled and did a half glance at the vehicle. "I customized it myself." She saw Monica inside and waved at her. Monica returned the greeting. "Hey Sarah," Chris greeted as he stepped out of the car. Sarah raised her brow. "Hey, what's with the brown patch on your suit?" Chris glanced at it. "Yeah, I had an accident. You didn't even call to check on your partners, is that how partners do?" He cocked his brows at her. Sarah ignored the last sentence. "Accident? What accident?" She turned to Rose as she stepped out. Two other SUVs, Chris' escorts, drove past them slowly and parked down the street and the men stood out, looking up at the buildings. "An elevator incident," Rose replied. "Escaped in the nick
"Monica, you are in charge of recon. You can head out tonight, if you are up to it," Rose suggested. "I'm up for it. I haven't had any action since the last time I was kidnapped," Monica said. She wiped her nose and looked at Chris. "Don't do anything crazy, don't follow me."Chris smiled. "I wasn't planning on doing it, you just reminded me about it. Imagine me following you close behind. So are you going alone?" He asked. Sarah switched off the television, casting a glance in their direction. "That's none of your business, you are staying behind. You can't keep putting yourself in harm's way, what will I tell your father?" Rose asked. Sarah sat down with her legs crossed. "You know, he is quite tough. I sparred with him the other time, I doubt you could beat him in a one on one situation," Sarah hailed him. Chris nodded. "What she said. In fact, look at her, she roams about freely with little to no protection and yet she never gets in harm's way. She headed missions, she drove
Thomas Bolton grabbed a dagger and lunged at Richard with a scream and just as he was about to drive it straight through his heart, Richard quickly sidestepped and the dagger grazed his arm slightly and Thomas fell to the ground. As he struggled to get to his feet, he heard a gunshot and felt a pain sear through his left foot. Bloody bastards!! Getting shot in the foot again!! He felt two pair of arms grab him and place him firmly back on his sit. As he sat, Chris grabbed a pistol from the weapons strap on the waist of one of the guards and pointed it at Thomas' head and cocked it and Thomas smiled at him."I don't think your pretty woman's going to like you very much if you kill me now." Thomas said with a smirk. "I mean, I haven't gotten around to telling her about her lost sibling and believe me, she'd really like to know that," he finished and Chris lowered the gun. "What? You know my siblings whereabouts?" Sarah asked and looked at him with teary eyes. "Of course I do. I kep
Thomas Bolton stared at Richard then looked at the gun in his hand. He felt betrayed. Just when he had shown a little trust in him, he had taken advantage of that trust and stabbed him in the freaking back. He had sold him to his enemies and for how much, he wondered. He looked back up at Richard and could see that his eyes were emotionless, almost like he had sold his soul or something. Thomas wondered if that change had been present in him all week and he had just been too oblivious to notice it or if Richard had actually done a very good job of masking it. What had turned him that way? He turned to look at Chris Bolton and his company. He recognized both ladies well enough. He had held one hostage amd the other, he had killed her father. Well, Chris Bolton had certainly picked his crew right. Between all three of them who seemed to be head of the group, he had certainly caused them a lot of pain and hurt. He tore his eyes away from the three of them and looked at Victor. Now that o
Chris Bolton was sitted in Michael Bolton's study with his laptop open in front of him but his mind was occupied. He is was in love with Sarah but couldn't confess it and he knew it wasn't because he was scared of being rejected by her or because he was worried about his father not accepting it. The reason he was worried about expressing his feelings for Sarah was because of Monica. He couldn't deny the fact that they had both had some tension between them when they had initially met. He had most certainly had something for her and he felt like she she had also had a thing for him, but he wasn't sure if she still had it. He has tried not to acknowledge his feelings for Sarah for a long time because he had felt like they made him disloyal to Monica, especially if she still had those feelings. What was he going to do? Was he supposed to just ask her? Wasn't that___? His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a knock on the door and just as he opened his mouth to call for whoever it w
Richard aimed his gun at Luke Freeman and cocked it. Like his client Thomas Bolton, the bastard didn't deserve to live. He deserved to die and Richard without a doubt had absolutely no issue in giving him what he deserved. Besides, Thomas Bolton had betrayed him and there was no saying that the smart lawyer wouldn't betray him too. After all, it was just that afternoon that Thomas Bolton had reminded him about the possibility and risks of conversations being recorded. There was no saying that the sneaky smart ass hadn't recorded their conversation with plans to have him reported and arrested. Who knew? He really couldn't trust anyone. There was no saying that Luke Freeman wouldn't betray him because when all was said and done, Richard didn't actually have a single soul in the universe he could rely on to look out for him. He thought he had totally gotten rid of his little hopes and expectations of good from Thomas Bolton but apparently he hadn't because he could feel a tear trickle do
Luke Freeman wordlessly took the sit Richard had motioned him into with the gun in his hand. Wasn't he the adopted son of Thomas Bolton? What did he want with him? Had they had an issue earlier in the day? Why was he in his house at such a time of the night and with a freaking handgun in his damned hand? What could he do? Should he try to set off an alarm or something? What warning signal could he send his neighbours that would alert them that he was in danger? His neighbourhood was actually quite a quiet one full of people who minded their business so the chances of anyone actually noticing whatever signal he gave was a pretty slim one and the chances of anyone noticing that signal and actually acting on it was next to non-existent. He was certainly toasted. The young man with handgun which he was freely brandishing at him, could kill him and no one would know. Why on Earth had he given in to his tiredness and not listened to the voice that had told him to stay back at the office and
Richard remained sitted in his position as he replayed the conversation he had just listened to in his head. Well. Well. Well. It seemed like sneakily getting a voice recording of Thomas Bolton and Luke Freeman's conversation had most certainly paid off. So Thomas Bolton wanted to make some changes and adjustments to his will now, did he? That had without a doubt been the most - if not the only - important and interesting part of their conversation for Richard. He had to give it to his sixth senses for making him listen to that voice recording till the end of Thomas Bolton and Luke Freeman's conversation. What were the present contents of Thomas Bolton's will? What "changes and adjustments" could he possibly want to make? As far as Richard could tell he was the only heir of the old and insufferable bastard. Yes he was adopted but he was quite sure he was the only heir of Thomas Bolton. Didn't that naturally mean he was supposed to be the sole inheritor to all of the annoying geezer's
It had been almost three hours since that annoying brat, Luke Freeman had appeared after being sent straight from hell to disturb Richard's peaceful afternoon and after haven restlessly and absent-mindedly seen a movie, Richard was itching to go get his phone and listen to the voice recording of Thomas Bolton and Luke Freeman's conversation. He had instructed a maid to immediately inform him about Luke Freeman's departure but she still hadn't shown up. What on Earth could the two men be talking about for so long anyways? As his mind raced with the endless possibilities about the contents of their conversation, he heard a faint knock on his door and he bolted out of his bed and rushed at the door. He opened the door and as soon as he saw the maid standing there he rushed past her without waiting for her to say a word. He headed straight for Thomas Bolton's lounge and he tried his best not to run and only appear like someone who had urgent and important matters to deal with. He soon go
Chris Bolton stood at the entrance of Sarah's room as the realization that he was in love with her hit him. He had tried to ignore these feelings because they had been trying to get attention at a wrong time, but he couldn't ignore them anymore, not after seeing her sitted on her bed with her hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun and her upper body covered in a big sweater and that innocently welcoming smile on her face. He couldn't say for sure how long he had felt that way but he could say for sure that his feelings were very much there and alive. They actually explained a lot. They explained why he had recently began to feel so drawn to Sarah. He had tried to ignore and not acknowledge them but that hadn't sent them away. If anything, it seemed like ignoring and not acknowledging them had probably only helped them quietly grow stronger. He stood at the door and stared at her even as his discovery opened up a dam of thoughts in his head. Why had he been doing his best to igno
In Thomas Bolton's lounge, Richard continued to take in the stranger who had walked into the lounge a little under a minute ago. From his rectangular rimless glasses to his suit pants and shirt and down to the black attorneys bag he was carrying, he certainly wasn't their usual type of company and Richard wasn't sure how he felt about him. While he didn't seem to spell danger, Richard also didn't care for his presence in the lounge as he had never really been a fan of strangers, especially when they did what he considered to be an invasion of his comfort space and invade his comfort space, this stranger was. Technically it was Thomas Bolton's but who cared? Thomas had come to accept Richard's constant presence in the lounge and Richard had definitely been enjoying it but at that moment, the stranger was taking away his comfort and Richard didn't like it one bit. He looked at him with his left eyebrow raised but the stranger just kept smiling at him. What was he? A robot? A raised eyeb