Kayla stepped off the plane with her head held high, replaying her conversations with Mei in her mind. She had managed to salvage the merger deal by appealing to Mei's hopes and dreams, convincing her that combining the companies could lead to positive changes.
It had been a delicate balancing act, gently persuading while respecting Mei's autonomy.Now, Kayla just had to make it through the impending meeting with the executives to formally get the deal back on track. She slid into the sleek black car sent to pick her up, gazing out at the familiar skyscrapers as they made their way downtown.When they arrived at the towering headquarters, Kayla checked her reflection in the car window, smoothing a few flyaway hairs. Then she stepped out, briefcase in hand, and strode through the marble lobby toward the chairman's conference room. Her sharp heels clicked in time with her racing heart.As always, she paused outside the intricate wooden door to tKayla hurried up the front walk of the mansion she shared with her husband, eager to tell him about the successful merger meeting and the fun things she had managed to experience in her travels abroad. The late afternoon sunlight glinted cheerily on the door knob as she pulled it open. “Honey, I’m home!” she called playfully as she stepped inside. Silence greeted her. Kayla paused in the foyer, listening for sounds of Reynold working from the kitchen or maybe the stairs. But the house felt still and empty. She peeked into the living room just in case. “Rey? Where are you?” No response. Pursing her lips, Kayla pulled out her cell phone and sent him a quick text. Then she headed to the bedroom to change out of her work clothes. Maybe he had gone out to pick up groceries or run other errands. But an hour later, relaxed in leggings and a T-shirt, Kayla started to feel puzzled that she hadn’t heard back. She was just going to wait around
Pulsing music and mood lighting washed over Tate as he stepped into the exclusive lighting club, Sean right behind him. The maître d’ greeted them enthusiastically.“Mr. Tate! Wonderful to see you this evening. Please, right this way.”As they followed him to a reserved table overlooking the dance floor, Tate leaned over to mutter to his brother, “I don’t know why he’s so excited. We have this table booked every Thursday night.” Sean just laughed, clapping a hand on Tate’s back. “Let him butter you up, big brother. We’re here to celebrate your big promotion!”Soon they were settled in at their table with glasses of fine Scotch. Tate still felt a satisfied glow in his chest remembering how the chairman had singled him out in front of all the executives that morning. “I must admit, Tate, I had my doubts about you handling the tense merger negotiations and I never thought father would actually think of giving it to you damn!” Sean said.Tate replied him with a smile, “I thought it wa
Reynold watched with a cold and dangerous expressed steeled to his face. Beside him, Jovian watched also but could be found stealing glances at Reynold who was too focused on the coming vehicle to notice.They stayed motionless and silent, their car parked beside the road while the coming one drew nearer. After a few seconds or so, it finally passed. That was when Reynold started the car and with a sophisticated groan of the retro Mercedes, its tires caressed the asphalt ground and raced into a blur of circle, pursuing the vehicle ahead.It wasn't long before Reynold's retro was behind the car. The chauffeur, who was enjoying a booming jazz paused his head dance to look at the mirror, Tate was fast asleep, oblivious to what was going happening in his own car.The chauffeur squinted his eyes. The car didn't seems suspicious, but he was not dumb and ignorant. In fact he had been in this line of work for several years to be too relaxed in a situation like this.But it was also that expe
Jovian with a disjointed face watched Reynold as the car turned and curled through several alleys. The street was dark and deserted, yes it was indeed a night. A night darker than any else, but the shadows that lurked on suspicious corners of this street was ominous, if not eerie.How come a well-behaved, sane, gentle man was aware of a place like this. The way Reynold handled the car's steering and was focused on the thick darkness in front of them informed Jovian that he wasn't just an amateur at this.Perhaps, he was mistaken the whole while. Both earlier on the highway and now, Reynold had made Jovian surprised in ways that he did not expect.‘Damn it… this guy…’ he didn't even expect Reynold to ever suggest kidnapping the son of a conglomerate. He could vividly remember the coldness in Rey's eyes as he suggested the act.‘Wait… even right from when we broke into the office… should it be something that his kind of person suggested easily?’Jovian was baffled… afflicted and confuse
They were met by an inky darkness. Jovian's eyes was assaulted by a slight throbbing pain in the first few seconds of trying to adjust to this unseeming environment.Reynold however… He threw the body to the ground and walked away uncaringly. Like he could navigate the darkness with his eyes closed. A second later flames were birthed from the edge of a stick. He threw the stick into a barrel and in less than three seconds, the flames had spread and was burning fiercely inside the barrel.Thanks to that a soft glow of illumination bathed the place, causing the thick darkness to retreat away to the far corners of the building.Jovian looked around with a slight frown on his face. The place reeked of metal, the smell was almost choking… but maybe that was because of the dust. Also he could see tools here and there with the unstable illumination that was being casted forth by the fire in the barrel.There was a large fork, shovel, machetes of different kinds. He frowned and looked at Rey
“Please… I beg you… this makes no sense.”Reynold narrowed his eyes. “What position do you consider yourself to be in Jovian?”Jovian's face became terrifice with a scowl at Reynold. He stared for a few seconds and retreated.“Yes that's what I thought.” Reynold uttered and reached Tate's front.Seeing, fuming rod in Reynold's hand, Tate laughed awkwardly and looked up, his brows twitching.“Wh…wha…what are you do… do…doing bro? What is this?”“This is a determinant of how many marks you will leave this place with. Or if you will ever leave at all.”Tate face narrowed then frowned.“Are you crazy…?”Reynold lost it… “Ah fuck it” He swung the rod in reckless abandon. But before it could land on Tate’s midsection, it stopped midair. The hands that had managed to stop it was being fried intensely.Reynold scowled at Jovian.“Are you mad? What do you think you are doing?!”Gritting his teeth Jovian responded, “I can't allow you to do this. I know there will be repercussions and if all inv
“What are you talking about?”Jovian strained his expression a bit as he looked at Reynold. His hand was clenched and it was so obvious that he was trying to hold in so many emotions, despite all that effort… they still sort of spilled off on his face.“You know that the Johns family cultivate a unique culture of matching their kids from the age of five.”Reynold's eyes narrowed, “I'm not really sure but Kayla mentioned that Lei had been with her for a long time. What are you talking about?”Jovian sighed and started:“From infancy, kids are collected from their mothers, of course always at a favorable condition. The company does not participate in anything illegal, all they do it build an orphanage and accept infants that can't be taken care of by their parent or those that lose their parents during the process of childbirth.” He paused and continued, looking at Reynold carefully.“When these infants reach the age of five years old. The Johns children are brought to the orphanage to l
Reynold sank into his bed, very tired after the long night. His faces told the tales of too many emotions. He seemed sorrowful and pleased at the same time. A lot of thoughts ran back and forth his mind and fear gripped his heart.It was not the fear of just anything or anyone… fact is he didn't even care, he wasn't scared about anybody. He was sure that he would be able to protect what was his when it came down to it. This was after all the reason why he had given himself to so much training and decided to change at all cost.But what scared him was losing himself to his demons in the midst of protecting the lady he loves. This family was a very disastrous one, a kind of family that sanity cannot exist in–it was not news that every kid from the family had their insanity to deal with… even down to his wife he had to admit.And if one wanted to deal with such a monstrous family, they needed to be more insane than any of the family members are. That very notion was a definition of Reynol