With Lucky and Gladiator at his side. John entered the room, where eleven men sat around a conference table. He sighted Luciano, Gravanor and Escobar, acknowledging their presence with a nod. “I welcome you all to this gathering. My name is John Draken, and I'd be the new leader.” John said, getting straight to the point. “Any objections?” The men had their right-hands and two guards standing guard with fingers trigger ready. The hall fell silent when John took his seat at the head table. “You're not a capable leader and you can never be my leader,” Andre said, turning everyone's attention to him. He was one of the older members.“I agree with you,” Carmine said to the board. “He's green and cannot handle our affairs. What happens when the police get involved? How is he going to settle it? With war?” John leaned back in his seat and relaxed. Members of the table were whispering to one another. Lucky and those that John convinced himself kept a straight face and were silent. “The
“Boss, I’m there. My team is in position,” Gladiator’s voice relayed over the speaker of a phone that rested on a white table. There were three people surrounding this device. Sara’s eyes focused on the words coming from the speaker, while Rita's gaze never left the screen of her phone. John leaned back into his office chair and probed his chin with his fist, using the armrest as a support. “What do you see?” “According to the Intel that was in the documents. We were to find a ship on this dock loading to move, but there’s nothing here. It’s an empty harbor.” John's brows creased. “That can’t be right, Jones won’t drop an Intel if he wasn’t sure,” “it is really empty,” “check around, it might not be anchored at the usual spot. Once you see it, remember you’re to set the explosives and retreat. It’s Xavier’s loss this time around,” “Yes boss,” Gladiator said. John relaxed further into his seat. “Wait, I see something….” Gladiator continued, his voice taking on a static noise towa
Sara watched John look on in silence for a very long time. “I have my suspicions, but I need to carry out my investigation,” John said. “What do you think about Rita?” John signed, looking out at the house that the driver was pulling into. Gladiator stood on the lawn, pacing the length with his hand on his chin. John's brow furrowed at the sight of that. “I think she's confused at the moment with all that has happened to her,”“Yeah, I know -” Sara's words ceased because Gladiator was by her window, tapping with an urgent look in his eyes. “Driver!” Sara called.“Yes ma,” the man said and the window frame wound down. “Is Rita with you?” Gladiator asked, locking eye contact with John, who turned to face Sara. “No, I left her at home to pick up John knowing you were close by,” A sinking feeling settled in his stomach when he glanced toward the house. “What happened?” John asked. Gladiator shook his head. “You should see this,”Rita's assigned room was a mess. Someone had turn
John hurried after Sara, who was almost sprinting, weaving her way between and around shoppers in the mall. They beeline for the cloth section where two of Lucy’s men stood guard, imitating the security personnels in the mall. “What’s wrong?” John asked Sara. “I don’t know what to make of it,” Sara led John into the building. Police officers were moving around, taping a section of the cloth line with their yellow tape to keep off visitors. John’s heartbeat increased, fearing the worst had happened to Rita. “Excuse me,” one officer said. “You can’t be here. This is a crime scene,” “No, you don’t understand. I rushed to get my friend because my bag is in that section,” Sara explained, trying to push her way through. She succeeded long enough for John to peek through and see that on the floor lay two Spectre men with a bullet to their skull. Rita’s phone, pink in its outer cover, lay a few feet from them, damaged beyond repair. John searched the section with his gaze, looking fo
For a moment, John’s mesmerized by the kiss. It stirred a lower part of him that threatened to break forth when his hand moved and locked her head in place.She whined and pulled back when his grip forced her to stretch her wounds, but before she could resume, he pulled back completely. Both of them staring into each other’s eyes.She reached out to caress his face. “Today, I nearly died and the only thing I could think of was not fully expressing my feelings to you.”“What happened to you? Why did they come after you and what does Spectre want?”“I don't know, but if they're this serious about me, it means they want my dad to build something dangerous, and he has refused.”John's brow furrowed at that statement. He could not place a finger on it, but it rubbed him in a strange way.“When has your father ever rejected a fully funded project?”“That's the thing that scares me. Why would he reject this?”John shook his head. Rita tried to sit up, and he assisted her by placing a pillow
SARA WALKED INTO the building with a black sports bag hung over her shoulder. She's geared for sport, rubiing a towel on her sweaty face while breathing heavily. She opened her water bottle and drank from it.John and Gladiator crouched underneath the stairs, fully dressed and bent over a tablet. Studying faces. “Hey guys,” Sara called. John waved her over and Gladiator winked. “Did you boys spend the night under the stairs?” “Nah,” Gladiator shook his head. “We took turns playing watchman. Each managed a couple hours of sleep.” Sara glanced at John with an eyebrow raised in surprise. “You played watchman? That's a new one.” John laughed and stood up. “Check it out. There's something I need you both to do,” John gave the tablet to Sara. There were three guys portrait photographs and Sara scrolled through. “What's this about?”“Three of the men were present on the night Xavier shot me out a window. They're part of his loyal squad. Find them, and we can get information out of them.
Life isn't always smooth sailing, sometimes you need to stop and refuel and it's in those moments that you doubt yourself the most. Rita rushed across the parking lot, her heartbeat raced with her legs swinging back and forth while closing the distance between John. She grabbed onto John arm, panting and out of breath. “You should stay with your father, if you leave with me now... you may never see him again.”“N-No, I want to go with you.” John spinned and pinned Rita against the driver side of the car. No one could see them at that angle. “You've had your freedom in your grasp… you must be a fool to think that I'd show you mercy. We're still enemies.” John said with a deep growl. The parking lot was dark because they had spent the majority of the evening inside the restaurant.His hands were against her throat and she felt the air in her lungs giving out. She grabbed at his hair and pulled him close, tasting his breath on her tongue. “I’m in love with your strides… the hard
“John, you're wrong about Alice…” John shifted his gaze from the moon and glared at Sara for her statement. She was still a good distance from where he was leaning against the car but it felt like he would kill if she stood in front of him.“I-I… John… Please, just hear me out. There must have -” Sara trembled involuntarily that Gladiator held her waist to steady her “Get inside the car if you're done back there.” John cut her off and waved his hand to dismiss her. Gladiator frowned at his act and took a step forward but Sara stopped him with a raise of her hands while shaking her head. She gritted her teeth and tightened her fist. “I still have something to do.” She said and stomped away heading back in the direction of the boys. “Why would you say that to her? You know how much Alice means to her.” John nodded and used his free hand to grip Rita's butt because she was too close. Shocked by his brass attempt, Rita slapped his hand and distanced herself. Gladiator chuckled. John