Love, Guns And Everything In Between

Family dinner (4)/The attack

"You sure came late to the party.", Kelvin stated.

"I'm so sorry, we had a movie shoot that the director wouldn't let me miss. I quickly got on a plane after that and managed to make it here before dinner ended.", Jennifer said as she sat down on the free chair at the dinner table.

"As long as you made it in time.", Emmanuel smiled.

"I hope I didn't miss the meals?", Jennifer asked after seeing that there was no food on the table.

As if on cue, the chef rolled in with a large tray and began to serve the appetizers, Artichoke spinach dip with tortilla chips.

"This is amazing!", Jennifer exclaimed excitedly after taking a bite from the tortilla chip she had used to scoop up a large amount of the artichoke spinach dip.

"Specially prepared for your pleasure.", The chef responded with a smile before moving back into the kitchen.

"You sure pulled out all the stops mum.", Kelvin commented after taking a bite too. He had eaten a lot of artichoke spinach dip prepared by a bunch of world renowned chefs but this was one of the best.

"It's amazing Mrs Gregory.", Mr Smith said and Faith nodded in response.

"All complements to the chef.", Faith added.

After some minutes, they were already done with the appetizers and the chef served the main course along with the wine that Kelvin brought.

"Before you are cooked salmon coated with mustard, honey, rosemary, and zest mixture on grilling plank.", The chef said before moving back to the kitchen.

"This wine...", Cassidy had no words to describe the burst of flavour that the wine and the meal brought to her taste buds.

"I have tasted a lot of wine and tons of delicious meals in my days, but this wine goes so well with this dish. I can't even explain this.", Mrs Smith commented.

"Mum, how did you do this?", Jennifer asked.

"Well, the dish was made by the chef as you can obviously see, then your brother here brought the wine.", Faith pointed at Kelvin.

"How much does the wine cost Kelvin?", Jennifer queried.

"About 8 million dollars.", Kelvin responded while still eating. He raised his head to see that everyone on the table was now looking at him.

"You spent 8 million dollars on a bottle of wine?", Gregory asked.

"I'm not even surprised.", Junior stated.

"Obviously, I didn't spend a full 8 million on it. I'm just telling you the market price. I got mine directly from the company, my company.", Kelvin explained.

"Then how much did you actually spend?", Faith asked.

"Just enjoy the wine mum."

Kelvin knew how much his mum hated him spending too much money on little things. He remembered her last birthday when he had gotten her a 24 million dollar wristwatch. She had almost sent him to the grave when she found out how much the watch costs.

The dinner went on well. At about 9pm, they were done with the dishes and just talked about other things. At some point the Smiths had begged to take their leave but Kelvin didn't let Cassidy leave without them exchanging contacts.

Gary was obviously not okay with them exchanging contacts but Kelvin had done it quickly enough before Gary could interfere. Faith on the other hand was happy that Kelvin was making moves with Cassidy and could only hope that it ended well.

Kelvin tried to leave too after the dinner but his mum had forced him and his siblings to sleep over since there was enough rooms in the house to contain all of them. Gary left but Steve remained behind since he was Kelvin's personal body guard.

It wasn't until late in the night that Kelvin got a call from someone he didn't expect to hear from so early.

"Hey Cassidy.", Kelvin said as he placed the phone on his ear.

"Hey, sorry for calling so late.", Cassidy responded.

"Don't think too much about it, it's cool."

Cassidy remained silent as she tried to think of something to say. At some point she began to have trouble remembering why she had actually called him.

'Oh God, I'm so hopeless.', Cassidy thought to herself as she facepalmed.

"You still there?", Kelvin asked.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. Just a bit confused.", Cassidy immediately covered her mouth after those words. She couldn't believe she just said that.

"Confused?"

"I'm so sorry, goodbye.", Cassidy said nervously and ended the call abruptly.

"Ok...?", Kelvin said as he held the phone in his hand.

He didn't feel angry or anything at the fact that she ended the call like that. This wasn't the first time that he had seen a girl being nervous around him.

"Maybe it's time for me to take this whole romance thing seriously.", Kelvin muttered to himself before drifting into a deep sleep.

....

"And that's it.", Kelvin said.

"Ok, so when was the last time you talked to this Cassidy person?", Theodore asked.

"That should be last week.", Kelvin responded.

"How do you feel about Cassidy?"

"Well, she's a nice person. Really pretty too but I've met a lot of pretty girls in my lifetime."

"I didn't ask how you see Cassidy, I meant how you feel about her.", Theodore clarified.

"I don't know how I feel about her.", Kelvin said in a detached tone.

"Ok, let me ask this question in another way. You said that you wanted to take this "romance thing" seriously right?", Theodore asked.

"That's the plan.", Kelvin answered.

"Then do you see this Cassidy as someone who you could start taking this whole "romance thing" seriously with?", Theodore queried.

"I guess so.", Kelvin said.

"Then there you have it. Try placing Cassidy as a prominent figure in your life and see how you feel about it."

Kelvin remained silent as he thought about Theodore's words. He really couldn't see anything wrong about it. Maybe he would try it, just to see how it feels. If it didn't sit well with him then he'll step out.

"I guess you're right Dr Theodore. I will try that.", Kelvin said.

He then got up and shaked Theodore's hand before stepping out of his office. There were two men dressed in black suits waiting for him outside and after seeing him leave the office, they quickly accompanied him to the cars parked outside.

One of the men opened the back door of one of the cars and Kelvin entered inside to see Gary sitting in the vehicle.

"So, how did your therapy session go?", Gary asked.

"It was enlightening.", Kelvin responded.

"See, I told you that therapy was just what you needed.", Gary smiled.

"Yeah, you were right.", Kelvin laughed.

The cars were already now moving down the road in a convoy towards it's occupants next destination.

"So where are we heading now?", Kelvin asked.

"Once we get to the airport, we will—"

BANG!

Suddenly, the car that Kelvin and Gary were in was now flipping in mid air before it crashed hard.

All Kelvin could hear now was a ringing sound as he hung upside down inside the toppled vehicle, being held by his seat belt.

Soon enough, the ringing sound was clearing up and Kelvin could hear the sounds of multiple gunshots. He was still feeling disoriented and could hardly make out what was going on around him.

In the next moment, he could now feel someone dragging him out of the vehicle. His senses slowly returned to him as he got out the vehicle and could now see what was happening. They were under attack!

"Are you okay?", Gary asked. He was the one who just dragged Kelvin out the car.

"Somewhat. What happened?", Kelvin responded as he sat up.

"A truck just pulled out of nowhere and took us off the road. Some masked guys came out the car and started shooting at us.", Gary answered.

"I'm guessing you haven't identified them yet.", Kelvin said.

"No.", Gary affirmed.

Kelvin then reached behind him and pulled out an automatic pistol. He sneakily stuck his head from behind the toppled over car and could spot multiple men welding assault rifles shooting at his people and they were returning fire.

Based on the range of the pistol in Kelvin's grasp. Kelvin calculated that he could only open fire on four of them that were within his range.

Without wasting any time, Kelvin got up and fired four bullets at the men and he didn't miss. Their bodies immediately dropped to the ground, lifeless.

Noticing that their companions had fallen, the other people closest to them turned their attention to Kelvin and quickly opened fire.

Kelvin ducked but was not fast enough and one of the bullets pierced his left arm. He immediately winced in pain as he watched blood flow out the bullet wound on his arm.

They kept firing at the car which Kelvin had ducked behind but they suddenly began to drop one by one and before the last person could notice, Gary had already passed a bullet through his skull!

It only took a few minutes and Kelvin's people had already taken care of their attackers. Gary quickly rushed to Kelvin's side to check if he was okay but immediately noticed that Kelvin had already torn a piece of his shirt and wrapped it around the wound to stop the bleeding.

"You good?", Gary asked.

"Never been better.", Kelvin responded.

Kelvin then got up and began to walk towards the dead bodies of their attackers to see if he would see any clues on who they were.

He then approached on of the bodies and saw a white rectangular card that had a bit of red on it due to being stained by the person's blood, sticking out of his coat.

Kelvin reached for the card and pulled it out, his expression quickly darkened when he saw the symbol of two swords crossing each other on it.

"Gary!", Kelvin called out and Gary rushed to his side.

"Yeah?"

"What is this?", Kelvin asked while holding the card out for Gary to see.

"That's the symbol of the badlanders.", Gary said.

"Why the hell is a low level mafia gang now bold enough to attack me?"

"I guess everyone wants a piece of the big cake now.", Gary remarked.

Kelvin then leaned in closer and locked his gaze with Gary's.

"I'm only going to say this once. By this time tomorrow, I don't want to even hear the whisper of the name, badlanders, on these streets. I want ever single one of them along with their families, friends and even the people they buy food from, dead. Do you understand?", Kelvin said.

"Yes boss.", Gary answered.

Kelvin then walked towards one of the vehicles and instructed the driver to take him to the hospital so he could get the bullet wound on his arm attended to.

'It seems I've become too lenient now. It's about time I bring fear back into these streets.', Kelvin internalized.