Chapter 5

“What?” Niko couldn't believe it, “My brother?”

“I'm your elder brother!”

“My elder brother? You're a liar!”

“Well you believe what you wanna believe fool.” Zayne hissed.

“I don't have a brother.”

“Well this is it, I was adopted by Mr. Foster Kinon, our father. He took me into his family as a baby and I grew up believing I was his legitimate son, enjoying his riches and building up my confidence, knowing fully well that I'll one day inherit all of his riches and good name, but in the past few years, I noticed that dad was busy investigating so hard about something. He was so obsessed with this investigation to a point I noticed it and I decided to eavesdrop all his conversations and secretly read all his files and messages, and it is at that point, I got to discover that I am not the biological son and he has been seriously searching for his child to inherit all of those companies I helped him build. Who does that? Huh? And now I've finally been able to trace you, Niko Foster, the supposedly biological son of my fucking unfair father.”

“I didn't ask for any of this!”

“Exactly! And that's why you're gonna send those millions of dollars back to me or I'll blow up your smelly brains!”

“You're not gonna shoot me!”

“Is that a dare? Are you daring me? You greaseball bastard! That money rightfully belongs to me, it should be my inheritance, I am the one who have been with father all these years, and I am the one who's been sweating over 3 of the businesses he owns, I have been a son to him all my life and he repays me with this betrayal, turning me into some kinda villain.”

“No one turns anyone into a villain, Villains choose to be villains.”

“Fuck you Niko” Zayne walked to one of his goons in anger, stretched his hand forward and the man handed him a smartphone, it was Niko’s phone “here, take this” Zayne untied Niko’s hands and gave the phone to him “now make the transfer of that money to me right now. You have three minutes to do that.”

Three minutes on the table and Niko knew he had to act fast, his mind raced with thoughts of what to do next, knowing fully well that he wouldn't leave that place alive even if he gave Zayne everything he owned. “He's definitely gonna kill me after I send that money.” He mumbled to himself. Then a brilliant Idea came to his head, “I'm gonna divide this gang, I'm gonna tear them apart.” He looked around, seeing all the gang members with guns and baseball bats walking around the room, Mexican gangsters mixed with Americans with heavy tattoos all over, it was time to try his perfect idea.

“Listen to me everybody,” Niko started “I know you're all in this to make money, you follow Zayne around and obey his orders cos you need money. But what do you get in the end? Seven thousand dollars? Thirteen thousand dollars? And what does that help you with? It doesn't take you anywhere. So now I'm offering you guys a chance to make millions of dollars, if any of you can break me out of here alive, I'll give you two fucking million dollars!”

“What the shit is this!” Zayne quickly rushed to put a tape over Niko’s mouth. “Shut the hell up!” Zayne was already worried, he knew his gang members had never been offered that kind of money before, he always made them work their souls out just for some little cash. Now some of them saw Niko’s proposal as a life changing opportunity.

“Listen to me guys, you need to stick together as a team, don't let this fool turn you against me or each other.”

Too late, the gang members started looking at each other suspiciously, they were already divided in their minds, some of them wanted to save Niko for the millions while some remained loyal to Zayne, but they couldn't know who's who just by looking at each other.

“No, no, no!” Zayne saw one of his men bring out a gun and before he could shoot, someone else gave him a head shot ‘Thaw!’

“Oh shit!” Everyone knew what would follow next, the bullets started flying across the room as the gang got divided into team loyal and team save Niko.

“Stay calm Niko” Someone said behind Niko as they untied his hands quickly, “Follow me, be fast!” The man said holding Niko’s hand as he led him into a completely dark passage, “Try to be quiet, this is the best escape route outta here.” Those were the last words of Niko’s saviour before a bullet came from nowhere, hitting the back of his head “Oh shit!” Niko was horrified, he'd never been in that kind of situation before but he knew he only had to run ahead. He could hear footsteps from the long distance as he ran through the dark passage. “Yes!” He said as he finally saw light ahead, running out quicker to escape with a motorbike he saw under a tree.

******

Back at home, Niko rushed to make a call before anything else.

“I got kidnapped by some guy in the early hours of the morning.” Niko said to someone over the phone.

“Leme guess, it's Zayne Foster!” A voice came.

“How did you know?”

“I know everything, and I already expected that to happen.”

“But why didn't you warn me?”

“Just come over to Winxel right now, there's something going on and I don't want you to miss it.”

“I'm on my way.”

Niko had a lot of questions to ask, but at that point, all he could do was follow whatever that stranger said over the phone. It's the same man who wired the money to him, the same man who claims to know everything about him and most importantly, this same man knew exactly who attacked him without being told. This stranger was indeed someone to listen to.