CHAPTER 18

Bradley’s teeth gritted together in pain as he used a bandage to tie around the wound.

His phone soon received a second call from his boss.

“Hello, boss,” Raphael spoke.

“Bradley wasn't exaggerating at all,” The kingpin spoke. “He has exposed us and I mean all of us. We are moving away from our location right now because we might get caught out here. The cops would be on our tracks with the new series of evidence that Oscar released about us.”

“How could that even be possible?” Raphael asked, his eyes wide open in terror.

“That’s not the most important thing now, Raph,” The kingpin responded, his voice contorted with haste. “This is what we are going to do.”

“I have received information that there is an event going on by the Jones League of Companies.”

“I am going to send a few of my men to go over there and get at least three of Oscar’s most important staff kidnapped. Right now, that’s the best way that we can get Oscar’s attention and negotiate for Bradley’s release.”

Raphael’s posture was stiff with anticipation as the phone was fixed to his ear. He absorbed every word with his eyes narrowed in concentration.

“You are going to have to follow them to the site of the event right away but we are going to be strategic about this. We need Oscar’s best staff member or else our efforts are going to be futile.”

“We are going to strike back and not fold our hands because the best method to defend ourselves right now is to attack. We have to pay Oscar back in his coin.”

Raphael’s features were a mask of intensity as he got himself ready for the bloody act that they were about to execute. Raphael loved the sound of revenge and he couldn't wait to exact one on Oscar.

“I will text you on the location you are going to meet the other guys. Make sure you stay under the radar and don't get yourself exposed,” the kingpin instructed, his accent thick and his words dripping with the weight of power.

“Everyone of us now is deemed to be wanted by the authorities with Oscar exposing us so this operation would be done with masks which you will receive when you meet up with Brian and the others.”

Bradley’s hands moved with feverish intensity as he put in finishing touches to the bandage, the pain a crimson reminder of the pain that he had to inflict on Oscar.

****

The event hall was a cacophony of noise as there were obvious signs of restlessness in the air. The noise was like a wall, a solid barrier of sound that the MC struggled to gain control over.

Everyone was surprised to see what happened with Bradley and how he left the hall. Their necks were turning here and there as they sought to find out what happened with Bradley.

They saw Oscar following after him and the way that Bradley turned away from Oscar.

Charlotte gaped with a deadly stare of disbelief, her eyes wide as she buried her face in her hands. Her eyes were squeezed shut in an avoidance of shame but whatever she did wasn't enough to escape the embarrassment that Bradley had brought upon her.

Or perhaps she shouldn't solely blame Bradley. She should blame herself too, she reasoned.

She had a good working relationship with Oscar but at the last moment, she chose to sell it for nothing. She chose an organ trafficker instead all because she thought that Oscar wasn't good enough for her.

Charlotte soon heard a hand beating her chair from behind just as she drowned in her sorrows.

“Hey, Ms. Charlotte, hey, hey, hey,” the male voice spoke repeatedly in a pestering manner.

Charlotte tried to ignore the man’s pestering. He should let her focus on absorbing her sorrows for the sake of serenity. Who the heck was that trying to disturb her from even having a moment of sorry?

The pesterings kept increasing with each moment.

“Hey, Ms. Charlotte, won’t you answer me? I’m talking to you, Ms. Charlotte.”

Charlotte eventually turned her gaze to the man, her eyes were red and raw with obvious signs that she had been teary for quite a while.

The man’s words honeyed with a deceptive sweetness and his fingers gently brushed a photograph that was brought out and shown to her. “This woman right here in this picture was my wife but she died about four months ago.”

Charlotte’s eyes were sloppy as she wondered why the man was telling her about his dead wife. What business did his wife dying have to do with her? She reasoned.

The man continued, his words set like a trap. “Could you believe that I have barely been able to sleep at night for the past four months? The autopsy had it that she had her organs pulled out by some people assumed to be a cult group. Is it the same group that your husband works for?”

Charlotte’s gaze sharpened, her eyes narrowing with suspicion as she saw that the man was trying to provoke her whether or not the photograph was true.

Charlotte turned her gaze away from the man immediately, her mouth tightening into a thin line as she refused to immerse herself in his games.

The man’s lips curled into a cunning smirk of arrogance. “Are you just going to turn away from me? Don't I at least deserve an explanation? Your killer husband killed my wife? She was everything to me until you and your husband murdered her?”

“I have always wondered why someone would uproot Susanna’s heart before killing her. I stood up late in the night staring at the darkness wondering how ugly that monster must be. Who would have thought that you married the monster.”

The man’s words were laced with pain and his breath was heavy as he spoke but also with an aggression.

He had been looking for someone he would pounce his anger on all these while and seeing Charlotte sitting just a few seats from where he was, he moved over to the empty seat behind her just to torture her.

“You and your monster husband deserve to be sentenced to the most horrible kind of death.”

The man’s voice was growing louder with each moment as he lashed out at Charlotte, letting out the horrors of his pain.

Charlotte’s hands covered her face as she struggled to contain her grief, her tears a bitter testimony to the pain from the lash of words.

She was already in so much grief and with the man’s hail of worded arrows, she was more destroyed.

Her breathing was ragged as she curled into a curve, fighting against the tide of emotion that threatened to overwhelm her.

Why was the man trying to make it seem as if it was a joint effort between herself and Bradley to carry out the organ trafficking operations?

Why was he trying to make it seem like she even did some of the horrific things that were exposed?