The silence that ensued in the warehouse was something no one could imagine. The clash of the two juggernauts transitioned into a cold war, the only difference being Hank on the receiving end. A cold war that turned into a round of punishment to Hank. “You think they love you?” Hank said summoning every living strength in him, “they don’t love you. None of them do. In fact, you are nothing but a narcissistic dictator who is too scared to admit how much of a loser he is.”Hank scanned his eyes through the rest of the gang members, then finally returned his gaze on Gusto, with his words piercing Gusto’s heart like a two-edged sword. Those words only subjected Hank to more punishment. “Fifty thousand dollars,” a man yelled from behind me.The auctioneer’s persistent gaze at me made my stomach churn. I looked away and rolled my eyes. I decided to attend this auction because the auctioneer insisted through daily mail and phone calls that I should be there. I turned him down the
“I am going to need that knife with you right now,” Hank said, as he lay helplessly after being tossed on the floor by his men. There was a momentary confusion coursing through Elijah’s veins after Hank’s words, wondering how he was discovered.Hank struggled to sit, with his whole body aching, each bone grinding, and his blood threatening to spill out. It was the worst moment he’d been through, as memories of how he betrayed Richard flooded his head.He had a taste of his own medicine. He has always been betrayed from the very beginning of his life, with his father turning his back on him and his mother when he was yet a little boy of seven years. They struggled to make ends meet, struggled to get by in life, and he promised himself to pay him back with the very sting in which it struck him. His mother had to pick up odd jobs to feed him and give him a quality education till she lost her life in a shootout on one of her side hustles. He hated everything that had to do wit
No matter how hard he tried, he just could not help thinking about Daniel becoming the last man standing. He could not imagine the three years of shame at the Greene mansion becoming a thing of the past. He refused to picture the lightest possibility of Daniel, with that smug grin of his, getting away with shooting him in his feet.The worst nightmare that could happen to him. He sensed his freedom coming closer, and he savored every moment that would lead to then. Every second of waiting felt like an eternity to him.Hi patience dwindled, and he just could not wait anymore. “How long do we have to wait?” he asked again, barely two minutes after Hank’s instruction.Hank banged his palm against his forehead, unable to bear any of Elijah’s incessant requests. “Will you shut up? I told you we have to wait. It is very crucial at this point that we pay attention to every detail.” “Then set my hands free. I am not going to sit here with you, holding a knife in your hand and your ha
Slowly, Elijah and Hank lowered Gusto on the floor, searching all over his body for where the cell phone could be at, but could not find it. “Roll him over,” Hank said, as he stood away from Elijah in order to secure the door, although he feared what might happen if Gusto clawed himself out of consciousness.Elijah grunted, pushing over the heavy pound man. As he stuck his hand into Gusto’s backpocket, he found the cell phone and his wallet, however, the worst happened.Gust pulled Elijah from behind and tossed him forward, springing up to his feet. He fought through the foggy blurriness in his eyes, making a mental picture of Elijha, and paid no attention to his aching head.Who would have thought a sleeping pill could make one feel like the weight of the whole world was hoisted o the person’s head? Gusto has always been a man who showed no affiliation to pain, and that was the very reason Elijah refused at first to get back the cell phone. He staggered a while on his feet
The aura of death that lingered on in the warehouse finally manifested, spearheaded by Gusto’s death. Hank was still unable to recover from the shock of having to shoot one of his men. He tossed the gun away immediately, his eyes wide open like a man who had been shot with a thousand jolts of electricity. “I-I killed, not again,” he muttered to himself and then yelled loudly. It was a moment of uncertainty about where to go from here.The gunshot spurred up the other men sleeping. They held Elijah and Hank at gunpoint after snaking around them, beholding the atrocity that had been committed by their captor and their former leader. “You don’t want to do this,” Elijah said, touching back with Hank. He raised his hand in surrender, but deep down within him, he refused to go down without a fight.Hank remained speechless for a long while, before finally pointing the gun to his head, “I am done for. It is over,” he kept on saying, like a bewitched man. It was a moment where h
They remained mute as Hank’s words crept subtly into their minds. They weren’t convinced, as their minds raced with a dozen possibilities of Hank being truthful with them. “Lies,” Alex said in a low tone, his voice barely escaping his mouth, “they are all lies. Gusto would not do such a thing, you are lying.”He was right. Gusto, although a criminal, was as pious and honest as a selfless man could be. He had his morals judging him between the wrong things that could be a disruption to his state of mind, and betraying the people he called his friends was one of those things.They knew it. However, Hank’s persuasive voice raised a second doubt in their hearts thinking better of Hank’s words. Elijah ran out of time as reality slipped from his hands every passing moment. He knew Daniel approached faster than he could imagine, and had a faint imagination of what Daniel had on his mind.His corpse was supposed to be laying cold on the floor. However, the reverse was the case, and he n
“Is this what you truly are?” Elijah charged at Hank, gripping his neck firmly like a Lion holding on to the jugular of its prey.Before Hank could say anything in his defense, Elijah almost choked the life out of him. His fear would not let him let go of Hank’s neck, even though his body strength was declining rapidly. “Let go of me, you crazy dimwit,” Hank said, yanking Elijah’s massive hold on his neck away from him.It was a moment Elijah had to decide on whether to return to being a captive or die as a freeman. He wasn’t scared of death, not by a single bit. What scared him the most was his inability to make the most of the time he had to reach out to Richard.His guilt bummed him, not able to give his friend, his father, and his brother, the kind of justice they deserved.His failure smacked around him.He was immediately restrained by Hank’s minions, and he could not shake them off regardless of how much he tried. “You backstabbing ingrate, you would sell out any man
“Trust me? After all, we have been through,” he said with a slight rise in his voice. He gave little thought to his words before uttering them.Hank’s eyebrows creased into confusion, “We been through? What have we been through? I find it difficult to understand people like you who barely get out of their shells. Just because we planned an escape does not verify the existence of a ‘we’. It is only Me.” He took his legs off the table and walked toward Elijah, coming down to his ear level to drop a whisper, “There is no ‘we’, it is either the money or nothing.” A cold breath seethed through Elijah’s neck, as Hank’s whispers resonated like a church bell’ He’d thought Hank showed some kind of interest in becoming partners with him, rather than just the money he offered. His conscience forewarned him of the dangers of having to trust Hank a little, and at that point, he had to choose between trusting him again and taking his life in his hand. It was a matter of what next to do. Elija