"Welcome, Cassie! Welcome to our golden poison! You have made a good decision and you would not regret this ever. We now declare you the chief of this branch. This whole branch will be under your control from now on." an elderly man with white hair and dark skin introduced her to everyone.
Cassie looked around the shambles, this place looked like it was recently brought down. Her face showed disapproval as she never thought she would be offered such a high position.
"What is this place? And why does it look like it has been through rumbles? Was there a fight before I came here?"
"All this is common among gang members, do not worry! You will be safe here!" a voice echoed from behind.
Everyone kneeled down to show their respect to that newly entered person.
"You are?" Cassie asked while standing in guard. Something about him made her feel fear.
Especially those eyes, which looked like two fireballs emitting fire from them. She felt like if anyone looked at them for longer, they could get burnt mainly those who don't obey him.
"I am the one who recruited you into our team. You will be leading this group and help them rebuild this place. This will be your first task." Logan said with a twisted smile.
"I don't think I can do that! I came here to inform you that even though I am joining your team, it doesn't mean that I will do anything illegal. I want to avenge people who caused my parent's death but only through legal means."
"Hahaha… Who are you kidding, Cassie? Do you know how many unsolved cold cases are there in our country? Do you think anyone would even listen to your words and agree to open an almost twenty-year-old case? Why would they even do that? Do you have any proof that your parent's death was actually not an accident?"
"No, but…"
"There are no but's cassie! When it comes to that it means you have already lost your will to do anything. You won't succeed in this war until you listen to me. Do you want the murderer of our family to be punished, then you need to take the law in your hand." Logan asked while looking into her eyes directly. Cassie just shook her head like she was hypnotized.
"Good! From this minute on, I will be training you personally. And you will be leading this team of Golden poison from now on. I will guide you and assist you until you are ready. Promise me, you will never think about backing off once again." Logan extended his hand and asked.
"I won't. I will bring down those bastards even if I have to go down along with them."
"That's good. As a commemoration to join us today, I have brought you a gift. I hope you will like it." Logan handed Cassie a file and left the room.
When he reached the door, he turned back and asked, "Let us meet for the training in half an hour. Prepare yourself and come to the second-floor training hall…."
He paused for a minute as if he remembered something and added, "Oh! Sorry, that place needs to be renovated… Let's do it in the open space next to the forest if you do not mind."
"Ok"
Before leaving once again, he turned and said, "By the way I am Logan…"
Cassie opened the file and was astonished to see Jennifer's dad's name. All his details were listed and when she opened the next page, the file slipped out of her hand. All the papers scattered on the floor. She knelt down and picked one of the papers which had news cutting related to her parent's death. The white paper had already turned yellowish and was almost on the verge of tearing.
She picked one more news which described that the accident had happened due to the husband's fault as he was drunk and driving. All their kids were missing and they were not sure if they had been taken away by wild animals.
She gathered all the scattered papers and put them on the desk. Her hands shivered and tears formed on her eyes. But she did not let it fall as it meant that she was weak, which she absolutely was not! When she read all the papers she understood that the whole incident was covered with the help of Jennifer's father.
She stacked the papers into the file and threw it into the drawer of her room before locking it. She walked out with determination and did everything she could to strengthen herself from then on. Now she had not one but two powerful enemies and she had to be prepared before they could bring them down.
"You are fifteen minutes early than our agreed time…" Logan said.
"Can I ask you a question?" Ignoring Logan's gleaming eyes, Cassie asked.
"Yes, go ahead"
"Why are you helping me? And when did you say before 'our family'? I don't think we even know each other from before, so my family cannot be…"
When Cassie heard him say, our family, she had hopes that Logan might be one of her twin brothers… But if he is, then he would have definitely told her and would be excited to meet her… Also, she did not have any familiar feeling at all around Logan.
"Let us just say for now that this is a little personal for me and I have lost two important family members before. And I am one of the closely affected people because of that incident."
After taking a deep breath he said, "If you are ready then let us start our first day of training. I will try to go easy on you as it will be your first day doing such rigorous activity in your life."
Cassie thought how many people die that day? And why? Is she missing something big in all this and was being led by everyone? As she read all the newspapers, there was no mention of anyone else that died that day. But now Logan said he lost two of his family members and Tyler had said before that his mother died in this accident.
Who are they and why did they not come in any newspaper? Are they in any way related to Jennifer's dad, Dexter? So he hid the news from publishing?
"Hello… Dreamer!!" Logan put his hand in front of her eyes and waved.
"I am sorry, let us start…"
"Are you sure? Is everything really alright?"
"Yes."
For almost more than half a day they trained and Cassie did not complain or show any weakness. Logan was thrilled to meet such an impressive candidate after a long time. His first recruit was Melissa, and she showed him that she was really gifted with skills. While Cassie on that other hand is truly a hard worker and skillful.
She grasped whatever he taught him and learned without much trouble. She was just like her mother. He must say and be even proud to pull her into his team. They would definitely bring Golden poison to new heights.
"Let us stop our training today. Go mingle with your team and get to know them. Only when you can make them follow you, then you would have truly succeeded in being chief of this gang. Let us meet again tomorrow in the early morning. We will go trekking deep into this forest and train there." Logan suggested.
Cassie, who was breathing hard, shook her head and walked away slowly. Each step was difficult to take and in a few minutes, she lost her balance and fell down. She looked around to see if anyone noticed her weakness, thankfully no one was around. So he gathered her strength and started to walk inside the tumbledown building.
At that time a shadow noticed her fall and mockingly laughed before turning around to run into a bush. The shadow disappeared and went to the underground training center and whispered to a person sitting on one side.