Audrey quietly entered inside the apartment, shut the door and locked it. he took some deep breaths before turning to face the big black man in all black, sending him his signature gaze laced with his terrifying confidence.
"Is that suppose to scare me kid? get your tiny ass next to the lady before she gets a heart attack" he said half-heartedly and turned back to face Madonna. Audrey quickly did as told and Madonna's knees gave way, she dropped to the ground holding him tightly to her. Sweating and breathing hard, her gun never leaving her palm despite her trembling hands.
The black man's gaze fell heavily on both of them, he watched them quietly, not making a sound or movement to interrupt them. Audrey untangled himself from his Sister and stared at the man with a questioning eyebrow who also stared back at him the same way.
"Is this a kidnapping or you're trying out a new killing fetish?" Audrey asked with a serious yet confused look on his face. "Au..drey" Madonna whined in an attempt to stop him from talking more. "So are you trying to kill us or what?" Audrey asked ignoring her.
Their guest smirked at Audrey, "Here, give her the medicine you bought and then we'll talk" he said and tossed Audrey a bottle of water. Audrey caught it and stared at him for a short moment, then quickly got out the pills and feed them to his sister. her temperature had risen dangerously high... it was clear she couldn't put up a proper fight in this state.
Audrey sat upright beside his Sister who kept sending him quiet signals to leave the room... Audrey ignored her, kept his gaze on the man and then cleared his throat. "If you're not here to kill us, why are you here?"
"Who said I wasn't going to kill you?"
Audrey flinched and blinked to clear the shock. their guest chuckled.
"I have an important conversation to have with Banks here and if I like what she says, you'll both live, else, you die."
Audrey looked up at his Sister, her distant look made him doubtful, until she nodded and looked up at their guest.
"Cage right? before I'll answer anything, let's agree to leave him out of it regardless of the outcome." Madonna said calmly, her voice strained.
"That still depends on your answer, you're only causing the kid anxiety by delaying like this, unfortunately for you, I have all day to spare"
Madonna closed her eyes and sighed softly.
"Do you know Kanna? Kanna Price"
"I know one person by that name, at least... I knew one"
"What was your relationship?"
"She was my mother...our Mother"
Cage looked doubtful at Audrey who unconsciously held his sister's shirt.
"she was married to a white man, Knight is his last name"
"That explains it, how did she die?"
"Knight killed her"
"...."
Cage stared daggers at Madonna's blank expression... then at Audrey's curious face.
"Kid, do you remember Kanna?" Cage asked calmly.
"No"
"He was barely up to a year old when it happened, he doesn't remember either of them"
"I'm not satisfied with your answer, but I don't doubt anything you've said, I want to know how Kanna died in details and how you two, my niece and nephew, got into such deep shit"
"Niece and nephew?" Audrey asked wide-eyed, surprised at Cage's words.
"I'm still the one asking the questions kid"
"It was around the time He was just born, Mom and I would look after him together, but then his attitude towards me worsened, he wouldn't let me anywhere near his son, my own brother. He treated me like the help, but was never able to abuse me because of Mom for some reason. She wasn't afraid of him and they argued a lot. Around the time my brother stopped being weaned, I came home to find the place in a mess... there were signs of struggle, so I ran upstairs to check on Mom and my brother, I really couldn't careless if Knight was dead, he'd probably just resurrect again-
Upstairs, I saw Mom- Kanna on the floor in the passage bleeding out from her breast and side. I rushed over to her crying and confused, she used up her energy telling me to Kill Knight and take care of my brother, she gave me her gun-"
"Does it have the initials K.C?" Cage interrupted.
"Uhm... yeah, but-"
"Show it to me, Now!"
Madonna turned to Audrey and whispered it's location to him. His eyes went wide and rush out to retrieve it.
less than 5 minutes later, he returned with a well polished Berreta M9 pistol and handed it to his sister, then sat back beside her.
She groaned and pushed herself off her chair, moving herself to hand Cage the pistol. Cage had is eyes on the gun, recognition and bubbling inside him, once she got close enough, he snatched it out of her hand and checked just above the trigger... the initials K.C was engraved with silver.
Cage let out a frustrated sigh and gritted his teeth. he let out another breath and took a gulp of his drink. it had started warming up so it didn't do much to calm him. Madonna stood still in front of Cage, her hand still extended as though she were asking for the gun to be returned back to her.
"You haven't done what she asked have you?" Cage asked, sounding more like a statement. Madonna didn't react, that was enough of answer for him. Cage returned the gun to her hand and she returned back to her seat with Audrey.
"Continue"
And she did. Madonna explained everything that happened in detail, right up till they moved to Seattle.
....
"Well, you two definitely had it rough... Especially you, Madonna right? you did well to protect Audrey so far, I know Kanna would have been extremely proud of you" Cage said softly.
Madonna didn't respond, but a lone tear slid down the cheek of her expressionless face, Audrey held her hand tightly and turned to face Cage. "Who are you to Mom, why did you call us your niece and nephew? I've already deduced that you are a relative, but i'd prefer you state the kind clearly"
"Dominic Cage, Kanna's younger brother and your Uncle." he answered.
Dominic explained how he and his sister were orphans taken under a high Ranking official in the CIA and worked their way up the ranks. Kanna had a resemblance to Banks nature, except for her wild side. Kanna suddenly disappeared after falling in love with a white man she met during her last mission, not bothering to disclose any information to him and just vanishing which was thoroughly out of character for her. He also fell out with the CIA and had to escape a death penalty, which was how he wound up with the syndicate in the first place, they already knew everything about him which was alarming already, but there was no information on his sister. That was something he actually preferred and never brought up the topic of a sister to any member, no matter how close he got to them.
"people are unpredictable, never believe you know everything about anyone... but still, I can't dig up info on that Knight nigga without them finding out about Madonna" He said seriously.
Audrey nodded in approval.
Cage sighed and stared at the two of them. "You got yourself in some serious shit Maddy, I can give you a piece of advice though, If you ever get the info that the name "King" is interested in you.... take your brother and run. He isn't interested in the job of killing you despite being offered by the higher ups, that's why he let me have a go at you.... telling him I failed will pique his interest. Remember, don't think about it at all, just be gone before the end of the day" He said and rose to his feet.
He walked over to their seat and crouched down in front of them. Taking their hands in his, he squeezed them and rested his fore head against their fisted palms then closed his eyes.
"As much as I want to, I can't do much to help you guys. I'm standing on the opposite side in this situation and I'm not ready to die either... all I can do is regularly provide some money for you guys to keep living and get out of the country when you can. Try to stay alive alright" Cage said softly.
Audrey and Madonna felt overwhelmed by his attitude but didn't react either way. Cage rose to his feet and ruffled their heads, his big hand moving Audrey's head in circles caused him to get really dizzy.
Cage stopped and smirked at them.
"Audrey, you're in charge of making sure your sister survives, I normally kill at least 3 people with the amount of beating I gave her. If she doesn't get better, I'll beat you too" Cage warned. Audrey gulped and grimaced.
"Tell her to behave before you say stuff like that" Audrey mumbled quietly. "Nah, I'm sure you already have an idea of how to deal with her, I mean, you've been doing it for the past 3 days yourself, I know because I watched you day and night"
"Stalker much?"
"Pretty much".