RED INK
EP 22: One ego in mind 2
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He checked the packages one more time, using his eyes to count the boxes. When he was done making assurance, he retreated from the vehicle. "Close the door." He ordered the two men standing on opposite sides of his presence. They walked to delivery truck's trunk, both pulling down the heavy metal door and sealing it with a big padlock.
They were both dressed in blue delivery uniforms for one of those delivery companies. The goods were to be delivered to different places in Dretch.
Diggy handed them the file they had forged containing fake names of people with real locations. While some of the names were real, serving as a means of diversion if police stopped them on the way, the other names were camouflages and hidden.
One of the guys collected the paperback book from him, hailing him with his cap and with that, they got into the passenger's seat and driver's seat respectively.
As the truck entered the side road, driving away, Diggy brought out a pack of cigarettes from his jeans back pocket, took one out of it, placed it back and rummaged in the other pocket for the lighter. He found it. After lighting his cigarette, his smoked in the flavor.
Few hours ago, the heat was scorching him so badly, but now, the weather has changed. The clouds have grown darker and rain was threatening to pour. He removed a burner phone from front pocket and dialed a number.
"Your package is on its way." He said.
"You already have the money, if it doesn't get delivered, you know what you are asking for." A deep male voice said from the receiver.
Diggy smirked and took another draw of smoke. "I don't do business like that."
"Better. How long?"
"You will receive it in two days. If too late, by Wednesday's evening. You know the meet up point."
"Of course. If this gets delivered, you have opened a greater point for business for yourself. I don't trust people easily. You better be ready to prove it."
"I will take care of myself." And with that, he cut the call and put the phone in his pocket. "Fucking punk! Who are you threatening?"
He looked at the sky, thunder was beginning to rumble and lightening had started to light from the peak of the mountain at a distance.
Where he was at was a remote place, quiet and far from the main road. A place that if any vehicle past through would consider a dead end. And a place not easily detected and may even remain hidden for a long time.
When the blow of the cigarette was close to empty, he crushed it out with his feet and took another one out from the pack.
He turned back into the woods he was walking from, his strong boots stepping on dry branches and leaves. They wouldn't be so dry when the rain began to fall.
He felt the vibration of the phone in his pocket, he picked the call up. "Speak."
"Boss, there is bad news." The other voice said.
"What bad news? Have you not received words from them yet?"
The receiver didn't say anything.
"I told you before that if you all failed this time, you all will be dead."
"They are dead...boss."
Diggy stopped walking. The wind blowing flapping hem of his shirt sideways, his hair moving in the dame direction revealing the part of his face that was scarred to the nape of his neck, a pouch over his eye. "How many?" He asked.
"All of them."
He squeezed his eye shut and dropped the cigarette on the ground, which could have started a fire but was quickly quenched by the dripping of rain drops in this part of the tropical rain forest. "All of them?"
"Yes boss."
"Where are you?!" He screamed into the phone.
"Boss, I am at the warehouse. I have sent the pictures of the scene to your computer. All of them are dead, except Durin. His body is not here."
Diggy's eye fluttered from side to side. He had a lot going through his head. Did Durin turn on him? Did Durin kill them and ran away? Where was Durin? Or someone else took him away while he was alive...?
"I am on my way—"
"No, boss!" The man on the background said. "You know you are on a lot of people's blacklist. You can't come. Whoever did this may be somewhere watching and waiting for you to come out. I will handle the business here. I will keep you posted. I will come to you Friday. If I come immediately, I may be followed, putting you at risk. I will send the whole description to you alongside the pictures."
The call ended, leaving Diggy standing face blank in the middle of the woods. He comported himself and began taking long strides to where he was going.
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Fiona knocked on the door. She was holding a tray of food in her hands. She pressed her ear to the door, waiting for movements and a reply, there was none. "Diana, I am coming in."
She balanced the tray in one hand and turned the lock to her door, it didn't budge. "Oh, come on! Come open this door! I know you can hear me Diana." She waited again, there was no reply. "Alright then, I will leave. I am taking the food back with me." She turned to go. "Too bad it is roasted goat meat..." She took a step forward. "With spaghetti...mixed with honey and chili sauce with sesame seeds as toppings...a little tiger nut drink by the side..." She took another step, moving farther away from the door. "I am going."
As she took a step towards the stairs, she heard the lock to her room turn and the door flung open.
Diana's hair was brushed down and she was in a white short and a simple yellow polo, a pair of long white stockings to her feet and she had her makeup done. "My food." She said.
Fiona walked closer to her and walked past her holding the tray tight in her hand.
Diana's room was a multi colored room. She wasn't a pinky kind- of- girl. She loved multi colors and she incorporated that into her room. Her queen sized bed had a light blue furry bedspread on it, the pillows were white with some flowery designs. Her room walls were painted cream and ash, her lamp on her reading table was blue, the table and chair were ash. The settee that was by the edge of her bed was made of ancient woods with a multi colored upholstery which main background color was white. She had glass paintings on her walls, mostly depicting a shattered view of someone's face or a broken tree with broken branches. She had a unique taste. When she was asked what the inspiration behind this room design was, she just said, "Clash of Colours" and everyone nodded. They could not agree more. Her room was a noisy, color rioted art work in itself. It was the opposite of Linda's room which was just a combination of light pink, white and ash.
Fiona walked over to her table and placed the tray on it. "You didn't come down for breakfast."
"And no one cared." Diana went to her bed, her laptop laid opened on it.
Fiona rolled her eyes. "It's something you have to do by yourself. You are an adult after all."
"Whatever." She clicked on her screen and brought it back to light.
"Don't you feel like eating?"
"I will do so when you leave the room."
"Come on Diana." She walked to her bedside and sat on the settee. "It is late afternoon already. Keeping up with this may give you ulcer."
Diana didn't answer her.
"So why the sulking this morning? Hm? I thought you would be radiating with excitement after coming back from the gala last night."
"What's past is past. I choose not to dwell on it."
"Wow!" Fiona clapped. "Look at you go. Wow! You know at this point, you are beginning to sound like Linda"
"I sound nothing like her."
Fiona raised her hand in surrender. "I know. I know. But that is her slogan. Just saying." She rested her hand on the wooden edge of the settee. "What really happened though? Did something bad happen at the ball?" She gasped. "Did Mr Ford approa—"
"Mr Ford?!" She was in awe. "Ew! The fuck!"
"We all know what he is infamous for."
"Still, Fiona, that is disgusting!" She grimaced. "I wouldn't even give him face."
"If it's not him, then what is the problem?"
Diana sighed. "Nothing really. I can handle it myself."
"It doesn't sound like nothing since you are trying to handle it yourself."
Diana looked at her, "When will you leave my room so I can eat my food?"
Fiona smiled at her. "I am not leaving anytime soon." She blinked cutely.
Diana rolled her eyes.
"Not until you tell me what happened."
Diana thought about it. Telling Fiona wasn't going to hurt her, but she just didn't like sharing too much information. "Fine." She said.
"Yes!" Fiona readjusted her posture.
"I met this guy last year after my college's graduation ceremony, he said his name is Dillion. He invited me out on" She quoted her fingers, "dates. Something casual. It went on for sometime, it wasn't an every week kind- of- thing. It was more of a monthly meet–up."
"Wait." Fiona interrupted. "This was before you were home, right?"
"Yes."
"Okay. Go on."
"He always found me, you know? Like if I was in a restaurant at a remote location, he will somehow find me. He said it was coincidence, but it was too coincidental ti be true. So I thought he was—"
"Stalking you?" Fiona asked.
"Yes. And no. More likely trying to make it look like he was running into me by accident. Fate or something that is made by divine providence. I thought he was approaching me because he liked me but didn't know how to go about it."
"So you assumed?"
She nodded. "I thought he was asking me out."
"How is this guy like...?"
Diana thought about it. "Tall, dark eyes, luscious lips...he was a very quiet person."
"And you didn't think once that he was stalking you?"
"I thought about it. But a stalker wouldn't want to be caught. He just happened to be where I was like he wanted to be seen."
Fiona pressed her lips together. At this point, she was thinking Diana had a brick head. "Doesn't change the possibility."
"At least, we could also rule out that he was after my money. He seemed rich himself."
"How would you know?"
"I made a research online about him, there was limited information on his family, it did speak of the family house he grew up in, but he currently doesn't stay there. It's even been listed that the house was in the market. He is wealthy. There were a lot of Dillions on the internet. I didn't know his last name though until I saw a picture of him. He is from the Shaft family."
"Shaft? What family is that?"
"One of the wealthiest. The owners of Agio."
Fiona's eyes widened. "He is wealthy then."
Diana nodded.
"But what has this got to do with your sulking this morning?"
Diana closed her laptop and looked around her room in exasperation. "Towards the end of last year, he disappeared without a word. There was no way for me to reach him. But last night, I saw him in the ball."
Fiona gasped. "You did? What did he say?"
"That's where the awful part comes." She was quiet, then she said, "He was there with another woman."
Fiona blinked. "But how is that supposed to make you feel bad? Did you like him?"
She stood up. "I did! I was angry at him that he left without a word and the first time I get to meet him again in months, he was there with a woman. And not just any woman, a cheap ass woman! I was angry! Someone of his rank shouldn't be associating with her!"
Fiona pressed her lips together, not knowing what to say. But from the looks of it, clearly, Diana was the one who gave herself false hopes. This wasn't the guy's fault at all. "He may have had urgent things to do."
"He could have kept in touch!"
"I don't think he had any intentions to go out with you in the first place. May have just been a coincidence that you both were in the same place at the same time."
"He did ask me out for dinner once in a while."
"Still doesn't mean anything, Diana. From how I see it, you fantasized about going out with him. You thought his little gestures were more than they were." She waited for Diana to say something but she didn't. "So you were sulking this morning because you saw the man you liked with another woman at the ball last night? Wasn't it fifty-fifty though? You also went there with a partner."
"It's not the same."
"It may be."
"He did a whole interview and the reporters kept asking if she was his fiancée. He didn't deny it."
Fiona sighed. "And if she is his fiancée?"
Diana gave her a look that said she couldn't accept it.
"What did you do Diana?"
"What makes you think I did something?"
Fiona stood up. "I took care of you since you were little. I know what you can do and not do." She walked closer to her. "What did you do?"
Diana folded her hands against her chest, she was taller than Fiona and was staring down at her. She looked away. "I met with the lady in the bathroom."
"Oh God!" Fiona lamented.
"I couldn't help it. He looked at me a few times and he didn't even do like he knew me. He completely ghosted me."
"So you approached the innocent lady who probably didn't knoe anything about it because she was a much easy prey to conquer? Were you trying to scare her away from him?"
She grimaced.
"Geez, Diana. You are an adult but still act like a kid." Fiona held her hand. "Look, so what if he does like he doesn't know you? He isn't the only man out there. You could have approached him and offered to dance with him, talk about it like adults. You went attacking a wrong person instead. Doesn't that make you the villain?"
"I never said I hated being the villain." She murmured.
"Yep." Fiona agreed. "It's your strong point and driving force. But when it comes to a man you like, it may just make you look even uglier in his eyes. A jealous childish girl throwing a tantrum because she couldn't get what she wanted. That makes you appear cheaper than the girl he decided to take along to the ball. If you want to win him over, make smart moves! Show him you are capable of more than just shopping and looking beautiful all day long. You are very intelligent, Diana."
Doesn't sound like a bad idea, Diana thought. But she didn't know where to begin from. Where did he live? Where would she be able to find him again?