Anthony Caruso
It's early in the morning, a few minutes past 10am. I was pacing the room just after Cassandra had left the office. Why does she keep on testing my patience? Women! Such vicious creatures! My head is racing with a lot of thoughts that I could not understand just yet.
A soft knock on my office door, I immediately checked my appointment list on my iPad just to be sure, because I know I wasn't expecting anyone. It definitely was Cassandra. It could only be her.
"Cassandra, go home, I told you we'll talk about it!" I shouted.
The door opened and a young man in a brown suit, perfectly arranged hair, an expensive gold watch his wrist and a black suitcase in his hand. His demeanor, shows that he was no ordinary person.
"And who might you be?" I asked, my brow furrowed in curiosity.
"Is that how you welcome your visitors?" He asked with a smirk on his face.
I gave a sarcastic smile, I was hesitant for a while and then offered him a seat.
"Have a seat please" I said pointing towards the chair in front of my desk.
"Thank you" he said smiling as he sat on the chair unbuttoning his suit jacket.
"I wonder where my secretary went that she invited a guest who doesn't have an appointment" I whispered underneath my breath.
"Oh your secretary, I didn't see her at her desk so I helped myself to your office" he said, still smiling.
We both continued smiling awkwardly.
"Whiskey?" I asked nicely.
"Yeah, sure," he replied.
I brought out two glass cups and the whiskey from the cupboard and added ice blocks into the cup, pouring whiskey into it.
"Now I've welcomed you nicely. So who are you?" I asked not smiling anymore.
"My name is Dante moretti—"
I stiffened for a moment, Hearing the moretti name I was agitated and at the same I was at alert and ready to attack at any moment.
"Seeing from your reaction I believe you know the moretti family, I mean who wouldn't know the moretti's" he said laughing softly, putting his legs crossed on my table.
"You've got some balls showing your face here. Coming to the lion's den all by yourself." I said placing my hand under the desk to remove the gun I hid there.
"Well it's true, I've been told severally that I've got some balls, but you must also know that this building is surrounded and filled with ticking time bombs. If you kill me now, and the bomb doesn't feel my vitals anymore you all are going to die. So I'd advise you to return that gun now" he said with a smirk on his face.
I started dripping sweat during our conversation. How did he know that I had hid a gun under my desk?
"What did you come here for? What do you want?l" I said, my voice showing anger and frustration.
"I've come to tell you by myself that you've taken what doesn't belong to you and if you do not release it, I'll let loose all of hell on everything and anything you own" he said, standing up from the chair, he stood at the door looking at me confidently.
"And that's all you've come to tell me?" I asked. My impatience was growing with every second.
"Yes! I had to tell you myself" he said opening the door and was met with five men with guns in their hands all pointed towards him.
He turned his head sideways to look at me.
"Aren't you going to tell your boys to step down?" he said, his voice sounding deadly and cold.
"Boss, give us the go ahead, we'll blow his fucking head off" the team assistant leader said with a gun pointed at his head.
"Retreat!" I said calmly.
"Boss??" The assistant team leader said.
"You goddamn fools, retreat if you don't want to get us all killed!" I said angrily.
I felt like I had lost to him and it was eating me up from the inside. All I wanted to do at that moment was to crush him.
My men retreated and allowed him to pass. Even though his back faced me, I could see him smiling victoriously. He walked out of the office majestically.
My men walked into the office as soon as Dante was out of sight. I leaned back in my chair, steepling my fingers and falling into a contemplative silence. My gaze drifted across the desk, lost in the calculations swirling in my head.
"Boss, why did you tell us to retreat? We could have gotten him" the assistant team leader said.
"Boss??"
I slammed my hand into the table loudly.
"Will you just shut your goddamn mouth! He was a ticking time bomb, if you had killed him, he would have taken us down alongside with him" I said, giving him a deadly glare.
"I'm sorry boss," he said, apologizing.
A suffocating silence had descended, thick enough to choke on. It stretched for a minute, an eternity punctuated only by the frantic hammering of my heart. Then with a deafening roar that seemed to rip the world apart, the building lurched violently. The ground floor, fifteen stories below us, might have been the epicenter of the bomb. The tremor vibrated through the entire structure. I could hear the rattling of the windows below the floor where we were. Dust rained down from the ceiling and a sickly metallic tang filled the air. I walked towards the window of my office and looked down. I immediately sighted Dante's face smiling and waving at me.
The sight of him made my anger only grow even more.
The team leader came rushing into the office.
"Boss we gotta get you out of here now, it's not safe" the team leader said.
"Contact the spartan team first, tell them to get Cassandra out of this place and tell them to take her to the safe house outside of town now!" I commanded.
"Okay boss," the team leader replied. Connected his walkie-talkie communicating to the spartan team on the latest update.
"The message has been delivered, boss. We've got to get you out of here now " he said.
I nodded in response and walked out of the office with the team directly behind me.
We took the private elevator that leads to the car park downstairs.
We entered my car and drove out of the building.
"Drive me to the warehouse, I want to meet the street boys. They might have the information we need." I commanded.
"Yes boss!" One of the team members that was driving replied.
Our car rattled to a stop in front of the warehouse. A group of figures materialized from the gloom, a gaggle of young boys with wary eyes and clothes that hung loosely on their growing frames.
"Yo, boss," one of them greeted me, a hint of nervousness lacing his voice. I recognized him — Malik the self proclaimed leader of the pack of street boys.
"Malik," I responded with a curt nod, scanning the rest of the group.
"Everything set?"
Malik gestured towards the warehouse doors, their paint peeling in an ever -growing battle against the relentless sun.
"Yeah boss. Been waitin' for ya."
With a shared exchange of cautious glances I entered the warehouse alongside my security team to talk business. The air inside hung heavy with the smell of dust and damp concrete. Sunlight speared through the broken windows, illuminating motes dancing in the air. We found a makeshift table cluttered with empty soda cans, where we settled to talk business.
"Alright Malik," I began leaning forward with elbows propped on the table.
"Spill it. What have you got for me?"
"You know how it goes, you've got to put some money before I share information, that's how we roll" he said grinning.
I dropped a bundle of dollar notes on the table like a proud rich man. He stretched his hand to take the money, I smacked his hand and he retreated his hand.
"Start talking!" I commanded.
"The marines got a hold of their stuff and destroyed it and now he thinks you're the one responsible for it. Everyone's talking about it" he said.
"Hmmm, it's more than that. It's more than just destroying his coke "I murmured under my breath.
"You're saying something?" Malik asked, puzzled at the words I was murmuring.
"You ain't got enough information I need, you don't deserve this money" I stood up from the chair, putting the money back into my pocket.
"You're just going to leave like that? You gotta fucking drop the money!" Malik said, the tone of his voice a little higher.
I turned to look at him.
"You meant this" I said, bringing out a gun from my side pocket and pointing it at him.
"I ain't mean to disrespect you, I just want the money that's all" he said
"You're not trying to disrespect me but your fellows would, by your single act of foolishness. No one, I mean nobody, even the goddamn Dante Moretti shouldn't raise their voice at me or try to act stupid" I said, my gaze focused on Malik.
"I'm sorry boss, I'm not—" I cut his words off with a bullet in his chest. The sound of his body thud to the ground.
I swayed the gun left to right pointing at Malik's comrades.
"That's what any of you will get if you try to disrespect or come at me, understand?"
They all nodded in fear.
That's what I'm talking about, y'all should fear me that's how it's meant to be.
"Let's go boys" I said walking out of the building with my security team behind me. We entered the car and drove off.
"Where are we going boss?" The driver asked.
"To the hideout " I said without batting an eye.
"Okay boss"
"Marcel!" I called out to the team leader
"Yes boss"
"Update on Cassandra "
He called the spartan team immediately.
"They say they're still on the road and she's asleep" Marcel said.
"Video call now! I want to see her face" my voice boomed, a raw demand cutting through the tense air of the room.
The hesitation in their eyes was a flicker in a storm that was quickly replaced by obedience. An iPad was produced, the screen a harsh rectangle of light. A moment later, the video call connected and a wave of relief washed over me. There she was, bathed in the soft glow of the sun shining through the window of the car, fast asleep. Her chest rose and fell with each deep breath, the picture of innocence amidst the storm I was caught in.
"End the video call!," I said.
"Give me the phone I want to talk with Kevin" i said stretching my hand to receive the phone.
I collected the phone from the team leader
"Kevin you'd better protect her with your life, or else consider yourself dead do you understand!" I said my voice filled with so much authority.
"Understood sir, " Kevin said from the other end of the phone.
I ended the call, our car lurched forward, then slammed into a halt with a stomach-churning screech of tires.
"Who are these men packed in front of us?" I asked.
"They look like the Moretti boys, sir," the team leader answered.
"Get out of your car unarmed now!" The moretti boy commanded.
We all remained seated in the car.
"You refuse to step out? Boys open fire!" The moretti boy commanded.