Chapter Twenty-Five
Terrance
Tuesday
“This isn’t going to be enough, is it?” I exclaimed, panic tearing from my tongue. “There’s not a chance in hell that they’ll accept this.”
“You don’t have any choice; if you keep taking money out, your accountant will call the cops. He’s already suspicious as hell with what you’ve done. He knows that something is going on with you. This will have to do. For now.”
The fact that Braxton looked as freaked out as I felt only made everything worse. I’d been trying my best to find a way to make this work, but without attracting too much attention. It was starting to feel impossible.
“I just don’t see how just under one million is going to cut it,” I stressed. “It’s such a little amount. They know I’m aware how much my dad owed – they know far too much. I just... I don’t know think this will work.”
“It shows effort,” Braxton nodded, trying to convince himself as much as me. “It shows that you’re willing to play their little game. They will give you the chance to sort the rest out.”
“I honestly don’t think they’re that sort of people,” I insisted wildly. “I don’t think they’ll accept that. I think they’re going to kill us.”
“Just insist that you’ll wire the rest. We can even do it as we stand there and sort your accountant out afterwards. It’ll be fine, I promise you that.” He reached forwards and grabbed onto my shoulders with both hands. “We have to just get through this meeting, then everything will be okay.”
I nodded and sucked in some deep, calm breaths of air, but it did nothing to cool me down. The sense that something horrible was about to happen sat firmly in the pit of my stomach, and I didn’t think that any amount of telling myself otherwise would change that. I was heading right into the lion’s den, to see the men my father got involved with, the men who basically admitted that to killing my brother, the guys who would tear me to shreds in a heart beat as proven by the last time they saw me when they beat me to a pulp.
“Okay, sorry about this, Braxton. Shall we get going?”
The elevator ride down was a tense and silent one as neither of us really knew what to say to one another. The briefcase was heavy between us, a massive nod to what we were doing, which neither of us wanted to accept. At one moment, Braxton pulled the gun out of his pocket and he opened it up to check that there were plenty of bullets inside.
I wasn’t one to agree with firearms, I didn’t like the idea that anyone could have them, but for this it was essential. It was pretty much guaranteed that all the guys would have some form of weapons with them, so to be on even footing we need to, as well.
“Fully loaded, boss.”
I hated the way he said that with such regret in his eyes, like he felt like he wouldn’t survive what was to come. I needed Braxton to remain confident to keep me strong. He was the only one who’d gotten me to this point. Without him, there was a shameful chance that I would’ve run.
“Let’s just hope we don’t need it,” I told him with a sad smile. “I hope you’re right and it’s all very straightforward.”
Neither of us mentioned Mason – we didn’t need to. We were incredibly aware that his death was coming back to haunt us. He hadn’t ever mentioned these guys to me, he never said anything to me about Dad’s debt, and it seemed to me that his refusal to pay it off was what’d killed him. Maybe he tried, like I was now. Maybe he hadn’t. I guess that was something I might never know.
“Come on, let’s get into the car.”
On the drive towards Lights Out, I stared aimlessly out the window to watch the streets of New York City pass me by. This was my home, but right now it looked like a totally unrecognizable place. My eyes were swimming with fear, unable to even make out any shapes anymore.
Just let this go well, I begged. I need this to end okay.
“Well, it looks like we’re here.” When Braxton’s words jolted me back into the present moment, I was shocked at what I saw. I half expected it to be a rundown shit hole with nothing around it, secret so that if anything went down, no one would find out. But it genuinely looked like a garage, and a well lit one at that. “Shall we get out of the car?”
“It doesn’t look like anyone is here.” I scanned my eyes back and forth as I spoke. “So, I don’t see why not.”
But we didn’t do it right away. We sat there in the stillness, just embracing the calm before the storm. It could’ve been a whole lot calmer if my heart would stop thundering.
Eventually, one of us clicked the door open. I wasn’t totally sure which one of us it was, but we were taking action. I gripped tightly onto the briefcase and stepped into the big unknown.
As the brisk cold night time air hit my cheeks, sickness swirled in my stomach. This couldn’t go well. There was no chance in hell this was going to work, but we were doing it now. There was no turning back.
“Well, well, well...” The voice from the phone materialized, and I instantly recognized it to be the man from the street, one of the guys who had kicked the shit out of me. “What do we have here, then? I probably should’ve specified that you should come alone. Still, I didn’t, so who can blame you. Who’s this big fella?”
“That’s none of your-” I started, but the asshole had no intention of letting me get a word in edgeways.
“Who. Is. He?”
I glanced towards Braxton, who gave me an encouraging nod. “His name is Braxton, he works for me.”
“Works?” There was that spine-chilling laugh again. “You don’t know what work is, sunshine. You’ve spent you’re entire life comfortable, living on my money.”
“It isn’t your...”
“I’m going to say the same thing to you that I said to that punk Mason.” My blood ran ice cold at the mere mention of my brother’s name. I had the strong feeling that I was about to have my worst fears and suspicions confirmed. “That money was owed to us by your father. He died without paying it back, ergo the debt is transferred to next of kin. He was our first target, but of course, we all know how that turned out.”
His lips curled up into a smirk, which left my heart pounding like crazy. I had to roll my fist up behind my back to prevent me from lashing out. This situation was fraught enough without adding to it. He wanted to get a rise out of me, and if I freaked, I’d be giving him exactly what he wanted.
“So, let’s get down to business.” He appeared pleased with how much he’d rattled me. “I think you might want to put that briefcase down on the ground now, don’t you?”
I dropped it to the floor with a clatter, hating every bit of the contents inside. There was nowhere near enough money in there, and as soon as that fact was revealed, hell would break lose. That was when we’d discover the true meaning of this meeting.
But as four more men burst around the corner, it instantly became obvious to me that they intended to kill me anyway, no matter what happened.
“Now, we can both see that briefcase is too small,” the voice continued with a smirk. “There’s no way in hell that contains all the money your family owes me, and I want to know why.” He paced up and down, trying his best to intimidate me. The sad thing was it was actually working. “Why would you shame me by coming here with less than what you owe?”
“I... I’ll get the money to you,” I did my best to insist. “I just didn’t have time. You don’t want the cops involved, do you? Well, neither do I. If I take out seven hundred million dollars from my accounts, my accountant will know that something is up. I want to protect you-”
“Oh don’t give me that,” he sneered, all the while reached slowly around to his back pocket. “The last thing I intend to do is let you take me for a ride.” As his hand came back around, much to my dismay, but not shock, he had a gun dangling between his fingers. “After dealing with your little shit of a brother, I should’ve known that you’d be the same. I guess I’m just disappointed, you know?”
“I...” I wanted to try one last time to defend myself, but I couldn’t. Before I could get even another word out, an unexpected hand stuffed its way into my mouth, silencing me. I tried to struggle against whoever had me, but no amount of thrashing and lashing out behind me was enough. Whoever had hold of me was a strong bastard.
All of a sudden, I heard the muffle sounds of the other guys jumping on Braxton and beating him down. That made me thrash harder and more desperately. I’d brought him here to help me, not to get himself hurt.
With every pained sound, I winced as if in agony myself. Braxton was strong and could defend himself, but not against a group. That was the cowardly way to fight, and Braxton couldn’t take a lot of them.
The guy from the phone was walking towards me with malice in his eyes. He was about to take his revenge, and there was nothing I could do about it. I was being fixed in one place, and that was all there was to it.
I saw the fist coming for me, so it shouldn’t have been any kind of surprise when it hit, but the hot pain that radiated through my temple stunned me regardless. I kicked my foot out hard, and it connected between his legs hard enough to double up in pain. He loosened enough for me to spin around and clock him in the face, too.
The adrenaline was coursing through my veins as I lashed out, so even when the guy with the voice wrapped his hands around my neck to strangle me, I didn’t really feel it. I was pumped, I felt like I could absolutely take on the world.
Then the bangs started. The guns were being fired, and shit had taken a turn for the worst. I couldn’t see what was going on. Every direction I turned in resulted in me being punched or smacked by someone else. The pain was so much now I couldn’t even see. My head thumped, I wanted to vomit, and the only thing I could really think about was my intense need to see Braxton. I had to check that he was okay.
“Braxton?” I whispered. “Braxton, where are you?”
By the time my vision cleared enough for me to actually see, all I could notice was red blood tainting the streets, flowing everywhere. People were dead. I could see their bodies everywhere, and I didn’t know where to look. It was like a scene from a horror movie, like being in hell.
And then I saw it: Braxton, with a bullet wound piercing his body.