"Don't play with that" Jude warned as he looked up from where he was arranging some files in a briefcase. Shanty who was half naked on the bed was holding a pistol and turning it over and over again as if she was inspecting it.
"This kills" she said.
"No, it doesn't, it saves" said Jude. Shanty looked up, hoping he was answering her sarcastically but then Jude meant his response. He closed the briefcase and stood, sighed and walked into the bathroom. Shortly after he came back to the room and asked, "When are you leaving?"
"You want me gone?" asked Shanty.
"You don't want to go?" he asked and she nodded. "You can't stay with me" he added.
"Why not?" she asked.
"Because you can't. Listen, I'm a dangerous man into a very dangerous organization, we a re a mafia and it would do you well and everyone else who would wish to be close to me to be far from me if they want to remain alive. You, you are a woman of many men. You should go back to your trade" he started dressing up.
"My trade? Is that not related to yours? and if it is why do you want to put me off? I can be part of your business. Why not introduce me into your business; I have met your boss and I know he would not say no to this request" Shanty said and Jude glared at her for a while before he shook his head and stretched forth his hand demanding for the pistol. She handed it over to him and asked, "You guys are into robbery and kidnapping?"
"Nope, we are into drugs. You should stop asking questions else you have a knowledge you shouldn't have. You know what happens to those that know too much, too much of what they shouldn't know? They die" he said and was done dressing up, put the pistol behind him and put on his jacket which covered it. He picked the briefcase and said to her, "Stay in here then if that's what you want but remain indoor and do not go out" He stepped out without getting a response from her.
******
Anita stopped her car infront of her house and searched with her eyes before she alighted and moved into her house through the back door. On opening the door, with her pistol in her hand for she had noticed some strange presence in her place she saw a man seated in the sofa and she looked about her to make sure he was alone in there and then pointed the gun at him and demanded to know who he was and why he barged into her house without her notice" The man started clapping his hands and when he stopped he asked her to sit.
"I repeat; who are you and what are you doing here?" asked Anita.
"I want you to sit first then we can talk" The man spoke and Anita looked about him once again, moved closer to the door by his left, the door leading to the kitchen and then moved back and asked, "Who is with you?"
"I'm here alone. You should sit" repeated the man. He was tall, very dark in complexion and had a bushy face. He had reddened eye balls.
"You don't offer me a seat in my own house. You tell me who you are and maybe I can ask you to sit or to leave" said Anita.
"Very well then. I am here to have a word with you" the man then stood and adjusted his jacket. It was at this point that she discovered he was very tall. "My name is Golden and your boss is owing me a huge amount of money. I have tried to get to make him pay me my money but he has been denying me access to him. Now this dept has created a fracture between us and I have come to realise he is not willing to pay me my money. Well I discovered too that if you want to lure the mother hen all you need do is get hold of it's chick. I have come here to hold you as ransom till he shows up to pay me"
"You are armless and I'm armed; if you had planned well you would have come armed and probably wouldn't have waited for me to come in armed and my gun pointing right at your forehead. You should have planned better" said Anita.
"I don't need a gun to abduct you" Said the man and before Anita could fire the gun the man pressed a button in his pocket and the light in the room went off and then there was smoke. Anita fired more than ten rounds of gunshots but had her face slapped from the dark and the gun fell off her hand. She tried to get hold of the door and move outside but a hand holding her was stronger as it pulled her inside and closed the door.
******
When Anita opened her eyes she was staring at the ceiling of her room. She looked about her but saw no one in the room. Her hands and legs were spread tied to the bed so she could not struggle. She did not want to scream. As though her abductors knew she was awoke they opened the door and walked in then followed by Golden who had Anita's pistol in his hand. When he entered he dismissed the rest and turned to face Anita where she was.
"Your boss is a very dangerous man Anita. I I never knew that a time would come when I will have to be swindled by a man as young as him. He is young but smart. Now here is the thing; I need you to call him and...
"Just shut your mouth old man. I'm not doing anything you wish me to do" said Anita.
"Listen, I know your kind, yes, I know you are trained to endure pain. Have you asked yourself; what did I use to disable the light in your room and cause smoke? i will use every took I know to ensure that you lure your boss into my hands. He needs to know that before he came into the game I was in it and I will still be in it until he is gone. If he knew loyalty he would not steal my money. Now he has refused to be loyal I have refused to forgive" While he was still talking Anita had started laughing at him. The man stood there and kept watching her and waiting for her to finish.
"You don't know what you have gotten yourself into. You would be shocked if I told you that the man you are talking about is already seeing you do what you are doing right now and he is contemplating on the best way to end your life" Anita boasted of Charles.
"What difference does it make if he is listening to my conversation with you? I'm not hiding myself and neither am I trying to prevent what I'm saying from entering his ear. I will kill him with my own bare hands" He stepped out of the room.
******
Veronica having returned to her house sank on the sofa and switched on the television. She was listening to the news broadcast and it made her shiver when she found out that the government had begun to hunt for drug traffickers in the city of Enugu. "Isn't this what Charles want me to do; to become one of his traffickers, so he would be sending me to different countries to traffic drugs, dispatching drugs from one territory to another? This means death" She said to herself before she stood up and walked into the bathroom.
******
Shanty stepped out of the house and headed to a boutique near near Jude's house. She needed more dresses but didn't have money with her, and so she had to make up her mind to steal from the boutique. When she entered the boutique she searched for the CCTV cameras and saw where they were positioned. She could tell that her face had already been captured by the one positioned towards the entrance door. She was moving from one corner of the boutique to the other until a hand held her from the back and she froze.
"Don't try to do anything silly in here" the voice said. She turned and saw it was Jude. She wondered how he knew where she was and what she was up to.
"How...ho.." she stuttered.
"You need not stutter. I own this place and you are here to steal for I know you have no money with you" said Jude.
"You own here?" asked Anita who appeared surprised.
"Yes I do" he said and held her hand until they came to the cashier who was a lady and he said to her, "Give her new dresses that fit her and don't bother her for the payment"
*******
in the village Edu had to take his mother to the hospital and when they got there she sat beside her while the doctor attended to her.
"Will she be alright?" he asked.
"Yes. She has BP but everything will be alright" The doctor said.
Edu stepped out of the hospital and headed to the house of one of his uncles by name Nnamdi. When he knocked at the gate of the house the gate keeper opened the gate and seeing it was him banged the gate to his face.
"Please I need to see him, tell him that his sister is in the hospital and he needs to see the doctor for the bills. Please let him know this!" There was no response and he got frustrated. This annoyed him. The uncle in question had been so negligent of his sister, his only sister, Edu's mother and this had been an issue right from the time Edu was born and he became of age. He could not explain why there was so much hatred from his uncle. He had overheard him blaming his mother for marrying his father and marrying poverty in disguise. This statement from Nnamdi had always annoyed Edu. This afternoon he was enraged and he reached his limit. He banged the gate until the gate keeper opened the gate but to warn him to stay away from the gate. When he closed the gate once again Edu decided to climb the fence. It was during this attempt that the gate keeper raised an alarm that it was a thief. Some passersby had to force force him down from the gate and began to beat him. He was already beaten to an extent before the Uncle came out to stop them.
"Stop beating him. He is not a thief, he is my son" said the man and the passersby let him hold him. They left. The gatekeeper stood there was kept glaring at Edu who was seated on the ground and rearing in pain. The Uncle turned to him and said, "Did you have to do that?"
"I'm sorry Sir" apologized the gate keeper.
"You should know that if he dies infront of my house It will be a problem to my reputation" he then turned to Edu and said, "You have to leave here and just as I always warn you; stay away from my house and stop bringing your issues to me. I have no business with a sister that rejects my advise. You on the other hand should not pull this kind of act again for if I were wicked I would have allowed those men to beat you to death"
"If you were wicked?" Edu shook his head and cleaned the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. "But you are wicked and now my mother will not receive treatment and she will die because of your wickedness" he added.