Chapter 101: Running into the Enemy
Chapter 101: Running into the Enemy
"Hayden…it’s Silva…" Luka hissed close to us in warning.
Hayden’s face immediately turned into an unreadable mask as he turned to face our next group of guests. The opening night is proving to be very intense already. I hadn’t forgotten that one of Hayden’s objectives on this cruise was to negotiate with the boss of Silva and now people from Silva were standing right in front of us.
A middle-aged man with a pot belly stood in front of us along with his men. Is this the head of Silva?
"Who are you?" Hayden asked bluntly.
I guess…this man isn’t the head of Silva?
"The name’s Brook. I’m here on behalf of the boss to represent Silva," the man said as he tried to hold his ground against Hayden.
Hayden let out a soft chuckle before his face reverted to an unreadable mask once more.
"Hmm…I guess it was my bad to expect any good manners from the boss of Silva," Hayden said as he shrugged his shoulder.
I didn’t need to be a mafia to know that what Hayden had said was asking for trouble. Why did he have to go and say something like that? Is he trying to get us killed?!
"The boss really couldn’t make it…" the man replied flatly.
"You’re there watching, right? Are you sure that you don’t want to drop by to say hi?" Hayden said as he bent down towards the man’s chest and squinted his eyes.
Ok…what is he doing now?
"Umm…please excuse us," another Silva gang member said as held Brook back and backed him away from Hayden.
We watched as the representatives from Silva walked away from us. I could sense that Hayden wasn’t in a good mood. If I were him, I would probably feel the same way. Afterall, the negotiation that he had come all this way for probably couldn’t happen without the boss of Silva being present. Just as I was fretting a little about it, Hayden spoke up close to my ear.
"He’ll come," Hayden stated with certainty.
"What?" I asked, not quite following.
"Silva’s boss. He’ll be here. Don’t you worry your little head," Hayden said as he plopped a large hand on top of my head.
"How do you know that?" I asked, in wonder.
"Because I know him well…" Hayden replied.
The other issue that I didn’t quite get was…how was he supposed to come here? The ship was now somewhere in the middle of the ocean and wouldn’t return to dock for another two days at least.
…
"Boss…you’re not really thinking of going, are you?" a tall man dressed in a white suit asked his boss.
A man sat behind his large wooden desk as he cocked his head to the side in wonder, his eyes still on the screen where the camera attached to his men’s suit was showing him what was going on in the gala. The large painting that hung behind him was a large silver fox with piercing green eyes that matched his own. The man ran his hand through his dark brown hair and smiled a little to himself.
"Seems like I don’t have a choice but to go…" he said.
"You can’t be serious. Why have you changed your mind so suddenly?" the other man asked.
The boss knew full well that if he stepped on the ship, he would have to negotiate with the Torex about their recent disputes. At first, he wanted to avoid that so that he could proceed with his plan using his own methods but that didn’t seem possible now…
His green eyes narrowed suspiciously as he thought about what he had just witnessed through the camera placed on the collar of his men that were on the ship. He wasn’t sure if it was intentionally planned or just pure coincidence, but he was sure of what he had seen.
"Don’t wet your pants. I’m just going to fetch something that belongs to me…" He said in a cold voice.
He stood up and turned towards the large painting of the silver fox and smirked. The silver fox with green eyes just like everyone in the mainline of his family, the symbol of the Silva gang. The boss of Silva threw his head back and let out a loud sigh.
"Let’s go…" he said before walking out of the room.
…
I wouldn’t say that the event ended without event because it hasn’t ended yet. Apparently, the first event won’t officially come to an end until dawn arrives. I was too tired, and my feet hurts too much for me to go on. Hayden seemed bored out of his mind and was quite done with the event as well.
After our slightly hostile run in with the Silva gang members, Hayden had met with leaders from a few other gangs that he seemed to know quite well. Everything seemed to be going smoothly and Luka seemed to be in a very joyous mood. It was obvious that Luka was sent by the boss to make sure that both Hayden and I behaved well. Luka proved to be very helpful as well.
"I come here every year ever since the boss was much younger," Luka explained to me when we had a breather from all the socializing.
"Oh, really?" I asked, slightly surprised.
"Yeah. I know most of the old folks here…and some young ones as well," Luka said with a grin.
It seemed very true that he new most people because he would either greet them first or they would greet him first. I would go as far as to say that he seemed to know even more people than Hayden did.
"Malissa and I will head back to our room now. Luka, you stay and keep up the good work," Hayden said flatly to excuse us.
"Take some men with you," Luka said, the note of warning clear in his solemn voice.
"Sure…" Hayden agreed.
Some men automatically split from the group and followed us back to our room. When we arrived back, I immediately took off the high heel shoes that I had been wearing. The feel of blood rushing back into my feet felt wonderful.
"Tired already?" Hayden asked as he flopped down next to me on the sofa and flung an arm around my shoulder.
--To be continued…