Nociceptors

Chapter 20: The hunt begins

James was sitting opposite them at the living room table he had showed up after lunch with a hard expression. Ty was standing up a couple of steps behind Luci and Ella staring out through the window. The news they had brought with them was not what Luci wanted to hear.

"Mr. Ken is dead" James was annoyed Luci could tell by the tone in his voice which was unusual.

"Are you sure" Luci asked, James nodded.

"Yes, I got the call this morning and Ty went over there himself" Luci looked over her shoulder at Ty who turned towards her.

"He was dead, an overdoes by the looks of it" Ty said coldly. It did not sound like he believed it. Luci sighted and pulled a hand through her hair, fuck. She had one job and she fucked it up as well. Luci had promised to keep Mr. Ken safe if he had told her about Drogo. Apparently, she couldn't do anything right at the moment. Now a new questioned had appeared how did he know that they had visited Mr. Ken?

"Was there anything else?" Luci asked.

"No, everything was clean, and the police didn't find any traces of a break in" Ty said as he walked around the couch and placed himself next to James, he remained standing.

"What if there wasn't a break in" Ella said next to Luci she seemed to be thinking about something.

"Most likely. Drogo must have had a man on the inside" Ty said but Ella shook her head.

"No that's not what I meant. What if it was just a phone call?" Ty looked confused at Ella and James meet Luci's eyes. He looked as confused as Luci felt after hearing Ella's suggestion. Ella must have noticed every once confused expressions because she added.

"What I am coming at is. What if Drogo just talked Mr. Ken into taking the drugs. By using some sort of threat or maybe he had some kind of leverage on him?".

"But what would that be?" Ty said still not convinced by Ella's suggestion. Ella gestured around the apartment.

"I don't know this is your world not mine remember".

"Ella is right" Luci added.

"We are, no I am supposed to know why this is happening. But I don't. I made a promise, and I failed him which means I have to make things right again" Luci became silence and Ella put a gentle hand on her leg. The touch was small, but it created a calmness inside Luci even though it wouldn't change the current situations that was growing in her city it did gave her strength.

They all remained silent for a while everyone occupied with their own thoughs and concerns. James had taken a phone call and was standing in the kitchen seemingly arguing with the person on the other side still making sure that Luci's legitimate business was rolling on as usual. Ty had finally taken a seat by the dinner table and was franticly typing away on a laptop he paused now and then to read something on the screen. His unwavering face expression never seem to change. Luci was still sitting next to Ella in the couch she was in deep thought trying to figure out what their next move would be or more likely trying to figure out what Drogo's next move would be. Ella who was still a bit sore and filed with an uneasy feeling due to the whole situation was not thinking about the plan of action. Instead her thoughts had drifted towards Ajal and Jun who was still at the country estate. Her mind had not been able to let go of the nightmare from last night and all she wanted was to hold Ajal in her arms and make sure he was okay. The feeling was strengthened by the recuring images in her mind every time she closed her eyes. Most of them were memories about her sister and Ajal's birth except for one and it was that image, that clear uninterrupted image that left a shiver along her spine. Ella couldn't understand or it was more like she didn't want to understand why his face kept showing up in front of her. His sinister smile and flawless features, his dark hair framing that familiar face. Ella shook her head and hugged her arms around herself. Luci noticed her weird behavior and Ella could see that she was about to reach for her. So, before she could Ella stood up and walked to the kitchen ignoring Luci's concerned face.

James had just gotten off the phone when Ella stopped in front of him. He looked up at her and then at Luci who had turned her back to them and then at Ella again and raised an eyebrow. Ella just shrugged.

"James" Ella started and as she spoke all of James attention was given to her, as usual. Ella had started to notice the way he carefully listened to her when she spoke to him directly. She wondered if he did the same to everyone who was speaking to him.

"How is Ajal?" at Ella's question James's face turned soft and he smiled gently at her as he pulled up a picture on his phone and showed her.

"Jun sent me this earlier this morning. So, from the looks of it he is doing just fine". The screen showed an Ajal smiling from ear to ear while covered in different colors holding up a watercolor painting. The painting was depicturing a family of five holding hands and smiling. Ella smiled as well when she saw Ajal's happy face and she had to swallow a couple of time to stop herself from crying. It warmed her to know that he was okay and was having fun even though she couldn't be with him at the moment.

"Looks like Jun has a lot to do" Ella said jokingly. James smiled and put away the phone.

"Yea. I talked to him last night and it seemed like he was enjoying himself as much as Ajal, which honestly doesn't surprise me" but as he ended the sentence his face expression became more serious, and he put a hand on Ella's shoulder.

"You don't have to worry about him due to the amount of protection him and Jun are under there is no one that can lay a finger on Ajal" Ella nodded she knew that, but it was still nice to hear James say it even though the uneasy feeling she had didn't seem to want to leave her just yet.

Ella was still talking to James as Luci looked over at them in the kitchen. She was standing at the dinner table next to Ty who had brought up a map over the city. The idea was to locate Drogo's location by using different security cameras around the city. Thanks to Luci's influence they had access to most of them and depending on if Drogo had access to them as well the cameras would show them were he last been spotted. By using the screenshot James took of Drogo's face at the auction, can Ty run his face through a program who looks for it in all the security camera footage. Which was what he was doing right now.

Luci threw another look at Ella and sighted. She was keeping something from her again and this time Luci had no idea what it might be. Earlier she had seemed bothered by something and that worried Luci. She had promised to keep Ella safe and now she was dragging her into a problem Luci didn't now the outcome for. All she knew was that whatever was about to go down was not going to be pretty. Ty's voice brought her attention back to the computer screen.

"There" Ty pointed at the screen. It was a short video of a man dressed in casual clothing walking past a small convenient store and then disappearing. Luci frowned at the sudden abruption.

"That's him" Ty said, and Luci nodded. She would recognize that hair anywhere Drogo's shoulder long black hair with a string of almost glowing white in it. She smiled now the hunt begins.