Toxic For Me

Chapter 40: Execution

Her 'husband's' phone.

"Who's Claire?" Cady asked. "My assistant." She replied. "Wow, I thought she was your friend." Cady scoffed. "Yeah, you could say that too. She's like family, you know." Lavender smiled.

"Ah." She nodded. "It must be nice to have someone worry about you that much."

"I'm honestly glad I have such people. I need no one other than them in my life." Lavender yawned, stretching her arms. "Mmh." Cady hummed, not knowing what to say. "You know, Brendon confessed to Claire." She grinned. "You don't say!" Lavender gasped.

"And it just slipped out of his mouth, too!" Cady laughed. "Tell me about it, I'm dying to know what happened!" Lavender patted the mattress, motioning her to sit comfortably. "Claire called Brendon to ask about you, and he did not know what to do." She sat with her legs folded, facing Lavender. She went on explaining the series of events that led to their unexpected confession moment.

"And Claire said that she loved him back." Cady and Lavender both broke out into girlish squeals. "This is too good to be real." Lavender giggled. "I know that! I swallowed the smoke from my cigarette when he blurted that." Cady rolled her eyes.

"Oh." Lavender laughed awkwardly.

"Someone's getting along." Tristen entered the room. "Oh, we were just talking." Cady denied, even though she knew that she was trying to do so. "You could say that. Good friendships always start with hatred." Lavender smiled at Cady, who gave her a small grin.

"Anyways, I'm gonna have to take Cady out of here." Tristen sighed. Lavender's face dropped like an iceberg had melted. "What's wrong?" She asked. "We need to talk. All of us." He specified so that she did not get the wrong idea. "Okay, wait for me." She said, lowering her feet on the rug.

"Not you, love. Rest here. It's mafia talk." Tristen walked towards her, caressing her head. She let out a sigh and pulled her legs back up. "Wait downstairs." He ordered Cady, who was out of the room in no longer than a second.

"Try to get some sleep. I'll brief it to you when I come up." He said, as Lavender nodded in response. Just as he was turning, she held his wrist. "Don't go." She tucked her finger under his belt loosely as she said those words with dying hope in her eyes.

"I'll be back before you're even up." Tristen put a little smile for her, patting her head. Lavender did the same, pulling her hand back as her permission for him to leave. He walked out of the room, leaving her alone.

Reaching the living room, he found everyone already waiting for him.

"Juggy is on his move, and his first target is Lavender. He's executing the plan he had before kidnapping her." Tristen said, as everyone gathered inside the room. Mr. and Mrs. hills were inside another room and were kept from hearing any of the discussion.

"Defamation?" Cady asked receiving a nod from Tristen. "We all know how he cooks up malicious rumours like he cooks methamphetamine." He said. "And we don't know where he is?" She asked. "Brendon's working on it." He replied, rubbing his temples.

Despite Tristen's advice, curiosity got the best of her and Lavender sneakily headed downstairs to hear their entire conversation. She stood behind the wall and heard everything, wanting to know more about the situation.

"Where's Bates?" Cady asked. "I sent him to his company. Let's wait for his response, too."

Bates? He's involved too? Lavender wondered.

"Tristen, we found him. His current location was at a deserted plot near Bilsburg market place." Brendon said. "But what about Bates?" Cady asked. "It's too late for that. Get all our arms. Twenty of you guards will stay out guarding the HQ and the rest will come along."