SO COLD (18+) currently editing

Chapter 18

"Maybe you should've patted us down," Irvin said casually.

Gui scrutinised him with a stink eye and made to march over.

Irvin stood, focusing his gun at him.

"King!" Gui snarled.

"Drop it, Irvin."

"Big guy first," Irvin nodded to Gui's man.

"I won't tell you again, Irvin." Cole said provoked. His lip was twisted upwards, his jaw tensed.

Irvin complied, setting the gun down on the table.

Gui tapped his man on the arm with the back of his hand who placed his gun back into the holster and stood stiffly. "You won't be needing it, King." Gui said, shifting from one foot to the other. He was nervous.

"I was promised a complimentary axe but guns work better in my favour."

"You're not understanding, King!"

The doors opened and the man returned. He carried in a white, inconspicuous icebox and set it down on the table in front of Cole. Cole stared at Gui, appearing as if he should be shaking his head in disbelief. "What is this?"

Gui gestured, gritting his teeth.

As Gui's man reached to open the icebox, Cole aggressively smacked his hand away, growling lowly. "I can open it, pendejo." He flipped the lid, glowering, sighing aggravated and his hand tightened on the gun. "What the fuck is this? Huh?" he pulled out a decapitated iced head by the hair, throwing it infuriatingly across the room at Gui. Gui let the head hit his chest and fall to the ground, rolling not too far from where I stood.

"Christ," I mouthed and turned away. I felt bile crawl up my throat as the image of the head fixed into my memories. The face was comparable to a disturbing Halloween mask: stuck in horror, nose crusted with blood, mouth slightly agape, severed neck with an uneven cut and curled brown skin and blood. It was the frozen blood that got to me, straight out of a thriller except it was six feet away from me.

I've read the news: terror groups proudly showing the camera civilians decollated. It was one thing to see the coloured photographs and another to live in the experience. My nails dug into my palm until the skin broke and blood leaked. It stung but it felt good.

"I came here to kill him. That was our agreement."

"The situation was complicated."

"You didn't fucking stop to think and tell me this before I made the trip? I knew you would do this–"

"Don't raise your voice at me in my own house, King. I told you: there were complications. I couldn't allow you to execute him. He was my cousin, for God sake! His mother begged me on her knees to save him. It was a matter of pride and dignity, surely you understand that?"

Their words were incongruous: unintelligent, rambling nonsense. Nothing made sense. Both were so fanatical; taking the gospel and holding it to their chest as they argued about the want to kill another man. The very same man who was discarded on the floor, the level of disrespect to the dead was incredible. Cole was crying about Gui's disrespect for him, his bad manners, disregarding their relationship. Gui shouted about the greatness of his family name, his status and morality. His moral code would be sacrificed if he allowed Cole to murder the very cousin he promised him – as revenge, of all things.

Gui laid a hand on Cole's shoulder, sighing, and said sincerely. "Thank you. I knew you'd understand. Business will resume on Monday, yes?"

"Of course." Cole smiled a shark smile; he had smelled the blood and he was on his way. Gui must've been blind: Cole looked anything but genuine, his whole demeanour was deceitful, and his facial expressions was a farce, he was a fraud.