The Squad

Chapter 42: Unknown Actions

"That's all the freedom we can hope for - the freedom to choose our prison."

~L.M. Montgomery

-Monday, December 5th. 10:47am.

The NY Demons sport arena crawls in the silence of emptiness. The building seem wider than usual and spacious in the absence of everyone. The hallways are lonelier than a deserted cemetery. It was so unusual for the end of season to leave the sport arena in such desert.

In this serenity, Blake sit sombrely on the bare floor of the staircase in the audience area. He let himself to be lost in his thoughts. The thoughts that puzzle him since the event at the welcome party.

The clinging of stiletto heels on the sleek floor disrupt the air, causing Blake to zoom out of his thoughts. He tilt his head up and sees Chandelier walking up to him. He hum as reality hit him.

was asking her for a meet a good idea?

He push the thought away, settling with the fact that she's already here. Chandelier studies his pale face as she stride towards him, completely clueless as to why he wants to meet with her but she totally understand that the event two days ago got him off the grid. As a matter of fact everyone are equally in shock.

Slowing nods at him, muttering a greeting. Blake says hi and asks how she's doing.

"I'm okay." She shrug, standing in front of him.

He slowly gets up on his feet. "Do you mind?" He waves her to a seat. She nods and takes the sit. He takes the seat beside her, adjusting himself as if looking for a comfortable angle on the seat.

"So, you wanted to meet?" She begin, planting her eyes on him.

"Uh yeah? I don't know why, uh I just, well uh you know why I asked to see you."

She shake her head, declining having any knowledge of it. Blake sigh, letting out a heavy breath filled with l frustration.

"You're one of the girls closest to Allison." Blake begins tiredly, "At least I see you girls hanging out a lot. I just need to know what you know about what happened with Allison. Why she shot Mr Jean-Pierre."

Chandelier swallow hard on a lump in her throat. Her first guess what Blake had questions about Allison shooting Mr Jean-Pierre but sadly she doesn't have the answers. She would give anything to have the answers herself, but her heart still thumb even though she knows nothing. She fear Blake might not be the only one who thinks she's a close friend and maybe an ally of Allison.

What if the cops thinks so too?

She looks up at Blake, her eyes bearing every innocence it can. "I don't know." She hiccups. "I don't know what happened with Allison. I've been asking myself the same question all day, I don't know why she did that."

"Did she at least mention knowing Mr Jean-Pierre personally? Or have any sort of business with him?" Blake inquire.

Shaking her head vigorously, "No. Not at all." She croak. "That's the part that confuses me the most. Allison NEVER mentioned anything about Mr Jean-Pierre."

"I just wanna help her, but I can't if I don't know what happened." Blake murmur.

"How?" Chandelier creases her brows.

"I don't know, get a lawyer maybe?" He shrug.

"Blake, Allison can get a lawyer on her own." She say, disappointed.

"I know." He whine, "I just don't wanna see her go to jail."

"I mean, neither do I. But we don't know what happened between them. Mr Jean-Pierre is dead, and Allison shot him in front of over fifty people. I don't see how she will escape jail time." Chandelier wipe a tear which escaped from the side of her eye.

Blake buries his face in his palms, deep in thought. He hate that what she said was the truth, and there's no saving Allison. She did this to herself, she may have had her reasons but he wish he knew what those reasons were. He wish he knew what business Allison had with Mr Jean-Pierre.

But no, he knows nothing!

*********

Mr Greg drives home from work, speeding down the highway. His wife and kids are returning from a family vacation today and he knows they would be home by now.

Glancing at his wristwatch, the time is almost 7pm. Slowly stepping on the brake, he pulls over by the highway. He opens the glove compartment and brings out a burner phone. Deciding to put a call through to Mr Dwayne before he gets home, he quickly fix the burner phone and puts it on.

The last thing he wants to do is make a business call when his family are around. His other business is private, not even his family knows he works for Mr Dwayne. He never see him in person, they only communicate with burners and at specific hour of the day.

"Hello boss." He say hoarsely, putting the phone to his ear.

"Right on time." Mr Dwayne blurt over the phone. "The judges denied Allison's bail plea. At this point, there's no going back now. I hope everything was done perfectly? We can't risk any compromise now."

"Everything went as planned sir." Mr Greg croaked. "The programme was excellent, and her memories are as real to her. There won't be any compromise." He say assuring.

"Good. Job well done. Now everyone has to stay low for now. No meetings with Steve or Jasmine, not even with me. I'm expecting Jasmine to be called to the witness stand since she's her manager."

"Jasmine can handle that, no doubt sir." Mr Greg assures.

"Good! So still no news from London yet?"

"Yes, that's why I called. My agent confirmed that Chase did reach out to James Vaughn, asking him to send sport investors to propose buying the thirty percent stakes from the day the board announced the stake was open on sale, so the investor will transfer ownership to him. James Vaughn promised to send the finest investors to come forth for the stake. Five of the investors who competed for the stake are from him. Now I don't know how they knew you had contacted Mr Jean-Pierre and they compromised him or if it was a simple coincidence..."

"There's no such thing as coincidence in our line of business." Mr Dwayne rumbled. "Someone definitely spied on me. Because Mr Jean-Pierre didn't come to me, I went to him. I searched around and found him to be fitting with good sport invest reputation so I met with him in London, and proposed the deal."

"But on the contrary, James Vaughn and Mr Jean-Pierre had other plans. They intended to retain the thirty percent. Mr Jean was neither going to transfer ownership of his stakes to you nor Chase."

"Too bad his not alive to hold on to the stakes." Mr Dwayne scoff.

"Yeah. And now, I think we may have a problem. Or at least, we should be expecting one."

"Why?"

"Because James Vaughn is a mercenary, and one of his private handlers just got killed."

"Hmm." Mr Dwayne hum, "if that's the case, then you've got a job to do. Keep a tab on James Vaughn, have your agents in London watch his moves. Be prepared!"

"Yes sir."

"I'll be in touch." Mr Dwayne hangs up.

Mr Greg sigh, rubbing his hand over his forehead tiredly. He pull his car out of the sideway, slowly driving into the highway. He winds down and throws the burner phone out the window, making sure to smash it with the car's front tire. He quickly speed off into the highway, heading home to meet his family.