"What– are you doing here?" My attention was flying between the two pairs of eyes standing in front of me.
Joe dug his hands in his pockets and looked away. Ace stepped closer to me. "I will come with you to your interview and after you're coming back home with me."
"No, I–"
"The only reason why I let you out is because you had Joe in the same house as you." His voice deepended, "You're not going to sleep alone at home."
"But you can send men with me, no?"
"I won't trust men with your safety," he breathed in, "now let's go. You're going to be late."
I raised my eyebrows but followed him. I stole a last look at Joe who was staring out of the window, his hands still in his pockets. My heart was breaking, not sure what to do for him. I knew he was hurting but I couldn't control my feelings. I wished I could.
The beginning of the drive was silent and awkward but then I started thinking about going back home with him with all the boys knowing the whole story.
"Ace?" I called him and he hummed. "I don't want to go back home with you."
"You will Talia, get over it." He ordered.
"I am going to be far from my job." I found an excuse. And it was true. The Frank House was out of nowhere, an hour or more from the office. I knew it would be so much easier if I stayed in Joe's apartment or my house.
"I still don't get how you leave your job with me to get a job with someone where you don't do much for that amount of money to work in a company."
"Exactly because of what you said. You gave me a job to get busy so I don't ask for a job."
"What else do you need from a job than to keep you busy?" He arrogantly said. I shook my head and stared out of the window, not wanting to get into something that will make us argue. I was stressed because I didn't know anything about the job other than it was something to do with marketing. I wasn't sure what was my role was going to be. Joe didn't have time to explain much to me. What was giving me a little bit of comfort was him telling me that they knew Rob. Ace parked in front of a huge building and my heart started beating faster than usual. I looked up at the name of the company. IMPACT. I sighed.
I opened the door and closed it behind me. Before I could move, Ace was standing next to me, giving me a warm smile.
"Don't stress. You're going to be fine."
I wanted to be happy for caring for me. I wanted to be excited that he knew how I felt without saying anything. But I stopped myself, knowing that all of his care would not lead us anywhere. I simply nodded and walked in the company.
I turned to walk away but he called me, "Talia," I looked back at him, "I will pick you up."
"Perfect, even if your experiences are not very rich, we will take you but you need to prove yourself very fast if we take you," the assistant smiled. I forced a smile back hating every word she said. Someone called her on the phone, "yes sir," she paused, "yes sir." She hung the phone up and looked at me. "Mister Rob wants to interview you himself." Thank God!
She took me to his office, knocked and opened the door.
"Common in Talia." He welcomed me with a warm smile. I walked in. "Take a seat," he pointed at the chair in front of his desk. "Get us something to drink," he looked at the assistant then back at me. "It is so nice to meet you Talia."
"It is nice to meet you too, mister–" I looked around for anything to show me his last name but the only thing I saw was Rob.
"You can call me Rob. I am keeping my name short for people," he chuckled and I smiled. "You know I knew your dad huh?" He asked and I nodded. "He was the sweetest man ever." He paused when the woman came in with a tray in her hand, she placed a juice glass in front of me and a coffee mug in front of him. It looked like she knew what he would like to drink without asking. He quickly took a sip despite the hotness that showed in the smoke that was flying out of the mug. "He helped me so much to start my business. I gained so much money because of his brilliant ideas."
"If you have that much money then why do you still work in illegal things?" I spit out, regretting the words when my eyes met his. I expected him to get offended, or at least tell me that there wasn't a job for me here anymore, but he simply smiled.
"I will tell you," he took another sip of his mug then placed it down, "before being the Rob you see," he waved around with his arm, "I was Rob, the simple guy who used to work with Frank in small things, going to the ports and make sure that the stuff went in or out safely." He breathed. "And then after a while, I started to get to acquaintance the people there because they knew I was working with Frank and they all respected him so much. He was sweet to everyone. and then with the money I kept taking from Frank I built the company you see from scratch and little by little it is the company you see today, one of the most known companies of import and exports in the U.S. Which means that now I know more people at the ports. So I still make sure that the SP comes in safely but in a more professional way."
"But you don't need the money anymore, why are you still doing something illegal when you have good legal money?" I pressed on the question I asked earlier that he ignored and he laughed.
"You sure ask a lot of questions," he pointed at me, "just like your dad."
I softly smiled. He also did remind me of my dad, the laugh when he didn't want to answer a question, the sweet comments he gave me to make me feel better, everything reminded me of him.
"Your dad was a crazy person," he smiled and crossed his arms, leaning back in his chair, "when we were little, he used to have whatever he wanted but he was never showing off about it. He would find a job and drag me with him. He would have money and help me make my own too. He was never selfish. He was always thinking of other people." He looked up, remembering my dad making my heart ache at his soft words. "You know, we were college friends?"
"Really?"
He nodded. "We used to be roomates. He was studying to be a pharmacist. He wanted to be a doctor but couldn't. I was studying marketing too, just like you. But I wasn't doing well. He would study all day and night and I would go out, drink and have fun. He graduated before me and started working in a medical company. He talked to his boss and found a job for me too in there, even if I wasn't a graduate. We moved in together out of the compus. He was focing me to graduate still even when I had stable income. And I did. When he left the company I left too. He even told me to stay but how could I leave him?" He let out a small laugh, "he told me to wait though. He went and gathered boys, boys who needed help to survive and taught them a way to bring money and survive."
"Yeah, he helped them create a drug and sell it."
He paused and I looked away. I wished I never found out about what he did. I wished to always be left blind to always look at my dad and be proud of him.
"We created SP together," he started, "I was taking care of the port stuff and he was taking care of every other step. He was the one who told me to use the money in something smart so I did this company."
I sighed. I felt like I was put back into choosing wether my father was innocent or not. Everyone was telling me that he did this for reasons but whatever the reasons were, he was still creating drugs and selling them, selling things that could have killed many people. That was if he didn't even kill anyone himself. With all the weapons back at the house and all the enemies they had I was sure that they killed people too.
"Even if people do something that you don't see is the right thing to be done, it doesn't make them bad people," I looked up at him and he nodded. "You don't have to join if you don't want to but you can't judge them if they didn't have any other choice to survive. People's actions are always based on how they once lived."
"So you mean right and wrong don't exist."
"Right and wrong are based on perspectives," he started and I smiled and shook my head, "is it bad to kill?"
"Of course."
"Okay," he leaned closer to his desk, "if I stand up right now and hold a gun to your head and tell you I will kill you. The only chance you have to survive is if you killed me. You're going to do it, aren't you?"
"But that is self defence."
"But you still killed."
"But I didn't want to, I had to. To survive."
"Exactly," he shrugged, "no one gets into the illegal life because they want to. People can do whatever it takes to survive, even if it means killing someone else."
When I left the building, I took my phone out of my pocket to call Ace. Right when I unlocked it, someone honked at me. I looked up and saw Ace in his car. I got in the car so he turned the engine on and started driving.
"How did you know I was done?"
"I didn't leave. I was waiting for you." He said, staring at the road. I simply nodded.
"So, turns out that Rob was dad's friend, like college rommates and stuff."
"Yeah, I knew that."
"Then why didn't you want me to work with him if you know him?"
"I just don't want you to get in the normal life, at least not yet," he explained, keeping his tone neutral and his expressions numb, "I don't want you to be in danger."
"I won't let anyone treat me badly, if that's what you mean."
He shook his head, "I know you're strong enough to defend yourself. It's not that I'm worried about."
I opened my mouth to respond but Ace's phone started ringing. He picked up and put it on the car speaker.
"Ace," Niko started.
"What's wrong Niko?"
"Come home fast, someone is here, someone important."
"Who?"
"He keeps telling us you know who he is. He won't even get in the house because you're not here."
"I will be home in thirty minutes, try to take him to my office."
Then the speed of the car rose from 50km per hour to 120km per hour. He was skipping people and changing lanes quicker than my brain could comprehend. I let out a couple of gasps but for some reason, I knew we were safe. I trusted his abilities. I trusted him.
When Ace got passed the gate we saw two black Rolls Royce with men, who most probably were the security of whoever was inside the cars, standing around them.
"I am going to park. You're going to get out of the car and hurry inside to your room. I am serious, Talia."
"Who is that?"
He parked and turned the engine off.
"I don't know," he mumbled, "go."
I got out of the car and walked to the door that was already open and all the boys were standing in front of it. I stood with them, staring at the man with a lion cane and luxurious clothes who got out of the car and started talking to Ace. When I saw them approaching I walked up the stairs, watching them as they walk inside the house and into Ace's office. I made eye contact with Joe but he broke it and walked away.
"Are you eavesdropping on them?"
I gasped and turned to face a woman, wearing a baggy chemise, knowing who she was, I was sure it was Ace's. She was holding a cigarette in her hand that was hanging in the air.
"I just wanted to know who that was."
She smirked at me and took another puff of the cigarette. I bit the inside of my cheek. I knew who she was. Carmin.