"Missed me?"
"You're alive, huh?" Tristen gritted his teeth.
"I was expecting flowers, drugs at the very least. I didn't even get a call from you, buddie." Juggy laughed from the other end.
"Juggy, leave Lavender out of this and fucking face me like a man." Tristen threw his cigar on the floor and smashed it under his foot. "These things are mere illusions, Tristen. Be a man? Fuck... You messed with me, you pay your price." Juggy barked from the other end.
"Jeremy, the price you need to pay for putting a finger on my girl is death. If you still have your fucking guts, come and face me upfront. Don't you dare use your dirty tricks." Tristen warned. "Man, how love changes a man. Your threats have become less threatening, Tristen. You're no more 'the Tristen Killings', or what's the fancy term they call you, the mafia 'prince'. Believe it or not, you're losing your worth for the woman you fuck every night." Juggy laughed his head off.
"HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT HER LIKE THAT? I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!" Tristen screamed through the phone. "Let's see if you can make it in time before I play my ace cards, without having to risk my precious life. Hm, the worst thing a celebrity can go through must be when defamation can't be challenged." He scoffed.
"Where the bloody fuck are you, faggot?" Tristen spat, tightening his fist. "Uh, I don't know? What you need to know is that Lavender's destruction is on it's way to her company and other media buildings. Good luck."
"JEREMY!" Tristen yelled.
"You should know my whereabouts, I mustn't need to tell you this. Is this all you're capable of, Tristen?"
"YOU FUCKING-" Tristen stopped when Juggy hung up on him. "Brendon, tell Bates to go to his company and stop any type of drama that Juggy has planned. Send our men to each and every fucking media building in Janesville, no matter how small or huge they are, Juggy is attempting defamation on Lavender like he did in the past." He restlessly said. "Lastly, I want information on Juggy's whereabouts, RIGHT NOW!"
"On it." Brendon quickly started dialing numbers, talking to a person for a minute and the other the next. Tristen ran his fingers through his hair in stress as his ex-best friend's words ran in his mind.
Your threats have become less fearful, Tristen. You're no more 'the Tristen Killings'. You're losing your worth for the woman you fuck every night.
"No, he's on his dirty tricks again. I know my worth in this world, and so do others." He snapped out of the delusion Juggy had tried to put him into. He pulled out a cigarette from his pocket to light it, taking a long, long puff only to exhale the smoke and all the stress inside of him.
"Yeah, I told you. I'm completely fine." Lavender smiled, holding the phone to her ear while she sat upright on her bed. Cady sat at her side on the bed, swinging her feet back and forth. "It's totally fine, I'm glad someone other than Tristen still cares for me. Jim hasn't called in ages ever since I've given him my rough draft." Claire giggled.
Cady looked at the way Lavender smiled while talking to Claire, who seemed to be more than just an assistant to her. She was equal to her friend. Cady wondered where she went wrong that she could not encounter such people whom she could trust blindly.
Letting out a huge sigh, she pulled out a cigarette and her lighter. The moment Lavender's voice reached her ears, she quickly kept it back remembering she could not smoke in front of a pregnant woman. "I'll see you soon. Take care." Lavender said, hanging up the call. "Thank you for bringing this to me." She said cheerfully, keeping the phone beside her.
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."
"But still, shouldn't we at least plan what we'll do once we reach there?" Cady insisted.
"Today, it's either him or me. No other plan." Tristen ordered, rushing towards the main drawers to get this own guns. "Kill or be killed. I'd prefer if you guys followed the former." He said as the sound of loading his gun clicked.
Everyone picked up their arms and ammos, reversing out their cars. Lavender decided to reveal herself and talk to Tristen, but they had already left the room. She jogged to the front door only to find the last car exiting the compound.
"So they found Juggy." She muttered to herself, staring into the distance. "But then what was it about Bates? Why is he at the company? What defamation are they talking about?" Lavender shut the door and made her way to the couch, flopping down on it.
She soon realized that she had nothing to do. She made a journey to the kitchen and found some cheesy food in the refrigerator. "Mmh, this will do." She shrugged, heating it up in the microwave.
Quite some time had passed. Having eaten her meal, she flopped on couch and lied down. "Did he find Juggy?" She spoke out loud.
After a while of making bored pouts and looking here and there, she took the phone Tristen had left with her; the same one that Claire had called on. Quickly unlocking it, she dialed Bates' number and waited for him to pick it up.
"Tristen, I've been waiting at the company since the past two hours. No one's come here ever since. I asked the staff and none of them encountered a suspicious person."
"But why are you at the company?" Lavender asked.
"Wha- Lavender? How'd you get his phone?"
"Jump to the point."
"Geez, you're even starting to sound like him."
"WILL YOU TELL ME?"
"Tristen had asked me to keep an eye at the company in case Juggy's men come her with some fake, made up evidence for defamation."
"Who is being defamed?" Lavender clicked her tongue in irritation.
"You. We're all travelling to other media companies to make sure none of it happens. But I've had a chat with the others, and they said the same; nobody ever came."
"Oh no, does that mean..." Lavender trailed off. "What's it?" Bates asked from the other end. "Bates, how long will it take for you to reach here?" She asked. "I don't know, where are you?" He asked. His voice denoted that he was preparing to leave.
"Tristen's secret HQ at Bilsburg. It's, uh, I don't know how to give you the directions." Lavender panicked. "I know it. It'll take a minimum of an hour to reach, at the maximum speed." He said, as the sound of shutting the car door followed right after.
"Still, please hurry. I think Juggy set a trap out for Tristen. And my parents are in danger." She gulped.
"Where is he?" Tristen asked like a maniac. "I think we're close." Brendon mumbled, constantly staring at his GPS and the road ahead. "It's been way too long, Brendon. We're too far away from HQ." He ran his fingers through his hair.
The sun was orange, and it was soon night time. "It's getting darker. The more we get farther from the HQ, the more my heart skips the beat." He rubbed his temples. "I think we're here." Brendon suddenly stopped the car when their navigator displayed their location at their destination with a red dot.
Tristen loaded his gun and stepped out of the car, shutting the door. The place was deserted with no signs of residents. The houses seemed to have been abandoned years and years ago with the proof sticking out of their cracked walls. There were just big and small plants and brown fine dust that blew along the wind. Except for trees and other plantations, there wasn't even a single animal in sight.
"The fuck he think he is, huh?" He muttered angrily as he marched forwards without his reinforcements. "Tristen don't be so reckless! Wait for us!" Brendon and the others ran after him.
Reckless.
Tristen stopped dead in his tracks when the realization hit him like a bullet train. That word alone, was enough to make him realize his mistake. His grave, grave mistake. Taking a few steps to peak around the corner of the wall of some old house, he came in front of a dead end.
A huge wall with a graffiti.
It had a cartoon picture of Juggy with a fractured arm and a bandage wrapped around his head in a sad face.
I thought we were friends.
That was what the graffiti read. "Fuck..." Tristen rolled his eyes to the back most region of his head, biting his lip in undying rage. Brendon and the rest stood behind him to see the wall art, along with Tristen's beast transformation.
"I'm such a... FUCK. How could I forget who Juggy is?" He screamed, rushing back to the car. "Tristen, wait for us!" Brendon yelled, running after him. The rest followed him back. "Shotgun." Tristen pointed at Brendon before sitting in the driver's seat as they all got into their respective cars.
Tristen reversed the car dramatically, blowing dust into the air as the automobile drifted. "Can someone tell me what's going on?" Cady asked in confusion. "Juggy has tricked us." Brendon said, looking at her in the backseat. "How?" She shrugged. "He shared a different location on purpose to guide us here. Lavender and her parents are left with only 20 guards at our HQ." He explained.
"But it's his secret HQ. He does not know about it." Cady shook her head, pointing at Tristen's seat. Brendon rolled his eyes at the dumb girl. Confirming that Tristen was focused on the road, he mouthed the words to Cady. "That's why he's still calm."
Cady pouted her lips into an 'oh' and sat back quietly.
"Lavender, you need to tell us what's wrong." Her mother panicked. "Just do as I say, mom. You need to get out of here." Lavender smacked her lips as she packed her parents' bags. "I need to make a call, please do the rest." She got up and rushed outside the room, shutting the door behind her.
"Bates, where are you? It's been more than an hour." Lavender whispered, as she dialed his number. "Nearly there, don't worry. Do not leave before I get there. Did you call Tristen?" Bates replied. "I tried, but his call won't connect. I don't know where he is." Lavender panicked. "Ah shit, Juggy must've directed them to a deserted region." Bates cursed.
"What do you mean?" She asked as tears welled up her eyes.
"It's a very old mafia trick. I can't believe Tristen actually fell for it. Never mind that, I'm only 20 minutes away from you. By that time-" A loud noise almost burst Lavender's ear drum as she put the phone away from her ear.
"What the bloody..." She cursed, putting the phone back to her ear. "What were you saying, Bates?" She asked, waiting for his response. "Bates?" She said again. Why isn't he answering? She wondered.
She tried to listen more carefully to analyze what was going on. "Call an ambulance!" A voice yelled in a distance. "Bates?" Lavender felt her heart drop. She did not want to believe it.
She just could not.
"Bates answer me!" Lavender starting crying. "Lavender..." Bates spoke in a slurred tone. His voice indicated that he did not have the energy to talk or even move anymore. "Bates! What's going on? Are you alright?" She cried. "Get out of there..." He said in almost a whisper.
"What happened to you?" She panicked. "Please... leave... the HQ." Those were the last words she heard. She could only hear the voices other people discussing on how they were supposed to get Bates out of his car. "Bates..." Lavender shut her eyes as tears rolled down her face. "You saved my life that day. I wasn't able to return that favour." She put the phone down as she covered her face with another palm.
She hung up on the call, realizing the real danger she was in. She quickly wiped her tears after hearing her parents voices from the room. "I still have more people to save." She sniffled, entering back in their room.
"You guys are done?" Lavender asked as if she had never been crying. "Yeah. We're done. Are we leaving now?" Mrs. Hills asked. "Uh, sure. We are. Just give me a minute." Lavender said, getting out of there as soon as she could.
She entered the kitchen, pouring herself a glass of water. "How do I get them out of here? There are no cars." She gulped down that water like a shot. That's when she remembered.
"The guards!" She gasped, running to the living and out the front door to find the guards. "Peter, right?" She panted, putting a palm on her tummy. "Lavender! You shouldn't be exhausting yourself!" Peter rushed to her. "We are in danger. We need to escort my parents out of here." She blabbered.
"Woah, woah, slow down. Tell me everything." Peter tried to calm her down. "Juggy.... He's on his way here." She said. "How do you know that?" He shook his head in confusion. He knew what his job costed at the moment. He had to be sure of everything before taking a decision, else Tristen would crack his skull open.
"I was talking to Bates. He was on his way here to help me get my parents away, but then... then... there was a huge sound of collision. It was like a truck had crashed into his car or something. I could clearly listen to the people trying to get him out. He told me to get out of here. Peter, I cannot keep answering your questions, please." Lavender pleaded.
"Okay, okay, I'll arrange a car. Get them ready." Peter said rushed off to the other guards, making them aware of the situation. He pulled out his phone and started making calls.
Lavender fell to her knees by the door, resting her head on the casing as she tried to catch her breath. She was shivering. Her hands trembled and so did her shoulders. She put her palms on her tummy, realizing she had another life she had to save. "God, help us." She cried, covering her face in her palms.
"Hey, who's that?" One of the guards pointed at a car entering through the main gate of the HQ.
Lavender shot her eyes open at that black car, hoping it was for them. "Tristen?" Lavender smiled getting back up on her feet. She started running towards the car that was slowing down, before Peter held her arm.
"That is not Tristen." He warned, pulling her back. The guards stood in front of her, blocking her way from the possible harm that was about to step out of that car.
They all pointed their guns at the car, waiting for someone to step out. Lavender could feel her heart about to stop beating. She was staying alive because of the people she had to save. She knew she had to stay up and moving for her baby, for her parents, and for Tristen.
Tristen where are you? She watched with her eyes widened, wondering who it might be.
And then, a person step out of the car.