Dedicated to aseelk and her lovely sister.. because I love them so very much <3
“Nando!”
Joanna’s head whipped around at the table that had the man who was beaming stupidly.
“Cal! There you are.” Fernando replayed, his tone way cooler than the rounder man. Cal was sitting with what Joanna thought was half the strippers from this place. He stood up, nodding to the women before he strode to where they stood.
“It’s been ages, man.” The man, Cal, said as he slapped Fernando’s shoulder and gripped his other arm to pull him in a half hug.
“Yes it has.” Fernando said curtly, a small smile forming on his hard face.
They were in a nightclub, it was dark and loud and full to the brim. Many people looked their way because they seemed so out of place with their serious faces and cloths.
Joanna was sandwiched between Mark and Kevin, while Fernando and Aldo domineered the front of their little group. Isaac was slacking at the back.
Fernando obviously noticed the attention they were causing when he said, “Maybe we should talk inside.”
“Oh, right.” Cal said, still beaming before he leaned on one foot so he could steal a peak of her. he looks satisfied when he finally did before he gestured for them to follow him.
They walked around the club until they reached a door. Joanna tried to look down, partially because she didn’t want anyone recognizing her, and also because she didn’t want to see the drunks and nudes around her.
They went through the door and into a small hallway that led to a narrow staircase. They climbed up quietly and Joanna found herself wondering just how much Fernando trusted this Cal guy.
Once they reached the second floor, Cal guided them inside a hallway with many doors at its sides. He opened one of them and they got inside.
“So, that’s my niece?” Cal twisted around to face them once Isaac closed the door behind him. Joanna frowned in confusion at his questions.
Aldo walked inside and past Cal as he muttered darkly, “Tell your friend to cut the crap or I’ll slice his throat.”
Cal giggled foolishly, but he was obviously alarmed at the Big guy’s tone. “Harsh as ever, sir.” He said to Aldo who sat on one of the comfy-looking armchairs that were scattered around the large room.
“Cal, please cut the crap.” Fernando said, moving aside and exposing her to his friend. Cal’s eyes widened as he stared down at her. Joanna wanted to glare up at him, but she was too tiered to begin a quarrel.
“Wow, man. She is indeed Maria’s daughter.” Cal finally said after he surveyed her.
Joanna tensed. She knew she was supposed to get past her hatred and quit acting like a fucked up brat every time someone mentioned her mother, but she couldn’t help it.
“Careful. She bites.” Fernando said lazily and sat on another armchair.
“Well, so did her mother.” Cal responded with his stupid smile and Joanna decided she didn’t like this man.
“Hey, quit it.” Mark said threateningly, moving away from her side to stand in front of her.
“Whoa whoa, and the boyfriend as well.” Cal raised both hands in defense.
“That’s the cousin, Cal.” Fernando sighed and shook his head.
“Oh. Ok. Please, make yourselves comfortable.” Cal finally said, gesturing for all of them to sit. They walked inside slowly; apparently Joanna wasn’t the only one who disliked this guy.
“Please forgive me.” Fernando whispered humorously once she sat close to him. Joanna nodded at him, her gaze still fixated at Cal who sat down as well.
“So, this is the little gang. Just like old days, eh?” Cal beamed at them while they all gave him blank or irritated looks.
“We won’t stay here long, Cal. Just need a shelter until our next move.” Fernando told him.
“Of coarse, man. As long as you need.” Cal said and Joanna sensed sincerity and admiration in his tone.
“Good,” Fernando said, “Did you get what I asked for?”
Cal’s irritating smile returned as he beamed again, “Oh, yes.” He stood quickly and left the room. Two minutes and he returned back with a large shiny plastic bag.
“Here you go, Maria’s daughter.” He extended his hand toward Joanna who eyed the bag suspiciously as if it contained a very nasty creature.
“It’s alright.” Fernando muttered behind her and Joanna accepted the bag tentatively.
“What’s this?” she said as she opened the bag and looked inside. There were garment inside. Some of them had colors that she disliked very much.
“Pink. Great.” Joanna muttered to her self, pulling one piece out that turned to be a cotton pair of shorts. Probably a part of some PJs.
“Nice, eh?” Cal blinked, settling back on his chair.
“Hmmm, yeah.” Joanna tried to sound grateful but it sounded anything but. “It’ll do. Thanks.”
There was a knock on the door. Cal stood up and opened it, revealing a young man behind it.
“Maria’s girl!” Cal called and Joanna tensed again, “This is Glen, he’ll take you to your room.” He told her.
Joanna looked at Fernando with questioning eyes.
“You need rest, and…. A shower.” Fernando told her, one thick brow rising.
Mark suddenly stood up. “I’ll go with you.” He told her, sensing her uncertainty. She looked up at him gratefully and stood up as well.
She turned back to look at Aldo and the others. “It’s alright, kid.” Aldo smiled at her weakly. Apparently she wasn’t the only one who was tiered.
With a last nod, she left the room with Mark and Glen who guided them to the end of the hall. There was a room there and Glen produced a key and opened it for them.
Joanna stepped inside first; the room was surprisingly larger than she thought. A single bed was on the right side, a small closet centered the wall, and another small door was on the left wall of the room.
“This is the bathroom, there’s towels in the closet and the bed sheets have been changed.” Glen explained rather quickly. “Anything else I can help you with, miss?”
“N.. no. Thanks.” Joanna said and just as quickly as he appeared, Glen left and closed the door behind him.
Joanna finally breathed out. It felt as if she had been holding it for a very long time.
“Are you ok?” Mark asked behind her and she turned to face him. He was wearing a sling around his neck that held up his left arm.
“I should ask you that.” Joanna said to him.
“I’m fine, Jo.” Mark shrugged carelessly, a lazy smile forming on his lips. “But you need to rest.” He said, ruffling through her short hair.
“Ok, ok! Stop that!” Joanna said, stepping back and shielding her head with both her hands. A smile formed on her face. “I’m going to the bathroom now.” She told him with a giggle.
“And I am going back to the gang.” Mark said humorously. “You sure you’ll be alright?” he asked.
“Yup.” She told him confidently, despite what she really felt inside. “Go, go.”
When Mark left, Joanna sighed again. She threw the bag on the bed and started looking through it. She found a pair of underwear and the other half of the pink cotton PJs. There was a toothbrush inside as well. She didn’t want to admit it, but Cal did a pretty good job!
Now she had to try to cope with the wait with a civilized attitude and be patient.
Only it was too hard too do so, she realized as she stepped inside the small bathroom.
“Hey Drake. Raise and shine.”
Julian woke up with a jolt as cold, harsh water was splashed on his face. He didn’t know when he fell asleep. He tried to remain awake and ready for any of Peter’s white sick games.
And it wasn’t even morning yet.
“What do you want bitches?” Julian said to the man who splashed him and noticed two others behind him. One of them, of coarse, was the White devil.
“Boss want to speak to you.” The man was the water bucket said.
“Well, you didn’t have to wake me up for it.” Julian retorted.
“That’s funny, Drake.” Peter stepped closer, his smugness sickening.
“so, what can’t I do for you?” Julian relaxed back on the chair and looked up.
“what I’ve already asked of you. Work for me.” Peter said.
“can’t.” Julian said simply.
“You know that I can make you.”
“I know no such thing.” Julian gasped dramatically, making Peter’s face start to flush red.
“I told you that I’ll go after the girl, Joanna, if you don’t cooperate with me.”
Julian tensed at the threat but tried his best not to show his irritation. Instead he said, “Good luck with that.”
A vain was already popping on peter’s forehead, “You don’t want to play this game with me, Drake.”
“Actually, I do. Can’t wait to see how it turns out.” Julian smirked at him.
“You were willing to give me the program before. Why won’t you now?”
“Because…” Julian said slowly as if he was speaking to a child, “I don’t have to anymore.”
“I told you I would get the girl….”
“And I told you to go fuck yourself and try.” Julian said calmly but the menace wasn’t absent from his tone or his ice-cold eyes.
Peter looked like he was actually unsure of his abilities to fulfill that challenge. He turned around, giving his back to Julian, obviously to hide his enraged features. The silence stretched out for a long moment before Peter spoke again. This time his voice was way calmer and way more confidant.
“Fine, you leave me with no choice then.”
“What…” Julian started before he saw the two men who were on either said of Peter approaching him, one of them held something in his hand. Something Julian hated to admit it was what he thought it was.
“What the hell..” he said as one of them held his shoulders down to keep him from moving while his other limbs were already trapped in place.
“I tried to be nice with you, Drake.” Peter said looking down at him, a sick smirk forming on his face. “You just couldn’t behave like a nice boy and act upon it.”
“So you decide to drug me?” Julian shouted as the other man held his left arm and started placing the needle on the joint of there.
“Well, if I have to tame you like a fucking whore, then I will.” Peter said in a loud tone as the needle was injected inside a struggling Julian.
He grunted in pain.
It was strong, whatever Peter decided to drug him with; Julian felt it burn along his veins as it traveled through his system. A short moment passed before he felt his body betray him and act on it’s own record.
He wasn’t struggling anymore, he couldn’t. He could only see blurry motions in front of him as his brain started swirling round and round and his body felt heavier than ever.
It was relaxing yet extremely irritating at the same time, because it wasn’t him that was functioning it anymore.
He heard Peter’s disgusting laugh and tried to focus his vision on him. He stood there, few feet in front of him as the other two walked and stood behind him.
“I guess I’ll see you a your next session.”
“You…” Julian wanted to say a lot of things. But he stopped when he couldn’t recognize his own voice or the heavy letters that came out of it.
“Don’t sweat it, Drake. Accept it and surrender to it. It’ll feel good at your next session I promise.” Peter said before he turned around to leave the room, his sickening laughter echoing behind him as he left and the door was closed in front of him.
Great, now he had to fight his own body as well.
____________
“Your work seems boring.” Joanna told Julian. She was resting her arms over his shoulders from behind; her front was leaning over his back. Julian didn’t even turn to look at her as he clicked joyfully on the keyboard.
“Boring? Are you kidding?” he said sounding offended and Joanna couldn’t help but laugh.
“It’s all numbers and litters that doesn’t even come together. It doesn’t make sense!” she said, testing his patience as she raised one hand and took a bite from the apple it was holding before she dropped it back down.
“These ‘litters’,” Julian said and raised his hand, making a gesture of ‘quote’ with his fingers, “can build up and tear down nations.” He said and returned to his clicking.
Joanna felt a bang of guilt. If what he just said was true, then it was a huge sacrifice to hand it over to a bad man like the Colombo guy.
“And you would just… give it to this man?” she said, straightening up and moving her hands away from his shoulder. To her surprise, Julian stopped his work. He was silent for a moment before he swirled his chair around to face her and said, “I’d build up and tear down nations if that was going to keep you safe.”
Joanna took a low gasp at his statement. She searched his eyes for any traces of humor, there were none. This man was totally serious about this.
“What’s this?” she decided to ask, unable to receive this much care from him as, looking past his shoulder and into the screen as it went into the stand by mode. The screen was showing blue tiny digits going up and down along parallel columns over a black background. What caught her attention was what those digits formed.
Two large ‘Js’ were formed by the tiny blue columns of moving digits.
“Two Js?” Joanna asked, looking back at his face and raising one eyebrow. She smiled when she saw a little blush creep up into his face as he looked away.
“They are ‘double J’.” He said in a low voice.
“It’s… us?” Joanna said more like a statement.
“Yeah, it’s my trade mark now.” He chuckled, not his usual, devious chuckle but a shy one. Joanna was startled once more.
She did the only thing she felt like doing when he told her that. She bent down, grabbed his face in her hands, forcing him to look up at her. She smiled as she saw that shy, vulnerable look on his face before she lowered her head closer and placed a long, long kiss on his already parted lips.
Joanna opened her eyes and sat up quickly. Great, she snorted inwardly. So she wasn’t seeing nightmares now, but excruciating memories of her time with Julian.
She looked at the clock that was hanged on the wall.
5 a.m., it read. Good, she slept more than her fair share. She swung her legs to the side as she prepared to get up.
She didn’t have that much time to waste. Not while Julian’s life was at stake.
She found dark blue jeans in the bag Cal brought for her and quickly put it on. Once she got out she stated to look for some one awake.
Not surprisingly, Joanna found Fernando right outside of her room, wide awake and surrounded by papers and men.
“Good morning, birdie.” He said warmly, a concerned look crossing his face. “Is something wrong?” he asked.
“No.” Joanna said before she looked around at the other men faces. Cal was among them. She nodded at them in greeting before she grabbed an empty chair and placed it next to Fernando.
The man arched one thick eyebrow at her in question. She arched one of her own before she said, “Fill me in. what’s the plan?”
Fernando’s face stretched into one of his dark yet charming smiles. She heard a few men chuckle.
“Of coarse.” He said finally as he held some pieces of papers and handed it to her. It looked like what she thought was blue prints. Joanna arched both her brows then and looked up at him in confusion. Fernando started to explain to her about the warehouse and the ways to and from it.
He went on and on and Joanna was listening to each detail eagerly.
She was doing this, no doubt. She only hope she wouldn’t be too late.
“Anna… Anna.” There she was, Julian thought, right in front of him. He extended his arm but couldn’t reach her. Or perhaps he could but she wasn’t really there.
“Lian.” She breathed his name between those perfect lips of her. “Don’t leave me.”
Just when he thought, for the hundredth time, that he finally reached her, he felt his arms tightening in restrain. He looked down at them and saw them tied up over a chair’s arms.
Just then he realized what was happening. Joanna wasn’t there. She could never and hopefully would never be. He was inside the haze that fucking drug created. He was still feeling it, the blur and the ghostly movements around him.
It was nauseating and he wasn’t sure he could handle it anymore.
Just when that thought struck, the door of the room opened and the same two men that came with peter before stepped inside. One of them was holding the syringe in his hand.
“Good. You’re awake.” One of them said. “It’s time for your second dose.”
Julian straightened up and tried his best to look indifferent. He wouldn’t give up even if it killed him.
He stretched his lips to the most devious smile he could manage and said, “Hit me with all what you’ve got… bitches.”
P.S. to readers:
I know it’d been sooooooooooo effing long. Believe me I hate keeping you waiting as much as you do, but I swear it’s out of my hand.
I’m trying to manage between my uni work, house work and…. Well, life. But you don’t want to hear about that, lol.
So anyways,,, what do you think of the chap?
Vote.. Comment please.. I would love to know what goes in your minds about this story.
Love as always,
Red