THE once dimly lit room, heavy with the scent of cigar smoke and aged whiskey, now seemed to grow colder by the second, as Lucas sat there, behind his massive oak desk, still staring on like a maroon, his face was stone cold, Boogie noticed something was off but pretended as though he didn’t.
“Here we are,” he announced again and this time, the pitch in his voice grew more higher. Why not? He was already blindfolded with greed.
Crowbath, the guy he had gone to call, and Zach moved closer, walking up to the large desk.
Lucas still kept mute and soon, Zach became perturbed by his silence and decided to step in.
“Is everything alright My Lord?” He asked looking from Boogie to him, “you still aren’t saying anything,” he added.
Just then, there came a knock on the door, rudely cutting into their silent thoughts and the standing trio subconsciously glanced at the door.
“My Lord,” a voice followed the knock.
Boogie frowned.
“Who is it?” He demanded.
“Ugh it is Handel. I have a message for the Boss,” he said and Lucas immediately shot a stare at the door, his eyes widening with every passing minute.
Without saying anything, Boogie turned to Lucas and he gave a slight nod.
“Come in,” he said and the door immediately opened to behold Handel coming in, with a plain brown manila envelope in his hand.
The curiosity and anxiety in Lucas grew and he sat up, shifting on his seat, his uneasiness was so obvious to detect. His prying eyes watched Handel as he walked up to him.
“You have a message Boss, it arrived not up to thirty seconds ago,” he said and bowed as he dropped the envelope on the desk and stood, waiting for instructions.
“You may go,” it was Boogie who spoke. Lucas had just sat staring at the envelope.
As soon as Handel left, Boogie asked Crowbath to follow suit, that he was going to send for him later, and he left. Zach was still at a lost as to what was going on.
Seeing Lord Lucas in his pitiable state even as she stared at the envelope, seeing Boogie asking Crowbath, the tech guy who was supposed to do some job to leave, he was befuddled.
“Is everything okay Boogie?” He asked, moving closer to him.
Boogie kept him mute for a while, then he sighed, and said, “well I think you should ask the Boss, he is in the right position to give you an answer,” he said and Zach turned to him.
His (Lucas) facial expressions were enough to make him hold on for a while, and so he said nothing.
Still staring at the plain manila envelope sitting ominously on his desk, he weakly stretched out his hands and took it. His eyes narrowed as he broke the seal, his thick fingers trembling with a mix of fury and dread.
Boogie and Zach leaned in, their breaths held, waiting for their Boss’s reaction.
Slowly, he dug his right hand into the envelope, his fingers feeling the texture of its contents, he could feel them, they were paper like. In a flash he took them out and spread it on the desk. They were photographs.
Lucas’ heart hammered in his chest as he flipped through them. They were what he had feared the most, the photographs of his children, Kennedy and Katherine.
This time, it was more deep. The kids were depicted in various stages of their day: leaving for school, playing in the park, having dinner. Innocent moments now tainted with a sinister undertone.
The final photo showed them sleeping peacefully in their beds, a menacing shadow cast across the room.
Accompanying the pictures was a single note, typed in stark black letters:
“This is your final warning. Back off, or their innocence will be the price of your defiance.”
Lucas’ jaw tightened, and his eyes, usually a placid blue, burned with a fierce, barely controlled rage. Boogie, sensing the eruption, spoke first.
“Boss, this is serious,” he said more like in a whisper and Lucas turned to him, “I never knew it is as serious as this. She knows where your kids are at all times. We can’t take this lightly.”
“Hmmm,” Zach muttered. It was now everything began making sense to him, “who is she?” He asked.
“Boss J. She is threatening Lord Lucas to back off Jeremy, using his kids as bait,” he explained and a frown appeared on Zach’s face instantly.
“Boss I think we need to act now, maybe send them away, somewhere safe until we deal with this,” Boogie said and Lucas slammed his fist onto the desk, the sound reverberating through the room.
“Are you even listening to yourself Boogie?” He barked startling the two men, “these are my kids we are talking about here, my life and all I have got, I can’t trade them for anything in the world,” he said and their eyes twitched, surprise written all over their faces.
“Boss um -,” Zach opened his mouth to speak and Lucas raised up his left hand, halting him and he did.
“I want to be left alone,” he said and quietly and reluctantly, they walked out of the study.
***
Carrying the small box which contained a bread toaster, she walked into the house, heading straight for the kitchen to drop the item she was holding.
On her way, she bumped into two young guys coming out, they had gone in to drop off some boxes as well.
“Where did you keep them?” She asked.
“Ugh in the inner room,” one of the boys answered and Jasira nodded.
“Oh! Wonderful. Thank you,” she said to them and they nodded and left.
For the past few hours she had been working, moving her things from the Mambas mansion into her new house, in a coded way. Nobody in the organization, not even Nikky nor Lucario knew she had gotten a house and had even started moving in her things. She kept it so low.
As soon as she entered the kitchen and dropped the box on the counter, her phone rang. It was in the black purse strapped across her shoulder so she first unzipped the purse, then took out the phone.
A snicker played on her lips as she saw the caller id. She picked up immediately.
“Silvio?” She was the first to speak.
“Boss,” the caller called, “it is done,” he added.
“What exactly this time?” She asked.
“I sent the pictures together with the text, then also sent across the photographs in an envelope with a written note,” he explained.
Jasira nodded as though he could see her.
“Good job Silvio, great job!” She complimented.
“Thanks Boss. So we should wait for the results, I doubt he is going to ignore it this time.”
She nodded knowingly.
“I doubt as well. That was a quick one Silvio, well done.”
“Thanks Boss. Any other thing?” He asked.
She twisted her lips thinking.
“Oh yeah. We are going to make him write an apology letter to Jeremy.”
“Okay.”
“But this time, it gonna be more dramatic,” she said.
“Okay Boss, how do you want it?” He asked.