NALEDI’S POV
It was 10 pm and I was dressed in an all-black assemble.
I didn’t need to, seeing I was not joining the men in retrieving the girls, but I did anyway. If someone told me this morning that I would be hours close to ending this madness, I’d laugh them to scorn.
Caellum and I were in his newly set-up office, listening to Luka fire out orders on how the girls were to be dispatched. Shocker it was when we realised he had two batches of girls planned for delivery.
He was currently negotiating the pay for the second batch at the moment. I hadn’t felt such disgust for a man in a very long time. And that was putting it lightly.
He deserved to die. I pulled out the M82AI barret firearm tucked in my waist, loving the feel of it. I knew I’d love it more when I finally put a hole in his darned head.
Caellum paced around the office as he gave directions in real-time to the guys who were going for the retrieval. Seeing him actively take the lead brought out a different side of him.
A side that I feared I liked more than meet. The last thing I needed was to get distracted on the job so I shoved those thoughts to the hinder parts of my mind.
Time flew and I soon became worried. Caellum spoke animately, pacing angrily as he shot out words using the Italian language. I could detect things were not going as planned, and I got on my feet, trying and failing to get a good grip on the situation.
“Fuck!” Caellum ripped the earpiece from his ear and threw it against the wall. “That bastard!”
“What’s wrong? Did they succeed?” I asked the million-dollar question, expecting an answer I knew wouldn’t be nice.
“He played us! That bastard probably knew we were listening. He deceived us. There was never a plan to get the girls out at midnight. They did it at fucking noon!”
My heart accelerated. “How do you know that? We just-”
“He fucking left a note. It was an ambush. The men walked right into it. He was waiting to kill them. To send a word to me. That fucker!”
I blinked repeatedly, unable to stomach the meaning behind his words. We had failed. Luka slipped from our hands yet again. And those girls…. the girls… my breath accelerated and soon I was struggling to breathe.
“The girls..” I wheezed and Caellum rushed to my side, “He s-sold them… we failed..”
“Naledi! Breathe!”
I couldn’t. How could I? Flashes of the beatings, the prison, the killings, and all the abuses I went through came flashing back, each more horrible than the last.
Those women were going to be subjected to that lifestyle. And worse. And I just let it happen. I once again failed and let others take the fall for my inadequacy. I couldn’t bear it any more.
I had to kill him. There was no other way to stop him. I needed to kill him myself.
I pulled out my gun and made my way to the door, headed out of the office. Caellum followed me. His pleas and attempts to get me to reason fell on deaf ears. So much so that he picked me up from the ground, and carried me over his shoulder to stop me from walking.
I fought against his hold. “Put me down! I need to kill him! I have to kill him!”
My protests went unheard as he took me down to my room, locking the door behind him. I wanted to kill him.
“Is that it?! You are just going to back out of the deal and let him live? I didn’t know you were so much of a pussy, Caellum!”
“I’ll take that because I know you are upset. Do not test me, Naledi. The plan flunked. We underestimated him, and for that, I lost my men. You will not do anything irrational. Not under my watch.” He said in a dangerously calm tone.
“What do you propose I do? Let him live as he continues planning the next batch of girls he will be sending off to God knows where. What happened to letting today be the start of his nightmare? The way I see it, this is the start of our nightmare because we already lost to him. We lost the girls and we can’t get them back.”
“Killing him solves nothing. That would be giving him an easy way out. I need you to calm down while I figure out the next thing to do. You should do that too.”
“The next thing is to put him down! Kill him and all he stands for. Scourge him out of this earth and see to it that he cannot hurt anyone again.” I screamed in his face, but he wasn’t moved.
I felt a bolt of pain twist my heart, “You know what? I need to be alone.” I turned my back to him, silently communicating the fact I didn’t want him here. Any moment now and I’ll be full-on crying.
I can’t allow him to see me in that condition. Once was acceptable, but two nights in a row? Impossible.
“Naledi…”
“Get out, Caellum. Please..” My voice broke towards the end.
He was rooted in his spot for a moment, then I heard him leave and shut the door behind him. I rushed over to the door, locking it from my end and removing the key before allowing myself to collapse on the floor.
That night, I sat on the floor with my back to the door and cried until I couldn’t. Once again, I had disappointed women who were in the same position as myself. Weak, abused and vulnerable.
Why couldn’t I do anything right?
I had just one job. One job to save them and I failed. Now they were out there. All because of me. Guilt weighed in on me as I pondered the many things I could have done to stop him, I could have killed him right when I had the chance but I chose to kill an innocent woman.
As time proceeded, I beat myself over and over until I slept off, only to be roped into the darkness of my past. I just couldn’t get a break.