.
Cole
He stared around him.
Australia.
The Big Oz.
Sighing, he followed the man leading him through the factory. It could have been worse, he thought to himself grimly.
But a latent anger was growing in him. He had been led to believe something and he did not like being cheated of his dream.
He smiled a crafty smile to himself as he thought of the conversation, he had had with his aunt the previous evening. At least that part was real.
She told him that Lucien F*cking Mighty Delano had thrown her out of the country and had her removed from her home in Mexico. Out on the streets again.
He started as the man ahead of him turned impatiently, indicating that he should hurry and follow. Grimacing, Cole followed the man.
Every dog will have his day, he thought grimly. He would get his chance to. And one of the first things he was going to do was to teach that f*cking bi*ch with the big t*ts a lesson. Swearing under his breath, he hurried to begin his shift. It was going to be a long day.
***
Hila
The monk had called his bounty hunter and informed her that time was running out. Unless she did something quickly, he had gone on, his voice a persuasive purr, her brother…he was named Moshe wasn’t he? In a hospital called Mount…?’
Hila had stood, frozen to the spot, unable to believe what the diabolical fellow was saying. He was threatening her?
And then, long after the phone was cut from his end, she stood, her hands trembling.
It had been foolish to think that if she stepped into mud, it would not stick to her, cling to her, and pollute her.
Moshe’s bills were exorbitant; even after selling off their home, it had been impossible to pay for his treatment. Her brother was physically a vegetable, staring into space most of the time eyes wide open, not responding to any words that were spoken to him.. The doctors at the hospital were kind but not prepared to hold out much hope. He had been injured in the explosion, true. But it was the mental breakdown that bothered them; it was as though had given up all desire to live.
When he had been brought to the hospital, he was alive and aware of his surroundings. But having attempted suicide twice, he had destroyed his body. The first time had been when he tried to overdose on pills; he had been saved in time. Not that Moshe was grateful for that, he had been bitterly antagonistic, hating Hila for keeping him alive.
The second time, he had jumped from the window of his third-storied room, having given the nurse the slip. He had injured his spine but had not died. Now he lay, a man alive in name only. Hila knew that she would have to sign the papers to agree to put him off the life-sustaining tubes very soon but her heart broke when she walked into the room. Moshe was still alive, aware. But trapped in his broken body and she, who never cried, wept bitterly all the way home after meeting him, every time she visited him.
Now, she sat staring outside, it was evening and the darkness in the room grew as she sat, thinking.
Yes, she would have opted to do anything to get out of the clutches of the man whose money had helped her to pay for Moshe’s treatment. Perhaps, she would be free of him soon, she thought and realized that she was thinking of being free of both her brother and the monk…
***
Philippe
He left the Club, intent on the new task that the Boss had entrusted him with. The Boss had been his usual self when he called Philippe back to work, to reinstate him, after the prolonged thrashing he had given him. No mention of the battering he had received. No, just a curt, Stay out of trouble that had just the right hint of menace, designed to make any man’s knees quake in fear.
Philippe shook his head; man, that had been some thrashing. He still winced as he remembered how he had been barely conscious as he was hauled off. The Boss was a mean fighter and Philippe had seen it in action. The blows had been meant to hurt and for weeks after, the young Capo had been unable to get up from his bed.
But Tony Beston had called his wife, the nurse, Camille who had taken care of him, though she had been tight-lipped with disapproval. At one point she had snapped,
“Why did you… ?’ but her husband had silenced her with a sharp word.
***
The phone buzzed and he smiled slightly, an indulgent smile. For even before he took it up, he knew it would be Ria.
Sure enough, it was the girl he loved. He smiled as he got into the Hummer,
“Princess,’ he sighed and heard her soft laugh. Goddamn, the girl could bring a man alive with that laugh, light, and tinkling, he thought, longingly.
She said in her soft voice,
“Will you come over to the house at dinnertime, Philippe?’
Her voice was breathless and he felt again, a tingle starting in his body.
“Try and stop me, baby,’ he growled and grinned as she laughed, a merry sound.
They lived for this, the two of them, meeting ‘accidentally’ in corners in the house, only to fall into each other’s arms, diving into broom closets at times, to kiss passionately before someone came looking for them, as it invariably happened.
But they had not been together for a longer period, and their longing for each other kept them on fire for each other, savouring the stolen kisses.
Neither of them was about to risk invoking the wrath of the Mafia Don by doing anything more. Besides, Lucien Delano had craftily made sure to keep young Philippe occupied relentlessly… it was Lucien Delano’s way of making sure that the young Capo would not get a chance to spend more than a few minutes in the company of his daughter, Ria.
But it also meant that the Capo was being given more responsibilities and was climbing up in the hierarchy of the mob.
He was being secretly groomed by the Don to take over his position in the future for the Mafia Boss believed that neither of his older sons, Piers nor Claude had the tenacity, the street smartness of Philippe. As for Dominique and Louis and of course, baby Rudi, only time would tell, thought Lucien. And he would most likely not be around to see what lay ahead for them.