“I can’t believe I agreed to this.” Nora said again after they had spent a few minutes on the road.
“A black card is involved, why not?” Lily replied and Nora sighed.
Lily’s phone beeped and she looked at it.
“Is that Axel?” Nora asked and glanced at her.
“Yes.”
“Well, what does the text say?” She asked.
“That he has arrived at the location.” She said and Nora sighed.
“If we die today, I will never… ”
“No one is dying.” Lily hurriedly cut her off and she rolled her eyes.
According to the GPS, she took a turn and continued with the drive.
Axel walked out of the car with Max and they both walked towards the building in front of them.
As they walked, Axel’s eyes were fixed on his phone. Max noticed he had been on his phone throughout the ride which was unlike him.
He pays full attention to business like this.
“Who are you texting?” Max asked.
“My wife.” He replied without looking up at Max, his eyes were still fixed on the phone.
“Why?” Max asked.
“She is worried about me and I am giving her every detail of what is going on so she won’t be worried.” Axel replied and Max moved closer to him and got his attention.
“You mean you are texting Lily all that is happening, including our location?” Max asked and he nodded.
“Yeah. Is there a problem with that?” He asked and Max scoffed.
“Yeah. There is a problem with that. I have never seen anyone as curious as your wife and you are texting her our location. To make matters worse, she is with Nora. Nora likes doing dumb and dangerous things like this.” Max explained and Axel rolled his eyes.
“You are overreacting. They can’t come here, why will they do that?”
“Ask Lily where she is.” Max replied and Axel texted Lily, asking where she was.
“Oh God.” Lily said out loud as she got the text.
“What? What’s wrong?” Nora asked.
“Axel just asked where I am.” She replied.
“Then lie.” Nora said and rolled her eyes.
“What was her response?” Max asked.
“She hasn’t texted back yet.”
“See? I can bet anything that they are on their way… ”
“Chill man. She said she is in the hotel with Nora but they are not in the suite. They are taking a walk.” Axel cut Max off and he kept quiet.
Somehow, he still didn’t believe that. He had a feeling they were lying and he was so sure.
“Ask her to send a picture.” Max said and Axel gave him a look.
“No, what the fuck is wrong with you?” Axel asked and he sighed.
“I am just worried, that’s it. Who has no idea who we are coming to meet or what we are expecting, it would really get worse if they show up here.” Max explained and Axel texted Lily back and tucked his phone in his pocket.
“Nothing can go wrong.” He replied and they both stared at the building. It was a warehouse and the area was isolated. It was a warehouse for cars.
“Come on.” Axel muttered and they both walked towards the building.
“Did he buy it?” Nora asked as she glanced at Lily.
“I think he did. He just texted ‘okay'” Lily replied and Nora sighed in relief.
“Great, we should be there in ten minutes.” She said as she stepped on the accelerator.
Max and Axel walked into the warehouse and saw different cars around with different men at every corner of the room. They weren’t carrying guns but that didn’t mean they weren’t armed.
At the centre of the room, there were four men there. Two were standing at the front and the remaining two were standing as guards.
Judging from that, one of the men in the front was obviously Marley. The other man was a middle aged man.
“Axel Blackwell.” The middle aged man called as they got closer to them.
“And his right hand man.” He added. He was referring to Max. Max chuckled and rolled his eyes. He took no offence in that, he was okay with it. Axel brought him into the mafia world and made him a billionaire too, he was okay with any name he was called. Without Axel, he would be living off only his family’s wealth.
“It is an honour to meet you. I have heard a lot about you since you have arrived here.” The man continued. While he spoke, Axel took his time to study the room. The numbers of men there, the looks on their faces, the reaction they were giving off, the chance of things going wrong and good.
With the way the man spoke, Marley works for him and is under him. He is the boss here and also the man was Russian. Everyone in the room was Russian.
“I heard you have been doing a lot of research about me.” Axel finally spoke up and looked at Marley. He was about their age but he might be a little older. He was a little huge and he had a scar on his face with dark hair.
Wasn’t what Axel or Max were expecting though. They thought he was the boss.
Bringing a lot of men just to meet them was something Axel decided to take advantage of, for him to come with a lot of men, meant they were intimidated. They must have done a lot of research and heard a lot about him.
“I can’t help but feel flattered that you were intimidated by my presence in your country.” Axel said and the middle aged man laughed while Marley smirked.
“Intimidated? Oh please.”
“I just came here for a vacation with my wife.”
“Oh, your wife. She must be so beautiful.” The man teased.
“You can’t imagine.” Axel replied.
“Can we go down to why we are here?” Max asked.
“Yes. You were the one who asked us to meet.” The man said.
“Yeah. We are here to make peace and hope to do business with you. We have no connection here in Atlanta and we think it might be both to our advantage if we can work together.” Max said and the man looked at Marley, he nodded at him like a sign of approval. He looked at his other men too and they also nodded then he turned back to Axel and Max.
“Well, that wouldn’t be a problem but according to the stories we have heard about you, you took over the Russian bases that we had in New York.” The man said.
“What’s your name?” Axel asked the man. Unrelating to his statement. Axel and Max knew information about the man already but they had to act like they didn’t. Just to be on the safer side.
“Gustavo.” The man replied.
“Gustavo, if you have done your findings about me well, you will know that I am the head of the table. I rule New York City. I had every right to do what I did. It would be best for all of us if you don’t bring up what had happened in New York City.” Axel replied and he laughed with Marley and his men.
“You have got some guts kid, we have the upper hand here and you are the one making threats, I can put a bullet in your head right now.” Gustavo said and they all laughed. He suddenly pulled out a gun and pointed it at Axel and Max.
Nora looked around as she slowly pulled over a little distance from the warehouse.
“Is this the place?” She asked Lily as she also looked around.
“According to Axel, yes. It should be that warehouse.” Lily replied and they both walked out of the car.
“It’s so quiet out here.” Nora said as they walked closer to each other.
“So, what now?” Lily asked.
“You are asking me? This was your idea, do the thinking.” Nora replied and Lily sighed. Lily looked like she was lost and Nora sighed.
“Fine, I will do the thinking, come on.” she said and they both walked towards the warehouse. They got to the entrance and Lily was about to go in when Nora hurriedly held her back.
“What?” Lily whispered.
“We can’t just go in. What if we walk into a gunfight or we interrupt something?” Nora whispered back.
“So what do we do?” Lily asked.
“Let’s find a back door or something.” Nora replied and pulled her towards the back.
They got to the back and found an open door, they walked in and they got into the warehouse.
They could hear laughs and voices but they couldn’t see anything since they were at the end of the room and cars were blocking their view.
They bent and walked silently deep into the room, they finally got behind a car and they could see everything. Lily gasped as she saw the back view of a man and he was pointing a gun at Axel and Max.
Nora could also see it.
“They are in trouble.” Lily whispered to Nora.
“Yeah, I am surprised. It’s always the other way around.” She replied.
They kept watching them and Lily got more terrified for Axel every second. She was surprised he didn’t look bothered or scared, same as Max. They were both calm.
“Like we said earlier, we only came here to make a business deal.” Axel said and they all laughed again.
“Do you think you can walk in here freely and just leave like that?” Gustavo asked.
Out of the blue, Nora’s phone suddenly rang and her eyes widened in shock.
“Nora, turn it off.” Lily whispered as she hurriedly withdrew her phone and turned it off.
“Who is there?” The man asked and Nora sighed.
“And we are dead.” She muttered as the men walked towards the car they hid behind.
“Did you guys come here with someone? Is this a setup?” Gustavo asked angrily.
“It better not be what I am thinking.” Max sighed.
The men saw Nora and Lily and they both pulled them out.
Max and Axel exhaled heavily seeing it was them as they dragged them to the corner of the room.
“It was what I was thinking. I told you, man, I fucking told you.” Max said to Axel. Nora and Lily were placed next to both of them.
“This is getting interesting. Do you know them? Are they cops?” Gustavo asked Axel.
“Yeah, they are harmless.” Axel replied.
“Yeah, hi.” Nora chuckled nervously and Axel and Max shot her a glare. Lily looked at the men in their presence and her curiosity got the best of her as usual.
“So, who is Marley?”