Who Want Me Dead?
“That’s your bed. I’m yet to see mine.” I said, voice rough.
That damn brow of his, arched again and I decided it was a condescending movement. And I hated him even more for it.
“It’s your bed too now.” he said, shrugging.
“I’d rather sleep on the floor,” I grumbled.
Hollis ignored me. “I’m sure you have some questions.” He started, taking a seat on his part of the bed. “I’m here to answer all of them.”
“Beautiful.” I mumbled. “What are my clothes doing in there?” I pointed to the closet door.”
“Ugo, sit down on the bed, let’s talk. You can’t sit on the floor.” I hesitated. “Come on…. you don’t have to be mad at me forever. I’ll tell you anything you want. But first, you need to sit down here.” He tapped the bed, making a sound.
“Fair enough.” I said and slowly stood up from the floor. I went over to the other side of the bed that was meant to be mine and sat down, facing the wall, with an enormous space between us.
“So….” I waited.
“I had to protect you. Part of the measures I took while doing that was to get a duplicate of your house key.” He responded casually, not a bit worried or sorry for the invasion of privacy.
“How did you get my house key in the first place?”
He shrugged. “I have my ways.”
“So do you still have it now, the duplicate?” He nodded. “Can I have it?”
He sighed, brought out a bunch of keys from his pocket. He pulled out a single key and pushed it across the bed to my side. I almost screamed down the room in anger, but I held it in.
I picked up the key and continued. “So the clothes, shoes and the rest, how did you come about all of them?”
He didn’t answer immediately. So, I figured he was taking his time to arrange his words.
“I bought them from their designers, all of them. Some were out of stock, but I had them remake one for you.”
I started laughing hysterically. “How long have you been planning this, all of this.” I curved my hands in circles demonstrating what I meant.
“Ugo, can we talk about….”
“How long!” I snapped at him. Oh my temper, it’s definitely going to put me in real trouble.
“After the first attempt on your life.” He replied.
“So the attempts on my life, was it you?”
“What?” He sprang up from the bed. “Hell no! I would never do such a thing.”
“Then who the fuck want me dead?” I started sobbing. I knew the tears were going to come. I couldn’t hold them back anymore. They just had to come. “Who wants me dead, please?” I sobbed uncontrollably.
He walked over to my side of the bed and held me closer to him. “You shouldn’t cry for anybody Ugo. I want you to always see an opportunity in every situation and think of the best way to use it to your advantage. That’s how I live my life and it works for me.” I heard him say.
“What are you saying?”
He sat beside me. “The Morello case, why didn’t you withdraw the case and have an amicable settlement when you were asked to?”
Yet another information this man had access to without me telling him. “My client refused to withdraw the case. His wife was killed for crying out loud.”
“Was that all?”
“What do you mean ‘was that all’. Didn’t you hear me, his wife was murdered.”
“I heard you all right. But he was offered money, millions of dollars, he refused to let the case slide.”
“He obviously wanted justice for his wife.” I stressed.
“You know he was cheating on his wife, right? And he was already planning on eloping with his lover before the incident happened.”
I became silent. I didn’t know this. The man that came to our firm was disoriented, and depressed. “No, I had no idea.”
He nodded. “Someone gave you money to continue with the case, no matter what. Did you take the money?”
“Jesus!” I exclaimed. “What’s happening?”
Hollis took my hand. “Morello was my cousin, and he died in prison.” I pulled my hand away from him instantly and moved a few distance away from him while holding his gaze.
Next, I bolted to the door, tears blurring my vision. I was fucked up. This was now looking a lot like revenge. I needed to run far away from Hollis, from everyone, including my family.
“Ugo, sit down.” He called not moving a single part of his body aside his mouth.
“No,” I sobbed, turning the door knob to find that it was locked. The tears were flowing freely now. “Please, don’t kill me.” I was sobbing profusely at this point.
Hollis stood up from the bed and came to meet me. He took my hand and pulled me with absolute gentleness toward the bed.
“Sit down.”
It wasn’t a request, so I sat.
“I’m not killing anybody,” he said, “but there are people after your life. Most of them are members of my family. That is why I brought you here. I need to keep you alive and in order to do that, you have to be my woman for a while, at least.”All rights © NôvelDrama.Org.
I shook my head. “No, not like this.”
“Yes Ugo, yes, like this. It’s the only way to keep you safe. No one would ever dare touch you once they know you belong to me, not even my father. You’ll go back out there after a while. But by then, you’ll be untouchable because you belong to me.”
“I belong to you? Jesus Christ! Why… why are you doing this?”
He stood up and paced a little. “My cousin messed up, okay. I found out he was involved in human trafficking. He was trafficking young women to some men in the Mafia. We don’t allow that, Ugo.”
He looked at me and I nodded, trying to make him see that I was following whatever he was saying.
“Women are off limits, so is any form of human trafficking. He got set up by someone, Frick. That was how he was caught. I should have stood for him, pulled some strings, but I wanted him to be taught some hard lessons. So, I did nothing and I warned everyone to do nothing. But when my father couldn’t take it anymore, he went behind me to offer the victim’s husband some money. Unfortunately, Frick was on top of his game. He doubled the money for the victim’s husband.”
“So, why am I being targeted? I was just doing my job as his lawyer.” I whined.
“Because Morello is dead. He is family and it’s only logical that his death is avenged. It’s something that has to do with honor. As a family, we are bound to give him that honor, the respect.”
I slumped to the floor. “So, I’m safe for now until?”
“You’re safe for now Ugo.” He replied simply.