Chapter 81: Actions and Consequences 2

Draven’s POV

It was already afternoon ... the exact time that bastard would go pick up his nephew from school. This was my window. Now or never.

"I’m happy you’re alive, but if I don’t teach them a lesson, they won’t learn not to mess with you next time," I said to her.

"Okay, please ... I’m asking you to stop. For me and for your own life," she said.

"I’m sorry, I can’t stop. I already have everything mapped out and this is my only window of opportunity."

Jade looked at me. "Is that how badly you want revenge, Draven? Leave it! Why do you want it so bad?" Her voice climbed higher.

"Because I love you, Jade." My voice matched hers, raw and unfiltered.

She stared at me like I’d knocked the wind out of her.

"You shouldn’t be surprised. I love you. You give me hope. You’re the light in my darkness. From the very first day I saw you, I..."

"Draven." She stepped back slightly. "You shouldn’t love me. I’m not what you think I am. It’s not good that you love me."

"But I already do. I already do and there’s no going back." I paused, searching her face. "Don’t tell me you don’t feel the same way. Or was it just the sex?"

"I don’t want to answer that. Please."

The sincerity behind her eyes made me want to get it done for her even more ... consequences be damned.

"Draven, cancel your plans or I’ll tell Rex what you’re about to do," she said.

"It’s too late."

I stepped toward her and pressed firmly against her temple, just enough for her to lose consciousness and drift off. I carried her out and laid her down outside my room so nobody would keep suspecting anything. Then I grabbed the draft and my gun, and jumped out the window, dropping down to the ground below.

I wheeled the bike quietly through the back of the compound and slipped out. I climbed on and rode.

The naive Draven who first came to Valdris was not the same man on that bike. He was about to go shoot someone. That was exactly what happened when you kept company with deadly people. And now they wanted to stop me from doing the very thing they did every day without thinking twice.

It was a twenty-five minute drive from the bar. At some point along the way, I noticed I felt no fear at all ... just a quiet, cold determination to get it done.

I wasn’t ready for Jade’s response to my confession. All I’d wanted was for her to know that I loved her. Her blonde hair had driven me crazy from the first moment I laid eyes on her. And even if I died today, my life had taken on a fresh meaning because of her.

My phone started buzzing on the road. Rex was calling. I didn’t pick up his fucking call.

Then a voice note came through.

"Draven, I am asking you as your leader to stop that nonsense you’re planning. You don’t know the repercussions, please. We found Jade ... the one you left here ... and she told us everything. Are you mad? Do you know what you’re doing? These new guys always want to do the most. Come back here now or you’ll face my wrath."

I was too far gone. There was no turning back.

I pulled up two blocks from the school and parked the bike. I walked the rest of the way with my face covered.

I saw the school gates from a distance. They had closed for the day, students already filing out. I positioned myself at the corner, drew my gun, and steadied myself.

The bastard went inside the school to fetch his nephew. When he came back out ... that was my moment. I cocked the gun and waited.

People passed by on the street but Gia had taught me well enough about how to position a shot and meet your target cleanly.

He came out from the school with his nephew beside him. The kid looked no older than five.

My heart was hammering in my chest. This was my first time shooting someone ... killing someone, actually. I breathed in. Breathed out.

I pulled the trigger.

Boom.

He dropped. The bullet caught him clean in the neck ... the carotid artery, where blood flow was massive. His nephew started screaming and crying out loud. I didn’t let myself think about the aftermath or what that moment would do to the young boy. I pushed it down and blocked it out.

I held my position long enough to confirm he was dead, then I turned and ran hard back to the bike. I mounted it and tore off at full speed. There was no way they were tracing that back to me.

The first adrenaline rush that hit me as I rode was unlike anything I’d ever felt. My first kill ... and it had been for the person I’d just fallen in love with. Now the Glocks would know better than to put their hands on just anybody.

But I couldn’t go straight back. They would still be furious. Rex would probably want my head.

I pulled over at a secluded building and stayed there, sitting with my thoughts.

Sitting there, replaying everything that had happened and everything I’d done, my phone lit up with a video call. Rex again. This man was relentless.

I picked up this time.

The first thing I saw was a knife pressed across Jade’s throat.

"Jade!" I screamed, everything in me dropping cold.

"Thought you could just run off, did you?" Rex said.

"Please don’t hurt her," I said. He was the one holding the knife. Someone else was handling the phone.

"Come and get your love." He smiled ... slow and crooked.

"Ten minutes. Or she’s dead."

I could see Jade crying through the screen. She couldn’t speak. The blade was too close.

No. I was not letting that happen.

"I’m coming right now. Please don’t touch her," I yelled.

Rex killed the call. I was already sprinting back to the bike.

I don’t even know what time I arrived, but I’d bet everything it was well under ten minutes.

I walked into the bar.

The exact scene from the video ... except now it was live, right in front of me. Every single Mafia Wolf had their gun drawn and pointed directly at me. And Rex still had that knife at Jade’s throat, her face drenched in sweat, her eyes wild with fear.

"Here she is. The love of your life." Rex tilted his head. "You fall fast, Draven, and you’ve got a lot of nerve."

"I had to do what I had to do," I said.

"Shut up! You directly disobeyed me. You acted alone and now every single one of us is going to bear the consequences of your stupidity."

"You can’t kill me. I can track every last one of them and we take them out ... all of us, together," I said.

"You don’t know me," he replied, still smiling. "I can do whatever I want."

"Just put Jade down. This is between you and me," I said, my voice dropping low. A plea. I wasn’t too proud to beg for her.

"But it’s because of her you did all this. So you have been fucking her. You lied straight to my face."

I said nothing.

"No need to lie again. She already confessed," Rex said.

"We can work through this. The man I killed ... his people are going to want to retaliate. We need to be aligned for our own good."

"Shut the fuck up!" Rex’s expression hardened. "You were a simp wherever you came from and you’ve walked in here and made yourself a simp on my turf as well." He raised his chin toward the rest of the crew. "Wolves ... ready your guns."

Guns cocked in unison, every barrel pointed at me.

There I stood. Weapons in my face. Jade panicking with a blade at her throat. And Rex holding all the cards, deadly and unmoved.