Debt

Xander's POV

I left the hotel in a haste not wanting to let go of the chance to capture that jerk. When Tyler said that he spotted the guy on our surveillance that was enough for me to gear up and go to the place he was last seen. "Xan, he's about 1 hour drive away from where you are right now so I will keep watching to see where he goes. So don't do anything rash and stay put until I send some back up for you okay. Cause he's not alone"

"I don't care if he's alone or not Ty, I can take them down. You send back up but until then I am not sitting around and waiting when we finally found him after 2 years."

I recalled our conversation before I left the hotel. I know that it's dangerous, but I won't be Xander Arison if I can't take down a few men by myself. Besides, I have been waiting for this day for the past 2 years.

I got to the place in 40 minutes and got down from my vehicle to start looking for him. It was a shabby neighborhood with a lot of alleyways and there were quite a lot of people on the road considering it was a weekend. I was scanning the area when I saw the underground club which Tyler mentioned. I immediately made my way over to that and went inside. It was a dark place and there were not many people inside as it was still daytime. However, there were a few strippers already doing their job on the stage. Something is fishy. There are not enough people here for the number of strippers that's already working. Even if it is daylight there won't be this many strippers around without a reason. There has to be something more to it.

I went around the bar and saw a few guys seated in the front and hooting at the half naked girls displaying themselves. And there were a few other guys who had a few girls giving them lap dances. I heard a giggle coming to my left and saw a guy kissing one of the strippers and had his hands all over her body, the girl suddenly pushed the man slightly and whispered something to his ear and dragged him off down a hallway. I pretended to be interested in a stripper who was near me and asked her what was down the hallway. "That is for our customers who are looking for more than just watching us" she said with a wink, I knew then that the club is just a cover for illegal prostitution and maybe more of which was happening in this club.

I asked her to take me there and noticed many stalls inside, before she could push me into one of the vacant stalls I said that I need to use the restroom and made my way further down the hall which was filled with smoke, moaning sounds, screaming and whip sounds. I have been a gang leader for some time, but we only dealt with people who were harmful to our family business and did not take any innocent lives. What I'm witnessing right now is horrible for people who has not been in our profession as it seems like there were many unwilling participants who were likely trafficked.

I need to find that person fast and get out of here before I get caught snooping around. I started knocking down the stalls acting as if I’m drunk and accidentally stumbled into their stalls. But he wasn't in any of it. Damn it! Ugh! I ran my hand through my hair in frustration and heard a door closing from my right. I quickly went to check and sure enough there was an exit. I opened the door and peeked out and saw a bunch of guys when I spotted the baldheaded man with a flat nose among them. There were exactly 7 people there and seemed to be carrying some sort of a weapon. I calculated my chances of winning against them and stepped out and pulled out the two guns I hid in my back and pointed it at them.

They heard the sound of the door and all of them turned at me and stopped everything they were doing before they started attacking me with wooden poles and chains that they were hiding in their clothes. I walked forward while firing my guns which had a silencer on them to not attract any attention and noticed that the flat nosed guy was getting away, I ran out of bullets and started using my fists and started fighting off the guys. I finally got through them and started chasing behind flat nose.

I saw him ahead of me running through different alleys while pushing people, I chased behind him for about a good half a mile before he came to a dead end and had no choice but to face me.

He turned while panting when I knew it was game over for him. "There's no point running cause I will eventually catch you. You must pay for what you did. I have never forgotten you for the last two years of my life!" I spat menacingly while approaching him slowly.

He smirked and replied "It felt really great to watch her suffering and then dying. Even more to get a taste of her before we finished her off." I was enraged when he said that and attacked at him "You bastard" I caught him with a punch and he fell back but quickly recovered and started fighting back. I was getting the upper hand as I was much better at hand to hand combat and got him with a flying kick which made him go down. He laid there heaving and I screamed at him "get up you bastard! I want you to fight me before I slowly finish you."

He slowly looked my way and started coming towards me to try and punch me but I blocked him and twisted his arm to the back so his back was facing me. "You will pay for what you did" I said menacingly to him before I heard him chuckle and felt a sudden electric shock before my whole body went numb. I lost my grip on him and fell on my knees when I suddenly felt a sharp pain at the back of my head. I felt my head spinning when I heard him saying "You will never catch me. And also don't bother with revenge, she's not worth it!"

I tried to fight my way through it but I soon fell into oblivion.

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Arielle's POV

"I’m so sorry A. I will not be able to take you around today as something urgent came up at work and I need to go there right away. Here's my credit card and an extra phone with my number. I have left my other car keys on the dining table. If you want you can go out and have some fun. I'm going to get going now okay A. Bye!" Casey said in a rush and left the house running.

What could be the emergency for her to be running off like that without even eating? Well I guess I should just try to explore a bit by myself. I got dressed and had brunch and grabbed the stuff Casey gave me and got her car keys and left the apartment. I went to the parking lot and pressed the key to see what her extra car was when a blue color Ford mustang beeped. Nice ride C!!  I thought with a giddy smile and got into the car and drove off.

I drove around the city for a while and did a bit of shopping for myself and Chae and even did some grocery shopping to cook something later on. While driving I passed by an antique shop which sells porcelain vases which looked just like something that my mom likes so I tried to park the car but there were no available spots so I went a bit further and parked the car about one block away and walked back to the shop. Hmmmm strange, I’m sure I took a right turn from here but I don't see the shop anywhere. I walked a bit more further and found the shop about 50m away when I noticed a well-dressed guy stumbling away. Tch! looks like there are drunkards around here even during daytime. I was about to ignore the man and walk away when suddenly he fell on the road. "OMG!" I ran to the man and asked "Daijobudesuka?" I asked in Japanese and turned the man around to see it was none other than Xander Arison. "Xander? Oh my god Xander, are you okay?" I asked while tapping his face. Now a few people seemed to have gathered around us curiously. 

I was panicking and didn't know what to do when I felt something wet from where I was holding his head. I took out my hand and noticed that there was blood. I started panicking more and was now calling out helplessly for someone to call an ambulance. I suddenly remembered Casey and called her on speed dial.

"Hel-"

"Casey, I don't know what to do! I found Xander unconscious on the road and he's bleeding. What do I do?" I realized that I was tearing now cause of panic.

"A where are you right now?" I gave her the location when someone said that the ambulance was on it's way. "A, don't call the ambulance, I’m on my way now with the others so take him to our apartment first okay." I was shaking with fear and nodded my head "Don't worry A, nothing will happen to him. Now don't panic and take him to my place. I will meet you there" she said and hung up the phone. So I asked them to cancel the ambulance and got help from few of the people to carry him to the car.

We put him on the backseat and I realized that I was shaking when I got into the driver's seat. Get a grip Arielle, you need to tend to him fast and to do that you need to get him home first. I thought to myself and started the engine.

I finally arrived at the building and called for help from security and got them to put him on a wheelchair and took him to the apartment and got him on my bed. I thanked the security and quickly went inside to tend to his wounds after grabbing the first aid kit. I cleaned the wound and applied medicine and bandaged his head and checked his temperature. He was getting a bit warm but he would need to sleep a bit before I can give him any medicine. Shortly after I heard the front door opening and was greeted by the worried face and the guys when they bombarded me with questions.

I explained what happened and they agreed to leave him with us for the time being as he lives alone and they trust Casey to take good care of him. I have calmed down by now and the guys were all grateful to me for helping Xander and tending to him at his weak point. After the guys left I asked Casey "you guys didn't seem to be that surprised that he was bleeding. Does that mean this happens quite a lot?"

She sighed and massaged her forehead with her fingers tiredly and said "It's better for you to not know A. I'm glad that he's okay and that you weren't involved in what went down with him so just leave it at that okay. It's for your own good."

I was still curious but Casey looked tired so  let it go. 

I was back again in my room tending to Xander while Casey was sorting something in her laptop with regards to work when he suddenly groaned and started moving. "easy there!" I said while helping him up. He slowly blinked his eyes and saw me there and I could say he was surprised when he looked at me with round eyes "what are you doing?" he demanded. 

"You passed out on the street while walking and I found you and brought you here. You got hit on the head so be careful" He looked at me skeptically and looked around us and asked "Where is Casey?" "She's out on the living room working on something. If you want I can call her" I offered.

"No. That’s okay, I’ll just go speak to her" he slowly rose from the bed and I was cautiously helping when he said "I'm fine! you can let me go" I hesitantly let him go and he walked out to the living room. They started discussing something so I decided that I should cook something for dinner and started making some pasta and garlic bread.

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Xander's POV

"Xan, what happened? how did Arielle find you in the middle of the road?" Casey asked after she asked how I was feeling.

"The bastard had an electric gun, I didn't see it coming and hit me with a pole after I was stunned. I came back to consciousness after a while so I tried making my way towards my car to call someone cause I have left my phone inside when I lost consciousness on the road again. She must have found me then." I explained to her recalling what happened. That girl is not completely useless.

"You do know that we can't get her involved in these right? so when she asks what happened just say that you fell down and hit your head or something okay." she asked me. I just nodded cause I agree with her when she said that we shouldn't get Arielle involved with our business. She has no idea about this side of us so we should keep it that way.

"by the way Xan, you owe Arielle. She was the one who took you all the way here and tended to your wounds. She has a license in first aid so you don't have to worry about going to a hospital either." she said with a smile and a wink. I groaned and thought how can I payback a weird girl like her? I really don't like owing anyone anything. Ugh.

I went to the kitchen to grab a glass of water when I saw her humming and cooking something. She was wearing an oversized t-shirt which fell to her mid-thighs and wore pink fluffy bunny slippers and a minnie mouse apron with her hair up in a bun. I snorted at the sight which I guess startled her as she gave a small yelp and jumped a bit. 

"Oh my god Xander, you almost gave me a heart attack! How are you feeling now?" she asked me genuinely. For a bit I was taken aback by her raw beauty. I never noticed that she was pretty before. She has really pink lips, I wonder if they are as soft as it looks.

"Um Xander?" she asked again. "ehem, yeah I’m feeling much better now."

"I’m glad you do. You gave me quite a scare you know when I saw you lying on the road and with your head bleeding. What happened exactly?"

"I fell down the stairs and hit my head, didn't notice the pain till later and i guess i must have passed out." I answered nonchalantly while shrugging.

She looked at me suspiciously for a while but answered "well I guess that could happen" she said and got back to stirring whatever she was cooking.

I stood there awkwardly not knowing how to thank her. I cleared my throat and started "ehem, well you know, about earlier..." she turned and looked at me. "Thank you for helping me" I said while looking at her eyes cause I didn’t want her to think I was too embarrassed. 

"oh it's no problem! I couldn't just leave you there so I did what I had to do" she said politely. "well, but I feel like I owe you something so you can ask me for anything you want"

"Oh-no you don't-" she stopped mid-sentence and then her face suddenly lightened up like she had the brightest idea in the world. She looked at me with big hopeful eyes and a creepy smile which suddenly made me regret what I offered. The next thing which came out of her mouth was "you know what? I know exactly how you could repay me. Sleep with me!" she said shamelessly while still smiling like a creep.

"WHAT?!" my eyes bulged out and I pinched the bridge of my nose with frustration. Is this woman really serious right now??? I want to take back my words right away! Someone please help me out of this situation!