Hermes stood in the meeting hall of his house expectantly. His hands were visibly shaking but he paid it no heed, as he tried his best to steady his thoughts and body as much as possible. It was not proving to be so effective but then he had to try. This was going to be the first time he was having a meeting with one of the investors and he was entirely nervous. For the duration of their time together, all the investors had gone through great lengths to hide their identity and there had never once been a physical meeting, there had never been need for one. Work had always gone smoothly before and they were highly pleased at the fact that he provided results and made them a lot of money as well.The fact that he had gotten a message from one of them that he was going to be visiting him personally was definitely not a good sign. It had been so impromptu as well and there was no time for him to prepare or get his act together. Everything seemed to be happening around him all at once and
ATHENAMy eyes fluttered open once again and this time I found myself on the floor in what looked like a makeshift bed. I could tell that it was a makeshift bed because it still felt like I was on the floor and my body hurt like hell. I had no idea how I had ended up in that corner of the room as I looked around. I must have slept off and that was when they did all of this because I couldn’t remember the bed being there when I woke up the first time. I let out a huge sigh of relief as I surveyed the room. If there was anything I was thankful for, it was the fact that my limbs were no longer bound.I rubbed my wrists slowly as I touched the place where the ropes had frayed them, they were still quite red and felt very sore, but at least they were no longer in shackles. Fighting through the pain which I could feel coursing through my body, I sat up on the bed and tried my best to get up. The pregnancy was not helping matters either, as I felt my back hurt from the weight which was being
RAFAELProcessing everything that had been going on was extremely hard for me. I had just been betrayed by two people which I trusted so much, one I trusted and treated like my brother, an extension of me. Even as I sat in the study looking at the drink of whiskey which I had poured out but had been unable to drink, I could still feel the hurt in my heart. The fact that Hernandez had chosen to do something like this to me was completely beyond my ability to comprehend. It was the last thing that I thought would ever happen to me in a million yearsThe fact that Rachael had tried to warn me about it but then I had not listened to her in any way. If anything, I had pushed her to do what she was doing right now. I definitely had a huge part to play in everything that was going on. Maybe if I had handled things differently when it came to matters that were presented to me then she would not have felt the need to take matters into her own hands. A world of guilt continued to float around i
Hermes waited for Rafael to arrive at his location. The call which he had placed had been against his better judgment but it was obvious to him that time was no longer on his side. The clock was ticking and there had been no positive outcome from anywhere. His efforts to find information about Athena and Rachael had hit a roadblock and it felt like his guys were completely incompetent. He had expected this though from the beginning. Rachael was the best at what she did and there was no way she was going to be stupid not to have arranged something quite solid. If she didn’t want to be found then she was certainly not going to be found. He knew that this meant doom for Athena, especially if he didn’t do exactly what she wanted. She had his hands tied and she knew it.Rachael was a completely different breed from Rafael. From the way which Rafael had treated Athena the few times he met them. He knew that he didn’t have what it took to hurt her. He couldn’t even sense her being in danger
RAFAELWe all rode in silence as we headed to my house. Rachael was bleeding in the back seat and I had instructed one of my men to tend to her wounds. She kept staring at me without saying a word, but I could tell from the frown on her face that she was not pleased by anything that was going on. When I had offered her my assistance when she lay on the floor bleeding, she had initially tried to fight me. It had not been so much of a fight as her hand was not of so much use. The bullet was still lodged in there and I had already called the family doctor to meet me up at the house to perform a quick removal of it. The wound didn’t look entirely nasty and I was sure she was going to live through it.Hermes was not too pleased about my decision to keep her alive and he made this expressly clear. Even when I tried to place her in the back of the car, he expressly denied and insisted that he was not going to ride with someone who had been responsible for putting his daughter in harm. I coul
ATHENAEven as I sat bound to the chair with a bag over my head impeding my vision, the whole scene at the restaurant kept on playing in my head. I had seen the bullet go through Rachael as she slumped to the ground along with the gun which she had trained to my back. The whole thing had happened so fast and even though I had tried my best to get to Rafael, especially after hearing him screaming my name out loud, I wasn’t able to. I couldn’t get to him before the van pulled up beside me and the men tossed me in. As I sat in the room, I could still feel their presence all around me. I wondered who they were and nobody had bothered to tell me anything ever since we got to wherever this was. They had not spoken to me directly despite all the questions I threw their way. I was in a world where I knew no one and I struggled so hard to comprehend what was going on.I was sure of one thing though, these were completely different people from Rachael’s men. When we first got here, I had though
RAFAELAll through the night leading up to this, I found myself completely unable to sleep. This was certainly not a new phenomenon for me. Sleep had managed to elude me a lot during the past few days and I desperately hoped that I would finally be able to find rest when all of this was in the past. When Athena and the baby were safe and sound, I would finally be able to rest and think about everything. I had desperately avoided thinking about what Rachael had told me the other day. This whole time, I had not even considered the possibility that the child that Athena was carrying could be my own in any way. Initially I had seen it as a means to carry out my revenge on Hermes.Raising the child the way which he had raised me, that was what I had planned to do. That plan had since left my head, but then, I still had never considered the possibility of the child being mine. All I had thought was that the child was Athena’s ex’s and this had pissed me off so much for a reason that I was s
The whole room seemed to be in a sort of chokehold, as everybody’s eyes bounced around. Hermes’s arrival had been quite unexpected to all of them and they had no idea what any of this meant or what he was doing here. From the way that he had burst in, his intentions could be told to some degree though. He was standing in between his two guards who had come into the room with him and he had a smile as he stared at the meeting which was going on at the table. Rafael most especially was very surprised by all that was going on. He wasn’t sure what to make of all of this as so many questions ran through his mind.He got up and walked over to Hermes as their eyes met.“What the fuck are you doing here?” Rafael asked,“And here I was thinking that you were an honorable man that I could trust, Mr Hall.” The investor said, as he sat up and adjusted his suit. “The last thing I was expecting was that you would bring the enemy right to my doorstep after you were the one that asked for this deal t