Chapter 182: Don’t Hesitate
Draven’s POV
"Richard Benson is his name. He’s a government worker in charge of certain funds, but he has proven himself unworthy of that position and power, so it has to be taken away from him immediately," Tony said.
He spoke about killing a man the way someone else would explain the rules of Monopoly, calm and casual, like we were about to sit around a board and divide up property.
Of course, anyone who could order us to wipe out our own family was capable of anything. He wasn’t even capping.
"So we take the money from him by force, yeah?" I asked.
"Yes, you do that. But if he doesn’t give it to you willingly, and I know he won’t, then kill him. Finish him off and don’t hesitate to do it. You must come back with that money," Tony said.
We all stared at him, trying to focus and grasp what he was really asking of us. May included, though her face gave away nothing.
"So how much are we looking at here?" Zeno asked.
"Hmm. Something around ten billion."
The room went dead quiet for a second.
"What the fuck? Ten billion? That’s a whole lot of money. We aren’t a recovery team, for goddess’ sake," Ciro said, throwing his hands up.
"Anything the boss tells you to do, you do it without arguing," May snapped, and just like that she had put herself at the forefront of the fucking mission.
Tony told Ciro to get on the system, and we looked Richard Benson up. He was an influential man with a huge mansion behind a heavy gate, and guards stationed at every corner of it. We were thieves, robbers and kidnappers all rolled into one, but this one looked like a hard nut to crack. The man had a fucking surveillance system that could run for miles. He was years of experience boxed into one body, and cracking him would not be easy. On top of that, we were dealing with humans, and these ones were smart as fuck. So no, I was not eager to go on this mission.
"Why do you think we pay you what we pay you? Why do we give you all these privileges? It’s for this exact purpose. Richard’s time has expired, so go and take that money away from him. You leave in the next few hours," Tony said.
He left the room, and I knew he would be back. Before then, Jade took over the floor, walking like she was about to fly, chest out and chin up.
"This is a very easy mission, don’t worry. I’ve been on worse," she said.
"Icefang would count as worse, wouldn’t it?" I asked her.
Her face twisted with fury, and she gave me an unexpected punch in the belly.
"Oww! What was that for?" I yelled, doubling over.
I wanted to fight back. She shouldn’t have been hitting me like that, and I was so sure I could beat her, beat the shit and crap out of her. She bounced on the floor in front of me while all my people watched, daring me to exchange blows with her.
Something had been itching at me since Icefang, so I asked it anyway as she bounced.
"Were you really down and couldn’t move, or were you just pretending so you could rest?"
She answered with her fists. She slapped the shit out of my cheek, and my ears rang. Damn, she was strong. At one point I caught her hand when she tried to punch me, but she twisted my arm down like a man would, and I heard whispers of laughter from somewhere in the background. These people were laughing at their boss, at their leader. No, I would not let May make a ridicule of me in front of my people.
I wanted to scream, but I held it in. It was damn painful.
I struck her on the leg, and it almost bent the wrong way. Then I twisted my body and threw a flying kick that sent her stumbling backward, and her head knocked against the wall, though only barely.
She came back at me steady and calm, slipping past every punch I threw until she got inside my guard and pinned me down into a submission. She locked in on me with all her might and strength. This time I did shout. I couldn’t bear it. When she finally let go, my left arm was numb and I couldn’t move it.
Now they would laugh at me to the fullest extent. I was a weakling who couldn’t even battle a lady. Fuck!
"That should serve as a lesson. You all should learn how to turn things in your favor. It’s one of the most important lessons in military school," she said.
My people laughed.
"I need my arm twisted too. I think one of my bones is not in its place," Salvatore said, and everyone laughed even harder.
Only Valentina came to check on me. She took me to the side to make sure I was fine and began massaging the bones, her fingers firm and careful. It needed that stretch.
When Tony came back in and said it was time to go, I knew there was no way in the world I was going to a man’s house to kill him with a partially fractured arm.
"He’s not in shape, sir," Valentina said when Tony asked what was wrong with me.
"Yes, sir. He was injured during training, and it’s severe. I don’t think he’s fit to go either," May said.
I kept eye contact with her. She was calling my pain the result of training, like she hadn’t been standing right there watching it happen.
"There are still five of them. They should go, with Jade as their leader, while I stay here and wait," I said to Tony.
"Okay. But you only have this one mission to get better. A soldier must not be down more than once. Let me go call the doctor," he said.
The rest prepared to leave, and soon they did.
"Good luck," I said to them on their way out, and I meant it for my people. I didn’t mean it for May. I wished a bomb would fall on her head and blow her into pieces. I wished she was the only one caught, and her body was torn apart by bullets.
𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺
As they left, the doctor arrived with his nurses, three in total. After examining and treating me, they laid me on a bed and gave me sleeping medicine, and I slept like a baby.
When I woke up, they were already back.
"Damn, have I been asleep for that long? How did it go?" I asked.
"It was successful. Ten billion dollars recovered. On to the next," Zeno said.
I didn’t ask how. I knew they had to kill Richard to get that money.