Chapter 50: Chapter 50
Avril frowned at Dakar as she heard his question.
“Now is not the time for questions, sir,” she answered and exhaled deeply.
She placed her palm on her forehead and closed her eyes.
“God, I can't believe that threat is back,” she muttered to herself as she walked away gently. Dakar stared at her back and felt her fear and anger. And he knew it all revolved around this Alejandro she kept mentioning. Whoever wanted her, wanted her because of him. Or, wanted her for the same reason as they wanted Alejandro. She had said a certain person killed Alejandro because of this particular Luca Aguero. So if they wanted Avril too, were they planning to kill her?
He let out a deep, dry laughter and Avril looked back at him with a raised brow.
“Is something funny?” she asked, wondering why he was laughing when there was obviously trouble looming. He could sense negative energy and she was sure he knew she was in trouble.
“This Luca Aguero wants you dead, doesn't he?” he asked with a deadly smirk. Something about that smirk did not let Avril answer immediately. It was like she could feel him having the urge to break Luca's neck.
“Let's go back to the pack. It's not safe here...for you,” he said and sped to her, grabbed her hand and hurriedly walked her to the car.
“I can take care of myself!” she said and yanked her hand off from him.
“I never said you couldn't. Obviously you can. But what if there's a sniper up somewhere? Or if this Luca comes here himself to get you,” Dakar stated and it was obvious he was worried.
“I...Luca Aguero doesn't want me dead,” Avril replied and rubbed her forehead again. Dakar peered at her with narrow eyes.
“What does he want then?” he asked.
“He just...he just wants me,” she stuttered and shrugged.
“I'm not buying that,” Dakar retorted slowly and she sighed.
“He just wants information from me I think. What he wanted from Alejandro but couldn't get because he died. Look, it's a long story Dakar,” she drawled and placed her hands on her waist. She blew out air from her mouth and gulped. Dakar held her hand again.
“What exactly are you, Fiorella? And who in the world is this dead man that you are so concerned about?”
“I don't see why I should tell you anything.”
“You should. Because I just saved your life by fighting with you.”
“Who endangered it in the first place by taking me out of the pack?”
Dakar's hand slid off hers and he looked at her with amusement.
“I remember someone telling me yes when I asked if she wanted to come out more often,” was his reply after a while.
Avril scoffed and rubbed her arms. The goosebumps she was having were giving her the chills.
“Let's just go back. I need to talk with the girls. Hurriedly,” she said with agitation.
“If it were for me, we would have been zooming off already,” Dakar replied with a scowl and left her standing there as he walked to the other side of the car and got the door open. He didn't ask like a gentleman anymore. He sat in and started the car. Avril sat in hurriedly and he took off almost immediately.
“What about those bodies?” she asked as she looked back at the receding hotel building. She was wondering why no one sensed the commotion outside. Why didn't the hotel have security? Or...did the men take care of the security thinking they could have their way?
All through the ride home, none of them spoke a single word. Dakar was visibly angry, as his face was wearing the deepest frown ever and his firm hands over the wheel had very plump and turgid veins popping out. He was sitting calm, but was blowing hot steam off his ears.
Avril on the other hand had her face lowered in her palms. The death of Alejandro, the murder she committed when she took Miguel Vincaso's life, the threat Luca Aguero was looming towards her and the fact that the man she wanted to get comfort from was acting like a bipolar version of himself hit her hard. She was blinking back the tears with so much energy that her eyelids hurt.
“Dakar,” she called as she was lowered over like that.
“Can you please...please make me fall asleep again?” she pleaded. Instantly, his heart softened and his worry turned into a softer shade of worry.
“Are you all right?” he asked but she didn't reply. He sighed and relaxed on his seat. Five seconds later, he reclined the car seat a little then gently pushed the already sleeping Avril back to lean comfortably against the seat. He held her hand and squeezed it lovingly.
A minute later, he was dialing a number on his phone. He placed it in front and waited for the person to pick up.
‘Hello, Mr Remus,’ a man's voice drawled sluggishly from the phone.
“New job up, Vane,” Dakar spoke up.
‘What is it, boss?’ the man's voice replied. It was more audible this time as he heard there was a new job coming.
“Luca Aguero. I need every information I can get about him from the streets and trusted Intel,” Dakar ordered.
‘What? Boss, Luca Aguero? Damn that's the leader of Xpresso! They're like the nastiest group of terrorists ever!’ the man retorted with an agitated voice.
“Get me everything about him you can find. We'll meet tomorrow evening.”
“What? Just a day to do a dangerous job—” Dakar hung up on the call and exhaled. He looked at Avril's face and sighed. He retracted the roof of the car as they got away from the city center, drew open his dashboard and picked up a roll of cigar. He lit it and took a deep drag before puffing out thick white smoke. This was the reason he made her sleep off earlier, so he could smoke. He couldn't take any chances with the demon poking its ugly head out while he was with Avril. Right then, he remembered when Dojo had seen Avril with that his bracelet on that day she stubbornly came up to his castle. He wondered where she kept it now because she didn't wear it anymore. And he couldn't ask her because he wasn't supposed to know she had a bracelet.
\*\*
Avril turned and tossed, she was on something harder than her usual bed in the pack. She opened her eyes and saw the shade of dark red bedsheets stating back at her. She sat up and saw she was in the enclosed four-poster bed in Dakar's bedroom. This time, the light red, linen curtains were dawn and she was within it.
She yawned and rubbed her eyes, wondering where Dakar was. She wanted to shift to the edge of the bed so she could step down as she was in the middle of the bed, when Dakar entered the room and went straight to the four poster bed.
“Good morning,” a shirtless Dakar greeted with a deep, low voice.
“Breakfast in bed?” he asked and lowered a tray on her thighs. It was a simple breakfast of toast sandwich, Greek yogurt and sliced strawberries, with a glass of orange juice.
“Breakfast in bed?” Avril asked with surprise. Dakar used to give her breakfasts in bed back then.
“Just eat and get up. There is a place I need to take you to,” Dakar said and made his curtains fold up automatically, so the bed was now visibly bare. He bent over to pick a strawberry and dipped it into the yogurt then—
“Open up,” he said as the strawberry stood waiting at the entrance of Avril's mouth. She was taken aback and looked up at his face.
“I...I can feed myself,” she complained but he brought the strawberry even closer. She sighted the snake-like black lines on his arm and remembered how he got those. She knew deep down they still caused him pain. But, did he even know how he got them? She opened her mouth and took in the strawberry but closed her eyes and prayed one more time that Dakar should regain his memory.
“Oh my God...now what do we have here?” a sharp, loud and silly voice sounded across the room. Both their heads swung to the entrance of the room where a smiling Camper was standing and looking like he had just seen the actors of his favorite movie right in front of him.
“Go on, go on. Feed her. I'm just going to sit on the floor here and pretend to be a sculpture. I won't look at you as you feed her,” he stated and truly sat on the floor, crossed his legs, placed his elbows on both his thighs and joined his hands together by placing each finger against each other, as if he was thinking deeply. Camper froze and sat still like a sculpture for real.