Chapter 43: Chapter 43

- Sick head

Deila's Pov

The tears just kept falling, I couldn't control them. They wouldn't stop.

Stupid, stupid tears, I cussed myself angrily.

I hated that I was crying. I wanted to be strong. I wanted to keep the venom and anger, yes, but I didn't want the tears to fall. I hated crying because it made me feel weak and was I weak in every sense of the word.

Weakened. Drained. Pained. Confused.

I just didn't know... just couldn't think of how James could do that to me. How could he have?

Was I even his first as he made me believe? Did he even love me? Those were some of the questions in my head amongst the many that swam. If he loved me he wouldn't break me this way. It was bad enough that he was seeing some woman, but calling me to witness the scene? I couldn't comprehend.

Why would he have wanted me to see that? Was he tired of hiding his scum side?

I dashed the tears away as I entered the house.

Everyone was as I left them. In a grim mood. We'd been tracking Nat's every move since he went missing after we laid a complaint against him. We charged him to court but there wasn't a defense as he was on the run. The FBI had put out a BOLO for him, but they still had nothing. It was the hacker who was first hired by Dawn that'd been able to get some tracks on him, since it was illegal, we didn't want the FBI knowing we were doing some investigations ourselves. Not yet anyway.

Eyes fixated on me as I walked further into the room.

"What in the hell, Dei?" Dawn rushed to me as the tears started falling again.

I dashed them away, but they just continued falling, like it was a dam in my eyes. Damn.

"What happened to you?" Mum and dad asked in unison and Sia just cooed me as she enclosed me in a hug.

Thankfully it wasn't her usual bone-crushing hug.

"Hey, baby," Mari started, trying to stop my hands from pulling on my hair. "Talk to us."

I was going to inquire from Mari about when she arrived and why when we all abruptly turned to the sound of shattering glass.

Silence reigned.

We turned to see who it was and Nat appeared, looking all tattered, with rumpled clothes, disheveled hair.

He staggered further into the room, looking all high and crazy. I gasped, my dam of tears immediately coming to a stop when I saw a Glock in his hand and a baseball bat in the other. He must have used his legs to break the window because I also noticed him limping and then there was the blood soaking his khaki pants.

I had a feeling this wouldn't be good, at all. What good could come out of a criminal on the run holding a gun and a baseball hat and looking all crazed?

"Dei," he snarled then smirked. "Just the girl I want to see."

He started making his way to me when Dawn stepped in front of me. "Don't you dare come close to her. Don't even look at her, fucker."

"You really think there's anything you can do, don't you, Dawn?" He called Dawn in an animated tone I wanted to believe wasn't him trying to sound like me. But that wasn't what I was bothered about when he raised his gun, pointing it to Dawn.

"Step back." He nudged his head.

Dawn stood unshaken, I could've believed he wasn't moved by a Glock facing him, but his stiffened shoulder told me otherwise.

"Now," he yelled when Dawn still didn't bulge.

"Dawn, please step back." I shoved him away to the side. He was too damn stubborn for his own good.

"Hey, Nat." I willed my voice not to shake as the gun was now pointing at me.

Thankfully, he put away the gun. "Missed me? 'Cause, you seem to want me so much that you put out a BOLO for me."

"I didn't put it out, the police did."

He ignored my statement and smiled at a shaking Sia beside.

Don't even look at her fucker, I found myself repeating Dawn's words in my head.

"Did you say something?" He asked me and I nodded no muttering 'fucker' under my breath.

"Good. So who's this angel beside you?" When I didn't answer he walked to Sia, tilting her chin up to face him. "Hey dearie, you must be the younger one, Sia. So beautiful." He made his sick voice sound soft like he was talking to a child.

"Don't you even touch her!" My dad bellowed. "Neither of them."

"Oh, Pops. Forgive my lack of manners." He then walked to my dad like he owned the space. "Good day, Mr.Barbson. You know me so well as an employee in the Empire, I'm Nathaniel Timothy." He had the guts to stretch his hands forward for a shake which my dad didn't take for obvious reasons— one being that he was sick.

"What do you want here? The police are out for you and will be here soon."

"How soon?" He rolled just eyes. Not before I do what I came here for. I don't care what happens to me after that."

"Nat, oh Nat. You'll want to leave now that you've got the chance," My mum told him in a sing-song voice.

He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry my queen. Your beauty just undoes me every time...still not more than my beloved Dei's. Pleasure." He took my mum's hand and was going to kiss it, she yanked it from his hold.

Trust my mum to show her boldness in a time when a man held her family at gunpoint. I get that she was bold as a lion, but the man in front of us was as sick as they come.

"And you must be Mari and Jacob," he said turning to them. "Thee newly married couple. Not so new now, but you've my good wishes."

Jacob made a fast move and was going to jump on his back when Nat was busy saying his crap. I held my breath, hoping he got him. But he didn't.

Nat quickly turned alerted, pointing the gun to Jacob. "Not so fast, husband. Go back."

Jacob obliged, taking a step back.

"Back."

He took another step back.

"Good."

Nat turned to me, with a smirk. "Deila Barbson weds Nathaniel Timothy." He dramatically drew in the sky. "Don't you see and hear how perfect it'd be? We've enough audience for the wedding. There's your Aunt Monic and Mona. There's your driver, Mr.Timothy whom I detest so much for sharing names with me."

I charged forward, I was going to tell him not to call him a driver.

"Oh, yeah. You don't like it when people call him your driver as he's being part of your family since the beginning of time."

My eyes widened involuntarily, how did he know that?

"Yeah I know, I know everything. You think because you found out I outsmarted a company as big as Barbson Empire and then put out a BOLO for me I would be less smart? No, baby. I'm always one step ahead of you."

"What do you want here, Nathaniel?"

"Oh, back to the first-name basis? I'm no longer Nat? You know you were easier than I thought you'd be. All I had to do was bump into you, pay for your food, got myself recommended to supervise you—since I'd always been an informant for the Northern Cartel— and there, I got closer to you in weeks than I never thought I'd in years."

My dad's face contoured in surprise at his declarations. It wasn't just him who was surprised. Even when Nat's fraudulent acts had been discovered, a little part of me still hoped it was a mistake, or for him to have an urgent need for the money he extorted from us, turned out he planned our meeting from the start. Down to working in the company?

It hit me that he was working with the cartel that had Zara. Oh shit, Zara. I hoped she was home as James had implied in the text.

"Why'd you do this Nat? Why spend so much time planning our meeting? Did you think you'd get me to fall for you?" I tittered in sarcasm.

I noticed his demeanor change, he fumed. "That's the thing with you, always thinking you're such a smart ass with a sharp tongue. You weren't so smart that night when I stood outside your office door. I could smell your fear despite the door standing as a barrier."

"What night?" My dad and mum asked in unison.

I gave them a look that it wasn't the time, Nat proceeded to tell them anyway.

"Oh, daddy and mummy's big girl didn't tell them, did she?" He concluded with a grin and squatted.

"But those two bodyguards of yours didn't leave your side after that. They followed you like a plague. Especially that Martin. That Martin boy." His voice dripped venom as he referred to James. "He was always the problem. You wouldn't even look at me. You wouldn't even let me take you on a date and the one time I tried to tell you I loved you, you shut me up." The whole of him fumed with every word. He was like an escapee from a mental asylum.

"Love? Love me?" I decided to play along when I saw Dawn making moves to the vase that was closest to him.

"Yes, Dei. I love you. I tried to tell you, tried to make you see, but you just wouldn't let me. You were meant to be an assignment, but then I fell head over heels in love with you."

"But you never told me. Who might have given you an assignment?"

"That doesn't matter. Or I might as well tell you since it's all about to end here. Three years ago, Don Diablo bought me as an informant and since then I've kept him informed of everything that happened in the company when he found out some way that you, Dei," He pointed at me.

"Are next in line to be one of the leaders—including that Martin boy— in the Central Line Cartel which the company is an undercover for. He ordered me to get closer to you for me to keep closed eyes and ears. When I started to fall for you, I knew I would have you. Cassie, Diablo's darling daughter who you met at the office and who prolly is still with your darling boyfriend, happened to want the same thing I wanted. She wanted to keep you away from him. She wanted him for herself and I wanted you. So we allied without her father's knowledge."

"She has Jamy now, the little witch, I wonder what she sees in that unfortunate bastard. You saw them, didn't you? That's why you were crying like a baby."

Memories flooded me. He had to remind me of the image. And by God, it only hit me when he said it that the writhing girl was Cassie, the girl James had introduced me to at the company cafeteria. I had been right to be jealous of her. So she got him? Perfect, she could keep him.

"I won't let you cry. With me, you'll never cry. Let me love you Dei." He might've sounded genuine if he didn't have a gun pointed at me a few minutes ago.

I looked to see Dawn's progress from the corner of my eyes. The vase didn't seem so close anymore. It was taking forever to get it.

But thankfully he was almost there, almost.

Stall him, it was like I and Sia communicated through our minds silent when I looked at her. Everyone apart from the man with speech was seeing what Dawn was trying to do. Good, he couldn't see it. Good.

Stall him.

"How can you love me if you just pointed a gun at me few minutes ago?" I made my voice come out soft and steady.

"I'm sorry about that. You and your godforsaken brother just pushed me."

I looked around for Dawn as he was no longer at my side, I noticed this in time and played my last card.

"Okay," I eagerly said, wetting my dry nervous lips seductively. "You'll have to prove it to me. You don't expect me to believe you, do you?"

That did it. He smirked, walking towards me to trail my bottom lips with his thumb.

He sighed. "Why did you make me work so hard? I knew I'd get you."

I shut my eyes tight, struggling not to empty my stomach as he leaned in, placing his lips on mine.

I unconsciously jerked my head backward, an act that just offended him the more. He looked hurt as he took a step back from me.

"Sorry," I told him. "I just..." I trailed when I saw him lift his hands aiming for my face.

I shut my eyes, waiting for the impact and the sting that followed.

Nothing.

Then I heard a crash... opening my eyes to see Nat crying in pain with James over him and a broken vase on the ground.

How did James come into the picture? Even though I was disgusted at him, I was relieved Nat was down.

Where was Dawn? I was answered when I looked to see him cradling a shaking Lari.

When I saw Nat aiming for the gun, I acted fast. My hands couldn't get it fast, and even if it did, I doubted I could pull a trigger, so I stretched my legs, seeing James was already going for the gun, I slide the Glock to him and sighed when he had it in his hands.

He pointed it at Nat. "Remain right where you are, fucker."

"Stay still fucker," My dad imputed. My eyes trailed to see him pointing a gun of his own at Nat.

My lips twitched, at how foreign the word sounded coming from him. My dad just cussed.

"I told you to leave when you had the chance," mum imputed with a smirk on.

I didn't even have to wonder what we were going to do to him because the next minute the door busted open, men in uniforms flooding the room.

"FBI," The man leading them announced.

"You called the cops scared cockroach?"

"No, called special agent Paulson. The Martin boy did with the help of Mr.Timothy," James' words dripped of sarcasm as he kicked Nat's side hard.

I was filled with joy when he rolled, clutching his stomach in pain.

"And with the driver's phone," Mr. Timothy said with another dose of sarcasm as he stepped forward with a victory smile.

I finally sighed when both his hands were cuffed and he was forced out. Screaming cuss words and threats of how we were going to pay and how it wasn't the last we were going to hear from him.

One thing was for sure, we were going to make sure that he got the worst sentence and the worst stay in prison.

I went to my parents and was evolved in their embrace, forgetting the presence of the man I loved and that broke me. As far as I was concerned at that moment, he didn't exist.