Irresistible Love

ZACHARY

“What is it?” I asked, enunciating each word, and held the gun as tightly as I could. I felt the pulse in my body rise as I took in what had happened.

“B-boss…it’s about Willi…,” Max said as he gulped audibly and took a few steps back as I passed the gun to my other hand, all the while trying hard to control the anger that had me itching to pull the trigger on everyone there and then.

“It looks like Willi has gone missing.” His voice trembled in the end.

That was it.

I threw the gun at the glass window. The glass shattered into pieces, piercing my skin. Although blood oozed from the cuts on my face and my hand, I refused to wince.

The anger I felt far surpassed my pain, and at the moment, I was anything but calm. But all of a sudden, my mind went blank.

At which point in my life had I made a wrong decision? What had brought on this series of failures? And why did I have to suffer through these?

My hands fisted as I stared out of the broken window.

“G-General is here to meet you,” Max said before I heard the door of my study room opening.

“What a scene.” I heard my grandfather’s voice as he walked in and stood behind me. I could feel his presence but refused to turn around to look at him. My face was the last thing I wanted him to see. I was a failure.

“Udolf?” He chuckled when I didn’t turn around to face him, and that was when I heard Max talking to him, after which he walked out of the room, leaving the two of us alone.

“I thought you went back to your island…” My voice was neutral as I spoke, as he had always taught me to never show emotions. I knew better than to show my mentor how I felt after a failure.

“Well, Kristian called me back, and I can see why all of a sudden he wanted me here.” He laughed before clearing his throat.

“Well, this is refreshing.” I heard him mutter with a sigh.

Even though I wanted to ask him what he meant, I chose to stay quiet, knowing that he would answer my unasked question all by himself.

“Whenever I look at you, I am reminded of my youthful days. You have taken after me. Even your father…he used to behave just like you do. We all are the same.” He chuckled.

“Udolf, your father believed that no matter what, you would be the only one in this family who would stand strong.

“Don’t think that I don’t know about the things that you have been going through. Kristian has told me everything. I believe most of your sentiments relate to Juliette’s death—”

“General…” My voice was hoarse as I interrupted him.

“You can’t go on avoiding this every day. You must move on; it’s time for you to get your focus back on work. I see that you are not really paying attention to the ones in your around you. That’s why you are suffering.

“Remember this, Udolf: it was you who chose this path. Neither I nor your father ever wished or forced you to be on the same path as us. You wanted to carry on the business, and it was why you fought with Gale.

“Although your grandmother, your mom, and I believe that Juliette had hated this profession, you had still chosen it. So, what I mean is…if you were the one who chose this…then you should be the only one to hold on to it.

“I do know how it feels when you are away from your loved ones…but as I retired, I understood that I would never choose this kind of life for my next birth.

“Kristian wasn’t ready to work in this field, but today he is successful. Even you… You’ve done a tremendous job of handling both your day and night work.

“So far, you have been successful, but now, you need to stop and think. Do you really want to continue with this?

“As you’d chosen this path on your own, I considered it my duty as the General and your grandfather to teach you how to handle all this, but now I want to take it back.

“You don’t have to do this any longer. I already have faced enough of your grandmother’s hatred for this profession, and I believe your mother and even Juliette had their fair share of dislike for this profession.

“You need to understand this well, Udolf… If you are in this profession, you can’t lose your balance.

“Think ten times before you take a step. I have faith in you. I believe you will be back on your feet in no time. Think about what I have just said.

“Either leave this and live like a normal human, or else, walk on this path while cunningly dodging the obstructions. It is what I expect from only you, Udolf.”

As he finished, I heard the screeching of the chair on which I assumed he was sitting.

He was leaving.

“I will exercise more caution and foresight from now on…,” I said. “But Juliette will always be living in my memories. I will never accept it that she is not with me, and I won’t ever forget her…”

My words were filled with determination. Forgetting Juliette was a painful thing, more than enduring physical and mental pain.

“Hmmm. As I told you…”

As he spoke, I turned around to look at him. He had a sinister smile plastered on his face.

“…this is really refreshing.” He smiled and turned around, walking out of the room.

"Vă mulțumesc, bunicul.” Thank you, Grandfather.

***

“Let’s start from the beginning, hmm?” I asked in a calm tone as I took a seat before the driver who had backstabbed me by surrendering my arms to the cops.

He looked like trash. His clothes were torn, and his face was swollen and bruised. My eyes fell on his left hand to find two of his fingers gone. It was what he got for backstabbing me.

“I have nothing to tell you…,” he snarled. Max kicked him on his back, and he fell on my knee, hitting his nose in the process.

“Now…now.” Grabbing his hair, I pushed his head back and looked into his eyes.

“Max, bring out that pruner. I think chopping all his fingers off would work.” As I said that, the traitor crawled back until his body hit the wall. He looked frightened.

“All right, Boss.” Max obliged, going out of the darkroom and then returning with the pruner.

I passed the pruner from one hand to the other, mockingly putting on a show of chopping his finger. For the first time in days, I was feeling confident.

Max dragged him by his hair and made him sit in front of me before forcibly pulling his hands up so that I could slice off his fingers.

“No! No!” he screamed, thrashing around and trying to pull his hand back. However, his efforts were futile, as Max held on to his arms firmly.

“Don’t worry. It won’t hurt.” A smirk appeared on my face as I watched him suffer, and his wailing gave me immense joy.

“You brought it upon yourself,” I said as I grabbed his hand. Glaring at him, I pressed the pruner on his thumb. The room filled with his wails and screams as the blades pressed on his skin.

However, the pressure was yet not enough to cut his finger, just enough for him to writhe in pain.

“Stop! Stop! I’ll tell you everything. Please stop!” he cried out. I stopped applying pressure on the pruner and watched as blood oozed out of his thumb.

“Huh!” Max huffed and let him go, standing right behind him.

“I’ll tell you everything. But you must promise me that you will set me free afterward…deal?” the driver wheezed.

“You scum! You’re not in any position to make a deal with us—”

“Deal!” I said, cutting Max off in the middle.

“What? But, Boss—”

“We just want information. Give it to us, and we will set you free. I will even forget that you backstabbed me,” I said as calmly as I could, and he nodded, looking relieved.

He withdrew his hand and inspected the cut before looking back at me.

“I was paid. I was paid to surrender arms before the police. No one could find me because I was in touch with one of the cops who helped me surrender the weapons, and he helped me flee.

“It was a plan to destroy you, and I was just a pawn in that game.”

“Interesting. Now, who was the one who gave you the money?” I asked as I kept the pruner on my left thigh and leaned back in the chair, looking at him sitting on the ground.

“I don’t know. A man visited me the day the arms were loaded on the truck and asked me to surrender them in return for money. I was selfish, and I took the money and did as he had told me to do.”

“The face of the man?” Max asked.

“He was in a yellow hoodie whose hood was up, and his face was covered up to his nose with a mask…like this.” He gestured toward his face and used his trembling, bloodied hands to show me how the man had covered his face.

“You mean that man came to our warehouse where the truck was being loaded, paid you money, and then went away?” Max asked, looking astonished.

“The man knew where our work was done. He must have been aware of it from the beginning. This indicates only one thing—the man is from our group, or else he couldn’t have entered our land so easily,” I muttered to myself.

“Max, go and get me the CCTV footage of the day on which our arms were being loaded,” I said, and he nodded in response as he turned around to leave.

“But before that…” I got up from the chair and passed the pruner to him.

“Cut off all his fingers.” As soon as I said that, the driver began yelling curses at me and tried to get up to run away.

“You lied about the deal. You said you’ll set me free!” he yelled while I smirked at him and shook my head.

“I lied. And I never really told you that I would not punish you for backstabbing me. This all happened because of you… You will have to pay for it.”

“Take care of him,” I added, and Max nodded before walking toward the man. I walked the other way while hearing the driver’s begging and wailing.

I watched the CCTV footage countless times in an attempt to identify the man in the yellow hoodie.

The driver was being truthful when he said he had been unable to see his face. The man had indeed been wearing a mask under his eyes, covering half of his face.

And the way he walked and looked around, it was proof that he knew the place.

Who are you? I thought as I watched it again and again.

“Whomever you are…just make sure I don’t catch you. Or else, you will die a painful death…” I smirked when I was able to get a glimpse at the ring that he was wearing.

“Ahh…I see.” A sinister smile broke out on my face as I finally recognized the man.

“You have called it upon yourself. This time I will kill you for sure,” I muttered as I pulled out the drawer of my study table and took out a revolver.

“Enough of me forgiving you,” I muttered as I inserted the bullets into the chamber.

“Gale…” I uttered his name with venom and rose from the chair. Looking at the loaded gun, I made up my mind to finish him off this time. My eyes fell on Juliette’s photo on the table.

“You see this? He brought it upon himself. I don’t really want to hurt my mother, but this time, it is beyond tolerance. I hate him so much, Juliette. What should I do?”

I picked up the framed photo, in which she was sitting next to her friend Kiara. I had sneakily taken this picture when we had gone out for a family picnic.

“This was what I was scared about the most. I don’t want to break up my own family, but it looks like…” I traced her face with my finger. “This is what destiny has for me.”

My eyes watered up, and before I knew it, I slammed the photo back on the table and walked out of the room, taking long strides, intending to end this once and for all.