21

Kacey

True to my word, I hadn’t slept a wink. Now I am feeling exhausted. All I wanted to know was if Orlando was okay.  A knock came to my door. ‘It’s open.’ I said, yawning.

The door creaked open. Daniel peered in.  "Hey, how are you? You look like shit."

‘Wouldn’t you be if you didn’t sleep, and no one was telling you s**t?”

‘I guess I would be.’

‘Shouldn’t you be with Milly? She was confused last night. I told her you went to the gym for a meeting and she was confused about why you both had blood on you and Orlando was bleeding.’

‘I’ll talk to her in a while. I came to tell you that all went well. It was touch and go but he made it. He'd lost a lot of blood and one of our men had to donate two pints of it.’

‘Why didn’t you ask? I would’ve helped.’

‘I know Kayley but we keep records of all our men and their blood types. It's easier that way.’

‘Can I see him?’

‘That’s why I’m here. He's asking you so I’m here to take you down to him.’

‘Just give me five and I;l go to see him.’

‘I’ll wait outside your room.’

‘Have you even been back to your room?’

‘No.’ He admitted. ‘It was a long night. We had to get him to the doctor fast or he would lose a whole lot of blood. He needed a blood transfusion and he had to have the bullets  taken out.’

I nodded. ‘You better go see Milly later.’

‘I will. I promise.’

I smiled and he left the room. I went into the bathroom refreshed, quickly showered and got ready before heading out of the bedroom. Daniel smiled. ‘You ready?’

‘As ready as I’ll ever be.’

He nodded and I followed him away from the room I shared with Orlando. We walked some the hallway and down row sets of stairs and down the corridor tuned fight then left. ‘Now don't be freaked out with what you see okay. He’s on breathing machines and a heart rate machine until he is well enough to breathe on his own and his heart rate is stabilised breathing, so try not to get him angry.’

‘Okay.’

He opened the door. Bro you have a visitor.’

I peered around and smiled. He smiled weakly back. ‘Don’t just stand there, come in angel, I don’t bite, unless you want me to.’ He smirked.

‘Guess the Orlando I know is back.’

‘He is. Come in.’

I looked at Daniel, who proved me to go in. I smiled as a thanks. ‘I’ll leave you guys to it. I have to talk to Milly.’

‘Sure bro.’

He nodded and left, closing the door. 

I looked at Orlando. ‘What happened last night?’

‘The Hemings is what happened.’

‘What were they doing there?’

He took my hands in his. He looked into my eyes. They were full of concern, his words as cold as they always were. ‘We went down to the wanted house. Remember when I flaked about my other business?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, I deal in drugs and firearms.’

‘Oh.’ Is all I could mean to say.

‘He somehow managed to find out about the shipment that was about to be delivered and him and his men showed up, some of my workers and a-some of my best men. He was there to take the shipment and take me down.’

‘He was going to kill you?’  I asked, gulping back my bile.

‘Unfortunately, yes. He failed but he will try again. We are rivals in this world. He has a lot against us because we helped your brother out of an unfair fight and we killed his brother and cousins in the crossfire.  Your brother didn’t deserve to be treated like they treated him.’

‘So you helped him and made him work at your gym?’  I asked, angrily.

‘Not at all. I offered to help him fight back once he had learnt to defend himself against people like the Hemmings. I offered him a full-time job at the gym coaching young kids and teenagers in the art of boxing and mixed martial arts. His contract is the same as your brother,  he is with us indefinitely.’

‘Oh,’ I said. ‘So this shipment he has, doesn’t he?’

‘He does.’ He sighed, defeated.

‘Can you get it back ?’

‘My men are in it now. Their instructions are to get it back at any cost, even if it means killing anyone who gets in the way.’

I nodded.

He placed his hand on my arm. ‘You’re not mad at me are you?’

‘No, just promise me you won’t do something like that again.’

‘Was my angel concerned about me?’ He smirked. 

I cut my eyes.‘Just promise me.’

‘I promise I won’t get into s**t again and nearly die.’ He said, pulling me close. ‘I love you Kacey. I’m not about to leave you, okay.’

‘Okay.’ I sighed, relieved .

He pressed his lips on mine, kissing me passionately with his tongue.

Daniel

I never wanted to tell her like that. I wasn’t expecting either of them to be up, let alone awake when we came back, and I didn’t expect that we would be covered in blood and Orlando to be shot. It was a routine shipment drop off. We’d never had any hassle til last night when the Hemmings decided to show up and steal our shipment of drugs and firearms, but we had our best men on it. I know they won’t let us down. I informed Orlando when he woke up an hour ago. I explained to him what was going on. He wanted to see Kacey, to tell her what had gone down. I hoped she would understand and not lash out at him or he would be back to square one.  

Now all I had to do was find the courage to tell Milly everything this was Hemings' fault. They knew what they were doing, going to the warehouse house that night. It wasn’t for the shipment. It was to take Orlando down and make sure that they ruined everything between me and Milly. I opened the door. She was sleeping peacefully. I shouldn’t really wake her unsure how long she had slept for, but it was important for her to know what kind of man she was getting involved with and if she wanted to continue with our relationship or run from it. I was hoping for the first but she would probably run for the hills and I couldn’t blame her this life wasn’t for an innocent girl like Milly, I just happened to fall deeply in love with her and I hoped she felt the same way to. I shook her gently. ‘Babe wake up.’

She groaned.

‘Mil it’s  me wake up, we need to talk.’

She stirred a little longer, finally opening her eyes. ‘Daniel?’ She questioned.

I smiled and stroked her face. ‘Sit up, Mil, we have to talk.’

‘What about?’ She asked groggily.

‘Last night.’

‘Oh okay.’ She said confusingly. She pulled herself up. ‘How is Orlando?’

‘He’s good.’ I said.

‘What happened last night Daniel?  I thought you were going down to the gym for a business meeting.’

‘That’s what I need to talk to you about.’

‘Okay.’

I swallowed hard. ‘You see.. we weren’t at the gym last night and there was no business meeting.’

‘But that's what Kayce said.’

‘I know she just assumed we were down there.’

 ‘So where were you?’

‘Don’t be mad at me when I tell you okay.’

‘Okay.’

‘Promise.’

‘I promise.’

I placed my hand in her face. God I loved this girl so f*****g much it hurt. ‘We’re not who you think we are Mil. We live two very different lives, one you’ve already seen and the other is hidden.’ I stopped taking a deep breath before I continued. ‘We’re not like you and Kacey Mil. Me and Orlando come from a different world from both of you. We have many enemies that either want it, take us out and ruin us or just kill us. We’re one of the biggest English  mafia groups here, the Hemings a close second. We deal in drugs and firearms. The Hemings are our rivals, they hate us and they really hate us. Last night we had  a shipment coming in. We both told Fletcher something was very wrong. It was confirmed, when the Hemmings showed up, some of the staff and our men shot Orlando.’

‘Is that why he was bleeding when you came back?’

‘Yes.’ I sighed. ‘You weren’t supposed to see any of it, you were supposed to be in bed sleeping.

‘Me and Kayce don’t go to bed till the early hours of the morning at the weekends. We usually spend our time together doing homework, watching movies and laughing and joking till we fall asleep.’

I nodded. That made sense. ‘I really didn’t want to tell you like this, Milly, but I had no choice about it.’

‘I understand.’

‘Are you going to leave me now you know the truth?’ I asked anxiously.

She looked into my eyes and smiled. ‘Never. I love you Daniel, you’ve helped me so much and I’m truly grateful for all you’ve done for me. You’ve helped me realise I’m better than those idiots at school. I love you Daniel. I'll never leave you.’

‘Thank fuck.’ I said, pressing my lips on hers, kissing her hungrily. ‘I love you Milly.‘ I said before pushing my tongue in her mouth, kissing her with so much passion I really loved this girl and she was all mine forever.