Chapter 43 My Arch Enemy Had A Weakness
It didn’t take long for that small bottled water company to morph into a grand mafia operation. They swept up every friend and loyalist my family had and established themselves in the community bigger than we’d ever been.
A direct slap in my father’s face.
I was thirteen at the time. My older brothers had already been shipped off to jail for one involvement in my father’s business or another. Now I was forty-four—old enough to know my enemy and reclaim my family’s place.
It had been a long time wallowing in the dust after falling from such heights. If I hadn’t been old enough to taste power back then, maybe I wouldn’t have known what I lost.
I had spent days, months, years agonizing and planning ways to take back what was stolen from me—watching each plan fail. I had tasted rejection. I had scraped together contacts, a few loyal allies, a few shared enemies of the Buenaventura family. I had struggled and toiled like a pig in the pen while some green-eyed child reaped where he never sowed.
Cole Buenaventura had taken over his family business, and with it, their enemies. I had looked into the boy. He was ruthless...pure evil. The underworld knew him as Paimon. He had grown up feared and almost untouchable.
But no one was completely untouchable.
He was still a boy. Wet behind the ears.
My thoughts snapped back to reality, back to the perzon sitting on the other emd, watching me narrate my lifes story all over again.
"Well, sad as your story might be, I've got good news for you. Something to help.brighten up your dark day." The spy said.
"And what might that be?" I asked tentatively. This was not the first time they had brought me 'good news'. It all ended up.to be horse shot anyways.
"About Cole Ryder... Well, it seems our big, bad demon has found himself a girl"
"A girl??" My eyes shot up to the top of my head.
It was impossible! It did not make any sense. Cole fimdomg a woman that would stay with him especially with his bloodthirsty lifestyle is like finding a needle put of a haystack.
"My sources tell me he even ran under a large metal beam to save her"
"Cole Ryder sacrificed himself for someone else? A woman nonetheless? Crazy..." I could not believe my ears. Was this the hevens sign for me? Telling me it was on my side?
“You’re sure of what you’re saying?” I asked, my eyes widening. “You saw it happen?”
"My source saw it happen, but I have video evidence if you want."
I almost stood up then and there to dance my victory dance. He took everything from me, remained firm and unshakeable in our dark bloody world, only to fall for a woman?
“So he really put himself in front of the woman, huh? Didn’t hesitate?”
"Not even a little bit. No sense of self preservation at all. The fool.
I listened as the man continued, describing what had happened earlier that day.
“Well, isn’t that surreal?” I said slowly. “Isn’t this beautiful?”
I laughed,deep and full-bodied, until it sent me into a coughing fit.
After wiping my mouth and nose of the snot that escaped, I continued.
“Do one more thing for me, find out everything you can about that involvement. Everything about the woman. Where she lives. Where she sleeps. Where she eats. Everything.”
I paused, looking directly at the spy...
“I’m not chasing shadows again.”
They nooded, confirmed they understood exactly what I meant.
They stood up, signaling that our conversation was over.
“Donato, I don’t need to remind you to keep this meeting private, do I? You scratch my back, I'll scratch your back”
"Of course" I would be a fool to jeopardise this now. Now that I could finally see it. When I could definitely taste my victory.
“Good. Get to work on your end." And with that, they walked away, shutting the door of the room we had been in behind them.
I chuckled again, excitement curling in my chest.
I walked over to the mirror in the dingy motel room I was currently lodged in. Gray hair had spread across my head, giving me a salt-and-pepper look. I briefly considered cutting it or dyeing it brown, then dismissed the thought.
The wrinkles around my eyes had deepened. My smile lines were more pronounced.
I smiled wider.
Pure, vengeful joy swelled inside me.
My arch-enemy finally had a weakness.