Chapter 150 Chapter One hundred and forty-nine
ARA
By the time we reached my mother’s old neighbourhood, I was breathing like a rat in labor.
Thayne hadn’t slowed down once during the drive. Not even when the streets narrowed and the buildings began to look like they had given up on life years ago.
When the SUV finally stopped, my lungs were burning.
I stepped out and stared around. The place looked like a junkie’s den.
Trash overflowed from broken bins. Graffiti crawled up the sides of crumbling buildings.
Windows were boarded up or shattered entirely.
I honestly couldn’t believe my mother had ever lived here.
“The place wasn’t always like this,” Liliana said gently, helping me out of the SUV. “It used to be beautiful and cozy. Families lived here.”
That was hard to believe, with the smell of piss and cigarettes blocking everything else.
She glanced down the street with quiet sadness.
“All the good people moved away.”
Behind us, Thayne stayed in the driver’s seat, phone pressed to his ear. His voice was low but he didn't sound calm at all. Whatever Sasha was telling him clearly wasn’t good.
His eyebrows were nearly touching his hairline.
“Let’s go,” Liliana said, taking my arm and guiding me forward. “Your husband will join us in a moment.”
We had barely walked half a block when I noticed them. The group of shirtless men standing two buildings down.
They leaned against a cracked wall, smoking, drinking from brown bottles and watching the street like predators waiting for something to wander too close.
And now their attention had locked onto us. Hungry eyes followed every step we took. One of them pushed himself off the wall.
“What do we have here?” he said, stretching his tattooed arms before cracking his neck loudly.
He stepped away from the group, moving towards us.
“Do you think we should get Thayne now?”
Liliana whispered, tightening her grip on my arm. It was almost funny. A few minutes ago she had been the fearless strategist. Now she was clinging to me for courage.
“Who are you looking for, pretty ladies?” the man asked, smirking as he crossed the broken pavement and planted himself directly in our path.
His friends chuckled behind him, as if he'd cracked a funny joke.
“We're just here on a friendly visit.” I said confidently, hoping he’d simply step aside and let us pass.
He didn’t. He stopped right in front of us, towering over us with an unfriendly smile stretched across his face.
“Your kind isn’t welcome here,” he sneered. “You reek of dirty billionaire cash. People like you put people like us in jail.”
His eyes narrowed. “Leave us the fuck alone.”
I blinked, confused. Why did he sound so… paranoid? We hadn’t even said anything threatening. Why did he immediately assume we were here to drag him to jail?
How did he even scent the ‘billionaire cash’?
“We’re good people, friend,” Liliana said, forcing warmth into her voice. “We’re just here to say hello to an old acquaintance. Maybe you could even help us.”
If anything, that only irritated him more.
“Leave,” he snapped. “Now.”
“You don’t have the right to tell us what to do,” I replied sharply.
His grin widened. “I’m the king of this neighborhood,” he declared. “What I say goes.”
I rolled my eyes.
“All right, Your Royal Highness,” I muttered, attempting to sidestep him.
His hand shot forward. He shoved me hard in the chest. If not for the solid concrete beneath my feet, I would’ve gone down like a ragdoll.
My breath left my lungs in a sharp gasp. And then I saw it. Thayne's fist flying into the guy's mouth.
Blood and teeth sprayed. The other guys immediately circled us, aiming black pistols at us.
Thayne merely lifted the guy up from the floor, forced this guy's rearranged jaw open and shoved something inside his mouth.
Then he pressed his gun to his cheek.
“Let us make a bargain, friends.” Thayne said.
“We don't make bar-”
Thayne's trigger finger moved, and everywhere fell silent.
“Step out of the way and your friend lives. Try bullshit and the gunpowder in his mouth will blow his head to bits. You'll have to scrape him off the floor. It'll make such a nasty mess, and you all don't look like you can clean up to save your lives.”
They immediately retreated, moving backwards until they were back in their spot once more.
Thayne punched the so-called king of the neighbourhood in the back.
The man gagged and spat the gunpowder out onto the pavement, coughing violently.
“Point the house, Mother,” Thayne said quietly.
Liliana lifted a hand and pointed to the last row on our left.
The building she indicated looked worse than all the others combined. Its paint had long peeled away, the windows were cracked, and the entire structure leaned slightly to one side like it might collapse if someone sneezed too hard.
Great. Of course my mother’s past would be hidden in the most haunted-looking building on the street.
Right on cue, the front door creaked open.
A teenage boy stepped outside, and a girl followed him out.
Before either of us could say anything, he pulled her close and wrapped an arm around her neck, dragging her into a messy kiss right there on the cracked porch.
I cleared my throat loudly. “Ahem.”
Neither of them moved. I coughed again.
“Ehem. What’s the plan?”
Thayne shot me a heated look. I immediately blushed.
Apparently interrupting teenagers in the middle of a make-out session was not part of his carefully crafted strategy.
“We’re going to ruin their moment,” he said flatly.
He nudged our captured friend forward like a human shield.
“And our friend here will help us get what we want.”
He and Liliana began walking toward the house.
Except me. I didn’t move. My feet refused to cooperate.
Because my brain had finally caught up with my eyes. The girl on the porch turned her head slightly. And my lips parted in a silent ‘Oh’.
Lenora. Lenora who worked for us. The girl whose education and that of her younger brother we were sponsoring.
Lenora who was currently wrapped around some teenage boy in the middle of a collapsing neighborhood.
I moved quickly, beating Liliana to step on the tattered porch first.
“Lenora?” I called out.
The boy jerked back instantly.
Lenora froze like I'd just told her I was an agent of the Illuminati.
Her eyes widened when she saw me standing there with Thayne and his mother, our hostage standing between us.
“Mrs… Mrs. Slade?” she stammered.