Fractured

Chapter 50

Chapter 50

By the end of this, Luke wasn't the only one sweating. I was shaky, felt sick the whole time, and was sweating on top of that. Most likely because it lasted for nearly two hours and seemed even longer. You can thank Pauly for dragging out the time because he was so damn stubborn and got distracted with himself. But when you talk business, he is all over it.

That's right. Francis did as best as I could have imagined. But Pauly was so against almost everything he said. Francis explained to him how this would benefit him from a business standpoint - which was our best argument for him. If he stopped them from coming at me, his clients wouldn't be dead and neither would his smugglers. He would have saved life and money if he accepted Francis's offer. It actually got to a more... aggressive point. To where it nearly sounded like Francis was threatening that the entire gang would back out from him if he didn't stop this.

To my ears, after he said that, I thought it would all go down hill. But unfortunately - and fortunately enough - this Pauly was a smart over baked cookie. He wasn't buying Francis's claim that they would all leave. He however quickly jumped into the money factor that was discussed at length before.

"Boy, do you have any idea about what you are asking? And do you have any idea the amount of power I have," Pauly said after Francis hitched the stakes and threatened him lightly. It was as if I could match the voice we heard over the speakers to the man himself. His teeth clenched I could bet, with fire in his eyes, with full proof of that power I could see in my head. And he was right. He was very powerful, enough so that I just wanted to tell Francis through his ear piece to just get up, leave, and run.

"I do sir," Francis kept his cool while voice stayed stern. Wasn't sure if that benefited us or not. I wiped the moist droplets of sweat my eyebrows caught from my face. With it, I bit my lip, breathing harder as I stared the speaker down in which we heard their conversation from. "I do understand your power, your position, and I fully respect you as one of our leaders. But I can't tell you enough how desperate we need this - and how you need this."

I could tell Luke was getting fidgety next to me. His hand was on the talkie the whole time he held that was connected to Francis's ear piece. Luke's knuckles were white and strained with how tightly he was holding it. Every time he offered up advice of how to steer the conversation, he would look even more tense. After Francis spoke this time though, he raised the talkie up to his mouth where his hard breaths were coming from. Pressing the button, he spoke to Francis.

"Bring up the money. Start at 50 plus the 15 from Mark."

I sighed. So much money... but this would be worth it. Our lives wouldn't revolve around the danger they put us in. And with the forces this Pauly is bringing to the party, we would eventually be dead. We couldn't hold out with more numbers coming at us each time. That's why this was so important and why I was feeling sick. Our lives could depend on this. And if it doesn't go good... things would become a whole lot harder I guess you could say. I could tell how much this was getting to Luke with how shaky his voice got.

"You're desperate?" Pauly said, repeating Francis's words and I could hear the amused sick smile in his voice. Before it turned deep and dead. "I think I must remind you... my son is dead! I will not stop just because you pussies are afraid and it could risk my business. It's my son."

"W-We could offer you money. I know you denied it before, but maybe we could negotiate something..." Francis started. "How is 50,000? Plus the 15 that bitch never paid Mark."

I heard loud laughter instantly come over to interrupt Francis's voice. "You think you can buy me out! Over my son! And for 65 grand!" He laughed and howled at what I was assuming was a ridiculously low number for him - so much so it brought through some static over the speakers at how loud he got.