Shouldn't Have Dealt - Book II

Chapter 30 - Stag and Fawn

Hunter's car is parked along the murky alleyway of some unfamiliar street. The cab driver asked me thrice if I am sure about being left alone in such a place. He seems to be a nice old man. For a woman thinly dressed to be seen walking down a strange road is quite a scene, a scary one at that.

However, I am not scared. I know Hunter is just around somewhere.

Huge stone buildings, antiquated and abandoned, stand everywhere, so it is hard to guess which building Hunter could have gone into. Only two lamp posts are functioning. The rest are all dead with missing parts. It appears that this area has long been deserted. Why would Hunter be going here? Is he going to meet Will here? Why in this kind of place?

The sound of my heels clicking against the asphalt road echoes around the cold, thick air. I lost track of time, but I think it is nearing midnight already as the moon is getting bigger and brighter as the night deepens. I take them off my feet and pick them up in fear for my life. I cannot risk being caught by Will's men if he's indeed meeting Hunter tonight.

"Nah, I think I need a break!" I hear a voice coming out of a wooden door just a few steps away from me. I quickly hide behind a buttress, hoping the dark would cover me.

"How much do you think will we get after this?"

Two men come out of the door. One man whose hair is tied up in a knot lights a cigarette. "Will get's forty percent."

"And Stone?" his bony friend asks.

"Don't think Stone wants his share," answers the other guy. "Will offers him a tenth of his cut."

"Fuck Stone! That's a whole lot of cash, Greg!" The thin guy spits something out of his mouth.

So Hunter is indeed seeing Will when he promised me he won't.

"The bastard is already rich. He won't need anything from us," Greg says.

"Well, I don't think Stone's forgotten where he came from." A sleazy smile emerges from the man's face, revealing yellow teeth sticking out of his mouth like those of a piranha's. "I heard Will talking with Mario, Vlad, Jose, and Ed a week ago. He mentioned Stone's name. I heard from him that Stone is offering a hundred grand to each of them if they offer their services."

"A hundred grand?" Greg exclaims, his face all puffed up. He coughs gruffly until the coarseness of his voice vanishes. "Fuck them! Those bastards could be traveling the world now. No wonder they suddenly disappeared."

Mario, Vlad, Jose, and Ed...

The names ring a bell. I think I've heard those names somewhere.

"What could Stone want from them?" Greg asks as he puts the cigar back into his mouth. A string of smoke spirals to the air.

"Don't know. Will didn't mention it," the other man answers. "It's really suspicious how Hunter Stone suddenly came back from the dead. I thought he doesn't want to be connected with us."

"Old blood, old ties, buddy!" Greg gives his friend a strong blow to the back.

A loud sound rips through the silence. "Fuck, man! You don't have to hit me!"

"Why do you have to fart in front of me?" Greg bellows angrily.

"I bloody need to go to the toilet now!" Stick-man rushes to building across the street with his hands on his bum.

Greg laughs like he would roll over the street.

I wait for Greg to follow his friend to the next building before I start moving my legs. The lights in the building where the two men came from intensifies as a loud noise is heard.