WARNINGS

The warmth of his hand covered mine as he held my hand firmly in his. Although he didn’t say anything

to me, I was still glad that we were still connected in some way. The way Hayden helped hold my hand

and support my waist as we walked down the stairs to the ground together brought a small smile to my

lips.

“Thank you…” I whispered when our feet finally touched the ground.

Hayden nodded before his hand reached out to help tuck a few loose strands of my hair back behind

my ear. The wind was blowing wildly around us, and I noticed that the air was slightly warm and humid.

The airport that we landed in didn’t resemble much of a standard airport at all. The large buildings were

not present, and the runway was nothing more than a small trial that had been smoothened out to be

suitable for landing. Apart from the two of us and the security team that Hayden travelled with, there

was no one else in the airport as far as my eyes could see.

Although we flew alone, we were not the only ones on the trip and that was to be expected. Security

was tight and Hayden travelled with a mini army of his men. Rows of men dress in black greeted us

when we stepped off the airplane. Among them was a very familiar face who offered me a huge smile

when he laid eyes on me.

“Good to see you still in one piece, Malissa,” Luka said before laughing loudly.

I found myself smiling back at him easily. In such a precarious situation like this, it was always good to

see a familiar face that I knew. Apart from Hayden and Luka, I didn’t know any of the other men that

travelled with us and that made me slightly uneasy. From his greeting, I had a very good guess of how

Luka viewed my relationship with Hayden. I had to say that he wasn’t that far off the mark. Hayden was

rough and manipulative, but he had never hurt me. I glanced over to the man in question and saw that

he was as zoned out as could be.

“I hate flying. Makes my back stiff…” Luka complained as he flexed his back.

Unlike the man standing right next to me, Luka was in a roaring good mood. Hayden let out a sighed

like he wanted to be anywhere else but here. Wordlessly, he tugged softly on my hand as he signaled

for me to follow him.

As if able to read his cue, Luka walked in front of us while the other men flanked our sides. I had no

idea where we were, but this place appeared to be an airport on one of the small island in the middle of

the ocean. The air around us was humid and quite warm. I was thankful for the breeze blowing in from

the sea as it blew my hair behind me. I bet that Luka could also sense that Hayden wasn’t

approachable at the moment because he did not address Hayden in anyway.

I glanced over at my angel’s cold face again and I could tell that his mind was elsewhere. He was

thinking of something, and I bet that no one knew what it was.

“Get in. I’m riding with you guys,” Luka said with a satisfied grin as he helped me into a large SUV.

I took my seat next to Hayden before Luka joined us in the car. The ride to our destination passed by in

silence as both Luka and I didn’t dare disturb Hayden and his busy thoughts. I passed the time by

staring out at the view of trees passing by through dark glass. Thankfully, the ride was a short one and ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

we arrived at our destination soon after.

The place where we arrived seemed to be a dome shaped building that was located pretty much in the

middle of nowhere. There were no houses or any other buildings around. There were no signs that told

me where we were. I haven’t laid eyes on anyone who seemed to come from the island since we

landed, and I was starting to wonder if the island was even inhabited by local people. If I had to

describe it, the structure in front of me looked like a large exhibition center that had been built here for

reasons unknown to me.

“Security checks come first. They’ll send someone to check you two and my job is to check Ethan.

That’s how it works,” Luka explained.

Clearly the level of trust was extremely low between the two gangs. Each gang chose their own

representative to do a security check of the other. I nodded and just went along with the flow, trusting

Luka to know what to do because Hayden was still on mars and unreachable. The only comfort that I

had was the fact that he was still holding my hand.

“No weapons of any kind are allowed in there so there’s no need for you to worry. Worst comes to

worst, the two will fight it out with their fists and you just have to stay out of the way. Got it?” Luka said

to me, and he sounded serious.

“Aha…” I mumbled as my face felt numb.

Was that supposed to reassure me in some way because it seemed to be having the complete

opposite effect.

“Hopefully no one dies…because it won’t be a quick and painless death…” Luka said before winking at

me.

What did he just say?

I stared blankly back at Luka with my mouth hanging open while I wondered what I had gotten myself

into this time.

“Stop scaring her any more than necessary. She’s worried enough as it is,” Hayden mumbled a

warning without looking our way.

“Alright. You better not do anything crazy in there. You’ll be the one that’ll really scare her,” Luka

warned in return before he chuckled.

This old man was truly finding this situation amusing and I couldn’t understand his humor at all. I tried

to piece together the little that I knew about the situation between the two gangs. The last time that I

was at Hayden’s office and attended a meeting with him was precisely about the conflict between the

two gangs.

--To be continued…