Baron II

It was this conviction that brought about the end of our friendship. It was also this conviction that was responsible for the evil chain of events that led to the situation I found myself in at the beginning of this story.

It was difficult to locate Casper in this city now - and it was proof of my suspicions. Since he rarely ever came back to the apartment we shared, it was going to be quite difficult to locate him in the city.

I decided that the smartest way to do this was to analyse the clues he had given me whenever we talked about the 'game' that we played.

Of course, he was crooked enough to use codenames to.hide the identities of certain people and locations of certain places, but then I was not a dunce either. I knew that 'UpperMoat' as he called it was really 'NorthBridge', a buzzing marketplace and crime hotspot.

I drove down there, nothing on my mind except getting an audience with him. I didn't have any big game plan, certainly didn't think of involving the police or any other law enforcement agents - it was just going to be a discussion between two adults.

I hoped.

I hoped wrong.

I felt stupid for ever falling for the game charade in the first place, but it was time for confrontation, and if I was lucky enough, redemption.

I didn't need to poke around too much and attract attention to myself as the stranger that suddenly came looking for a potential drug kingpin - that would have been a fatal mistake. Casper made things easy by living a flamboyant life. It was not long before I saw myself staring into the broad, muscular chest of a guard in front of a big condo.

"Casper," I muttered under my breath. "What have you gotten yourself into?"

"Who's you looking for?" the scarfaced guard said. Staring him in the eye, I said "Casper."

His eyebrow flicked in a inquisitive yet condescending manner. "You called that name so casually; nobody calls the Big Boss by his first name!" he said, giving me he once over and sizing me up again.

I couldn't let any fear show through. "Then I guess I'm Nobody then, aren't I?"

He scoffed.

"Run up and tell Casper," I said, stressing the name to prove a point. "that Eddie's looking for him. Now."

I walked back to my car and sat on the hood, not giving him a chance to reply. Folding my arms, I grabbed a cup of coffee from the brown envelope I left on the hood and downed it all in one gulp.

It was a few minutes later when the guard returned, this time with a lady.

A fine ass lady, if I said so myself. She was just the right mix of lady and gangster, with her long-sleeved white shirt tucked into a short blue skirt which ended an inch above her knee, a pink cherry blossom tattoo extending from her feet right up to her lap, it's entirety hidden by the skirt and leaving a lot to the imagination.

There was a draggon tattoo on her right cheek, right below her eye, and she wore a pair of thin, gold-rimmed glasses.

"Mr. Edward?" She said from plump, pink lips, coated in lip gloss, her blonde bags covering the corners of her mouth and giving her a bit of a mysterious look.

"Eddie," I said, watching her smile as she noticed me checking her out. She was one of those girls, the ones you knew you had to avoid, but still wouldn't keep your hands off if you got the chance to put them on her. She was sexy, she knew this, and she exploited it.

"Eddie it is. Mr. Casper will see you now," she said, gesturing for me to follow her.

"About time," I said, putting my hands in my pocket as I followed, not missing her smile at my supposed cockiness. I didn't spare the guard a glance, walking side by side with the lady as I entered the compound.

"I'm Stella, Mr. Casper's assistant."

"Assistant?" I asked, howbeit rhetorically. I scoffed and laughed as she said it again.

"Assistant. You seem to find that funny?" She said, the comment both a statement and a demand for an explanation.

"No shit, Sherlock." I said, sarcastically deflecting the question. "I was just a bit surprised."

She smiled again - the action was her trademark apparently - and said nothing as we approached the stairs - she said the elevator was under maintenance.

"You seem to be pretty close with Mr. Casper. No one calls him by his first name and goes... scot-free, for want of a better word..."

I tried reading her expression, but her face was a smiling mask, so I didn't know if that was a statement, warning or threat.

"...let alone being granted audience. Seems you guys go way back..."

She was probing for information. Casper had refused to tell her anything, and she was trying to sneakily gain information from me.

"You sure are nosy for a secretary. You could have just let it slide, but you didn't. That's why we're taking the stairs, yeah? Because it'd give you more time to ask, and no surveillance?"

She frowned a bit, but smiled again. Genuinely. Like a lightbulb flicked on in her head. "Smart. Intuitive. Sharp. You're more than meets the eye."

I smirked. There was nothing wrong in telling her a little.

"Flattery will get you everywhere. And it just got you a little bit of information. I'm the one running this whole thing. Okay, maybe not to the best of my knowledge - I don't know what outfit Casper has here; drugs, a mafia, that beats me. But the business model and all that? Me."

"I thought as much," she said again, beaming. "I knew there were bigger brains at okay here. So why are you out of the shadows now?" She asked.

"Your flattery pass has expired. You're a smaller lady, err..."

"Samantha."

"Sam...rather vanilla for the person you are," I said, ogling her openly.

"I always hated the name," she smiled appreciatively.

"Well Sam, you can figure out the rest," I said as we burst out into a hallway on the second floor and she led me into her office and showed me the door to his.

"Stay safe!" I said to her, opening the doors.

*****

I was in what I could describe as a meeting room. There was a large marble table there, and seated at the head of the table was Casper, amongst two others - a lady and an old man - who were by his sides.

They seemed to be involved in an animated discussion until I entered, and then I became the centre of attraction.

I took it all in, the minimalist design of the room, the abstract paintings, the large windows, the efficient air conditioning, and the six bodyguards inside the room, all looking armed to the teeth. It seemed all three had two bodyguards to their person.

"And this is the person who's so important as to interrupt our meeting and call you by your name?" the lady scoffed as I approached the table from her side.

She was middle aged - perhaps closer to 50 than 40, and had a sneer on her face. I decided it would be in my best interests to ignore her, and not just because her bodyguard looked like he could knock me out in one punch at her whim.

"Casper, a word?" I looked around the room. "Outside?"

Everybody in the room raised their eyebrows.

"No can't do, Eddie. I'm in a bit of a pinch here, as you can see," he said coolly, his eyes mocking me. The smug look on his face annoyed me.

"No shit," I said, taking a sit and crossing my legs. "You've been fucking busy recently."

All three of them smiled before Casper spoke up.

"You say that like it's a problem."

"It is when I'm involved in shit like this without my knowledge, you sly bastard."

Casper flinched, his fists balling. His bodyguards fixed me a death look, but I kept my expression calm, uncrossing my legs and getting up. I looked out the window and got a beautiful view of the cityscape.

"What's he saying, Castillo?" the woman inquired. The man also looked inquiringly, but still hadn't said a thing.

"I-it's just the mindless ramblings of my overentitled ex-roommate," Casper stuttered.

"Castillo? You should have taken my advice for the choice of nickname too, as you did the others. Mindless ramblings? I don't think so. If you came up with that whack nickname, then I think everyone in this room knows your brain is surely incapable of this empire you've built here."

"SHUT UP!" Casper screamed, looking flustered.

His bodyguards started marching towards me, but the old man suddenly spoke up. "Let him speak. He looks like he's got something important to say."

Casper remained redder than ever, but he said nothing.

"Ex-roommates isn a bit of an understatement, don't you think? I came here to tell you that I don't want to have anything to do with you as a person or with this whole shebang, whatever it is, anymore."

"What's he talking about, Castillo?" the man spoke up, turning towards my flustered friend.

"I-I don't know."

"No, you do. You used my ideas, my knowledge, foolishness, ignorance and skills to create this empire, enjoying all the gains. I was the one running this whole outfit. Me! Well, to be honest, I don't want any of the proceeds from this business. I just don't want to have anything to do with it either!"

The room was silent.

The woman looked between two of us, not knowing what to say.

The man on the other hand, was concise in his reply. "The silence means that what he says is true, yes?"

Casper nodded subconsciously, swallowing loudly.

"Well, then I don't want to be working with a mere middleman anymore, and I'm sure Mr. Kawasaki here does not!" The woman said, a lot of meaning in her voice.

The old man nodded. "Chantelle, I concur."

Casper stood up, looking at the duo. "What do you mean?"

"This."

Before Casper could react, right in the blink of an eye, one of Mr. Kawasaki's guards leveled a silenced pistol and shot him and his guards several times. All three bodies crumpled to the ground.

"W-why the f*ck did you do that?!" I screamed.

"In the world of narcotics, 'firing someone' is taken literally," Chantelle said with a crooked smile.

*****

Hiiiiiii.

I know, I know, it's been a while since I posted anything here. In my defence, I just survived the most strenuous exam of my life (more on that later). I look forward to finishing off this short story and getting some other work done as well.

Happy New Month ❤️