Chapter 4

The next evening, at the High Soritz bar, the music was playing loud, the lights dimmed and bodies swaying with the music.

Selena stepped into the bar, pulling her coat tighter. This wasn’t her kind of space, Zane had asked to meet and talk, something didn’t feel right but he was still her little brother, the only one who at least treated her a bit differently.

She spotted Zane in the back booth, hoodie on again, nursing a half empty glass. He looked at her nervously with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

She sat across him.

You wanted to talk”, she asked softly.

She looked around her surroundings like she was scanning for something.

“Yeah. Yeah. I just… I’ve been thinking. About what you said at dinner.” He stammered, not looking her in the eyes.  

She sensed something was wrong, but she brushed it off, Zane was just like that.

“Zane, if this is about the money, I told you I can’t…”

“No. No, it’s not about that.” He laughed nervously as he gulped the last drink in his glass, “I just missed you, that’s all.”

That alone should’ve tipped her off. He never missed her.

She looked at him carefully. “You okay?”

He hesitated.

“You’ll be fine,” he whispered, but it wasn’t to her… it was to himself.

Before she could ask again, two burly looking men in dark coats appeared at the end of the booth.

“Miss Miller,” one of them said, smiling too politely. “We’d like to have a word.”

She looked at them, then back at Zane…and her blood ran cold.

“Zane?”

He didn’t look at her. he couldn’t.

The taller man reached out.

“Please don’t make this difficult for either of us, Miss Miller.”

Selena stood, but the other man blocked her path.

“What the hell is this?” she hissed. “Zane, what the fuck did you do?” She cursed angrily.

Calm down Miss, our boss just wants to talk.” One of the men said to Selena gripping her arm.

“Let go of me!” she snapped, struggling, but quietly aware of the eyes in the room.

Zane finally met her eyes.

“I’m sorry Sel,” he said, voice breaking. “I didn’t have a choice.”

And in that moment, Selena realized something worse than betrayal.

He truly believed that.

In the shadows just above in the VIP booth, a cold looking man had just witnessed what had happened.

Damian Montavlo had been invited by his friends for a drink by the bar, so many beauties had tried to get close but when they saw his expression, they all fled in fear.

“Come on Damian, you’re scaring all the beauties away”, Asher Lockwood, Damian’s childhood friend replied to him.

Damian didn’t reply, not caring a bit for what was going on. He casually sipped on his glass of scotch.

The man was beautiful, everything about his features were perfect. His eyes were silver, cold. One glance from him made the ladies squirm in their seats. His leg was crossed at the ankle on top of the other, even in such a place, his presence was quite domineering. He wasn’t the kind of man that needed to announce himself.

“He has the looks of a god”, one lady by the side whispered to her friend as they chuckled softly, admiring the looks of the beautiful man but not daring to get close.

He heard them but chose to ignore. Those words were nothing he hadn’t heard before now. His eyes scanned across the room like a hawk looking for its new prey.

He noticed the woman in a brown coat walk in, his gaze lingered on her, like he had found his prey. She walked over to the back booth sitting across from a guy. She wasn’t dressed for the moment so he assumed she was just meeting him.

He noticed her eyes scanning the room like someone who wasn’t used to such a space. Their eyes met shortly, but she looked past like she hadn’t noticed him at all. He was amused.

He kept looking, admiring her good looks from the shadows. The dim light fixated on her face as if to announce her beauty.

Suddenly he noticed some men come from behind and surround the table, his eyes squinted in a bit of annoyance. He noticed the boy’s face for the first time as he pulled his hoodie down, his eyes full of guilt, his lips mouthing “I’m sorry…. I didn’t have a choice”.

He couldn’t help but notice the calm but angry look on the woman’s face, a bit of disappointment but nothing that showed fear.

“What are you looking at?” Asher noticing Damian’s gaze persistent at a particular area, chimed in, he noticed a woman in a brown coat surrounded by three burly looking men.

They soon walked away, one man ahead and the woman in the middle with the other two men at the back guarding her like she was going to run away.

Asher turned back to look at Damian, knowing his friend’s thought he quickly advised him even though he knew he wouldn’t listen.

“Don’t get involved Damian,” he sipped on his drink, turning away to face the ladies.

Damian’s eyes followed Selena until she was completely out of sight.

“Who said I wanted to get involved?” He asked Asher, not looking him in the eyes as he gulped down the remaining scotch in his glass.

“The look in your eyes says it all, Young Master Montavlo.” He only called him that when it was getting serious.

Damian immediately stood up, straightening the imaginary creases on his suit. He looked at Asher and gave a cold, scary but reassuring smile.

“I’m just going to check it out”.

“Where’s he going?” Luca, another one of Damian’s peers quickly asked Asher, as he noticed Damian striding out.

“Probably to cause trouble”, Asher shrugged his shoulders without a care in the world, beckoning on some beauties who didn’t dare approach their table due to Damian’s presence.