"Don’t let him get away! Make sure you take him down!”
Tanya sat up as she heard the approaching feet and commotion as a group of men seemed to be chasing someone.
“Oh great! She sniffled and added the mangled tissue paper in her hand to the growing pile on the passenger seat. ” Just my luck! A girl can’t even wallow in her misery in peace? Is it too much to ask for a moment of solitude?” She shouted to the roof of her car and quickly shut her mouth when she saw a man dart out of a corner.
He was running full speed towards where her car was parked in the dark away from the streetlights.
Tanya mistakenly flashed her lights while she was fumbling around for her phone on the console and quickly switched it off back but the guy had looked right at her in that fleeting moment.
Tanya was taken aback by the sheer terror on his face.
“Nobody should be that afraid” She thought then shook her head when she realised that he was not just intending to run past her.
He was running to her!
“No, no, no, buddy. Keep going! Keep going!” She said fervently to herself as she saw him getting closer to her car with intent. As if, if she recited it enough, it would happen. “Don’t stop, please, just keep going!”
She realized belatedly that her windows were rolled down and she was trying to reach for the button in the dark when the guy got to her.
Tanya screamed shortly, hating the girlish sound even as her subconscious registered how hot the guy was.
“Damn, he is so hot!” She thought as she shouted at him. “What the heck? Get….”
“Please, save me” he shouted in a gravelly voice.
“What are you talking about? Save you from what?” She shouted back at him and was answered almost immediately as four burly men with murder in their eyes rounded the corner the guy had come out from. The streetlight shone on their faces as they looked around in search of the guy. The menace in their countenance made Tanya shrink back involuntarily against her seat.
“Those…those men are after you?” She asked in a whisper like they could hear her from three lanes away.
“Please! Please!! Please!!! Just get us out of here! They would kill me if they found me here! And they won’t spare you as well” He pulled urgently at the car door as he looked back to check if the men had seen him yet “Just open the damn door!”
“What? I can’t just…..” She saw the desperation on the guy’s face as one of the men spotted him near the car and then shouted to the others “The motherfucker is there!”
Tanya knew that she would certainly regret her next move but she unlocked the car. The guy got in, shouting at her “Please, go, go go!“. Tanya gunned the engine and pulled out while he was still getting in.
“Jesus! I am going to kill somebody. Are you okay?”
“Just go! I am fine!” He snapped.
Tanya froze when she saw that the approaching men did not intend to leave the road; instead, they were getting together to block the car’s path.
“What are you doing? Get going!” The guy snapped, fear evident in his voice.
“Don’t you shout at me, you idiot! What do you mean by ” Get going?” I should simply run them over, yeah?”
“Yeah,” he said simply.
Tanya looked at him like he had lost his mind then she voiced it “You are crazy!”
“They won’t stop coming!”
“No, I am not deliberately hitting anything or anyone a day to my wedding or ever! Not for you or anyone!”
“You are getting married?” He looked at her in surprise then back at the road. One of the men had gotten to the car and was hitting the car with his big fist even while in motion as he tried to stop them.
Tanya saw one of the approaching men bring out a shiny object. “Is that….”
“Yes, a dagger and he wouldn’t hesitate to use it on me, well it is us now. You have to run them over or at least attempt to or the one behind us now would probably smash the window in no time at all”
“What do you mean by us? There is no us! Get out of my car now and go sort out whatever it was that you had with them! ” Tanya yelled at him.
“I will be dead then and I would rather not. Also, you won’t be spared as well. These people don’t leave behind witnesses,”
“What?” Tanya swallowed hard, involuntarily slamming on the brakes.
“I am sorry,” the man said to her, and before Tanya could reply, he put his hands over hers on the steering wheel, taking control.
He was bent sideways on the passenger’s seat and Tanya quickly pressed the button that depressed her seat back. She scrambled out of his way after removing her seatbelt to get to the back seat. He gave her a brief grateful look and gunned the engine
He hit one of the advancing goons while the other one quickly scrambled out of the way.
Tanya heard a pinging sound behind her as something penetrated her rear window and she looked up in time to see something whizzed by the guy’s ear, breaking the front glass in its exit.
“Was that….”
“Yes, a bullet. They are not joking at all!” The guy informed her hurriedly “Please stay down as you are,”
“Oh my God! Oh my God! We are going to die! A day to my wedding and I am going to die in my car with a random guy;?! This sure would make a great headline” she panicked.
“No one is dying today if I have anything to say about it so please stop worrying about the fact that you wouldn’t look perfect in your morgue shot” Then he looked back as he saw something in the side mirror “Shit, that was what he went back for!”
"Why is he here?" Tanya felt Ayo's hand tighten on hers.She turned her head to see Martinez down the hall surrounded by his new manager and his bodyguards.She noticed that the bodyguards were fewer than he normally had.She supposed he had to keep up pretenses because she of all people knew that he could no longer afford them.He could barely afford the clothes on his back as he was so neck-deep in debt that she was sure he wouldn't finish paying for them in a decade, even if he decided to straighten up and do better.Since that didn't seem to be in the cards anytime soon, she was sure even his pretences would crumble soon enough.She saw Derek, a heavyweight champion, pointedly snubbed Martinez and walked away.When he spotted them, he turned towards their direction, but Tanya looked at her security head before turning away.She knew he wasn't going to get to her family even if he became a fly."Ignore him," she told Ayo. "Some people still believed that his old music, Gangrene, des
“It will be fine,” she told herself firmly.She had to believe it.She told her men to stay out while she looked for him.She entered the hotel and was directed to the ballroom on the second floor, sectioned off separately from the main floor.Tanya took the stairs that led to the ballroom just as someone was coming down it.“Why must I always see you everywhere I go? Isn’t it enough that you ruined my life?!” Susan’s shrill voice dampened Tanya’s mood.She wondered what she was doing here, especially coming from that part where the receptionist said it was closed off to the public for the day.Despite her curiosity, Tanya decided to ignore the bitch so she could go away with her trouble. She had something better to deal with, and she was not going to allow her to ruin it for her. She continued up the stairs expecting Susan to shut her trap if she didn’t respond.She gasped when she suddenly felt a hand pull her from behind, and she slipped backwards.“Tanya!” she heard Ayo’s voice as
“I am pregnant?” Tanya started at the doctor in shock.“Yes, princess. That explains all those feelings you’ve been having. Congratulations.”Tanya couldn’t believe it.She stared blankly at Dr. Aguilar then looked down at her stomach.Cupping it, she stood up from the bed and walked slowly towards the door.She flung it open and Christianah almost tumbled in. She had her ears plastered to the door, while Meg leaned against the railing with a worried look on her face.Meg hurried forward while Christiana steadied herself, “Well?” she asked while peering into Tanya’s pale face. “What is it? You are fine? You are fine, right?”Her worried tone made Tanya nod automatically, and then she said quietly, “I am pregnant. He said I am pregnant.”“Pregnant?! That is good news!” Meg said excitedly, then “Come, you shouldn’t be standing. You are pregnant…”Tanya didn’t believe she could squeeze laughter past the ball lodged in her chest, yet it erupted as she looked at Meg’s face. “Pregnant, not s
In a theatrical whisper, he said, “It is that man I saw on the TV with you. I think he is your husband? Yes, that one. Such a wicked soul,” he said with disgust on his face right before he forked some lobsters into his mouth.“There are many men with me on the TV, many have acted as my husbands before too. Which one of them are you talking about?” Tanya asked with confusion on her face.“I mean the…” he cleared his throat and drank wine to wash down the hastily chewed food. “The real one. The one you married instead of Martinez. What is that name I hear people call him? Yes, Mr. Taiwo. That one.”With surprise evident on her face, Tanya leaned forward. “Are you sure about this? You must have been mistaken. After all, it was a dark street.”“I know it as sure as I know my name, princess. I won’t lie to you. If that killer wants to lie about it, I can say this right to his face!” he said firmly.“Oh? That means you wouldn’t mind repeating this anywhere?” Tanya asked.“Of course not! Mart
Tanya waved the man over as she saw him enter the restaurant.She had booked the whole restaurant for the evening and was seated alone, so it was easy for him to see her.He wore a blue windbreaker jacket that seemed to have seen better days, just like his jeans and shoes. He seemed to be in his thirties.Smiling broadly, he approached her table. "Hello, princess. I can't believe I am meeting you in the flesh. This is so surreal. May I have an autograph, please?" he said excitedly."Of course, why not?" Tanya answered with a smile. "Let's get down to business first. We can do that later.""Okay, okay," he said as he scraped the chair back loudly and sat eagerly while smiling at her.Tanya disliked his shifty eyes immediately, but she held her smile as she assessed him. Her eyes went towards the man behind the counter with his face turned away before focusing on the man giving her a once-over.She was sure she had never seen him before nor knew him with Martinez, but then it was easy to
She was ashamed.The better Ayo’s family treated her during their two-day visit, the more ashamed she felt about the way her mother had treated Ayo and was still treating him.The visit was meant to be a few hours' visit, but his sister had persuaded her to stay one more day.She could see that his mom loved the idea as well, so she immediately agreed.It had been the most relaxing and heart-filled visit she had ever had.Ayo’s mother did not treat her like a stranger at all. She treated her like she had known her for ages.Her care and compassion almost seemed alien to Tanya.It wasn’t that her mother wasn’t capable of love, she just couldn’t remember a time when things like her career and her standing in the family hadn’t overshadowed any bond they might have developed while spending time together.If she thought hard enough, maybe she could recall a time in her childhood when she had been allowed to just be a child or when her mother had just looked at her with love without thinking