So sorry for super slow updates. Bare with me, I'm preparing to defend in less than two months from today.
Sean currently stood nose to nose with one of the Imperiya men in black in the underground battleground. They'd been there for the past five minutes with no talking, no coughing, no shuffling. Just a stoic staring confrontation."You can leave us." A man approached them from a dark bend with slow and steady steps. The kind that left eggshells indifferent when walked upon. His voice was heavy with power and his demeanor stunk of superiority. He said this, and Sean's staring partner instantly walked away, but not without a bow. "Sean Dimitri Vladimir," The man said his name as if he'd known him for ages. If he expected to pull a reaction from the mentioned, he failed big time. The man smirked and nodded his head. "Didn't expect any less from you.""Who are you?" Scrutinizing him, Sean concluded he was no more than fifty-five and no less than forty-five. The ten-year age gap doubt resulted from the wealthy aura he radiated: he looked thoroughly kempt in his hundreds-of-dollars burgundy t
"You're so wrong to think Adam needs 'professional help'. Much, you do not need. Your presence alone is more than enough, Gianna." Her face crumpled as if about to cry. "Oh well, you're just a kid, I don't expect you to understand how it feels to...to be an incapable mother, helpless and useless. At this point, I would do anything, I mean anything to see Adam happy. So please, I need you. My son needs you.""I—""Please.""I've heard you.""Thank you. Thank you so so much," Mrs. McCoy brought her palms together. "I'll forever be indebted to you. You don't know what this means to me.""I'm not doing this for you.""I know. I want to make you understand the impact your decision has on me and the rest of the family."Ever since then, Gianna's mind has been on power off and on. Her tête-a-tête with Mrs. McCoy completely destabilized it to a whole different level. The kind of level to go back on her words.As if the universe was taking sides, days before the D-day, her uncle had traveled l
Viktor lowered his head. "I want revenge on my family, Sean. And Imperiya being the most powerful mob in Russia says a lot; you can attain anyone in a finger snap. Now, my gain? Is I'm counting on you to help me spot this bastard out from the rooftop. I'll take matters from there once that's done."Sean chuckled."What?""Haven't heard anything so pathetic in a while. Assuming he's advanced in the mob tree, position as experience wise, what could a frail nobody with zero chances of survival do?" Viktor sat silent for a while. "What matters is the gesture. At least I'll die peacefully knowing I unleashed the bottom part of my heart...knowing I tried something.""Hmm. Can you handle a gun?""It's not that complicated.""Let me rephrase it; how good are you at targeting?" Viktor didn't speak. "Thought as much. Proceed." Sean urged in unexplainable annoyance."I must have learned two or three about it by then. What about you? You good with arms?""It's not about me.""I know, but keep in
"Boo!"Gianna skipped, frightened. "Oh my God, Tish...""Who dreams in broad daylight? Tell us, what's been on your mind?""Nothing." Too engulfed by her thoughts to notice the end of lectures, Gianna shut her notebook, corked her pen, and packed them in her backpack. She'd barely slept the previous night for unexplainable reasons, and when she did, it was swamped with ice-blue eyes she wished to forever forget. If they once were empty, they were even more so in her dream. Soulless. Teesha squinted."Next week is Hi-bies," Tay casually announced, pulling Teesha's pinned attention from Gianna."My my, it completely slipped my mind, and I've been looking forward to this for the longest time," Elsa acknowledged, disappointed in herself."Isn't that what to expect from a dick-clogged mind?" Teesha giggled, Gianna tensed in expectations of heated word exchange or perhaps worse but all Elsa did was roll her eyes and wave it off with a mere, "Oh shut up.""What's that? The Hi-bies thing," A
It was a tough fight.The basement was unusually overcrowded. No one wanted to miss out on Ring Kong's final fight, especially not with the 'pretty face stranger' involved—as the homeless natives referred to him. The news of Sean confronting Kong had spread like wildfire so much to the entry fee collector's surprise. That night, he'd made more money than he'd ever made in the history of its existence, he was quite a devoted employee: he's been since thirty-five. Now forty-two, single, and searching? Not sure, Strav's excitement was unmatched as he flipped through a stack of bills, outlining the expenditures of his share. He'll finally put his landlord on a door number 38 break, afford a ticket to watch his favorite football team play, get himself a brand-new toaster, and restock his fridge with enough booze to take him through a week or two. Now that sounded like a perfect plan.That very night, Strav had seen faces; ones he'd seen once and never again, ones he'd never seen before, on
"What are you doing here?"Adam seemed amused by the question. "Talking with you, of course." But there was no linger of humor around Gianna.Adam cleared his throat. "Fine, I'll tell you what, but not here. Unfortunately, I'm yet to get familiar with this place. Plus, it's not appropriate for catch up...care to come over?"What has familiarity got to do with anything? She almost asked. "No.""Come on, Gigi. It's been months since we saw each other, don't you think it'll be the perfect time to catch up? There's a whole lot I need to tell you if it's not your case. So?""Adam I can't. I can't do whatever I want when I want. I owe my uncle and his wife some respect."He held both of her shoulders. "Visiting a long-time-no-see friend for some catching up isn't wrong. Maybe you should let me talk to them, I'll make them understand that I'm absolutely harmless.""Oh my God, no, are you crazy?"Adam shrugged, and with a straight face, he replied, "Guess I am, ever since I met you." "Oh, pl
"Follow me." Viktor stamped a bill on the bar counter and walked through a cascade of thick wooden-beaded curtains that led to a dimly lit corridor with his friend on his tail. It had doors on either side. He knocked and opened a door that had a man sitting behind a counter. That, with 3 chairs and a TV made up the tiny stale-smelly room. Viktor spoke with him and deposited some bills on the dirty counter. The man hollered something in Russian but Viktor waved it away as he pulled open the floor.It shocked Sean, but what almost knocked the breath out of his chest was what was below. He would never have thought in a thousand years.They were hit first by contesting blows of luminosity and noise from a crowd of not more than a hundred men surrounding a caged boxing-sized ring. Some faces, he'd seen before; they were permanent residents of his different 'homes'. A heated fight was the source of the hollers and tumult. They were so loud that he wondered why he didn't hear them from abov
She hoped wrong. Very wrong."Rianna, I got you a seat right next to me, come," Elsa invited."It's Gianna," Gianna gently corrected."It's going to take at least two weeks for her to get your name right. Took her a month to get Tay from Fay right." Tay took the seat behind Gianna's destined chair while Teesha occupied that behind Elsa."Roughly three weeks from Treeshay to Teesha. Can you believe she called me 'Cheat' in French?"Elsa rolled her eyes, "Oh come on now girls, y'all make it seem like I'm a ditz or something."Gianna stifled a giggle."Heard Mr. Stevenson is taking AP Biology this year," Teesha announced."Oh gawd, why me?" Elsa flattened her jaw to the desk with a grimace. "Not Mr. Hot with the bad teaching skills. He gonn' make me hate reproduction, I can feel it deep in my bones. Someone call the academic cops on him.""Is he that bad?" Gianna set her notebook on the desk."Nah, she's simply more attentive to his features than his teachings. And the 'hate' part of the
It's been a little over sixteen weeks since Sean made the chilly streets and dark alleys of Moscow his home, his bed. His duffle bag, which diligently served as a pillow with what he wore excluded, had nothing more than four pairs of jeans, two tees and a hoodie against the night's blistering cold, his passport, a wallet with a few notes to sustain the little his stomach demanded for another four weeks or so, a cap to shield his face from lingering eyes and UV light, and a pocket knife for precautions. Safe to say the latter never saw the darkness of his duffle bag from the day he purchased it from a local store not too far from the alley he slept in that night. Another one of such assets was a packet of cigarettes and a lighter. The nicotine has helped him a ton lately more than ever before especially with his appetite.Before leaving for the airport in the company of his brothers, he'd left some money he'd worked from Spring's dinner and gathered from debtors to his supportive father