Chapter 7: The Gunshot

"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

-Wayne LaPierre-

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“Shall we dance?” Ian reached out his hand to her as an invitation to dance. Victoria was not a skilled dancer and felt a little bit shy with her ability.

“I’m not too sure about it.” She replied.

“Oh, don’t worry. I will take the lead. You just have to follow my steps and everything will be fine.” He reassured. After a few seconds. She took his hand and he led her to the middle of the room where several others had paired up to start dancing as well.

The music started and he led the moves. She was feeling a bit nervous at first, but after a few minutes, she started to loosen up a little and followed his move.

Fortunately for Victoria, she was born a fast learner. It did not take long for her to pick up on the rhythm and they started dancing. One of his hand was on her hand while the other one was wrapped around her waist.

She had one of hers holding his and the other on his shoulder. They were so close to each other. She was not used to being so close with another man that her heart started skipping a beat. Their gaze was locked on each other and with a small smile, he spoke.

“You are so beautiful, Victoria. Do you know that?” Victoria looked up at him and wondered if he was being sincere or he was trying to flirt with her.

“I know. I have good genetic.” She replied back. Her witty answer made him chuckle and he wondered why he did not see more of this side of her before. She was not as boring and lifeless as he thought.

Not to mention, the way she was dressed that evening showed a more glamorous side of hers, which he appreciated.

She also thought he was quite handsome. Sure, he did not look like one of those models in sport magazine. Still, he had his own charms. More importantly, he had this presence that intrigued her but also made her cautious at the same time.

“I want to know more about you, Victoria. We are going to be the best partner ever when we understand each other. Will you allow me to take you out for dinner?” He asked. Upon hearing this, she was starting to get uncomfortable again.

“I highly appreciate your offer, but you seem to forget that I am still in my mourning period. My husband has only passed away a month ago. I can’t be seen with another man or rumors will start spreading.

They already consider me a gold digger. Imagine what else they will say about me if they find out I’m meeting another man during this time.” She reasoned.

“Why are you so worried about what other people are thinking? Are they going to pay your bills? No. You are the boss now. You make the rules. You can do anything you want.” His words sounded like a devil’s whisper. She was not too fond of it.

“I need to keep my husband’s reputation and the family’s name. I can’t just act as I please.” She argued.

“You don’t have to live for other people, you know. You can live for yourself.” This time, his gaze looked sincere. Those words had come out from his heart and not merely from his lips. It scared Victoria.

Fortunately for her, the music stopped during that time and she snapped out of her own thought. She headed back to her seat without waiting for him and picked up her purse. Ian followed behind her and tapped on her shoulder.

“What’s wrong? Why are you taking your purse like that?”

“I think I will go back early tonight. No need to send me off. I will give my drive a call and he’ll pick me up soon enough.” She replied.

“Victoria, what are you talking about? This place is quite far from your home. It’s already late, I will drive you back.” During this time, none of them realized that Darius had entered the room and blended in with the rest of the staff that were there.

His presence was like shadow among the crowd. No one really noticed anything wrong with him. However, his eyes were constantly watching them.

Ever since he received his name from Victoria, he had been doing his own research on who Octavian Carlson really was. He received very little information the surface but as he dug deeper, he found out that his name was not actually Octavian Carlson. It was the name he legally used for business.

That man’s real name was actually Octavian Voltaire. No, he had nothing to do with the famous French writer Voltaire. They just happened to have the same name. The fact that he hid his actual last name was suspicious enough. But then he found out about the dark side of this man.

He was in the cartel, selling marijuana all over UK and Europe. If he was just any soldier, it wouldn’t be a huge issue. However, Ian was the boss. He was a mafia boss, a cartel leader.

Such a dangerous man was standing so close with Victoria right now and Darius was holding himself back from stepping in and brought her away from him.

“I know Wilfred has plenty of connection, but I didn’t think he would be connected to someone like him.” He thought.

Back to Victoria. After thinking about it for a while, she finally agreed, but not all the way to her house.

“You’ll just drop me off at the place where you pick me up. Do we have a deal?” She asked. He thought about it for a second. A few minutes together with her was better than no minutes at all.

He eventually agreed to it and the two of them went to the car. As they were walking, Darius followed behind them and got into his own car so he could drive right behind them, keeping a good watch on her.

Fifteen minutes after Victoria and Ian drove away from the hotel, there was another car who did not belong to Darius or any of their associates who kept on following them.

Naturally, Ian who picked this up quickly alerted her that they were being followed by two different cars. She was going to turn around to see who these people were but he prevented her from doing so.

“We don’t know who they are looking for, me or you. I can’t just drop you off. Not until these people are out of sight.” He declared.

“Okay, then what do you want to do?” She asked him as she tried to maintain her composure. Ian’s mind started working. He was not sure if these people were just there to observe them or if they carried a gun and planned on killing them.

The best way to figure it out was to lure them into somewhere quiet so he could finish them off without garnering much attention. If he was alone, it wouldn’t be so difficult, but Victoria was there. He was not sure if she could handle it.

“Victoria, how good are you at using guns?” He asked her.

“What, why are you asking that?” She asked him. He quickly pulled out a handgun from the storage compartment of the car and handed it over to her.

“I’m going to lure them to a quiet place. Don’t worry. I will protect you in case anything happens. But you need to keep this with you in case they try to harm you.”

With that, he drove his car to a quiet secluded area of London and as expected, the car from before followed them there. As they stopped, two men got out of the car with a gun about to approach them.

Before they could get closer, Ian got out of the car and shot them with a speed of lighting, as if he was used to using the guns all the time. The two men laid dead quicker than Victoria could proceed. She gasped as she saw blood splattering on the ground.

Just when she thought it was over, suddenly another man ran from the car toward her side and he was about to shoot the gun on her window when he suddenly dropped dead right outside her car window.

He was not shot by Ian. He was shot by Darius who had been following them and quietly helped them. When he saw one of them about to shoot on Victoria’s side, he couldn’t sit still and do nothing.

So he shot him before he could shoot her. As soon as the men are dead, Ian got back in the car to check on her.

“Victoria, are you okay?”  He asked her. She was still a bit shaken from what she just saw but she gulped and nodded.

“Yes, I’m okay. Can we just get out of here now?” She pleaded.

“Sure, I’m sorry.” He got inside the car and quickly drove away from there. As soon as they were out of there and things had calmed down a little, she turned to him with curious and a bit of fear in her eyes.

“Do you mind explaining to me what just happened? Who were those men? Why did they want to kill us and how could you just kill them so easily?” She wondered.

“If I didn’t kill them, they would kill us. Don’t worry about the police. They wouldn’t find out about it, not unless you tell them. Which I believe you won’t since you are involved too.” As soon as they reached the building she mentioned, he turned to her and spoke in a serious tone.

“Pretend you never saw that. The less you know, the better.” Without saying anything else, she got out of the car and Ian drove away.

“Ian, just who in the world are you?”