“You got more people involved? This was supposed to be a quiet job!”
“You are the one doing the yelling, not me,” I say, “plus, you told me to fetch him but didn’t specifyhow. But don’t worry, my guys know how this goes. They are professionals.”
“Fair enough. Show me.”
I head toward the warehouse door and knock twice. The door opens and twoSoulless Bastardswithout their patches and who are visibly roughed up step out.
“Who are they?” Daremo demands.
“As you can appreciate from their faces, they were part of the crew who helped me capture him.”
He nods in agreement, snaps his fingers and says, “Check inside.”
The doorman babysitter enters the warehouse.
Two minutes go by, and Daremo looks confident, waiting for him to return.
Four minutes. We’re still waiting for the bodyguard. Daremo looks a little jittery.
Five more minutes, and Daremo is nowhere as confident as he was. He’s shockingly nervous and sweating even more than me – only his sweat is straight up fear. We hear footsteps approaching from the inside. It’s the Yakuza.
“Cle—” he starts.
Daremo says,
“What took you so long?”
The bodyguard looks down and says, “My apologies, it’s dark inside. I was checking the area. He is all alone, tied to a chair.”
“Dark? Why is it dark?” He looks directly at me.
“What? I don’t own the place. It’s a piece-of-shit warehouse in the middle of nowhere. Where did you expect me to do this? In the Four Seasons Hotel? Last time I checked they didn’t include venues for kidnappings,” I joke.
“You are really trying your luck lately. Lead the way.” He fixes his suit with a single jerk, and as we enter, he snaps his fingers so the bodyguard can join us.
Once we are inside, Daremo complains, “I can’t see anything. Where is he?”
“Just ahead,” I reply.
“I see him.” Rage is sitting on a chair, acting as if he’s really bound to it. “Stay here, both of you,” he commands.
“Sir,” the bodyguard says in acknowledgment.
Daremo steps closer to Rage and then stops, keeping himself a few steps away from him. I don’t blame him. Knowing what I do about Rage, I’d do the same if I were in his shoes.
“Finally, we meet face to face. The great and fearsome Rage,” Daremo says.
Rage looks at him with disgust but does not reply.
“I’ll take you to my bosses. They will teach you a valuable lesson, and they will make me one who calls the shots.” He smirks.
“What lesson would that be?” Rage finally asks.
“You don’t fuck with the Yakuza,” Daremo states firmly, his face serious.
“And what exactly did I do to fuck with the Yakuza?” Rage looks calm, but more like the calm before the storm.
“You didn’t honor the agreement we had with the MC.”
