Derrick was still stuck on his offer. An offer he knew Julius would scoff at, but he needed to buy time for the boys and allow them to get in and out before Julius left the room.

  But you see—Julius was a master in tactics and well-versed in the art of deception. When his gut spoke to him, he always listened. The hairs on his neck stood to attention. Every bone in his body told him something—

  Like something just—

  just wasn’t right.

  The disconnection between Derrick and Malakie. The overarching feeling of fear gnawed at him. It just wasn’t about the deal that was going down in the room—it was something else—something Julius just couldn’t put his finger on, but he had done some research of his own, and his sources were rarely wrong. A million and a half for less than half an hour’s work, and gaining favour with the King of Miami—anyone would jump at the chance, but Derrick wasn’t biting.

  Julius began second-guessing himself, rubbing his low-cut beard as his lips turned in.

  “Son—just take the deal. With the black hood leading our men, we’ll make that back before you can even blink.”

  Julius took in a huge amount of air through his nose, then back out slowly, feeling like he had just been outwitted.

  “Alright—you got it,” he said. “Two million.”

  Derrick’s face dropped. Finally, Julius budged on the two million, but now he had to ask for more—what choice did he have?

  With a sigh, a drop of the shoulders, and a look to God for help, he countered. “Three million, Julius.”

  “Have you lost your god damn mind, Derrick? I finally agree to your demand for two million and you just go ahead and bump up the price,” said Julius. “Do you need a reminder that I’m not someone to play with?”

  Derrick closed his eyes and prayed to Mother. “Julius—you’ve got to understand this isn’t personal, it’s business. I said the opening offer had to start at two million—not the final offer.”

  A sly smile began to pull at the corner of Julius’s lips, like he just called checkmate. “Well, Derrick, a little birdie tells me you need the money—that you’re trying to skip town because you’re in way too deep.”

  Derrick’s heart sank to the bottom of his ocean. That deep, he wasn’t able to fish it out. Someone—someone he had trusted near and dear to him—talked.

  Does Afra know, Derrick thought. He couldn’t, otherwise I wouldn’t be breathing right now. So what did whoever told Julius I was cash strapped get out of that—extra money—good graces.

  His eyes opened, scanning Malakie’s, but he could see no sign of betrayal in his.

  “I told you that you couldn’t trust those two—now look,” Malakie said calmly. “One of them has talked and ruined it for everyone.”

  Derrick’s mind began to wander once more. Who could he trust, in what seemed like a sea of snakes? He thought he could trust the three men on the mission with his life—turns out he couldn’t. But the question remained—who was the man that gave the inside information?

  Was it Travis, D’Angelo, or the man standing to the right of him? Derrick didn’t know—and until he did, he would trust nobody.

  ******

  The security guard arrived at the vault door and there were no signs of the maintenance crew or Andreas. He leaned forward, resting his hands on the vault. He looked up and down the hall. It was as if they just played a neat little magic trick and disappeared into thin air.

  “We need to be quick, the guard’s growing suspicious.”

  Unfortunately for the boys, it was bad timing. With the guard pressed against the vault, he could hear everything. His face scrunched up as his eyes dropped towards the lock. He took a moment to breathe, then grabbed a hold. His hands were laced with sweat. He was as mad as he was nervous, because if anything happened that shouldn’t down here—his neck was on the line—so his hands began to move fast, turning, matching the code on the lock.

  Travis paused, listening in closely. He began to panic. “You guys hear that?”

  D’Angelo’s eyes began to wander to the skies. “Hear what, Trav—you sure you’re not hearing stuff?”

  “Nah, I definitely hear something. I’m not going mad. I think we need to alert the boss and get out of here—now!”

  Andreas stepped in line with Travis and laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Listen—there isn’t nobody down here. I brought us enough time, so relax. Rack up the money and then we can go. Remember, I stuck my neck on the line for you guys. I’ve got as much, if not more, to lose than you guys. I’m not about to risk my life unless I’m certain.”

  Travis released a deep breath outward. “Ok, ok. I got it.”

  The boys continued to pile the money and jewels into the truck. But as D’Angelo came back on the next trip to grab some cash, the wheel on the vault began to spin.

  “Guuuuuyyyyyssss!!” D’Angelo echoed, worry in his eyes. “I think we need to get out of here—now.”

  Travis and Andreas came rushing back inside. But it was too late. As they arrived, the vault door came crashing forward, revealing Andreas, the boys, and most of the money and jewels gone.

  The security guard slammed his hand into the alarm on the side of the wall, then drew his firearm and began to open fire. D’Angelo dived for cover, narrowly missing the bullets. Travis, on the other hand—he grabbed a hold of Andreas and used him as a shield. The bullets tore through his skin, causing his body to shake as blood leaked from everywhere.

  Travis waited until the guard was out and needed to reload. As soon as the guard hit the release button and the empty mag dropped to the ground, he tossed Andreas’s body to the side, drew his firearm, and opened fire, not stopping until he unloaded the whole clip. The security guard dropped to his knees, blood pouring from his mouth as he dropped to his death.

  Travis came rushing into the room and checked D’Angelo. “You good?” he asked through nervous, heavy breaths.

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  D’Angelo rose to his feet and dusted himself off. “I’m good, but we need to warn Derrick—now!”

  Travis reached into his trouser pocket and immediately began to text Derrick.

  *******

  The alarm blared, causing Julius and his father to jump to their feet. Derrick and Malakie looked at each other with a nervous stare, until Derrick’s phone started to vibrate. Derrick was a bag of nerves; he reached down into his pocket—his hand shaking and laced with sweat as he pulled it out.

  His eyes refusing to look down—but he had no choice. When he finally looked, his worst nightmares were confirmed. The text read: We’ve been compromised, get out now. We’ll meet you at the rendezvous spot.

  Derrick’s eyes rose slowly, first glancing towards Malakie’s, who himself glanced and caught what the text said. Then, reluctantly, they fell on Julius. But as the tension reached its boiling point, gunshots rang off behind Julius. He stormed to the window and noticed a maintenance truck making a beeline towards the gate.

  *******

  The maintenance truck charged down the gravelled path with reckless abandon. Bullets tore through the truck, piercing holes at every angle. As Travis went to look to see if they were in the clear, a bullet narrowly missed his face and tore off the windscreen mirror.

  Travis leaned out the window whilst D’Angelo wound down his, and both men returned fire, hitting their target on multiple occasions, but they were running out of real estate—they were approaching the gate—and fast.

  Travis glanced sideways toward D’Angelo. “If you’ve got something up your sleeve, you need to pull it out now.”

  D’Angelo pulled his arm back inside, resting his gun on his lap as he reached down into the bag next to him, pulling out a bomb. “Safety measure,” he smiled.

  It was as if a weight lifted off Travis’s shoulders. “Safety measure,” he echoed back to D’Angelo. “I could kiss you right now.”

  D’Angelo looked back at Travis with a weary glance. “No thank you. What you can do is give me an extra cut out of this money if we make it out of this alive.”

  Travis nodded his head repeatedly in agreement, then D’Angelo threw the bomb, cannoning past the guard station toward the gate.

  The guard’s eyes widened in horror as he looked down and saw the bomb fly straight past him. But it was too late. As the guard left his post, the bomb cannoned off the gate and exploded, taking the gate and him with it.

  The smoke filled the air while the flames rose around the debris where the gate once was. The path was now clear. D’Angelo slammed his foot down on the pedal, riding through the flames and smoke into the distance, leaving the compound in the dust.

  *******

  Julius’s face began to twitch as his eyes blinked frantically. He spun on his heel with his fist clenched, but as he faced the room again he was met with the barrel of a gun staring him down.

  “Hmph,” Julius couldn’t help but laugh at Malakie’s attempt to press him. “So what was the plan, Derrick—stall me until your boys got in undetected? Play a double ruse—run up the money here and take the money in the vault.”

  Julius began to clap. “Clever plan if I do say so myself, but the jig is up. I’m going to kill you, your boy, and when I find the rest of your crew I’m going to make them suffer.”

  Julius walked around his desk and stood in front of Malakie, staring him down. “Go on, then. What are you waiting for—I know, let me help you.”

  Julius grabbed the barrel of Malakie’s gun and pressed it into his forehead. “Go on. Shoot.”

  But Malakie stood still. “That’s what I thought,” Julius said, shouting in Malakie’s face. “You haven’t got the cojones.”

  Malakie’s arm extended out to the side, his finger on the trigger as he aimed his gun toward Mario. And without a single word, he pulled the trigger, shooting Mario in his leg.

  “Arghhh,” Mario screamed out in agony as he dropped to the floor, holding his leg as blood poured out around the carpet.

  “You were saying,” said Malakie as his eyes locked back on Julius.

  Julius took a few steps back and raised his hands in surrender, but Malakie matched his stride and put the barrel of the gun back square in his head.

  “The only way we’re getting out of this alive is if we take him hostage,” Malakie said.

  “Hostage—you don’t just take the most dangerous man in Miami hostage,” Derrick screamed back towards Malakie.

  “Well, if you can think of any better ideas I’m all ears, but as things stand we have no other choice.”

  The guards came storming toward the room, knocking the door to let Julius know what happened. They waited a minute, but when they heard no reply back they drew their firearms and pushed open the door, revealing Malakie holding Julius with a gun pressed to his head.

  “Drop your guns,” Malakie shouted, but the guards just stood there, their guns aimed at him.

  “Boss, we’ve got the shot—permission to take the shot,” one of the guards said calmly.

  “Listen—do as he said. Drop your guns and stand down. No one is playing here with my life.”

  The guards tossed down their firearms and started to walk backwards as Malakie, Derrick, and Robert walked out of the room.

  The men walked down the hall towards the stairs. As they got to the top of the stairs, men from all over held their firearms trained at the three men.

  “Stand down,” Julius screamed. But the men didn’t budge. “Staaand… dooown!!!”

  The men lowered their firearms, and Malakie, Derrick, and Robert walked down the spiral staircase slowly, keeping their vigil for any surprises that may pop up.

  As they touched the bottom of the stairs, Derrick noticed a bowl with car keys in and fished a pair out. “This a key to one of the cars out front?”

  “It’s not enough that you steal from me and hold me hostage, now you want to steal one of my cars too.”

  Malakie pressed the gun tightly against Julius’s temple. “Answer the question.”

  “Yes—those are keys to one of the cars out front.”

  “Now that wasn’t hard, now was it,” said Malakie calmly as they walked towards the front door.

  As the men pushed open the door, Mario appeared at the top of the staircase, limping, his face full of rage as he watched the men make off with his son.

  As the men walked toward the cars on the gravelled path, Derrick took Robert to the side, away from prying ears. “Robert,” he said. “I know I haven’t been a good friend to you. I’ve brought nothing but chaos and nightmares to your life—and in another life maybe things could’ve been different between us, but here we are. I just want to apologise to you for everything—you’re the best of us, Robert,” he continued as he pulled Robert’s hand toward him and put the keys in them.

  “Go—get out of here. Be great and never look back. As for Daniel, you don’t have to worry about anyone finding the tapes. Your debt is paid.”

  “I knew there was a heart in there somewhere, Derrick. It’s about time you dug that out of that avalanche of darkness,” he sniggered. “Look after yourself, Derrick.”

  Robert got into the black Mercedes and drove off into the distance whilst Malakie stuffed Julius into the back of their car. Malakie sat right next to him, with his gun still pointed at his temple as Derrick drove out of the compound.

  “Boss, what should we do?” shouted one of Julius’s men to Mario.

  “You go after them,” Mario shouted.

  “But Julius told us to stand down.”

  “And I’m telling you to go and get your leader back—now!! Derrick hasn’t got the balls to kill my son. It’s only leverage, so get in your cars and get my son!”

  “You heard the boss—move out.” The men jumped into their cars and headed straight toward Derrick.

  “As for you, black hood—if we can’t have you, no one will. You’re not going to escape me again,” Mario said with a wicked smile playing on his lips.

  *******

  “What’s the plan now, Derrick?” Malakie asked.

  “I’m going to get my wife and kids and get far away from this country as possible. If you have any sense, you’ll do the same.”

  “Malakie—Derrick, there isn’t nowhere on God’s green earth you hide—I will find you, and when I do, I’ll take great pleasure in killing you both,” he said. “All I ask is—please make this game of cat and mouse fun. It’s not fun when the prey is too easy to find. It takes the fun out of it and makes the game less pleasurable.”

  “After everything—your father getting shot, you being held hostage, and you’re still arrogant,” said Malakie. “I don’t know what Kool-Aid you were sipping at the top, but we’re in control now.”

  The car continued to head towards the rendezvous point, but as Derrick hit a left, he noticed a group of black, unlicensed cars come into view in his wind mirror.

  As his head twisted and his mouth opened to tell Malakie, bullets rained down. He quickly snapped his head back around and floored the accelerator.

  “What is with these guys—what don’t understand about we have their boss and we will kill him if we have to,” said Malakie as his eyes darted between the cars chasing them and the road ahead.

  “That’s my father’s work—he’s calling your bluff. So if I were you, I would let me go and make a run for it.”

  Derrick was running out of time—and ideas. With Julius’s men on his back, he had to think fast or he was about to sleep with the fishes.