The Darkness Within

Payback

Vincent POV

I really shouldn't have just walked away, but I don't know what to do. I need to make a few phone calls. I start to pull out my phone and my mind begins to spiral; God I can't believe she killed Bradley. I mean what the fuck. And then she's going to come at me for having a normal reaction. I need to talk to her; I just love her so much and she doesn't understand what this life does to people. I have been in the mafia since I was 18. I took over after my dad was killed, but I didn't want to. Simply put it was either I join then or they kill me later, what choice did I have. I just want to keep Chelsea safe and her killing someone is not the best decision. As much as she wants to believe she is some badass woman who can do whatever she wants, this will catch up to her and I'm going to be there to protect her when it does.

I pull out my phone to make a call to the guy I trust most "hey Silas, did you find anything on that dead guy?"

"Yeah, he was an assassin for the KGB. He was head of his class in training and has assassinated over 1,400 people."

I couldn't help but think about how sloppy he was being. If he was really a trained assassin with Russian intelligence backing him, why did he just attempt to break the door down? Why not a clear sniper shot through an open window, or break-in when we were sleeping.

"Okay, thanks for letting me know." and with that, I hang up.

The next phone call was to a friend from the United States government. "Hey, this is Vincent Russo, I believe you owe me a favor. I need you to wipe anything you have about Bradley Barlowe."

 "I understand and if I do this, we're finished?" the man on the phone asks

"Yes, make sure Bradley Barlowe never existed and we are even," I said hanging up the phone.  

My one and final call was to Chelsea, apologizing for how I acted.

The line kept ringing and ringing and no one picked up. I tried to call her 3 more times before I got worried and decided to try and find her. No matter how mad she gets she always picks up the phone.

I walked down to the market where she said she was going and looked around. She was nowhere to be found. I was officially worried about her now. I kept looking around the store for her until my phone rang in my pocket.

"Bradley help me!" I heard through the phone until she was muffled and a man's voice replaced hers.

"Meet me 65 Ridgecrest Lane, 6 pm, no guns, no one else or Chelsea dies. Do you understand?"

Well, at least he didn't waste time with anything I thought to myself.

"Fine, but I swear if you touched her in any way-" I started to say before he cut me off

"Yeah, I know, you'll kill me, I got it. Just meet me." wow well the kidnapper has jokes I think to myself and roll my eyes.

I regain my composure and walk to the bedroom grabbing my gun, putting it in my belt behind my back. I decided that taking someone would be a bad decision, and I could probably hold my own. I drove to the place taking about 30 minutes to get there.

When I arrived at the address, I saw a run-down house with the windows broken, and moss growing around the entire estate. The house looked very old and very abandoned. As I took in the features, I found it kind of familiar. I feel like I had been here before I just couldn't place how. I decided to look around the house, looking for Chelsea or any sign of anything living. There was an eerie feeling in the air, one that told me something had happened in this house. It smelled of mold and I could've sworn it was going to fall any minute. As I walked into the room it was dark with a large window. In front of said window were 2 chairs side by side. In one of the chairs sat my beautiful girlfriend, tied up, her hands behind her back and her legs tied to the chair. Behind her stood an old colleague of mine, Keith Davis, the most basic name for the most basic guy. Although I guess he had a personality change. He had a gun pointed to her head and his other hand stroking her cheek. I'm going to kill him, but first, I was going to chop off that hand. Her cheeks stained from crying, as her tears continue to flow, I try to give her a comforting glance, failing. I was standing in the doorway, waiting for the silence to be broken. The most delicate thing in the room was the silence that filled it. Until finally it's shattered, "Hey Vincent, remember me?" my old colleague asks.

I decided to play stupid, just see where it gets me. "No, am I supposed to?" Belittling is the best way to get to someone's ego, learned that from my father, he was a pro.

Getting very angry Keith started raising his voice, "I worked for your company for 5 years, you told me to invest in your company, the company you ran into the ground on purpose!" he shouted at me. Yeah, I may have left that part out, I might have been the reason for Bradley's company going to shit, but I had a good reason. If I got rid of his company, that would leave room for other business partners to create their empire, and honestly, it was more important that they get his company and Bradley lose his.

Keith continued to ramble on, "because of you my parents went into severe debt, so did I. My dad had a heart attack from the stress, and my mom couldn't deal with his death, so she took her own life. You ruined my family, so I'm going to ruin yours." He finishes pushing the gun into Chelsea's cheek.

"First of all, ... It isn't my fault your dad had a heart attack, and it wasn't my fault your mother couldn't get herself together, it's not my fault she chose the easy way out." The point was to provoke him, perhaps get him to point the gun at me instead.

"Who the fuck are you to say something about my parents?"

"Actually, you brought them up." Honestly, when I first got the call Chelsea had been kidnapped, I thought the kidnapper would be someone much more intimidating. I mean Keith was 5'9" and scrawny I'm shocked Chelsea didn't take him on herself. But he did have a gun pointed at her head so that might do something.

"Look, I called you here to give you an option. I can either shoot you... or Chelsea. You have 10 seconds to decide."

This put me in a really awkward position because A. he couldn't really miss from this close proximity and I definitely don't want him shooting Chelsea, so I'm screwed.

Finally, I thought of something that could either get me killed or work. The odds are probably about a 20% chance of this working but let's see.

"Why don't you shoot the person behind you," I say looking past him and pointing. Lucky for me, he is possibly the dumbest person in the world. I mean he's up against a wall and there isn't a door behind him, how stupid can he be.

He turns around long enough for me to attack him. I tackle him to the ground and we scuffle for the gun. He was stronger than I gave him credit for. He starts to lift the gun pointing it at me. I attempt to push it down yet somehow, he gets it up. I hear a gunshot and suddenly I feel a searing pain through my chest. Then everything got cold and my eyes got tired until finally, they shut.