Rule and Ruin

two; the shadow that did not exist

chapter two.

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"WHAT?"

Dino's shout was powerful. It rang throughout the room, silencing the muttering commotion that had started. The men around the conference table froze in their spots.

"What did you just say?" Dino demanded.

Lyon blinked and cleared his throat in momentary nervousness. He darted his eyes to Selene for a quick moment, but was only met with darkened disinterest.

"It was Nix," he said. "Nix sunk the shipment."

"What the fuck do you mean it was Nix?" Dino yelled. "He was the one leading the operation."

"Well it seems he had other plans," Lyon said. "Traitorous plans."

Was that an impatient tone Selene detected? She cocked her head and examined Lyon, a middle-aged man in charge of drug distribution. He was actually one of the few men around this godforsaken table that she respected, and her lips lifted in slight amusement at his brief indiscipline.

Dino was silent for a moment. Sitting behind him at the front of the room, Selene could almost see the fumes coming out of his ears. The news had shocked the entire room of higher ups, who all seemed so small as they regarded Dino with cautioned fear.

When Dino screamed, Selene was the only one who did not flinch. As big and old and powerful as he was, Dino had always acted like a tempered child. He swept the papers off the table with a roar and threw his coffee across the room.

"After all I did for that boy," he hissed, clenching and unclenching his jaw. He paced the front of the room and everyone except Selene followed him with their eyes.

Instead, her eyes were trained across the room, at the end of the table, where an agitated Jay Astor sat. She observed the lower ranked officer jerk his right leg up and down with some kind of nervousness and noted how he had avoided her gaze throughout the meeting.

Jay Astor's messy brown hair hung at his eyes. His lips were chapped although he had drunk all the water in his cup and was no doubt too nervous to ask for more. He was a young member of a lower position, trusted with simple errands and a small number of men. Selene observed that he had run his hands through his hair ten times in the past five minutes.

She stared at him and knew from the way he blinked that he could feel her watching.

"What the fuck is this, huh?" Dino demanded as he pressed his hands on the table and leaned forward with menace. "Traitors rising left and right." He drew his gun and began pacing again, this time slower as his gaze swept the room. "Maybe it's time to remind you all what I do to traitors."

Even Selene knew that the amount of deserters was getting concerning. Perhaps Dino was too prideful to admit it, but it seemed his power was diminishing.

He circled the room, waving his gun in a pathetic attempt at asserting dominance. Selene was probably the only one thinking how stupid he looked.

"Fuck," Dino seethed when he came back to the front. "Nix knows too much. He's too dangerous to let wander around."

"I will deliver his head to you," announced Wang from the third chair down the left. He smiled, and his poisonous eyes narrowed in devastating promise.

Selene drew inward at the sound of his scratched voice. Wang was known to be mad. Twisted, deranged, completely, and utterly insane. Just what Dino liked.

Selene avoided him at all costs, disliking the way his black eyes always seemed to see right through her.

"Whoever finds him will be rewarded greatly," Dino promised. His dark gaze swept the room of men who would jump to do his every bidding.

"Find him," he seethed. "Find that bastard and kill him."

The men nodded.

"Now!"

They jumped and gathered their things before clearing out of the room. Lyon gave a deep, respectful nod at Selene as he exited. Selene would have nodded back, had her gaze not been following the rush in Jay's step as he hurried out of the room in contrast to Wang's slow, prideful strides.

She uncrossed her arms and stood up.

"Nix," she sounded. "Is he that dangerous?"

She was familiar with the name, as she was with anyone who had the slightest influence around here, but had never actually never met the man. Dino spoke of him often and it was clear this was a betrayal no one saw coming.

"He knows everything."

Selene knew everything too. Did that mean she was just as dangerous?

"Tell me about him," she said.

"That boy..." Dino mused. "He's like a secret weapon. Quiet and invisible, always did as he was told. Executed every mission perfectly. Like a trained dog."

"If he's that important, how come I've never met him?"

Dino looked at her through side eyes, "There was no reason to. He's like a shadow. He doesn't exist unless I need him to."

Selene narrowed her eyes.

"I picked that boy off the streets," Dino deflected. "I gave him everything. Everything he could have ever wanted. Until this, he was one of my most trusted men. It doesn't make sense." Dino rubbed his forehead. "It just doesn't make any sense. Why would he betray me?"

Selene could think of a multitude of reasons, most of them stemming from Dino's incompetence and complete lack of real power, but she remained silent.

"I'll look into it," she said instead, "and make him wish he hadn't."