XIX

"Sir?"

"Hmm. . .?"

"The marksman who shot you has been captured," Jordan looked up at Skull, who was reporting the latest news update to his boss.

"Where is he?" he asked as he took a swig of his liquor. His left hand held the glass while his injured right arm rested on his desk.

"Down in the basement of the warehouse, sir," Skull's eyes wandered from the neat pile of files on his boss's desk to the scattered sheets of paper which were sprawled out right in front of him. His eyes briefly stopped at the sight of the picture of a seemingly familiar woman.

A crease formed between his swarthy forehead, making his dark shades slightly dip down his nose as a frown made its way onto his face when he thought deeply about where he had seen such beauty before.

In the flash of a few seconds, his eyebrows suddenly shot up his forehead when he recalled that she was the same woman his boss had told him to gather information about the day he had gone ballistic at the club.

It seemed like his boss was interested in her or at least intrigued by her because he knew his boss very well. If close to over two decades of working with Jordan couldn't make him unravel at least some basic characters of his boss's, then he didn't know how many millennia he would've to work for before he could know him deeply.

One thing was certain about his boss, he was never easily pleased or intrigued by someone. Jordan would only request for information about someone he wanted to ruin, destroy or kill. He only sought information about someone in order to dig up his/her weaknesses and use them to overshadow and pulverise their strengths.

His only aim or goal to know about a person or group of people was to devise a strategy to ruin or obliterate them. Furthermore, him seeking information about people didn't signify that he would want to handle such information privately.

He would only tell Skull to dig up stuff about them and untangle all the dubious knots to dig up some dirt to use against them and Skull would only report to him the integral facts needed.

So, it surprised Skull when his boss told him to prepare the woman's file for him instead. He neither asked Skull to relay the essential part of the information he sought nor did he tell him to find a strength, weakness or some dirt against her. He only asked for her details in file.

Skull couldn't help but think that maybe this woman really was special. She could either be really blessed or doomed since she had Jordan's attention enough to get him to handle her case personally.

Minding his own business, he looked back up at his boss who only hummed in response while bobbing his head as he sipped from his glass again before looking back at the picture of the woman lying on the desk. He couldn't seem to take his eyes off of her - even if she were just here right before him in pictorial form.

"Have you carried out the interrogation?" he asked, his eyes still trained on the photograph.

"Yes sir, I have. Apparently, he's a member of the Timos and he wanted to take revenge for killing their Python, the Domino guy we caught amongst others raiding your warehouse," Skull reported.

"He?"

"Yes, sir. He claims his boss and other gang members know nothing of his reprisal."

"Hmm. . . I see," he tilted his head to the side with a sickening smile on his face. "I think I've become quite soft, don't you think?" his eyes held a psychopathically murderous glint as he stared at the liquid glistening in his glass while lightly twirling the glass.

Skull knew that crazy look on his boss's face. It was an all too familiar look and it had only always pointed to one thing - he was going on a killing spree.

Skull had always been a keen observer but no matter how many years he had observed his boss, he had been unable to unravel or discern any of his thoughts. Yes, he knew perfectly well what his boss's past was all about.

He knew what had shaped Jordan into what he was today and sometimes, he could surmise the thoughts he had in mind, like whenever he had such a deranged look in his eyes, it meant that he wanted to drown himself in the bloodstream of countless people.

But, he knew his boss to be a man that thought well about his decisions. He wasn't a man who attacked without reason or without giving a preceding warning. And most importantly, his boss wasn't one to attack an innocent.

Skull could sometimes guess what his boss's thoughts could be about. But, that's what it always is - a guess. Jordan was an unpredictable and capricious being and just like that, Skull was given the shock of his life.

"But, as much as I want to be the one to surprise them, I won't - at least, not yet. I have somewhere really important to be," Skull noticed how his boss's eyes twinkled as his gaze returned to the picture of the lady resting on the desk. But with the speed of lightning, the twinkle dissipated, making Skull question its existence in the first place.

"I'll let them off with a last warning but I want you to relay the message to them," Skull nodded firmly, understanding the underlying meaning of his words.

"Tell Timos that I'll ruin every single thing he owns right before his eyes. I will wipe out his every existence and lineage from the face of the Earth. Make him see that I am in no way, making jokes," he stated, his expression as hard as rock.

"No one messes with J.K and gets away with it."

▬▬▬▬▬

The half naked man paced around his bedroom, a thoughtful look etched on his face as his reflection flitted consecutively across the full length mirror in the room. The only piece of clothing on him, other than the roll of bandage wrapped around his shoulder and upper arm was his black drawstring trouser.

He ran a hand - his left hand - through his sable black hair as he heaved a frustrated sigh. He didn't know what to do. Roughly shoving his injured and bandaged arm into his pants pocket, he winced at the sharp impact before the pain slowly eased up and his tensed shoulders relaxed.

If it had been like every other day, Jordan knew that he would currently be in his bath stall, trying to scrub away every splatter of blood that had gotten on him during his killing spree. He knew that every other day, the entire Timos would've all been crawling their way down the pits of hell to serve the devil.

He knew that if it were any other day, he would've been drowning in the depths of the immeasurable chasm of guilt and self-annihilation. He would've been guzzling bottles of booze after booze after ardent spirits after John Barleycorn in attempts to numb the agonising ache in his chest.

But, today was like no other day. Today, he was on a very important mission. A once in a lifetime mission, of which he couldn't afford the luxury of losing or letting it slip between his fingers.

Today, there was something - or rather, someone - more indispensable and of utmost importance than any other task he had at hand and because of this person, he had done something he had never been known to do.

He had shown mercy.

But for some reason, he didn't want to go visit his gemstone with his hands stained with blood and his mind completely disoriented and out of this dimension.

Too immersed in his thoughts, Jordan hadn't heard his right hand man knocking or seeking permission to enter the room until he walked in.

"Sir?" Skull called out to his boss, who seemed really engrossed in his thoughts.

"Hmm. . ." he answered absentmindedly without looking up at the man speaking to him.

He was trying to come up with an excuse to see his green eyed gemstone again. He knew he hadn't been ethical when he had just left without a simple 'thank you' or even a 'goodbye', but he was more than willing to make up for his discourtesy.

The problem, however, was how he was going to approach her without seeming desperate. He knew how unbelievably smart his gemstone was. He knew that she would sniff out a rat if he should even think of telling a lie, so he had to think of an excellent way to outsmart her.

He could no longer deny the attraction he felt towards her and he was going to consider taking Carol's advice. He was going to go with the flow to see where it would land him and he could only hope that he wasn't willingly falling into his own doom.

"Your message has been perfectly relayed, Don," he reported.

"Good," Jordan could only nod and mutter distractedly as his eyes skimmed across his bedroom and its contents.

All of a sudden, his neck snapped towards Skull, who could only worry about his boss suffering from a whiplash. A gleam filled with both mischief and triumph swam freely within the depths of his chocolate brown eyes.

Without saying a word, he moved towards the two black lamps in his room. Heading towards his nightstand, he threw one down with the speed and ferocity of a lion and without watching its broken pieces on the tiled floor, he moved on to the next one and did the same.

Skull could only gawp at him with his mouth agape. He knew his boss had his moments and would smash things once a while whenever he couldn't contain his ireful emotions but at the moment, his boss looked nothing close to annoyed, instead, he looked as playful as a newly born puppy that wanted to see and tour the world for the first time ever.

Skull didn't know what to do or how he would react. 'Should he stop him? Should he not stop him?' were the only questions that played like a broken record in his brain.

Only when Jordan walked towards the full length mirror, eyeing it with a scheming smirk on his face before driving his left fist into the face of his reflecting image, did Skull finally move towards him as he exclaimed, "Don!"

A resonating laughter - which for the first time, didn't sound as empty and as hollow as it had sounded for years - filled Skull's ears as he continued to watch his boss. He was closer to him now but still at a safe distance to avoid any sudden attack.

For the first time, Skull noticed that Jordan's laughter had an emotion akin to actual humour and excitement behind it but as always, he could only guess. It was only a speculation; nothing more than a conjecture.

With his now bleeding fist still embedded in the looking glass, Jordan slowly tilted his head upwards to look at the silver wall clock encrusted with black diamonds hanging on his wall; knowing that it would also soon be smashed to smithereens, he looked at the time to see that he was running out of time.

He wouldn't be able to accomplish his mission alone and get there in time. He needed assistance.

With his head tilted to the side but his posture still maintained against the broken mirror and the shards of glass pooled at his feet, he turned towards Skull with a smirk that screamed diablerie from afar before asking,

"Wanna destroy my house and then reconstruct?"

▬▬▬▬▬

Jordan stared long and hard at the ebony door standing as a barrier between him and his goal. Gulping down the saliva that had managed to pool in his mouth, he cleared his throat before raising his unhurt arm to knock the door, only for him to retract his hand again.

For some reason, he was nervous. This was something he had never done before. He had never been attracted or intrigued by someone enough to chase after them or want them as much as he wanted the woman residing behind this closed door.

This wasn't his area of specialty. It wasn't his niche. He was willingly entering into another territory bare without weapons or prior preparations.

He could only hope he was doing the right thing. He was going to go with his guts like Carol had advised and if it didn't turn out to be favourable for him, he would back out as though nothing had happened or transpired.

He was sure that if he could get her to bed with him, the so-called attraction he had for her would instantaneously disappear. Yes, that had to explain his attraction for her. He was just drawn to her assets, that was all. That could only be the logical explanation for everything.

Pushing away his thoughts as quickly as possible before he resulted to doing something he might regret later, he adjusted the duffel bag resting on his left shoulder before raising his left hand to knock steadily on the door this time.

He grunted and fisted his left hand before releasing it when a sharp pain shot through his phalanges from the earlier action of his fist pounding into his mirror. He didn't regret his actions though; if that could get him to see his gemstone, then he would gladly do it and endure the pain.

He looked down at the fresh wound. Tiny shards of glass sticking out of the cuts as dried blood surrounded his swollen knuckles. Skull had volunteered to help him treat the injury but he wanted to feel his temptress's dainty hands on his skin, even if it meant having to go through such pain. Besides, it would only assist in adding more truth to the lie he was about to tell her.

Still staring at the bruise, he blew out a breath when he knew that he would only worsen the injury if he kept on knocking on the door, but his prayers seemed to have been answered when his eyes stumbled upon the doorbell.

It was quite annoying and frustrating to have to subject one arm to a lot of work when you had two arms to share the equal quantities of load amongst. It irked him but before he could think too much of it, muffled voices came from behind the door before silence bestrewed the whole apartment again.

This time, he decided to use the doorbell since that was certainly loud enough to get the attention of its inhabitants. And successfully, another string of muffled voices reached his ears before he was met with another round of silence.

For the last time, he rang the doorbell, twice this time and a loud bang came from the door, making him take a step back in surprise before the ebony door was pulled open with enough force to rip it off its hinges, revealing a red haired with a red face.

"What the fuck do you want?!" she shouted with a deep frown etched on her face.

Jordan remained quiet as he studied the woman standing before him. Her red hair looked like it was held in something that was supposed to be a messy bun, but it looked more like a bird's nest with its strands flying askew.

Her grey eyes were glazed over but right there, Jordan ended his scrutiny when he registered that she wasn't the one he was looking for.

With a hard gaze, he was ready to question her when she spoke, "Shit! It can't be," her shaky voice was laced with fear as her formerly red face had vanished into thin air, leaving behind a white colour as pale as a paper sheet.

"J-J.K?" she whispered in horror, causing an emotionless smirk to spread across Jordan's lips. So, she did know who he was.

To taunt her even further, he took a predatory step towards her but before he could open his mouth to speak to her, her eyes widened and she hurriedly stepped back and slammed the door in his face; her actions were in a frenzy.

With his eyebrows creased in confusion and annoyance at the redhead's daring actions, he waited for a few seconds before ringing the doorbell again.

In little to no time, the door opened again and this time around, his emerald green-eyed siren was the one behind the door.

"Mr. Kale?"

Surprise and confusion took over her face when she looked at him, eyeing him from head to toe, drinking in his appearance. Jordan had to fight against the smug smirk that was threatening to overthrow his stolid expression when he saw her checking him out.

"What are you doing here?" she finally asked after recovering from her initial surprise.

Without thinking, Jordan voiced out the first thing that sprung to his mind.

"I want to sleep with you."