Sixty-Five- The mysterious yet known villain

They had been too immersed in their emerging argument, they didn't realize Markings was already taking advantage of the situation and was making his way towards them.

Chloe had no choice but to shoot him but she had been late anyway, Markings had his hand on the trigger already.

Setting the weapon to a side, she hurried towards a bleeding Gabriel whose head was now on Amir's laps.

"Sebastian, please call for an ambulance," Nathaniel said, a bit distressed. " Gabe, you'll be fine," he said encouragingly as he tore apart the man's top.

" We need to apply pressure on the spot he has been shot, " Chloe said, taking it as a responsibility to be as calm as possible to avoid any death. Moving eagerly towards the men, she continued, "Luckily the wound is in the lower abdomen area, so he is probably not yet exposed to any risk."

Nathaniel nodded, took off his shirt, crumpled it and pressed it hard against the bleeding spot, a little gasp coming from Gabriel.

"How do you know about that Chloe?" Gabriel asked, his eyes wearing a glint of amusement.

"Should you be talking right now? " Nathaniel reprimanded him and the man chuckled.

" You heard what she said, it is a minor thing. I'll be fine in no time. "

" Yeah, right. " Nathaniel's eyes traveled ahead and landed on the other man who had caused another chaos. "What should we do about Markings? He seems to be alive."

"I have called an ambulance and I have called your personal doctor for Markings, " Sebastian answered as his heavy steps found their way into the room and just after him, Lucile walked in, her eyes bulging at the sight.

"Gabriel..." She rushed towards the man, her eyes worried. "Will he be fine?"

Amir gave her a small nod.

"The ambulance will be here pretty soon."

"Thank goodness."

"You might want to give him some space though, " Amir gently said and the tall woman complied and moved back a little, her arms folded.

Nathaniel whose hands were now wearing the crimson colour gave off a sigh. "Sebastian?"

"Yes?" A groan from Markings followed as Sebastian dropped his arm which he had grabbed in an attempt to move him.

"Where do you plan to put Markings? When the ambulance arrives, I want them to meet only that guy. " He nudged towards the first man who had intruded the space who was still showing few signs of life.

"Maybe in the basement. I'll make sure to keep him quiet." Nathaniel nodded, letting out a puff of air as he maintained his hold on the Gabriel's abdomen.

"We are going to move him from here though, right?" Amir asked, every part of him screaming anger which he was doing a good job of keeping in check.

"Definitely." Sirens followed Nathaniel's response and all of them let out a breath in relief. "Lucille, please lead the medics in. Sebastian, you know what to do."

The woman gave a curt nod and rushed out of the room. After, Sebastian got Markings off the floor, hung him over his shoulder surprising Chloe who had could never have estimated Sebastian to be capable to do as much as carry a full grown man.

Another loud groan came from the most hated man in the room in and soon, the duo were out of the room.

A minute later, uniformed medics rushed in with two strollers and Gabriel and the other injured man were soon out of the room, others watching with worry etched on their foreheads.

~

Two days later, it was certain no one had lost his life. The first intruder was in police custody while the main man, Markings had been moved to a new location, well gagged, occasionally fed and treated according to Sebastian.

Presently, they were all in Gabriel's hospital room which overlooked a very bright scene. Chloe, whose arms were crossed was so captivated by the simple view of the city which seemed like it was clothed securely by the arising sun.

"Why does it feel like we are contemplating whether to attend a funeral?" Amir asked, his chair scratching the tile as he pushed it back and stood up.

"You always ask weird questions," Gabriel who was finally awake after hours of sleep after his treatment, replied and Nathaniel shifted in his seat which was just by the man's bed.

"The silence is killing me. It really feels like someone died."

" I know if I died, you'd already be contemplating to kill yourself," Gabriel threw Amir a smile and the bored man replied with a sneer. "I know how much you love me man."

"Don't feel too important Gabe, I'll forget you before your skin gets eaten up."

Gabriel laughed heartily into the room, his eyes linking with Chloe's momentarily. "I know you don't mean that. You love me too much."

"That's enough," Nathaniel's authoritative voice butted in and the teasing mood instantly got driven away. "We should talk about what to do about Markings."

" In my opinion..." The bed creaked as Gabriel adjusted his sitting position and made sure the pillow behind him was doing its job.

"I strongly feel that Anderson is related to this. We just need to find out how."

"Sebastian should be taking care of that," Nathaniel replied.

" Well, one of you should go. Or maybe both of you. I feel a lot of pressure is needed to get something out of that man. And besides..." Gabriel scoffed, ran his hand through his hair before his eyes linked with Chloe's.

"He needs to pay for what he did to Cupcake."

Chloe felt weird with the way he looked at her. It was those poetic, dreamy eyes again. She really wasn't going to read much into it just like she didn't take his sentence during the mini flood seriously.

"Cupcake?" Nathaniel queried sternly Gabriel's choice of words.

"Oh, my bad, I meant Chloe."

"Anyway... He also needs to answer for bursting our pipes," Amir quickly added before Nathaniel could stare daggers into Gabriel.

"That is if he is the one responsible." Nathaniel's voice came as a gruff one as his head ducked and he let out a strong puff of air. "Alright, we should meet the man and question him. We can also-"

"I have brought Mr. Hovers breakfast," a feminine voice interrupted the serious air and as Chloe noticed Nathaniel's fist forming, she instantly faced the lady in a nurse uniform.

"I'll take that from you, thank you."

"He needs to take the drugs there. A dosage instruction is attached. And-"

" Can you please leave?" Nathaniel's voice firmly asked and the lady clearly wasn't stupid. She was able to tell the hidden message.

After she quietly walked out of the room, Amir went back to sitting down and silence rode the disinfected atmosphere for a second before Chloe walked towards Gabriel's bed and set the tray of food on the side table.

As she made to go back to her former position, her arm slightly brushed Nathaniel's and she had to just look his way.

She could have felt that she was overreacting before, but the way his eyes dropped to the opposite side made her certain he was kind of keeping her at arms length.

She sort of expected it. Back at the new house, the way she handled was bound to make him raise eyebrows a bit.

But that moment wasn't right to deal with that situation, so instead of asking him to come out with her like she wished to, she just walked past him and went back to her former position.

"So, is it settled? Are we dealing with Markings by pressuring him or not?" Amir asked and got a muffled yes from Nathaniel who walked out after and a thumbs up from Gabriel whose eyes flew towards Chloe again.

"Did you two fight?" he asked her and she shrugged.

"You should eat," she said instead.

"I'll feed you," Amir offered and Gabriel's eyes widened in protest. " You don't have a choice, your body is basically jelly at the moment."

"Don't move close Amir..." Gabriel warned and Amir gave a malicious laughter in response, his feet not disengaging from moving closer.

As Amir grabbed his bowl of food and opened it, Gabriel instantly gave up and mumbled some words before opening his mouth slightly to receive the morsel of sweet smelling, well garnished pasta approaching his mouth.

As Gabriel nodded in head in approvement of the meal, Chloe could not help a smile and could not help but think the two were cute together.

~

Markings had no idea how long he had been in the glass container. But by his intuition, he deduced it most probably has been four days. Maybe five.

As the man who was stripped to only his brown polka dots boxers felt his stomach roar for some food, he heard footsteps distorting the huge water body that surrounded the room.

When the footsteps finally stopped, a familiar sight appeared from the other side of the glass.

"So, it's you," Markings said amusedly, his abdominal urge temporarily forgotten. "Anderson did say I'd be surprised."

"Your entry was a bit too loud."

"I like to be extra." Markings smirked. "Do others know you are this kind of person?"

"I am here to ask you a question."

Markings scoffed. " I guess I am not getting released today."

The man smirked and Marking could tell his brothers will be so shocked. As his legs walked past the entrance of the container, he said, "You certainly don't like Chloe."

"What about it?" Markings chinned up.

The man grabbed a chair in a corner and settled in front of the tied man. "I want you to tell me everything you know about her."

"Everything?"

" Everything. Leave nothing out."