The warmth of his hand covered mine as he held my hand firmly in his. Although he didn’t say anything to me, I was still glad that we were still connected in some way. The way Hayden helped hold my hand and support my waist as we walked down the stairs to the ground together brought a small smile to my lips.
"Thank you..." I whispered when our feet finally touched the ground.
Hayden nodded before his hand reached out to help tuck a few loose strands of my hair back behind my ear. The wind was blowing wildly around us, and I noticed that the air was slightly warm and humid. The airport that we landed in didn’t resemble much of a standard airport at all.
The large buildings were not present, and the runway was nothing more than a small trial that had been smoothened out to be suitable for landing. Apart from the two of us and the security team that Hayden travelled with, there was no one else in the airport as far as my eyes could see.
Although we flew alone, we were not the only ones on the trip and that was to be expected. Security was tight and Hayden travelled with a mini army of his men. Rows of men dress in black greeted us when we stepped off the airplane. Among them was a very familiar face who offered me a huge smile when he laid eyes on me.
"Good to see you still in one piece, Malissa," Luka said before laughing loudly.
I found myself smiling back at him easily. In such a precarious situation like this, it was always good to see a familiar face that I knew. Apart from Hayden and Luka, I didn’t know any of the other men that travelled with us and that made me slightly uneasy. From his greeting, I had a very good guess of how Luka viewed my relationship with Hayden. I had to say that he wasn’t that far off the mark.
Hayden was rough and manipulative, but he had never hurt me. I glanced over to the man in question and saw that he was as zoned out as could be.
"I hate flying. Makes my back stiff..." Luka complained as he flexed his back.
"No weapons of any kind are allowed in there so there’s no need for you to worry. Worst comes to worst, the two will fight it out with their fists and you just have to stay out of the way. Got it?" Luka said to me, and he sounded serious.
"Aha..." I mumbled as my face felt numb.
Was that supposed to reassure me in some way because it seemed to be having the complete opposite effect.
"Hopefully no one dies...because it won’t be a quick and painless death..." Luka said before winking at me.
What did he just say?
I stared blankly back at Luka with my mouth hanging open while I wondered what I had gotten myself into this time.
"Stop scaring her any more than necessary. She’s worried enough as it is," Hayden mumbled a warning without looking our way.
"Alright. You better not do anything crazy in there. You’ll be the one that’ll really scare her," Luka warned in return before he chuckled.
This old man was truly finding this situation amusing and I couldn’t understand his humor at all. I tried to piece together the little that I knew about the situation between the two gangs. The last time that I was at Hayden’s office and attended a meeting with him was precisely about the conflict between the two gangs.
--To be continued...