CHAPTER 2
I woke up looking into the eyes of an older lady, short curly blonde hair with tons of make up. Her cigarette smoke was filling my nose. I sniffed and jumped up startling everyone in the room. I panicked my gun nowhere to be found. My right shoulder ached, as I realized it was stitched up with a bandage over it.
"Well, young man my name is Madeline. This is my son Michael, his um, Fiona and Sam. Barry brought you here, why we're not sure."
"Sorry, look can I just have my gun, I'll grab my shirt and leave you people be. I appreciate you patching me up. Here's some cash for your trouble." I said not wanting to be here. I felt guilty for Barry, but I did not want anyone else in my web of danger.
"Look, we might be able to help. Besides whoever is after you knows you associate with Barry, and despite as much as we've tried Barry is almost a friend. You're problem is his and so therefore it is ours." Michael said fixing his glasses. He was average height and weight but was dressed in Armani suit, this guy had class. He moves towards me, I knew he was sizing me up trying to figure me out. I relaxed and sat down on a couch.
"OK, I'm sorry for that, I just wanted some money to go buy some toys with to do as much collateral damage on my enemies before they took me out." I said showing distrust and hoping they'd not ask too many questions.
"Who are your enemies? Why do they want you dead?" Fiona asked looking at me with sarcasm and disgust. This prompted my response to be equally snappy. She was ok very skinny but appeared very whiney in her voice.
"Well, ultimately my enemy is the US government. But locally it's a small branch of mercenaries hired by the CIA to eliminate my father and his followers." I said with sarcasm hoping they'd laugh it off. "Can I bum a smoke? I had a pack but not sure if they're still around." My pack of smokes landed in my lap. Sam, who was an older gentleman, fairly big with graying hair, had tossed them as he stood close to Mike.
"There, light up. Listen kid, we're not sure about you yet. But right now we're willing to help you only because our colleague Barry is at risk. So spill your biz otherwise we might have to take care of you ourselves and save Barry." Sam said very confidently, not sure if he was sympathizing or intimidating me. "Barry spoke highly of you what's the whole thing you got going on?"
"Look, Barry is a good guy, I guess always done me right. I'm sorry he's at risk. Look I'm serious he's not in danger, they only want me dead. I'll take them down, maybe spark something in the others who are underground. Who knows. But I'll butt out of your lives, and save you the time." I said while smoking my cigarette, man was it good. I stood up and started heading for the door. Mike detained me. His open palm was in my chest. This didn't set well with me. I paused, placed the cigarette in my mouth, took a draw, blew in his face for a short distraction, grabbed his hand and pulled back on his thumb, but before I was confident in having the upper hand something hit me upside my head, knocking me unconscious again.