Don: The Blood Chains-Chapter 40: Surprise.

The guard positioned himself so that he could step in front of Joseph as soon as the door opened, shielding him from any bullets while also being ready to shoot at anyone he saw.

Morality? Any remorse that might be just civilians working their everyday jobs?

No, the guard felt nothing, as well as neither James nor Pablo, and well... if that happens and there are lots of people, it just means faith came for them... faith that they knowingly work for somebody whose hands are covered with blood, who is obviously avoiding law through connection and through corruption, somebody who still holds influence and authority.

Yeah, even if they are just civilians, even if they themselves didn’t do anything... they are working for him knowing very well that one day maybe the whole thing cracks, maybe because of agents, maybe because of the police... maybe because three men walk in hiking gear.

"Pablo, you are an expert in this field... would this be a domestic terrorist attack?" Joseph asked as he was looking at the floor counter.

"Not really, more like a mass shooting at first sight, but after they see the camera footage and who died they will quickly realize it was a violent assassination... a gang massacre.

Mass shooting... isn’t that a little... too much? He thought as they were at the 15th floor, like suddenly his morality came back but no, this wasn’t that.

The path he was taking now was exactly following his father’s footsteps, mass killing, even civilians, sometimes even children, he did not give a fuck about anything, he killed to get whatever he wanted.

But Joseph is not like him, no, he hates him from the bottom of his heart.

"You know what? Only shoot those who want to shoot us." He said and the guard nodded as he now leaned in taking a firing position waiting for the door to be opened.

It was another surreal moment, one that could have been the worst kind of death if the door had opened to reveal dozens of people aiming and shooting... but no, it was a calm moment. The light jazz was still playing, the ding of the floors as they passed by added a certain feeling, and then came the final one

The 20th floor.

The music suddenly stopped playing, the breath of the guard was silent, concentrating on what was going to be in front of him, his finger already on the trigger, slightly pressing it, while Joseph was just looking calmly with Pablo.

Then it opened.

"Welcome... uh-" In front of them was a young lady, dressed in corporate wear, in her hand a plate... she was there to welcome them, but instead she was welcomed with a gun barrel in her face and she immediately turned pale, her eyes immediately changed by the rush of adrenaline and shock.

"Ohh hello." Joseph smiled at her while the guard went toward the hallway but there was no one there, just her. "Is it coffee?" He asked again, looking at the pale in her hands.

She slowly nodded.

"Thank you then." Joseph grabbed one of the plates, still calm as fuck, not even a bit rushed. "Do you want one?" He looked back at Pablo, who shook his head. "Then that’s it, and don’t go down the elevator, okay?"

She once again just nodded, and as they went by her she didn’t even move, she was totally frozen down staring up ahead as the elevator doors closed... it was like she tried to be invisible until Pablo’s voice came behind her.

"In your place, I would go to the bathroom."

She peed herself and didn’t even notice until she looked down.

Meanwhile Joseph was already standing in front of the double doors and when Pablo catched up to them, he nodded his head toward the guard who grabbed the handle with one hand and pushed it in, moving in like a special op, after him went Pablo, the pistol in his hand with the bulky magazine, and then Joseph.

But there were no shots, no screams, no nothing. It was everything but what they expected, even when Joseph realized what they walked into he was just... disappointed, more disappointed than he ever was.

"You grew up Joseph... pretty much look like your father." A deep man’s voice came from who sat at the big meeting table looking at Joseph, it was him, Trevor Hibeer.

"Yeah, just like him." Now from the other side a woman’s voice, a calm and almost sweet voice...

It wasn’t just Trevor who was in that meeting room, in the so called business meeting, who James personally knew... no, there was the whole fucking Cassian family money laundering people... all of them were in there.

The woman was Ivanka Plina, the second accountant of his father, while in the middle two other men sat, Dian Richmond and Albert Ponnas, the two that were the head of the laundering operations...

Literally in front of his eyes was the Cassian family heart, the one that operated with the money...

It was purely shocking, like not even shocking but so surprising that he didn’t even know what to think about it, they were just fucking sitting there smiling at him like he came back to a warm meeting, a reunion or some bullshit like this. Not even one single guard in there, just them with paper on the table and something he noticed in an instant.

"Real estate huh..." He stepped forward putting his finger into a bag. "Cocaine." He said as he looked at the other bags. "Meth, weed, and pills." He looked up at them. "Is my father still alive or what?"

Trevor laughed out. "No... he died to be exact, his head got chopped off, but you might know about it."

"Yeah, I know about it." Joseph eyed him and he noticed it, all of them were... not even scared, not even stressed, nothing, they sat idly and calm... like they held the power in the room.

"You remember me?" Ivanka asked as she leaned forward. "I remember playing with you back then, how long ago was it?" She asked with a warm smile on her face, like if it was a good time back then like they were family, like they were close.

"Long ago." Joseph said as he looked at her. "I bet your pussy got all wrinkled after my father fucked the shit out of you." As he said it, Pablo suddenly laughed a bit, while Ivanka’s smile faded away in an instant. "Can I ask why people in their 50s and 60s... are trying to act like they are on another level, like they act to be vicious and menacing?"

"It’s only you who acts that way." Albert spoke, eyeing him. "Like walking in with soldiers on your side, with weapons trying to act somebody you are not, a gangster. What happened during those 10 years? You realized that you’re nothing without the legacy?" He was clearly mocking him, which was just stupid... mocking him with something that is actually true.

"You talk like you’ve built something, Albert." he said ",but all I see is a man sitting in a chair with the money he stole... speaking with a mouth on his face, on a head that could have been chopped off ten years ago."

Albert chuckled, but the corner of his mouth twitched. "You don’t scare me, you don’t scare us." He gestured around."You act like some big shot, but you’re just a prison rat, a little bitch that ran away from his family, because he was too weak to see blood, to do what they did, and now suddenly you are swinging around your father’s ghost, the family legacy like you own it."

"Maybe... but ghosts have a habit of haunting people."

There was a long silence, something shifted, because the man standing in front of them wasn’t who they expected. He wasn’t that broken kid who used to flinch at everything, who used to run from every little threat. No... this was something else entirely... the bloodlust in his eyes, the dead, empty stare, the way he carried himself...it was all wrong.

He changed. Changed so much they could barely recognize him. The way he talked, the way he stood... and just the pure feeling of danger coming off him. Something that they only felt about his father.

Fear.

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