Nicholas scrolled through the messages again, while Nora drove to the wedding venue. It was a destination wedding. The venue was the Grand banquet halls of The beautiful Silver Crest Tower. According to Natalie, her father had chosen it because her sister worked there before she disappeared and he felt it would help him feel like she was close by or something like that.Nicholas’ face twisted in disgust. The more he read through the messages, the tighter his gut twisted. Everything about it made him feel sick. Apparently his ex, Sarah, was the family cash cow before she vanished. Now all eyes fell on Natalie. She was supposed to graduate and feed the family after that but something happened in their school and so exams were halted for a while. Shortly after, her mother was diagnosed with cancer and her father began to fear their luxurious life would vanish once they start paying the medical bills.Then some nosy rich guy who had been hovering around Natalie for a while got wind of the

“What is it like then, Natalie?” His tone was deep and low but threatening. “Why is it so hard for me to see? You know what, don’t tell me. I’m not going to listen to any more excuses. When your father gave you up to the highest bidder, you did nothing. So technically you were prepared to serve him; to do whatever he wants.”Natalie took a step back, her leg hitting the bedframe. She was trapped. He stopped right in her face, and he whispered. “I’m the highest bidder now. I paid for you which means you get to do whatever I want. Natalie, take off your clothes.”Her eyes grew wider. “Nicky…”“Go on. Hurry. You were going to do this for that fat ugly bastard. What’s keeping you from doing it now? Come on. I don’t have all day. And why you are at it, do those fancy moves they used to show girls doing in all those porn movies.” He backed away, found a nice spot on the bed and sat down.“Make it interesting.”Natalie turned slowly, looking at him. There wasn’t a single twitch on his face

Nora jumped down from the car. “Toss me the automatic.” She ordered, slotting her gun back into her hostler. Her minion inside the car, dislodges the hinges on the passenger seat and jacked it up, the automatic was lying like a sleeping devil, right beneath it. He threw the big gun to Nora.She grabbed it, cracked the neck and pushed the infer-red button on the side of her glasses. She stared down at the ground, the glasses peered past the sand and into the tunnel beneath them spotting where the group of assassins were coming from. Nora smiled. They looked like little ants that had no idea what was about to hit them. She cocked the gun. ‘See you in….”“Excuse me mam.” The informant broke right into her reverie. She raised her head slowly, glaring at him. Obviously she wasn’t pleased with the interruption. “Em… I know the automatic is a big gun and all but you got to be kidding me if you think the bullets in that gun will hit anyone like… I don’t know, 20 ft below the ground.”“3 ft.”

Nora stopped, panting. She looked beside her, by the elevator. Nicholas was standing there. “Are we good?” Nora smiled at him. She tried to wave and winced. She had a bad shoulder. He came to her and took some cloth from one of the dead men. He tied her shoulder real tight.“It gets harder from here. We should try to cut them a different way. There is no sense in taking bullets and bleeding.”“Good point.” She groaned, straightening up. He handed her the automatic. She held it with her left hand. “There is still a very long way down this hall before we get to the elevator at the end of it. The fourth floor is the real buggy actually because that is the second to last floor. I have a feeling the boss is at the last floor.”“If that’s the case, then we shouldn’t waste our energy on this floor. We need to work about the fourth and fifth.” Nicholas looked at the elevator. “I guess we will have to drop down a few feet.”Nora nodded, taking out the phone. They override the controls on the e

You will know after the summit is over. There are a lot of things that will change after that summit. Nicholas, my boy, I hope what I’m doing and what you are doing can prepare us for it.”“I’m guessing I can’t know what’s coming either. At least tell me this; who are those powers that you talked about. Who will come to the summit and what’s with the five towers? Two towers could have done the trick.”“You are right, the towers have a purpose. Their purpose is quite amusing actually.” The patriarch crossed his leg.“I use them to remind myself who the powers are. It reminds me of the hierarchy too. The consortium was first built by the blood members of the Belford family. That is; I, my brother Benedict, Harold the son of my mother's brother and the only surviving members of my mother’s side, then there is Nadya the wife of one of my dead brothers and finally her son, Asphalt. As our enterprises grew other smaller groups joined us in return for protection. The towers allowed me to gro