Revenge Of The Hidden Boss

Chapter 4

It was already two years after serving his term and Bruce smiled casually as he shook hands with the police officer during his final hours in that God forsaken place “Mr Bruce Ortiz, you're now a free man. Try not to live a life of crime when you go out there.”

“I can't even say I'm a changed man because I never was a bad man in the first place. I've spent two years in jail for a crime I never even committed.”

As soon as Bruce took a step outside, the air immediately felt different. “This doesn't smell like that prison walls no more. This? This smells like freedom.” He couldn't help but crack a smile.

Just when he was about to clean the dust on his shoulder, his phone buzzed in his pocket with a new message “I guess it's that Bitch Cassie tryna mock me. She must have heard I'm outta prison.” He reached for his phone in his back pocket but was puzzled with a message from a new number “and who might this be?” He clicked on the message with a curious finger “and what do they want from me?” He brought his phone closer to his face to be able to read in the bright weather. His eyes strained as he read the message “Good day Bruce, my name is Jonathan Gusman. And many know me as a dealer in real estate, but I'm way more than that. I've read your story, dug deep into it and I noticed that we married the same woman, the same corny woman. But that's not the aim of writing this message. The thing is; I'm interested in you. You have a skill that I need and I want us to be a team. Meet me at the Garrison Bar today at 7:00PM we've got a lot to talk about and we've got money to make.”

Bruce took another minute to go through that text message once again as his detective side kicked in “is this real? Or this is some kinda trap?” He wondered, staring at the words of that text as they became blurry over time “What skill do I have that he wants? Is he also planning to use me to start some business and then frame me like Cassie and her father did?” He bit his lips and looked up in the sky, knowing fully well that it was his first and maybe his best shot at getting his life together after being in prison for two good years.

He hit the ‘reply’ option and typed in the words “Alright, I'll be there 7:00PM prompt.”

Bruce went back to his old house in the swampy area downtown, nothing had changed apart from the cobwebs and dust all over the place “Shit! Same old place, same old memories. I should've always known this place was too low level for a woman like Cassie, she wants the high life of Rolls Royce and expensive handbags. But I thought she was all about true love at first.”

He walked to take a photo of himself on the table, cleaned the dust on it to take a look and just when he was about to let the tears out, he heard a serious deep voice behind him “Welcome back fool!”

Immediately Bruce turned back to see who it was, someone hit him with a baseball bat right on his forehead and he staggered his way to the ground.

“Oh yeah get the fuck up fool!”

“Shit!” Bruce tried to crawl away as fast as he could, heading towards the kitchen where he knew he could get a knife. All he could think about was “Who the hell is this and what does he want from me?” He tried to get support from the table, forcing his way up and the stranger with a bat released a laugh with that hoarse voice.

“Who are you?” Bruce asked immediately he got up on his feet, he turned to look at the attacker but he was hiding behind a black ski mask. “I said who the hell are you?” Bruce raised his voice with confidence as he took steps backwards, knowing he was closer to grabbing that knife on the kitchen sink behind him.

“Oh I see someone's getting some confidence now yeah? Someone's getting arrogant now. But tell you what, if you beg me I might let you live.” The stranger's voice sounded exactly like someone who's said that same statement to a lot of other people. And it helped Bruce to quickly figure out that “he's an assassin.”

Bruce looked deep into those big eyes from the ski mask as he said “You're an assassin!”

And the response was just a smile, followed by a mocking compliment “well, Bruce Ortiz, you're at least a little bit smart.”

“Who told you to do this? Why do you want to kill me?” He finally grabbed the big table knife behind him in style, trying not to make the assassin notice that he was now equipped too.

“You know, it's quite funny how y'all just expect someone to tell you who sent them. Anyway I'll give you an offer to save your life.”

Bruce looked at him like he was about to say “screw you and your damn offer!” but he didn't say a word.

The assassin continued “You see, I was paid $15,000 to end your miserable life. And now I'm gonna give you a chance to save your shitty self if you ain't tired of being alive as some poor mudafuka yet!”

“I don't wanna fight you.” Bruce said as a threat, now coming closer to the man in a mask.

“You can't fight me fool!”

“I'm warning you man, turn yourself around and leave my Goddamn house now!”

“You have some nerve for someone who's about to die! Ama blow you up bitch-boy! But if you wanna save yourself you can pay me double of what I was paid to eliminate you and I'll let you live.”

Bruce was tired of standing there to listen to that arrogant coward talk trash to him while hiding his face in a mask, he held his knife firmly and charged towards the stranger. At a point of no return, Bruce realized that he'd just made the biggest mistake of his life. The assassin reached around his belt to bring out a pistol pulling the trigger three times and Bruce was already back on the floor, motionless in a pool of his own blood.