Chapter - 7 Confrontation
1214 Words
I walk inside my house with conflicting emotions. How could he have guessed the exact number and type of weapons; it couldn’t have been a coincidence. But the fact that was bugging me the most was, if it was his weapons then why would he let me find it, I mean it must have been difficult to smuggle it, why surrender it to me, why let me win, unless……he played me, he let me find the weapon but that was not what he actually smuggled. I rush towards the door and see Hiram walk in.
I grab him by his collar,
“You f*****g Hiram, you really are smart. You managed to derail me with your theories and actually smuggled whatever the hell you wanted to; god knows how but I will find out”
He looks at me with shock but I know he trying to act all ‘I don’t know what you are talking about’
But he cannot fool me.
He looks down at me, “Man you are annoying, but okay I will humor you, again, because I am kind like that.”
I jerk off his collar and yell, “You think you can fool me with all this innocent act, you guessed exact number of arms and also the types of arms you smuggled”
He looks at me with disbelief and says, “Have you ever heard of a word called ‘coincidence’”
“Oh, common Hiram don’t pass this as coincidence, okay? It’s bullshit”
“Okay then Luna, you tell me, what do you want me to tell you, coz clearly you are paranoid as hell”
“Finally, I want you to tell me what you smuggled, how you smuggled and where are you keeping it now.”
He looks at me for a moment as if contemplating what to say and then says, “It’s at a warehouse in south road, house number – 5”
I start moving towards the door, when he starts laughing loudly, I turn around,
“What the hell is so funny?”, I yell.
“Did you honestly believe it. I mean if I was actually a smuggler, do you think I would really tell you the place, I roll my eyes and walk outside.
He follows me outside all the while yelling something about, joking, I pick up the clothes hanging in the yard and get inside the house.
He looks at me and says, “Oh, so you were going to pick up the clothes”
“Yeah”, I say in a clipped tone.
“So now you believe me?”
“No, I don’t. I don’t believe the bullshit that it was all a coincidence, but I also know that you are not going to tell me. Still, I am going to expose you one day”
He smiles and says, “I hope you do” and walks away.
His attitude annoys me, he thinks I am an i***t but this time I won’t let people’s opinion cloud my judgement. I know he is up to something and I am going to find it out.
I lay down in my bed and wait for sleep to come but I can’t sleep. I twist and turn, but sleep doesn’t come to me.
I close my eyes and I see Hiram’s smile; my stomach flutters and my core tighten.
I jerk open my eyes, what the hell am I thinking, that person, is…..I still don’t know, if he is good or bad, so I can’t think of such things.
I roll on my bed with frustration for a minute or two, then I give up and slide my hands inside my pants as I imagine riding Hiram.
Next morning when I walk into the kitchen, I see Hiram and my mom cooking something. She looks happy. After dad’s death and her cancer, cooking is the only thing that’s keeping her sane. I don’t want Hiram near my mom, but when she looks at me and calls me to try the new kind of pancake she made, I can see the glint of life in her eyes. So, I decide not to say anything and quietly taste whatever she has made. I munch on pancake as I keep starting at Hiram and pondering,
‘If I somehow manage to prove my instincts, I will be able to throw him out.’
‘It’s not safe to leave him alone with mom’
‘he has good biceps and his shoulders are broad too’
I tilt my head to analyze his body, when he snaps his finger in front of my eyes.
“Checking out my body Luna, that doesn’t suit you. I mean try to be more subtle. What naughty thoughts were reeling in your mind, hmm? Care to tell?”
My cheeks burn and I look around and see that mom as left the room. Thank God otherwise she won’t have let me live this down.
I turn away from him and say, “I…I was..was…. not staring”
He holds me by my chin and looks into my eyes. His eyes are so deep that I can feel myself getting pulled into it, the way he is staring at me feels like he is stripping my soul bare. I look away uncomfortably and he moves back and clears his throat. For a second there I could see and unreadable emotion, but he masks it.
“The way you said it with all the stammering, really convinced me you know”, he says in a sarcastic tone.
I roll my eyes and ignore him.
He sits opposite me, as I munch on my food.
“How is it?”, he asks
“What?”
“Your house”, he replies with sarcasm. “Obviously the pancake Luna”
I look down at my pancake, I was thinking so hard that I couldn’t actually taste the pancake, even though I ate like half of it.
I take another bite, for the first time tasting it. It was delicious, it was soft, fluffy and had the perfect amount of sweetness.
“It’s good”, I reply.
“Thank you”, he says with a proud smile.
“My mom made it”, I say with a snark
“Yeah, but I taught her. Do you know it’s an Italian recipe?”
My first thought was really they eat pancake. But I reign in my curious and excited self and say,
“Oh”, in a monotonous tone.
He immediately gets disheartened; I can see it in his eyes. I feel bad now.
He gets up, not even completing the food, and walks outside the kitchen. Then he suddenly returns and says,
“Please swing by James restaurant, he needs your help…..Officer”
He walks away and I can’t help but feel a little hurt when he didn’t call me Luna. Maybe he felt the same way when I didn’t react excitedly to his Italian food. I shake all these thoughts and sigh.
“let’s get this over with.”
I walk outside the door to James’s restaurant in hopes of knowing more about Hiram and proving him guilty
- Writer
