Chapter 106

***Levi.***

***January 8th, 18 years earlier***

Six whole weeks of recuperation. My body suffering the aftermaths of my efforts to quick recovery.

A fractured bone, torn connective tissues. I was fucking lucky I survived. The doctors said I was brought in completely comatose. Somehow I fought death, as they fixed me up in the theater.

For days, no one knew who I was. I lay there, struggling to survive. Fighting death.

I pulled out from the jaws of death one morning, disoriented. In pain.

My body cracked and when I looked around, I saw I was in a fucking hospital. The doctors came and were happy I was alive. They asked questions and I told them who I was. It was then they informed me that I had been in coma for three days.

Mum was called to Detroit and she came within a few hours. Fear and sorrow clouded her as she held me when she arrived.

We handled the bills, since my work with the gang, paid well. So I was able to secretly fund mum's accounts, especially for our medical card, through one of our reliable members.

She had wanted to complain about the funds, but I had dissuaded her. Informed her they were payments from my modelling job.

She hadn't asked questions, when we finally returned home, a couple of days later. She only maintained an awkward silence. Evidence that she wasn't fooled.

The cops had asked questions in the hospital and I lied. Telling them I was abducted and brought to Detroit by three masked men, who claimed to have a vendetta on families of all the top rich men that were in my father's circle; Reed and others. And since dad was gone, they had taken me.

My story had checked out, with the abduction and murder of top business men in NYC, months ago. But mum had held her tongue. We never spoke about it. It was like she saw me in a new light and kept her opinion to herself.

Her silence worried me. However, I couldn't blame her. She lost her boy that day she lost her husband.

Turning seventeen five days ago. I thanked the Blessed Virgin for persuading her son to give me another chance to life. And this time, I was going to use it right.

It was 8pm. I walked into the pleasure house at Queens. The snow covered floor, a contrast to the darkness that swamped me.

Dressed in a black hoodie, I walked unnoticed through the throng of people in the place, all deep in their own world. I climbed the stairs, keeping a stealth profile.

Arriving Rowan's door, I knocked and someone opened it. My head was lowered, as I stood in the door. Anger fueled me. My need for revenge, an element in my blood.

"Hey, who are you?" Rowan asked, cautiously. I raised my face slowly, taking off my hood and smirked. He paled. The wine cup in his hand shattered to the floor.

Every other person in the room turned at the sound and saw me. My eyes fished out Black Pea from the seven people in the room and I sauntered towards him. My stare, unwavering.

A pin drop silence, as I locked gazes with Black Pea. His face was ashen now. And his gait, unsteady. His eyes said it all.

*'I had fallen behind.'*

*'Was killed by those guys we cut the deal with, who didn't release the dough.'*

I grinned devilishly. I was now his nightmare come back from dead. And I was going to relish every damned day of torment upon him, until I killed him. Because when I lived, I was reborn.

"Whatseeing the ghost of Christmas future?" I snickered.

My voice audible for both of us.

Because of this prick, mum now saw me for who I was. A demon. A form I had hidden from her.

I had never wanted her to see it. To know who I had become. But he made it possible.

"Welcome to hell, Black Pea." I wore a smirk. His shudder, noticeable.

"My boy. Welcome back from the dead. I knew those fuckers couldn't have killed you as Black Pea claimed." Rowan's hand tapped my back. I winched inwardly from the pain the contact made on my left shoulder. But didn't let them see a trace in my expression.

Rowan confirming my suspicions, I raised a brow to Black Pea. The guy was a fuck head. If I spilled this instant, he was dead.

"Lost all that dough, because they double crossed us, Black Pea said. Then they shot you, when you both tried to fight?" I heard the suspicion in his tone.

His assessment of Black Pea's story. Rather than speak, I ignored them and said,

"We'll make another deal. Something juicier than Ice Fred's. I have a contact." I turned to Rowan, who was shocked.

None of us newbies ever knew the names of our drops. I fixed a hard gaze on him and he read the message in my eyes.  I wasn't the same person that left for Detroit.

I did have a contact. On the day we left the hospital, while mum had gone to handle my discharge, a young man of 18, came to visit me. Introduced himself as Mendoza.

Claimed he got rid of my gun and the crisped money, before the cops checked. He saw us with Ice Fred's men. That's how I knew the drop was intended for Ice Fred. He informed me that he knew dealers that paid more. Those that even needed coke for pharmaceuticals. I kept that a secret for someday.

"Wow." Rowan breathed, heavily. Awestruck. I was too. Died and returned. Gone was the old fear. The new me, fierce.

I saw Black Pea lodging there in the shadows, eyeing me warily. I liked that he feared.

I was going to fuck him, like he fucked me.

"I need this deal. When do we make it?"