There was a couple on the beach, lying on the white sand with the girl’s head resting on the boy’s chest and his arms wrapped around her waist. Their legs were tangled and their breath was peaceful. It was serene, them enjoying the sound of the water in the sea, as the girl sigh in pleasure. Her eyes snap up to the boy’s face when he tickles her lightly. She rolled her eyes at the mischievous glint in his blue eyes. Her heart filled with love for the boy and before she knew it, she placed a chaste kiss on his lips. “Thank you love, for coming after me.”

His blue eyes softened as he looked at her, the love of his life and queen of his heart, “I will always come after you, my princess.”

The girl’s heart soared with warmth, though she tried to hide it as she huffed, looking away while muttering, “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

He tightens his hold on her, securing her to himself and kisses the crown of her head. “That is just not a promise, it is an oath.”

I blink, shaking myself out of the reverie. I quickly finish the fish tail braid and leave my room. I pause for a second once I reach the living room, my heart faltering for a second as I took in the tear filled doe eyes of my best friend. It hurt me to know that however unintentional it was, but I did hurt her enough.

Ace was the first one to see me, he shook his head firmly before standing up and helping Abby out of the apartment, the other boys following the duo out, till it was just me and Ryker.

“Ash?”

His gruff voice broke the silence. I sighed, knowing what he wanted to talk about.

“Let’s support Abby first Ry, we can have this conversation later.”

He nods stiffly, his hazel eyes staring intently at me.

The funeral of Professor Kane was a closed casket one, probably done to spare his followers with the gruesome image. The ceremony passed solemnly, everyone in the town was in attendance to pay their respect to the man they adored. The only family members he had, his brother, the brother’s wife and daughter and his own daughter, Camille were all standing together, the others leaving the group alone to grieve together. Abby and his parents doing their level best to provide emotional support to Camille.

The most affected one by his death was Abby. Being his only niece, she had always idealized him much like the rest of this town, except, her idealization ran deeper. Kane had been her godfather and guide all her life and for her, losing him was like losing her safe haven.

The daughter of the now dead man seemed shy as well as too in shock of his death to talk to the others, but if seen closely, anybody could see that grief is not visible in her eyes. They held relief and happiness, her arms wrapped around her chest and tear stained cheeks looked full of life.

“She is happy to be finally free, don’t you think?”

Mason asked, his voice lowered as to not draw attention to our little group. I took a quick look at the people around us before turning to face my three friends.

“As she has a right to be. I can’t imagine how her life must have been, getting physical, mental and sexual torture from the man who was supposed to be the hero of her life.”

I reply as neutrally as I can, carefully trying to not get angered again.

Keith snorts quietly, “And to think the whole town has no idea how disgusting this man was.”

“All they know about him was the image he created. The generous man who is polite and kind.”

“Ace is right,” Keith replies, his eyes trained at the mourning family, “his own family had no idea how he treated his daughter. But we have done well. As you guys expected, the pig didn’t have a will. So I hacked all the property accounts and bank accounts and changed the name of his nominee to Camille.”

Ace allows himself to smile a little, “At least he came of use to her after his death.”

After a few minutes, Keith again reminds us.

“We have something to discuss guys. “

We all nod, none of us aware what this is about but still sure that this is serious. We text the other two to meet at my apartment and I quietly inform Abby that we were leaving, knowing she would spend some time with her family at Camille’s house.

An hour or so later, all of us were settled in the living room of my place. The silence was deafening, no one ready to start the topic yet.

“Why the hell did you kill him?” Ryker asked, his voice lacking any emotions whatsoever.

I clench my jaw, my eyes hardening to solid steel as the reason behind all this surfaced. I replied with an equally cold manner, “You know the reason Ry.”

He stands up in anger, yelling, “I know! What I don’t understand is why kill him when all of us planned to just scare him and threaten him?”

“I don’t want to talk about it Ryker. And keep your voice down, I am not a mere member of the gang you handle, don’t forget that.” My voice, contradictory to his, was quite but authoritative with threat clear in it.

“Keith?” I finally asked, too tired of the quite atmosphere that was filled with dread.

“Uhhh… Right,” he pushed his specs back nervously before nodding. “So, when I hacked Kane’s account to change his nominee, I was kinda shocked to see his total worth. I mean, he is professor and part of some NGOs? Then how is he the owner of so many lands and all?”

This makes all of us to fall silent in thought. The man clearly had more secrets than what we had assumed. Just how deep and dangerous were his secrets?

The painful silence was again broken, but this time with a knock on the door. The knock confused us as all of us looked at each other questioningly.

“Is it Abby?” Kevin asks.

“Can’t be. She said she and her parents will stay with Camille today.” I answer getting up from my place and going to open the door. I look through the eye glass to see who it was. Recognizing him, I open the door quickly, not prepared for the punch he threw immediately. I jerked back to avoid it, not getting too far as his knuckles grazed my jaw line.

“What the F###? Chris?” I hiss, as I quickly use his collar to drag him inside the apartment before anyone could see the stunt he pulled. Shutting the door just as he was out of the way, I turned around to face him just as swiftly, ducking to avoid the right fist that was rapidly making way towards me again. I deliver a sharp chop to his right leg, right behind his knees making him lose his balance.

Hearing the commotion, the boys also hurry to see the visitor we have.

The blonde man again stands up, glaring at me with fire behind his green eyes. I raise my eye brow is response, making him huff as he leaves the hallway to go to the living room.

When mason looks at me in question, all I do is shrug, not sure what this was all about myself.

We all follow Christopher back and once again take our places back, save for me, as I stay standing with Christopher sitting in my place.

“What is this about Ryland?” I state, no longer interested in letting Christopher Ryland glare at me.

“I am gonna ask this once Ash, and I want an honest answer. Who. Killed. Kane?” his voice deadly, so much so that I had to straighten my spine to keep the shivers of fear from being visible.

Christopher Ryland has been my friend from the lowest point of my life and that friendship is the only reason that I know him well. He is a private man, leader of a well-organized gang that was not huge or ruling but the one that was at the top in the market. His connections ran from legal to illegal corporations and unlike most gangs that stay in one country to rule every gang there, his gang has small gangs all over the word.

So it wasn’t surprizing that he knew that Kane died, neither am I surprised that he has a hunch on who the murderer can be. What is surprizing, is his anger towards me when I am the only person on this planet that he will not get angry on.

“It was me.”

I answered with boldness, unsure what his reaction would be.

“Why?”

“What why? I don’t need to tell you everything, just trust me this once.”

He pinches the bridge of his nose, sighing in frustration before he leans forward with his elbows resting on his knees.

“My trust won’t save you from the other gangs, will it now Ashlyn?”

“What?”

It was Kevin who echoes what we all were thinking about, “What are you talking about Mr. Ryland?”

Chris looks from me to the dark haired swimmer before looking back at me. “Kane had conned one of the gangs in the UK and that gang is a vengeful one. It wanted Kane dead for quite some time, so imagine their anger that someone killed their target and that too, before they had a chance to extract the money he looted from them.”

Ryker, deep in thought, responds, “That means they will try to find the murderer, with two intentions. Either to kill them off or to get the revenue back in any way possible.”

“Exactly.”

“So this solves the lots of money problem that we had with Kane.” Keith murmurs in the background.

“There is more… isn’t it Christopher?” I ask, slowly, not sure if I am going to like the answer I will get.

“Yes…” he trails off, unsurely.

“What else is there?” Ace asks, standing up to stand by my side, crossing his arms across his chest.

“Kane, he made a deal with another gang,” Christopher looks at all of us, his expression still set in stone, “He was under the protection of the Carter’s gang to escape the gang he conned.”

Carter’s gang is the ruling gang in North America, the gang of all the gangs in this country. The gang is famous for its organised dealings and is one of the top gangs on the food chain, no one dares to go against them. Its leader is known to be ruthless and unforgiving, many think that he may not even be human. I cannot help but think how right they are about him.

“And Ash killing him breached the deal…” Mason breathes out in disbelief, “that means there are not one, but two gangs that are after her.”

“And inevitably us.”

We all look at Ryker, who stands up as well, “We all are her friends and we know she killed him, so the target is also on our heads.”

“Especially since you went against your own gang.” Chris adds as all of us fall deep in silence.

***********
A/N: Hello dear readers,
Here is another chapter in the life of Ashlyn Greene! How was it?
As promised, weekly updates... Well technically I thought of updating each Monday, but due to me updating early the last two times, today turned out to be the 7th day from the day of my last update so here it was!

Please don't be a silent reader and vote or comment so I can keep the track of the readers who are showing support from the first chapter, alright?

Anyway!
Vote, comment and share!
Love, Rupanshi.