20. Uncle's mistake

Adrian found Angela outside the interrogation room with Stacey and Njiru watching through a one-way mirror. Sang' was in the room torturing her uncle into answering questions. "Has he said a word?" he asked over the screaming. Angela smiled, "My uncle is one tough bastard just like my father was. If he does not want to speak, he will not," Angela said with a sigh.

"Since you already knew this why torture him?" Adrian asked surprised.

"This is his punishment," she said, "For kidnapping her, a reminder, so to speak, to never do that again. As I said I do not order the killing of family members unless they threaten something I cherish deeply. My family is quite different from others; it is like a dog with teeth. Train it well and it will serve you train it badly and it will bite. My family understands only two concepts, punishment, and reward. Take my uncle for example he did not obey so he is to be punished. If he had followed orders he would have been rewarded." The screaming had stopped, and her uncle was whispering something between spitting and coughing blood. All Adrian heard was secret and kill family. Angela had frozen beside him and he turned to look at her curiously. Her eyes were locked on her uncle who was looking at the glass window as though he could see them. He spoke, "My dear niece," he said, "Do you know I have been following breadcrumbs looking for a way to ruin you without killing you? The problem was that those breadcrumbs did not make sense until this night. Do you want me to tell you what I have found out?" he grinned maniacally. Angela's hand clenched tightly and the vein on her forehead started throbbing. She reached for the sound switch and switched it off cutting off any sound from the interrogation room. She leaned forward and spoke to the microphone. "Sang' step out of the room immediately," she said. She turned to look at Stacey, "No one should turn on this sound switch I need to have a private word with my uncle." With that she turned and walked through the door Sang' had just appeared from and joined her uncle. They watched as she approached her uncle and sat on the table looking at him. No one could see her face as though she was ensuring that anyone who could lip read would not decipher what she was saying. Her uncle smiled maliciously, and she leaned closer as if to listen to him but effectively blocking him from everyone's line of sight. She listened for a few minutes her face turning harder and harder after her uncle had finished, she stood up and walked around the room calmly and speculatively and finally stopped behind her uncle's seat. She placed her hands on his shoulders comfortingly before she said, "How clever of you uncle and to imagine my father used to think of you as all brawn and no brain. I always thought I had swept away those breadcrumbs." Suddenly she reached for the dagger among the torture tools and thrust it through her uncle's heart, twisted and pulled it out, killing him. "Those very breadcrumbs took my father's life," she whispered as tears pooled in her eyes, "And now dear uncle they have taken yours." She kissed his head softly and walked out of the room. She handed the dagger to Stacey, "Now I am sure I am going to hell my dear friend," Angela told her tears leaking down her face. "In all my forty-three years of life I have taken many lives. Two of those already damned me to the worst part of hell."

"I will clean up the body. It will be as if nothing happened," Stacey said softly. She didn't add that it didn't matter to her where her mistress was or where she was going. She would follow Angela to hell itself if she had to. Adrian was still in shock, looking at the man slumped over dead. It had happened so fast without a moment of hesitation. He remembered the day her family had tried to take her position she had sworn if they had succeeded, she would have killed everyone in that room. That day's events and the killing of her uncle led him to the conclusion that there was something Angela was willing to kill even her whole family to protect. He had also read her lips while she was standing behind her uncle. He was finally realising that even Shirleen will not be safe if she threatened what Angela was protecting. He needed to find a way to save Shirleen's life at all costs.

Adrian carried Shirleen to her room and placed her gently on the bed. Shirleen reached for him as he was leaving and said, "Please don't leave me tonight." He turned to look at her gently, her eyes showed she was still afraid. She had never thought something like that could happen. He climbed beside her on the bed and pulled her tightly beside him. "I will never let anyone hurt you," he whispered.

"I know," she said softly closing her eyes trying to pretend to be asleep but her mind was filled with images of Adrian's eyes. She had always thought him gentle and caring because of the way he looked at her as though she was something precious to him. But for the first time that day she had caught a glimpse of his face and she realised the bodyguard routine he was showing was not his true self. The true Adrian can be cruel, ruthless and heartless without a thought. What everyone saw daily was just a mask who he really was was someone very dangerous. Even with that realisation she believed he would never hurt her no matter what. With that thought she smiled drifting off to sleep with the knowledge she had acquired a weapon Angela had not expected. Adrian remained awake his eyes fixed on the dark ceiling adorned with the green and blue luminous stars. The more he looked at the stars the more he noticed that they formed constellation patterns. He could make out the big dipper or commonly known as the plough, the Venus mirror, the false cross, the Hyades and the Pleiades. Someone had clearly put a lot of thought and effort into the decoration of the ceiling considering it was painted midnight blue giving it the effect of the galaxy. His thoughts slowly drifted to Angela and for the hundredth time he wondered what secret she was going to such lengths to protect. Could that information be used to blackmail her? He turned to look at the woman sleeping cradled in his arms so trusting and so innocent. The thought that finding out Angela's secret was the only way to protect her crossed his mind until he remembered Angela killing her own uncle without blinking and he immediately pushed away that thought. He was also aware as the heir to the Dragon family he could not interfere with another family without strict permission from the head of that family. When it came to the five families' rules were absolute to avoid war amongst them and maintain comradeship. Using Angela's influence and power to get revenge and find out what really happened to Lizzy was already risky enough and the only reason he resulted to such means was because his family's connections and power laid somewhere else. He needed to be patient after all it seemed Angela did not wish to harm Shirleen, at least not yet. He had noticed that Angela was not unreasonable, if Shirleen did not pose a threat to her plans then she will remain relatively unharmed. Laying there in the dark with thought after thought crossing his mind he realised he was missing something especially important; a piece was missing, and he needed to find that piece immediately.