CHAPTER 20

There was barely any serious impact on my side but Mseki took the fall instead. That fucking bitch. The sight of Mseki bloodied and helpless made my blood boil.

"The gun." He exhaled before unconsciousness took over him. He handed me the gun I had given him with his bloody quivering hands. Literally.

That should've been me.

I grabbed the gun, took the other one from the mini cabinet and aimed at the people inside. Their faces were directly lined with Mseki's window which was both a good thing and a bad thing. A good thing because I could kill them easily and a bad thing because they could do the same to either Mseki or myself. I shot straight to their foreheads and everything went silent. Everything felt frozen in time.

"Is he alive?" One of the twins spoke.

I didn't know know the answer to that and  a part of me wanted it to stay that way. My mind finally came back to its senses and so I slid my phone out if my pocket and dialled vuks' number.

"Sho boza"

"Give me a location I can take a person who is shot to."

"I'll make a few calls someone will fetch you."

"Sho boza"

I didn't bother sending my location since he was going to track my phone anyway. Vuks was always on  24/7 standby. We were more of brothers than employer and employee. He was my hacker but sometimes he would hack just to find out some shit like who is cheating on who. He enjoyed digging for poeple's skeletons.

We waited for ten minutes in silents and a black van came to take Mseki. They told me that they were sent by Vuks and they also had a cleanup crew with them. It felt like the world was spinning and the bottom was going to swallow me whole. I only had a bleeding head from violently banging my head against the window.

We were helped inside a black  Land Rover and somewhere along the way my body gave into the fatigue that had been nagging at me for a while. I let my heavy eyelids close and my body go numb.

*****

The awful smell of sterilisers  had attacked my nostrils and the constant beeping wasn't making things any better. Why was I in hospital? I abruptly opened my eyes and ignored the sharp pain the sudden light did to my eyes. I scanned my surroundings and found Mseki seated uncomfortably on a couch in the corner. He had his head thrown back and a bit of drool on the corner of his mouth. His soft snores filled the silence of the room save for the damn beeping sound. I shifted to my side so to be more comfortable and woke Mseki up in the process. He had a sad smile and tired eyes, the accident really took a toll on him. He tried to sit up straight but ended up wincing in the process but after a few tries he finally sat up straight. I stared at him intently hoping he could answer before I could ask.

"It's just a broken leg and a broken shoulder." He dismissed.

He was just trying to make me feel better and I knew it. But it wasn't fucking working and by then I was fuming. How could he?

"Why the fuck would you do that?" I roared, Mseki was taken back by my sudden outburst but later regained his composure.

He heaved a sigh and rubbed his face with his  hands  in frustration. "Bhuti listen-"

I must listen?

"Mseki you  almost sacrificed your fucking life and you're tell ME to listen. Wena you couldn't take a simple instruction. One  bloody introduction, Mseki! Do you know how worried I was? For goodness sa-" I yelled.

"I'm so fucking tired of you always sacrificing shit for us. It was hight time we did the same for you. I would never ever willingly kill you, Nkosana, you are my brother for crying out loud. If I had to do that again I would do it a million times more. I never ever want to see you dying. I don't think I would survive that." He confessed while he fiddled with his hands.

"So Mseki you tell me, how would it make me feel if you had died because of my enemies, huh? I would have to live my life with the guilt of you bring killed and not being able to protect you when I had the chance. So don't tell me that you're tired of seeing me do shit for you because it is my job to do that. Are we understood?"

He didn't answer or nod either, we just shot daggers at each while waiting for one of us to give up. I knew this hit Mseki hard because he has never looked so angry about me reprimanding him. But he just had to understand that this was just a way of life, our life.

Nhlonipho entered the room full of tension with his head cast down and he stole a glance at me and he faced away and whipped his neck my way so quickly  I thought he injured it. He had a sickly smile and puffy eyes. Was he crying?

"You're awake." He stated the obvious. He always liked screaming the obvious  while jumping on me. But this time was different, he just stood there and remained quiet.

"Where is Nhlakanipho?" I broke the silence.

"Getting food." His twin mumbled.

"I'm fine, what happened to me?" I tried to waver the topic.

"You smashed your head somewhere and you bled excessively. There doctor said you might feel really dizzy or have short term memory." He summarised.

Nhlakanipho walked in with a box of pizza and we all ate while reminiscing on a few days ago. Nhlonipho claimed that he barely remembered what had happened but sometimes he got vivid flashbacks. The atmosphere became lighter with us making fun of each other and I hated to break it to them about the fact that I was getting double visions. I continued to laugh and acted as normal as possible. I did my best to avoid the sudden heat in my body and the loud throbbing of my heart that had been loud to my ears even. The laughter of my siblings turned into muffled sounds and was blurred by the dizziness. I still said nothing.

"Are you okay?" One of them asked, at that point I didn't have enough strength to pin point  who had said that.

I wanted to say yes, I thought I did. The room broke into  unnecessary commotion but that was the least of my problems. The beeping sound of the machine was starting to piss me off as it fastened it's pace. I wanted to grab it and throw it somewhere far or a against a wall rather but all my thoughts were disturbed by my conciousness  which fell into a dark hole of oblivion.

****

I woke up only to find Vuks on a couch busy typing away on his phone.

"What's the time?" I spoke with my eyes glued on him.

"Nine minutes past two." He replied with his eyes still focused on his phone.

"Who are they and who sent them?"

"They were sent by Zwane as a warning to you." He informed.

"Where are they?" I intorragated.

"Dead." He replied nonchalantly"how are you feeling Grootman?" He asked with a smirk plastered on his face. He stole a few glances at me and I was sure I saw his smirk get wider from the scorn on my face.

"Angry." I gritted through my teeth. "Tell every single fucker out there that I'm back in the game." I added.

As soon as I had said that, Vuks put his phone aside and simply studied me with an amused grin on his damn face. He did tell me I wouldn't be out for long. I blame Mseki for this. I raised my eyebrows to hear about whatever was amusing him so much. We later updated each other about our lives. Vuks was like a brother to me and a right hand man too. We spoken for about an hour or too and he told me all about his little errands. He also told me about him having an assignment for me. The weird thing about this was that my assignment was his primary school bully.  He didn't want it to feel like he was avenging himself but deep down he was. The bully made his life a living hell.

While we were conversing the door  flew open revealing the most distressed pair of eyes. Where did she come from and and how did she get here?

She ran to me and started peppering kissed all over my face. Vuks on the other hand, was laughing hysterically.

"Zama how did you get here?"

"Are you fine, is it comfortable, should I get you any food?" She bombarded with questions.

"I'm fine  sthandwa sami but who told you I was here?" I asked uet again. I was silently praying that non of my brothers called her. I knew they weren't around since Vuks told me that they were sleeping at a hotel.

"I got a call from your phone and someone told me you were in a car accident. The person told me the address  and booked a flight for me"she narrated.

"I'm fine sthandwa sami ungakhathazeki ngami." I said while I kissed the back of her hand and she relaxed at that. At least one of us was relaxed. I was still unsure about who called her. (Don't worry about me)

"So I finally get to meet the famous 24 Grove Street." Vuks mused which also broke the little bubble we were in. I almost forgot he was still there.

Zama furrowed her brows in confusion while I balled my fists in pure rage. He did this on fucking purpose, he just wanted to meet Zama in person. I knew how Vuks knew her address. It was a part of his job to track me just to make sure that I was safe. He obviously noticed the fact that I frequently went to the same address.

"Zama meet my hacker and close friend, Vuks." I introduced.

"Good to meet the person who stole my friend's heart." He said with a devilish grin across his face. They exchanged greetings and Vuks spoke again.

"So tell me when were you planning on telling me?" He asked coolly.

"Some time soon." I dismissed and he understood the hidden message and he left afterwards.

I motioned Zama to sit next to me. I shifted so she could get more space to sit. I pulled her closer so she could rest her head on my chest. She once told me that she loved listening to my heartbeat. I could hear her softly sniffing and she buried her face even deeper into my shirt. Why was she crying? I heaved a sigh and drew stupid nothing's on her back.

"Muntu wami, I'm fine. Please stop stressing." I pleaded.

"I can't help it." She retorted with her voice almost inaudible.

We sat in the same position for about thirty minutes but we were disturbed by the doctor who wanted to give me my morning checkup. I barely spoke to him even though his was trying to enlighten the mood with his tiresome jokes. He looked like a nice person, maybe I would have spoken to him if we had met under different circumstances. I hated hospitals and I hated the fact that he just disturbed the little quality time I had with Zama. The check up could have waited, really. He eventually left when he noticed how uninterested I was in whatever conversation he was trying to initiate. Zama came back and gave me a kiss that left me wanting more and then left to get some rest since she came here immediately from the airport.

I insisted that she leave for KZN instead since I was planning to leave that place on the following day. The doctor had not confirmed that I was fit to leave but I was going to make a plan for myself.

The next day I told the doctor that I wanted to leave but the he bluntly refused and claimed that I wasn't completely stable. I didn't care whether I was stable or not, I would meet the issue when I get to it. He was a middle aged Indian man who seemed very stubborn. He didn't look like the type to take bribes so that option was out. At the end we were only left with one solution. Vuks decided to be my saviour and went to throw a few words with the doctor and somehow a gun involved itself without his permission. His words not mine. The doctor ended up letting me go but prescribed some medicine for me to take. I still had the band aid on although I didnt think I needed it.

I called Zama beforqe getting onto the plane flew back to KZN. I felt as if the seats had somehow seeped in some sleeping pills from how heavy my eyelids felt. I slept throughout the whole flight. Every one of us were drained. I guess the fun of it had a cost that needed to be paid. I was woken up by my brothers so we could get into a car I barely recognised but that was the least of my problems. Vuks was taking care of everything and I was grateful for that.

I slept in the car as well although the atmosphere was a bit more alive then. I woke up, once again, when the car stopped and immediately went to take a shower. I went to check if Mseki needed any help taking a shower and found him laying on his bed like a damn starfish. He even had his shoes on or shoe rather. I removed his shoe and woke him up so he could take his denim jacket off so to sleep more comfortably.

I lied down in my bed and tried to sleep but my mind was too conflicted to do so. The buzzing of my brain could not let me rest. Back in the game. I never weighted the heaviness of those words. I kept on repeating them so they could feel more realistic. Those words were uttered in a spur of a moment and were not properly analysed and by then my logic was kicking in. That was not what I wanted. I could not and would not go back to that life. I had too much to lose and too much to live for. It was better when I had less to clutch onto but at that moment I realised too much was a stake. My life was the least if those problem, I had much more pending matters to tend to like my siblings' saftey. What if they found out about Zama and and I?

I do not know for how long I stayed in that unchanging position. My body scrunched up in the middle of the bed with a blanket draped over me. I am not sure how or when my body grew too numb and tired and gave in to much needed slumber. I was disturbed by the vibrating of my phone under my pillow, I switched it on thinking it was just an alarm but I saw three messages from Zama instead.

'have you landed yet?'

'are you sleeping?'

'i love you'

I was too lazy to text and so I called her instead. I called twice and it rang unanswered but she eventually answered after the third ring.

"Nkosana, are you feeling better?" She asked and I hummed in response. I did not have the energy to answer and knowing Zama, more questions about my well being were starting to form in her mind.

"Have you landed yet? Are you hungry? Should I bring you any food? Do you- wait... Were you  sleeping?" She intorragated and I hummed at every question of hers.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you please carry on sleeping" she said and with that said the line was disconnected.

I called her again although this time she answered almost immediately.

"I love you." I mumbled groggily and she chuckled at my words.

"I love you too futhi ungakhohlwa ukuphupha ngami." She said before disconnecting.

Author's note

Thank you all so much for supporting me and reading this book we're on a 1k reads may you all be blessed. ❤️

I'll try to update more often although exams are coming up and the fact that data is scarce this side.

I can't wait for all the drama  and action to unfold this was just the peak of the iceberg.

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