THE GUARDIAN DEVIL

“Its your last chance, tell me who do you work for and where did you hid the file and you can get over with it. you’ll be free. I promise” I looked into his fear filled eyes menacingly, his face and body was bloodied by the tortures my men gave him, so much so that he was nearly unrecognizable.

I smirked at the handiwork of my men. His limbs were broken, several cuts and bruises graced his body and he was barely breathing. He just shook his head again without uttering a single word which broke the last thread of restrain I was holding and I shot him in the middle of his eyes without wasting even one more second.

“Lucifer” Asher; my only friend and my second in command shouted behind me, his voice laced with irritation. I turned back and saw him standing with his legs crossed and arms supported by the door.

“What? He was not going to tell anyways.“I said smirking.

“But there was still a chance. We would have made him spill the information but now him being dead we have to find the file the hard way, when it could have clearly been done a lot easier and quicker” he sighed looking at Adam.

Although he worked with me in the underworld he never was an advocate of violence and thus looked after all my legal businesses. But since he was really good with computers he managed the technical stuff of both my gang and the legal companies i owned.

He was there in all the thick and thins of my life and after seeing enough betrayal my entire life; not only from strangers but even my family; that one might think that i must have grown immune to it and to an extent i have; he is the only person i can still trust; with all i have. I know that he will never ever judge me and will always be standing firm by my side in all the decisions I take.

Ordering my men to clean the mess, we both step outside of the warehouse and walked towards our car to go back to my mansion and look for a way to search the file that Adam stole.

That file held the information that I was searching for last thirteen years and when finally I got a hold of that information, Adam stole it from me before I could see the secrets it held. This was also one of the reason I was particularly enraged with Adam. I was so close to the truth and he ripped that chance. I took all the paths I could see in front of me no matter whether they were legal or illegal, to be competent enough, in hope of one day finding that man.

For the world I was the youngest and the richest multi billionaire that owned various companies across the globe but nobody knew of me being the mafia leader that even the government officials feared.

People were terrified of me and called me “the DEVIL” in the underworld and I liked to keep it this way, for my experience with the world have taught me that to survive you have to be on the top of the pyramid for which you have to have power. One weakness and you will be pulled down. That’s the rule of the world: either you crush others and step on them to be on the top or the world will crush you and will not hesitate even a bit to step on you.

This world taught me the hard way that the only means to survive in such evil is to become more evil..To become a beast..To have power to the extent that no one dares to question you. So I just engulfed the darkness the world bestowed upon me and followed the rule taught to me by this brutal inhuman species ironically called as humans.

As soon as i opened the door to my car, I heard a loud bang and immediately ducked to avoid the bullet shot in my direction but unfortunately it still wounded my arm. I groaned frustratingly. How could someone be so stupid to attack me at my warehouse..I wanted to laugh at their stupidity but all I was feeling was irritation. They were just wasting my time.

I immediately craned my neck and looked on the other side of the car to see Asher who was easily dodging the bullets and counter-attacking the attackers along with my men who rushed out of the warehouse hearing the gunshots.

I immediately took out my gun from my back and shot back at the men hiding in the dark trying to kill us by the ambush they planned, but were clearly failing miserably so much so that I even saw one of the men running in the opposite direction to save his life. “Coward” I huffed. He is highly mistaken if he thinks he can get away. It’s just a matter of few minutes before I get him and make him tell me about his sender, before killing him.

I followed the man after signalling Asher to meet me back at the mansion after he has taken care of the situation here. After he motioned me that he is fine, I focused on the man again and started chasing him. But to my surprise instead of running to the secluded area near the warehouse where he could have easily found a place to hide, he ran towards the city. Intelligent indeed, because amidst the city crowd it would be a bit difficult to find a chance to get the information i needed out of him; my way.

I was about to follow him around the turn he took, when I bumped into someone and suddenly felt dizzy and the intensity of the pain in my arm increased so much so that i stood in my place holding my injured arm with my other hand. I hissed and then exhaled as if it would lessen some pain.

I bent forward groaning slightly due to another jolt of pain in my arm and that was the moment when i heard the most angelic voice I have heard in my entire twenty three years of life “Oh I am so sorry..Hey. Are you ok?” she asked and I could hear genuine concern in her voice.

She immediately came near me and gasped as she saw the blood that now coated the sleeve of my dress shirt. Thankfully the gunshot wound was not visible from above the shirt and the tear it caused in the shirt was also vague due to the blood.

I held my head up to see her and was mesmerized to see the most innocent eyes untouched by the harsh realities of this inhuman world. The moonlight falling on her face made her look so ethereal, so pure, so divine that a serene feeling flowed through me and I could no longer feel the pain as she quickly took out a white silk scarf from her bag and tied it around my wound tightly.

“Sorry but at present I have got this scarf only and there is no bandage in my bag. But its new, so don’t worry, it will not cause any infection and will also stop the blood for the time being. You still need to see a doctor though. I am not yet good with the first aid so it might look clumsy but it will work for now.” She rambled pointing to the scarf she tied but i could care less for anything now as I was just looking at her face which showed a hint of pain. But why? And as on cue she said still looking at my wound “you must be hurting a lot.”

Is she real? In this time and age where people tend to ignore the difficulties of even their family and friends, she is not only genuinely concerned for a stranger but was even feeling his pain. Even after seeing blood on me she was helping me. Doesn’t one runs in the opposite direction far away in these kind of situations to avoid any sort of trouble. Was she that naive that there was no sense of self preservation.

But her being like this makes me want to protect her. For me concern, care and love are foreign words but she is making me feel the things that are buried so deep in my dead heart that I myself doubted that I can still feel anything.. hell.. I doubt I still have a heart.

My phone buzzed in my back-pocket bringing me back from my trance. I felt anger run through me for whoever disturbed this moment with her.

Without looking at the caller id I picked my cellphone and shouted “what?“. Through the corner of my eyes I saw her finch due to my anger and I immediately calmed a bit; for her to relax; before listening to whoever was on the other side of the call.

I am feeling so confused..what is she doing to me. I never cared about how my behaviour affected the people around me..hell I even enjoyed the fear I could see on their faces in my presence and here I was calming myself just to see her relax. Why did my heart pained to see her flinch at my anger?

“Where are you? I was waiting for so long at your place. I thought you would come here before me and we can plan on how to retrieve the file.” Asher asked impatiently and without even giving me a chance to reply he continued “what happened? Are you lost in the crowd?. Do you want your responsible elder brother Asher to come and get you?” He asked teasingly emphasizing on the word responsible and i want to punch him really hard on his face right now.

He is just 3 months older than me but he leaves no chance to remind me of the fact and takes it as a challenge to make me address him as big brother. I bet he is wiggling his eyebrows and a smirk is playing on his face. Trust Asher to find fun in anything and everything.

“No need. I’ll be there soon. wait for me” I spat in the phone and cut the call immediately but was exasperated unable to find the angel that was with me just few moments ago. I stood up and walked around hoping to find her but to my dismay, I not only lost the man I was chasing but also the girl who for the first time made me feel alive; no matter for how short the time was.

As soon as I entered my mansion, Asher nearly jumped on me hugging me so tightly that I could hardly breath.

“Where were you? I was so worried. I thought I have lost you” he asked wiping off the fake tears off his face but stopped suddenly when his eyes landed on the white scarf which was now red due to my blood; tied on my wounded arm

“Who’s scarf is this? Who is she? When did you meet her? Do you like her? Do you love her? When do i get to meet her? Why didn’t you tell me about her before?” He bombarded me with all the nonsensical questions and i just rolled my eyes.

“Call the doctor and ask him to come here as soon as possible” I told him, ignoring his blabbering and walking away towards the living room. Was just the scarf visible to him and not the gunshot wound underneath. And more importantly, where did all those questions even come in his mind.I really want to do some research someday on the way his mind works.

“Already called him. He will be here any moment now. Now.. where were we..About the scarf...” he started blabbering again excitedly.

Arghhh not again!