Chapter 31 – Danni

Danni is having a hard time. He is in urgent need of money. He owes a gang of gangsters money, because he lost a package. If he doesn’t come up with that money soon, something will happen to him.

A while ago, he saw his old buddy Noa in the distance and followed him for a while. Maybe he could lend him money, but he saw that the man was begging at the entrance of a shopping center. No, that wasn’t an option for a while.

Later, he saw the meeting with Mimi, who gave him money. Noa’s gaze followed her everywhere, even long after she had disappeared around a corner. The man is in love, Danni thought. Then he decided to follow her. He saw that Mimi was very happy after every meeting with Noa. Maybe there was something to be gained from her. He discovers that she lives in a big house with other people.

Some time later, it turns out that Noa lives with them. One by one, he follows the housemates and discovers that a few of them have good jobs. Danni regains hope, although he is conflicted. Noa was his team leader in the mercenary army and a good sympathetic boss, a really good guy. Noa clearly has no money, he doesn’t have to ask him. Those housemates will have to be forced to pay. Mimi is Noa’s weak spot. Probably also of his housemates, because she is a sweetheart of a girl. He is annoyed that he is going to do something to her. Deep down he is also a good man, but circumstances force him to do something terrible.

Daniel, Danni as everyone calls him, was a team member of Noa. They were good friends. After Noa left, the group slowly fell apart. Danni worked as a mercenary in another group for a while, but he couldn’t find his way anymore. Like the others in the group, he eventually quit and went wandering. Quite by chance he ended up in the city where Noa is staying. Every time he needed money again, he delivered a package for a shady gang. After that they kept demanding that he continue with it. Until one day he lost a package. How that happened, he still doesn’t know. One moment it was still in his backpack and the next it wasn’t. He never touches the stuff himself, because he despises drugs. He just carries it from one place to another.

By delivering more packages, he can pay back the money he owes them. That could take years and all that time they have him in their grip. He is afraid he will never get rid of them. Drug gangs are dangerous. He wants to get that money together as soon as possible and disappear.

His plan is simple. He is going to kidnap Mimi to force her housemates to pay a ransom. They are going to do that, because Mimi is the favorite of everyone in the house. He finds a cheap hotel, buys chloroform on the black market and writes a note for Noa. He feels bad about doing this to his old friend, because he has seen how the sparks flew between them. There is nothing he can do, because he urgently needs money.

After a nice cup of tea during her break, Mimi is just walking up the stairs to go back to work when she hears heavy footsteps behind her, which she does not recognize as her housemates.

She looks down and discovers that a strange man dressed in black is coming upstairs. With his broad, tough face, he looks at her intently. The face reminds her of Noa.

Mimi senses danger and quickens her pace. Behind her, she hears the man doing the same. Mimi gets scared and runs past the study to their bedroom.

She does not have to call for help, because there is no one in the house. Everyone is working. Noa, Jean Paul and Lana in the basement and the rest with their bosses.

She quickly hides in her sleeping area. She does not dare to look when she hears the heavy footsteps. The man is already upstairs, she thinks with tears of fear in her eyes.

As soon as he sees her, she flees through the secret revolving door to Lana’s room and then flees back down from there.

Near the stairs he grabs her by her hair. She feels a cloth on her face and falls unconscious.

She doesn’t know that the man bends down to lift her over his shoulder and carries her down like a sack of potatoes.