O yes! The next day came, and with it also the dreaded hammer that falls on the whole human body after the cup has been emptied.
Jim had faced many hangovers before, but the one he felt that day was up there among the worst, possibly taking second place in his personal list of top ten hangovers - number one still being the time he woke up in the back of a van headed to Germany.
But what made this particular hangover so bad is that it was mingled with guilt.
He knew straight away in the first few seconds that he had made a massive mistake.
Jim's vision was blurry, and he stumbled as he dragged his aching limbs over to the sink to drink some water.
His every move was agonising.
Jim was helplessly sick, and he was determined to spend the whole day in bed and the absolute last thing he needed to hear at that disgusting time was this:
'Quickly! Run! There is a fire in the house!'
Fire?
No!
He had to be going mad! He hoped he was just hallucinating. It would not be the first time the first time of course.
Time to go back to bed then...
'What are you doing!' Rod cried. 'We need to run! The fire is raging and spreading! The fire brigade have been called, but this whole place might go up in flames before they finally arrive! We need to make a move and get outside now!'
What a mess...
This was Jim's worst nightmares served on a platter.
Eventually the fire engines arrived to douse the flames, but it took a day for everything to calm down and once it was declared safe Rod and Jim were given the chance to investigate the damage.
It actually wasn't that bad. Despite the panic only one of the offices on the left wing of the building had burned down. The rest of the house was in pretty fine condition.
'It could have been worse,' said Jim. 'At least we have still got a roof over our heads! Now I am going to bed.'
'We have a roof for now, sure we do, but for how long?' Rod replied.
Jim didn't understand and asked the man to explain himself better.
'This fire was not an accident. It was deliberate. It was to serve as a warning,' said Rod.
A warning? What was Rod talking about?
'I think you have some explaining to do,' said Jim.
Once they were back inside a clearly shaken Rod opened up about a few things.
'I haven't been completely honest with you, Jim,' he said. 'The money I put into the business, the ten grand. I lied. It was never my money. It wasn't my savings. I am completely broke, I have been since I inherited my parents estate. The money was a loan. Now they want paying back...'
So who did he owe?
Rod told Jim the money came from the Castle.
'I have worked inside the castle for years, and I managed to strike up a deal with my employers, but the other day they told me they wanted the money back, in full. I tried to explain to them that our business was not up and running properly, yet, and that we hadn't made any money and I couldn't pay them at the moment, and I asked for a few weeks, but they wouldn't give it me. So they have screwed me over, essentially. They have recalled the loan, and want paying. The fire is just the beginning. These are VERY dangerous people, Jim. I know them from old. And that is not all...'
Great, thought Jim. He couldn't wait to hear what Rod had to say next:
'They have connections to the Brazilian cartel. It's those connections who torched the office. It's what they do. It is there way of letting you know that a war is about to begin.'
While listening to all this Jim remained silent. He was just too angry, to think properly, I mean it was that bad he simply couldn't find the words that he wanted to use.
He was livid! Not so much at Rod, directly, but with himself for making the decision to go into business with Rod in the first. Jim always felt the man was unreliable. That was why he set Butch to watch him. He had always expected Rod to let him down eventually, maybe sell him out, something like that,
But he had never expected the man to land him splat right in the middle of a war.
Jim had to pour himself a drink - G-Juice no less.
He looked at the glass of liquid, and started to reflect on all the pleasure and horror that sweet tasting stuff had brought to his life.
He gulped the juice down in one flow.
Invigorated, Jim finally found the words he was looking for. He finally turned to Rod. Up until that moment he had been barely able to look at the man, but now he stood up to him and stared at him right in his eyes. Then he gave this speech:
'Well isn't this all sweet? What a beautiful situation we have found ourselves in, eh, Rod. It's so wonderful right now.' Jim poured a second drink before continued. 'How do you like sarcasm, Rod? Because I have plenty more for you. It's just I am so happy right now! I mean let's just look at things. One minute I am brewing beer and then the next I am on a list for a hit by the cartel.'
Jim wanted to attack Rod, so instead he decided to sit down.
'Tell me you are drunk and making this up, Rod?' Jim continued. 'Tell me you are just trying to frighten me? Please! I can't tell if you are being serious or not. Please tell me you are winding me up? Right now I don't think my heart can't cope with this level of fear. I need you to know something - if you are indeed being serious, and you have got us in debt to the cartel, I would do everything I can to escape this town. I can't do this, Rod. I am not cut out for it. I wanted to make money, that's all. I wanted to retire. I went into business with you because I thought you were rich, and connected. O! I was right about the last bit - I just which I had some idea of the kind of people you were connected to. It could be anybody. We could draw up a list, bankers, traders, but never in my wildest most hyper of nightmares, not even if I was writing a book about crazy mad things, could I have ever imagined you were connected to the Brazilian Cartel. Never! That's why I need you now to tell me that you are making all this up. Please tell me that you are lying, Rod. Tell me that the fire was really an accident, you forget to turn the heating off, faulty electrics, something like that. Help me here. Tell me the truth.'
'I have told you the truth,' Rod replied.
Jim drank the rest of his juice and silently limped to his bed. He needed to sleep, and wake up again in a different world - a simple world where there were no such things as violent gangs, and street wars, and stupid people. A world where he was a success, with money in the bank having just signed the biggest deal of his life.
Any world other than the one he was currently living in.
(Remember! All spelling errors and grammatical mistakes are intentional - the author 😆)
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