"Boss please, you have to come with me. The soldiers will take care of this." Jay said to Darian, trying to haul him out of the garden.
"Don't, don't do that. I can't leave my people here to die. Take Lena home, and make sure she gets home safely, I will join you soon." Darian commanded, running to a corner to hide. "Protect her, nothing must happen to her."
"Boss, you have to come with us." Jay insisted, running over to where Darian hid.
"I have got this, just make sure she gets home safely."
"No, I won't let you stay out here. You are coming with us." With fear in her mind, Lena gripped Darian's hands. "Please, you can't stay out here. It is too dangerous." She sobbed.
The gunshots sounded again. It was closer than before now. Darian glared at Jay and said, "Go through the back gate." He then yelled out to the people. "You all should go through the back gate, there are soldiers to save you there."
Everyone rose to their feet and ran towards the back gate, Gaius stopped when he got to where Darian was, he looked pleadingly into his eyes, urging him to go with them.
"No, Gaius. I am not going with you. I will stay here to ambush them." He said, causing Lena to worry more. She was trembling as Jay snatched her arms. "Take my wife home now! Make sure she's safe! Protect her with your life.”
Jay didn't waste time before pulling Lena towards the exit.
She begged him to let go of her but he didn't. He knew Lena was his priority now and Darian would not spare him if anything happened to her—he had to protect her with his life like Darian commanded.
Asher cocked his gun and gently strolled towards the entrance, he hid behind the walls and watched as footsteps echoed through the garden. They were masked, all with big weapons. They stood in fours and sprayed the whole place, destroying everything that was around.
Darian slipped out of his hiding space and shot at them, the bullet hit the man in the middle. He was about to retaliate when one of them stopped him.
"He's the Don," he muttered quietly, but loud enough for Darian to grasp his words.
"Who are you, guys?" Darian shot ferociously at them, but surprisingly, they didn't shoot back. They went down in pain when the bullets hit their legs.
"Wait!" Asher rushed out. "Stop shooting," he said.
Darian didn't listen to him, he turned the gun to him and threatened to shoot him again.
"Stop shooting!" Asher yelled again. "They are not shooting back, they are going through the pain. You should know there is more to this."
Darian growled, "Drop your weapons," he commanded. They all let go of the weapons, and at that moment, the soldiers crammed the garden, surrounding the four armed men.
Darian felt relieved when he saw the soldiers gathering around. After the guns were taken away from them, he walked up to them and removed their masks one after the other, throwing the masks angrily on the floor.
When he was done, he couldn't recognize any of them.
He clutched the cloth of one against his neck and demanded. "Who sent you?"
The armed man hesitated, he winced in pain that burnt his leg and shook his head.
"Who sent you?" Darian kicked his tummy and he fell flat on the floor, groaning in pain as he rolled on the grass.
"We are not here to kill anyone," he finally responded. "And that's all I am going to say."
"What the hell are you here to do?" Darian was mad, he went down on his knees and pointed his gun at the man. "You came here to disrupt a family party, destroy everything, scare the people away and you say you are not here to kill anyone. Why the fuck would you shoot your guns when you know people might be in here?"
"We calculated everything we did. We wouldn't have shot at any of the people who were around." He said, wincing again in pain.
"Who are you?" Darian gripped his neck and punched his face.
"Not someone you should know," he spat blood. "You can go ahead and kill us, we already signed for it." He giggled in between the pain.
"I won't kill you, I will make you suffer for messing with the Dawson family." Darian rose to his feet. "Throw them in the dark room and torture them until they confess." He said to the soldiers in charge of the dark room and they bowed their heads to Darian's instructions.
They hauled the men up and dragged them towards the exit, right into the car to convey them down to the dark room.
The other soldiers cleared the guns and other weapons with them.
"You can go now, Asher," Darian said to him.
He pulled the gun back into his pocket and smiled, "You were a brave one for staying back to face those people."
"That's how a good leader should act," Darian retorted. "I don't have all the time in the world to exchange words with you. When you get back home, please send my apologies to your father."
"He knows that we are in the mafia and things happen. Your wife would be so worried about it, I saw how she was reluctant to leave when you asked that she go." Asher shook his head impressively. "You got a good woman that you don't even deserve. Yet, you don't value her. I wish I had a woman like her.
Darian knew well what Asher was trying to do.
He raked his fingers through his hair. "Do what I asked you to do and get the fuck out of here. I told you to stay away from my wife!"
"And I dared you then, Darian. I'm daring you again, what will you do if I don't stay away from her?" He demanded.
Darian scoffed, he pulled out his gun and raised it to the sky. He pulled the trigger and fired a shot into the air. "That's not too big for you to understand that I will kill you if you come near my wife!"
"Let's see how far this goes," Asher smirked at Darian. He shrugged his shoulders and walked out of the garden.
Darian cussed at him as he walked out. His mind drifted to Lena.
He suddenly hoped she was safe out there. He wanted to see her, look into her eyes and just feel her warmth. She was all that filled his head as he walked towards the car. He couldn't wait to see her again.