The door closed firmly behind us, and the meeting was officially over. I let out a loud sigh that I had been suppressing. I hadn’t realized up until the moment that we got out of eth room, just how nervous and scared I had really been.
“Was it that bad?” Hayden asked, with a soft laugh as he patted my head.
“I guess…it was…” I whispered.
“You haven’t seen the worst of it…” Hayden said before flashing me an encouraging smile.
I had thought that the one who needed encouragement would be him and not me but I appreciated his gesture nonetheless.
“And I hope that I won’t need to…” I replied.
“I hate this job…” Hayden said softly as if he was talking to himself.
However, I heard him all the same and I guessed that I started to understand just a little bit more about Hayden. From what I could tell from being in the room, the senior members of the gang were clearly divided into two groups. One group wanted to follow and support Hayden and his leadership. While the other, wanted to follow the ways of Hayden’s elder brother. Although, his brother had died, the men were not satisfied with following Hayden and the ideas that he had.
I didn’t know anything about Hayden’s elder brother, but I could sort of figure out that he had a different way of managing the gang and probably relied more on violence. On the other hand, Hayden’s approach seemed more compromising and peaceful.
As I held his hand while we walked back to his office, I wondered if Hayden took me to that meeting precisely to show me that. I thought my life was complicated but now I was beginning to see that life wasn’t any simpler for the man walking next to me.
…
When we arrived back at his office, I felt pretty bad for Hayden. I couldn’t understand how anyone could tolerate being in a situation like this. The face he made when he said that he hated this job gave me the chills. Of course, I didn’t now everything that he had been through, but the current situation seemed bleak, and I was sure that Hayden felt constantly stressed about it.
Without knowing when it started, I started to worry for Hayden, and I was thinking of how I could make him feel better. Although, I wasn’t sure how much help I would be. The boss mentioned that Hayden didn’t want to take over the gang and today, I could see why. I mean, who would want to take over if it meant that a fight might breakout between the gang members and split the gang?
Before I knew what I was doing, my brows were knitted together as my brain raced to think of something to make Hayden feel better.
“Why do you look so stressed out? What are you thinking?” Hayden asked.
“Umm…I…I was just thinking that you seemed a little down…so…” I said hesitantly as I tried to piece my words together.
My brows were still knitted together when I sat down on the sofa.
“Were you thinking of how to make me feel better?” Hayden said, jumping in brightly.
I glanced at him from where he was sitting behind his table and nodded slightly in response. Hayden’s face brightened up even further as if he just had a brilliant idea.
“Come over here for a second,” Hayden said as he waved me over with his hand.
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Love Slave to the Mafia Boss's Passion 18