The Marvelous Elijah's Return novel Chapter 53

A death wish

There was a long pause as Dice stared calmly at Elijah, his expression blank and emotionless, not breaking eye contact with him.

“You got some powerful people on your ass,” Dice remarked, crossing his arms against his chest, waiting for Elijah’s reaction. “Why?”

Elijah didn’t budge as he stared back at Dice, not saying a word, and he didn’t give anything away, nor gave any hint to Dice as to what he was feeling by those words. “The Hayes… the rat works for the Hayes family, mainly Dean Hayes.” Dice paused again for another second, making sure his words were completely understood.

Silently, Elijah eyed Matt, seeing the look of concern and wor etched on his features, and he then shifted his gaze over at Dice.

A faint frown surfaced on Rick’s lips as he looked at Larry and mumbled, “Didn’t the news say that Melina’s ex-husband is a worthless stay-at-home husband with nothing to his name except his desire to leech off her wealth, so how is this guy before us the same man on the news.”

“I’m not sure. Our new leader does not have the appearance of a loser… In fact, I think he’s playing us all, and there is more to him… What secrets do you think he’s hiding?” Larry whispered, not moving his eyes off Elijah.

A brief silence followed his words and when he eyed Rick, his partner finally mumbled, “I don’t know. But what troubles me is why he’s putting himself at risk by choosing such enemies like the Hayes family,”

“Maybe he got a death wish.” Barron teased from the back, listening in on the two conversations

“Or maybe he’s a worthy opponent for such a powerful family,” Dickson said, and all three men looked sideways at him with an expression that clearly asked, “Are you okay?!” “How long has Jerome been watching the motel?” Elijah wondered, trying to read Dice carefully. “Why was he doing so?” “Since he got out of the hospital. We didn’t get a call from you, so he decided to check up on you, but when he got to the motel a few days ago, that’s when he noticed Vlad, snooping around the front of the building.”

“And you didn’t mention this until now… Why?” Elijah raised one of his eyebrows and asked Dice, not wanting to trust a word he was being told.

Dice sighed deeply, and looked down, hesitating, unable to look directly at Elijah without flinching, and then he said, “We wanted to make sure that he was a threat… Well, we know that he is dangerous generally… but we wanted to know how much of a threat he was to you.”

“He’s dangerous…” Elijah stated bluntly, looking at Matt as he did so. Raising his gaze, Dice met Elijah’s eyes with a dead – serious expression and said, “I guess you

don’t know about the underground world of Syldavia. I know Vlad, and he’s not just a simple watchdog. He is also an underdog that will do whatever is requested for the right price… including a kill order.”

Silence followed those words, and after a while, Elijah slowly lowered his head and closed his eyes, thinking things through. Then, opening them again, he said, “What was his order from Dean?”

“To investigate you. He said Dean is suspicious of you, and he wants to find out more about just who you are. your every move at the motel was reported back to Dean by Vlad,” Dice explained calmly

His Index finger subconsciously stroked his lips as Elijah took in those words, thinking about them silently, and eventually, he nodded his head and murmured, “Okay. Thanks for letting me know. I appreciate you guys helping me out so far.” “No problem, boss! Anytime you need backup, don’t hesitate to ask,” Dice replied with a warm smile, flashing Elijah his teeth.

After nodding faintly, Elijah tumed towards his car but stopped y en Dice asked, “You are leaving?”