Serendipity - A Chance Encounter

Ignoring the traffic lights, his car went past the intersections at a frightening speed. He was really impressive that Vladimir"s smile widened because of excitement.

They circled around the city once with their agreed route until they came back to where they started. Driving for only a few minutes with their incredible speed, Daniel and Vladimir were already approaching the finish line.

Putting more pressure on the gas pedal, Daniel"s Mclaren accelerated, leaving his opponent behind and crossing the finish line. And so Daniel won the race just like how his friends predicted it.

Cheers and howls echoed through the dark when Daniel got off the car, celebrating his victory.

"Nice!"

"All right!"

Kevin and Lucas each gave Daniel a high five when he got off the car.

Rolling his R"s due to his heavy accent, Vladimir said: "You are a really fast driver." He complimented, as soon as he got out of his car; he arrived several seconds after Daniel. It wasn"t that Vladimir had a chance in the first place, he just wanted to meet the trio altogether and see how they dominated the city like he had heard before he came.

"Thanks, you were pretty good too," Daniel replied out of habit.

"You beat your own record tonight, Swift," Joe said as he handed a thick wad of money to Daniel. "Five thousand bucks."

One burly man went up to Vladimir and whispered something to him. A smile spread across his face and he looked at Kevin who stood behind Daniel. His smile looked very creepy that when Kevin met his glare, he clenched his jaw and furrowed his brows. "What is this man"s problem?"

"Gentlemen, I have to go. It was nice meeting you." Vladimir stated before he turned around and then added, "Enjoy your prize money, Swift."

When he left, hip-hop music boomed from someone"s car and the atmosphere around them suddenly became lively.

"I swear, that man gives me the creeps," Lucas commented, draping his arm over Daniel"s shoulder.

"Yeah, there"s a dangerous air around him. Where have I heard a name like that before?" Kevin wondered.

With a smirk on his face, Daniel joked, "Maybe he was one of your one night stands and you just forgot about him. Don"t you like danger?"

Kevin"s head snapped towards Daniel and his eyes widened in shock, "Hey! I am not gay okay! I like s.e.xy women and not men! No offense, Joe." He looked at Joe on the side, worried that he had offended him since everyone knew that Joe was gay.

"None taken, kid," Joe responded casually. "I doubt gays would like you anyway." He added before walking away and laughed.

Looking at each other, Daniel and Lucas covered their mouths and teased.

"Ooh, snap!"

"Burn!"

Kevin playfully pushed Lucas, "Shut up! If you have not known yet, my handsome face is very in demand for both women and men! Tch." He retorted like a child.

Daniel and Lucas laughed at his antics all night. And just like always, the three of them had fun with their other friends until the sun had risen.

…

A few days later, Daniel, Lucas, and Kevin hung out in a storage room at the warehouse as usual. Kevin lounged on the sofa with his injured leg that is wrapped with a bandage on top of the table.

On one of their arrangements the day before, another group had ambushed them and his right leg got shot. They did not know who was behind it yet but because of their business, things like these happen from time to time so it was not really surprising.

Daniel and Lucas, on the other hand, had been sparring for thirty minutes — both of them delivering blows to each other.

Daniel and his brother Liam were actually trained since they were kids in Jiu Jitsu until Daniel stopped in middle school because he wanted to switch to Muay Thai. But after graduating from high school, he had stopped learning altogether since he flew to another country and went to college.

"Aaah!" Lucas slammed his palm on the floor repeatedly after Daniel twisted his friend"s arm in between his legs. Daniel released him right away before he got off the ground and helped Lucas up.

"d.a.m.n it!" Lucas hissed.

Kevin burst into a fit of laughter watching his younger cousin got beaten up by their friend. "Seriously, man. What have you been doing all these years?"

"He"s been dating. That"s what!" Daniel teased, recalling how Lucas ended up in Country A because he ran away from home after his dad did not approve of his then-girlfriend.

Lucas shook his head and panted, "I swear I will no longer-"

*BAM!!!*

The door of the room opened and Sharp Sean came das.h.i.+ng inside, startling the three men in the room.

"Sean?" Daniel called, at the same time noticing the commotion happening outside of the room, making his eyes grew wide in horror. "What is going on?"

"What are you three doing here?! We"re being under attack!" Just as Sean responded, a series of cras.h.i.+ng and wood breaking noises were heard just outside of their room.

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

All four of them ducked in unison as shouts and screams were heard followed by gunshots — bullets flying in all directions, hitting walls, metals, and crates everywhere

With their hearts instantly racing, the four of them looked at each other as though they were questioning one another what they should do. Lucas scrambled on his feet and quickly helped Kevin off the sofa.

"Who are they?!" Lucas asked, placing Kevin"s arm over his neck to help him up.

"Yanovich," Sean answered as he peered outside of the room, trying to see if it was possible for them to escape.

Kevin slowly stood up and walked with Lucas towards the door while cursing all throughout as his leg was hurting every time they moved.

Daniel"s brows furrowed upon hearing the name, "Who"s Yanovich?" He had heard of the name once while Uncle Eddie and Lucas were talking before but he did not really pay attention.

They had just gotten outside of the room when Sean screamed, "Get down!"

By instinct, all of them got down avoiding the gunshots that were rained on them soon after.

"How do we get out of here?" Daniel yelled out loudly over the noise but it was just impossible to move during that time.

The gunshots that were fired at them suddenly stopped and all of them thought that it was their chance to escape. Nodding at each other, Sean and Daniel started getting up from the ground.

Just then, a medium-sized metal sphere fell on the floor just in front of them, catching their attention. Looking perplexed, they did not know what it was until the metal clicked and yellow smoke came out of it.

"Don"t inhale it! Cover your nose!" Kevin yelled and all four of them tried every means to cover their noses using their hands and s.h.i.+rt.

They got up and started moving again towards the exit. However, to their surprise, the warehouse was already filled with yellow smoke. A man wearing a gas mask appeared in front of Sean and tried to tackle him down but Daniel immediately responded to his aid, grabbing the masked man by the arm and flinging him to the side — the man was sent cras.h.i.+ng onto the crates.

Unknowingly, Daniel had already inhaled the smoke, causing his sight to go hazy. He could no longer see clearly as he tried to walk towards where Sean was but before he could even get to him, his vision turned dark — his body swayed to the side and he fell on the hard floor.

...

"Wake up!" A man said as he splashed icy water onto Daniel.

Feeling the hard slap of cold water on his face, Daniel was immediately woken up. Squinting his eyes to see in front of him, he blinked a few times before he was able to fully see the man"s face in front of him. He didn"t know who the man was as it was the first time that he had seen him.

A throbbing headache made Daniel groan in pain. He wanted to touch his head but was stunned to realize that he could not move his hands.

Lowering his head, that"s when he saw that he was all tied up on a pole.