  "Glad to have you join us, Mr. Baldwin," Nico smiled as John stepped into the large room.
      The place was filled with men, a round table in their centre. With Nico at the head, it looked a model of the Round Table of King Arthur and his Knights except that John didn't think someone as cunning, wicked and dangerous as Nico could fit into the role of the legendary king. There was an empty seat near the bottom of the table and John went for it, but Nico shook his head in disapproval and indicated a seat to his left that was also empty.
      "Henry, when he was with us, used to occupy this seat," he clarified with a stiff smile.
      John quietly walked over and seated himself at Nico's left. To his chagrin, it was actually Jack Bronco that occupied the seat to Nico's right. As he looked to confirm his identity, Jack glared back at him, but John slowly averted his face with a slight 

  It was quite unusual. Nico didn't go for his usual run on this particular morning and John found it odd. He didn't know if others noticed it too, but he had made up his mind to try and find out. Perhaps the man was sick, he thought. As he made his way as casually as possible toward the parlour to make his investigation, he ran into James who was just coming from the parlour itself.
      "Hey Johnny, saved me some trouble. Was just going to sniff you out. Go on, the boss wants you."
      "You know why?", John asked.
      "Not really. Don't know, don't care."
      "Thought he was sick or something," John mumbled.
      "Sick?", James chuckled. "Now that'll be a miracle. I think the new Sheriff has gotten the boss quite angry."
      "New Sheriff?"
      "Haven't heard, have you? There's a new Sheriff in town threatening to bring down fire on everyone causing trouble in the town. Woul

  Not very happy and particularly disappointed by Nico's refusal of his having an apartment of his own, John decided to make the trip to Mina's shop to let her know the current situation of things. They were much closer now than ever before. Fewer words were spoken, but they both understood each other perfectly well. They communicated in smiles, looks and kisses. No more formalities to bore them and waste time. They concurred with one another without much argument and things were looking very rosy.
      He needed to communicate this new piece of information to her as soon as possible, so that in case she had any contrary plans, she could put them to a halt in time. And more importantly, he wanted to see her face again.
      As he approached the store, he could hear Mina half shouting. He imagined she was quarreling again with her father. He couldn't hear the man's voice, but still, he decided to brave it and go into the shop to introduce himself to him. Whatever he had to say to him should be directed at him, to his face, not behind his back at poor Mina.
      Stepping boldly into the shop, he was forced to stop short and was quite undecided on what next to do. The sight that met his eyes was completely unexpected and he stood rooted to the spot in shock. One of Nico's lieutenants was in the shop, his arm wrapped around Mina's shoulders. The man immediately recognized him and shot him an angry scowl, but Mina, brushing his arm away, quickly rushed to John and embraced him heartily.
      "How are you, John?", she asked, all smiles. "I'm very glad to see you!"
      John was still trying to formulate a reply when suddenly, Nico's man stepped forward and held Mina by her waist. She quickly wriggled out of his touch and pushed his arm away.
      "Please," she half shouted, her eyes flashing in anger. "I want you to leave me... now! I am very busy. You drive customers away."
      "I... I'm sorry if I'm interrupting anything," John broke in.
      "What!", Mina shouted in surprise, turning angrily to him.
      "I uh... just wanted to give you a little information is all. I didn't really mean to interrupt."
      Mina closed her eyes for a second and inhaled slowly. Her lips were set into a hard line. When she opened her eyes, they were more like flaming orbs. She wheeled sharply around to face Nico's lieutenant again.
      "Leave now! This minute! Please!"
      The man mumbled something about 'seeing later' which was directed more at John than at Mina and then he swaggered out of the shop, making sure to fix John with an angry glare which John didn't bother to respond to.
      After his exit, there was total silence in the shop. Mina was still in the same position: her back to John and her hands on her waist.
      "Mina, I'm ..."
      "Get out," she whispered.
      "What?", John asked, perplexed.
      "Get out, I said. Now!"
      He promptly turned around and stormed off in the deepest of gloomy moods. He knew he had upset her, but his pride was hurt too. Yet, he was worried that given the manner in which she had thrown him out, she might never want to have anything more to do with him ever again. Naturally, he turned his anger on Nico's man. He was not usually the vengeful type, but he very much wished to get even with that bastard. He was the root cause of all this.
      John marched angrily into the villa, but he had barely gone past the gate when James, the ever present cigarette between his lips, stopped him suddenly.
      "Hey man, slow down. Where are you going? To war?"
      "No. Umm... just tired."
      "Tired people don't walk the way you were walking, man."
      "People who love their lives don't smoke the way you're smoking," John retorted.
      "Oh ho ho," James laughed. "You got me there! So what's the problem, man? Someone screw with you? Tell me his name and we'll fucking fix some issues right away."
      Just then, Nico's man who was earlier at Mina's shop walked past the pair, glaring at John as he passed.
      "What's that dude's name?", John asked of James.
      "Him? You've got beef with him?"
      "No. Just wanna know his name. Looks familiar."
      "Why, that's Jack Bronco, man. Crazy bunkhead that dude. Know him somewhere?"
      "Nah. Thought I did. Quite a mistake. Look, I gotta run. See you around."
      "Okay, man. Take care."
      With a friendly punch to the shoulder, John left his friend and jogged off to his room. He was in a more excited state than usual and he needed rest to cool off before he'd do something he'd later regret.
      *****
      John had been in bed for over an hour, but still, he could not close his eyes. He kept tossing and turning, stuffing pillows and sleeping in all sorts of positions, but all were unsatisfactory. Finally, he settled for focusing on the ceiling overhead. He was angry with himself and Jack Bronco too. Together, they had both blown their chances with Mina, but he took particular delight in recollecting the way she had treated Jack. She didn't spare any effort in letting him know that he was not wanted. That was quite a little consolation for his sorrow, but it didn't reduce his hate for the man. Instead, he carefully nursed that hate into a very large one. He ground his teeth and shook his fist angrily, thinking of how he would strangle him. Just then, his phone rang. It was Mina.
      He practically dived the phone and spent a moment to compose himself before answering. His heart was beating wildly as he put the device to his ear.
      "Hello," his voice sounded strange even to him, like a faraway cannon.
      "John, is that you?", Mina asked from the other end of the line.
      "Yeah, it's me."
      "You sound different."
      "I... uh I've been sleeping," he lied.
      "Oh... sorry. I will call again... another time."
      "No, no," John replied quickly, "I'm fully awake now."
      "Okay," she answered and paused.
      John could feel his heart still beating wildly and he could also hear her breathing.
      "Um... I wanted to say sorry for what happened," Mina said softly.
      "Well, um... ahem... I..."
      "I know I did wrong," she continued, ignoring his hesitation, "but I was angry. Will you forgive me?"
      "Um... yeah! Of course. I... I mean, I'm very sorry too for the way I acted. I just didn't want any trouble, I guess I acted like a coward."
      "No really," Mina laughed, calming John's heartrate. "You act like the gentleman and I act like the stupid lady. Why not come so we go have a drink and forget everything... maybe tomorrow or are you busy?"
      "No, no, not really. I believe I'm perfectly free. I'll see you tomorrow anytime you want."
      "Okay. Tomorrow evening. I love you, John."
      "I love you too, Mina."
      The line clicked off and John smiled at the phone before throwing it off in glee. He was so glad to be back again with Mina and he rejoiced at the failure of Jack Bronco. Feeling very excited and restless, he jumped off his bed, looking for something... anything to do. Suddenly, he remembered that he had been struggling earlier to get himself to sleep, so he jumped on the bed again and went to sleep with a satisfied smile on his face.

"Glad to have you join us, Mr. Baldwin," Nico smiled as John stepped into the large room.
      The place was filled with men, a round table in their centre. With Nico at the head, it looked a model of the Round Table of King Arthur and his Knights except that John didn't think someone as cunning, wicked and dangerous as Nico could fit into the role of the legendary king. There was an empty seat near the bottom of the table and John went for it, but Nico shook his head in disapproval and indicated a seat to his left that was also empty.
      "Henry, when he was with us, used to occupy this seat," he clarified with a stiff smile.
      John quietly walked over and seated himself at Nico's left. To his chagrin, it was actually Jack Bronco that occupied the seat to Nico's right. As he looked to confirm his identity, Jack glared back at him, but John slowly averted his face with a slight smile. Perhaps Jack had heard of his reunion with Mina. John was feeling high and mighty. He would 

Chapter Ten