The Kingpin's Possession

45: Not the End

Kit:Gently, both Kit and Kim helped Kanya get settled inside the car, ready to go home. Kit followed shortly into the seat next to her, but just as P’Kim opened the passenger door, his phone rang.

He answered the call a few steps away from the car, just out of earshot. Kit was curious; P’Kim didn’t shout, nor did he look angry, but the call looked intense. When he walked back to the car, he closed the waiting passenger door and said to Kit and Kanya, “I have to go somewhere else. There has been an emergency.”

Emergency? This worried Kit, especially after what they had been talking about earlier. “What happened?” he asked P’Kim, even though he had said earlier that he didn’t want to get involved with his business.

Kit thought P’Kim would at least give some context as assurance, but all he said was, “It’s work-related.” He wanted to ask more, but seeing as P’Kim’s eyebrows were starting to furrow tightly again, he decided to drop it.

And so the leader of the Ayutthaya clan left in another car, going a different direction, as Kit and Kanya went the other way, heading home with P’Aawut behind the wheel at P’Kim’s instruction to escort the siblings.

To keep his mind from wandering in worry, Kit asked, “PhiP’Kanya didn’t hesitate to answer, “I feel really strange, but even that word isn’t enough to explain how I feel, knowing that I’m about to be a mother.” She sighed deeply. “It wasn’t something that I had thought of before, having a child…but now, it seems like that impossible dream is about to become a reality.”

Kit didn’t know what to say to that, so he asked instead, “Well, do you want a boy or a girl?”

This put Kanya into deep thought. She seemed to reflect on the question for a while until she finally spoke, “The sperms were actually already preselected to be males, so even if I had my preferences, I wouldn’t actually have a choice on the matter.” She looked wistful, almost sad, but it was gone so quickly that Kit thought he must have imagined it. “But if it had been up to me, I would want a girl, so I could name her Jorin.”

“After our mother,” Kit realized.

Kanya smiled; it was a tender one. “Yes. Exactly.”

Kit returned it. “Maybe someday, you just might end up having a child of your own. A girl, just like you wanted.”

“Yeah,” Kanya said, but her smile had faded a bit. “Maybe someday.”

Suddenly, the car jerked, cutting their conversation short. It was followed by some weird noises, like a tinny blast of some sort, or a muffled clang. P’Aawut hit the brakes quickly, and only their seatbelts kept them from falling off their seats. Instinctively, Kit’s hand went to hold P’Kanya’s arm. She looked alarmed as she pressed her hand over her stomach, even though she wasn’t pregnant yet.

For her sake, Kit tried not to sound panicked as he asked P’Aawut, “What’s going on? What was that noise and why did we stop?”

P’Aawut met Kit’s eye through the rearview mirror. “Someone just shot at the car.”

“What?!” This time, Kit couldn’t hide his agitation. P’Kanya jumped at the loudness of his voice. She didn’t say anything, but Kit could tell that she, too, was afraid from the way that she also clutched Kit’s arm. Her fingers felt cold on his skin.

“Do you have any idea why someone would do this? Why are we still parked, P’Aawut?” He asked P’Aawut. If he was behind the wheel, he would have driven away from this place by now. “What should we do?”

“Don’t worry; this car is bulletproof,” P’Aawut assured them. “Still… let’s not take any chances. Get down to the ground, and I’ll get us out of here.”

The siblings didn’t need to be told twice. Quickly, they got out of their seatbelts and hit the floor so they were just beneath the windows. At that, Aawut stepped on the gas, and by the roar of the engine, Kit felt the car accelerate to speeds he would not have dared go to even with his life being threatened.

He was grateful that he couldn’t see through the window, otherwise he probably would have thrown up from nausea. Still, it all seemed like nothing to Aawut, who even managed to glance at the rearview mirror again and noted calmly, “A black car is following us. Strange; I don’t see a license plate on it.”

“Are we heading straight home immediately? If they’re following us now, they might follow us home too!” Kit exclaimed, though now he took care not to startle P’Kanya again.

“I already thought of that,” said Aawut. “I’ll lose them first before I drive you home. You two better hold on tightly.”

As Aawut drove them around, taking sharp sudden turns to try and shake the other car off their trail, Kit was once again grateful that he couldn’t seeAbout how dangerous the world of the mafia was.

After a couple more turns, P’Aawut seemed satisfied that they were no longer being followed and said, “Coast is clear. You can get back up now.”

Kit and Kanya exchanged looks, before slowly popping their heads back up, peeking through the window. Sensing that the danger was indeed over, Kit helped P’Kanya onto her seat, fastening the belt, before securing his own.

He put a hand over his chest, trying to calm himself down, as P’Aawut maintained a steady speed back to the Ayutthaya mansion.

Once he saw the familiar road and scenery on the way home, he immediately felt safer, and by the time P’Aawut stopped the car on the driveway and escorted them to the front door, he no longer felt panic, only a throbbing urgency—the feeling that he had just gotten out of a sudden brush with death.

Kit gently guided his sister inside first, then turned to see if P’Aawut was following them, only to see him jog back toward the car. “DiaoPhi“I’m going back,” he said without a trace of fear in his voice. “I need to find out who dared to shoot at our Don’s car.” With that, he slid into the driver’s seat and revved the engine.

Kit watched him drive away, and when he turned the corner, out of sight, P’Kim’s people escorted them further inside the mansion with friendly smiles and inviting nods of their heads. He knew he and his sister were in good hands here. They were safe within the Ayutthaya territory.

Still… he couldn’t help but feel like this wasn’t the end, but rather only the beginning of some kind of dangerous game.