Chapter 677: The Real World

Nael was shocked by Ami's behavior. She had wrapped her arms around him, begging him to 'let it go' but he could not. She said that he was confusing her, but that was not what he was trying to do. Her entire life, she had been taught that kindness follows those who deserve it, but in the real world, that did not always happen. She was crying for someone who would have killed her many times over, and if Nael had not used a slide of hand when he was loading the gun, Ami would have been dead.

Gently pushing the woman away from him, Nael rested his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. They were filled with tears, and her pouty lips quivered at random intervals.

"Ami, if you continue to let people disrespect you, they will overstep their boundaries and eventually you will be killed," he cautioned.

Once again, Nael handed the gun to Ami, telling her to shoot the man in the middle. She lifted the weapon in her hand, which had begun to shake. It was obvious that she did not want to shoot him, and she probably did not want to accidentally hit the people sitting near him.

"This is confusing me," she said in a shaky voice. "I can't... This isn't like me," she continued.

Nael took the gun from her and without hesitation, he shot his 'friend' in the thigh. He then approached the man and kneeled directly on the bullet wound. The injured man screamed as Nael put pressure on his fresh injury, and he growled his warning into the man's face. Mina found herself hyperventilating at the scene; her mind had gone back to the time she was shot.

"The woman you were just talking about is my friend. If you disrespect her, you disrespect me." With a final shove against the man's injured leg, Nael pulled Ami out of the range. She could not believe he shot one of his 'friends' for her, but he did, and in some ways she was grateful.

Leal was close behind them and when they climbed into the car, it took Mina a long time to catch her breath. The men were silent as they allowed her to cope with what had just transpired, and it was then that she noticed she was absentmindedly rubbing at her thigh. She wondered if the man would live, especially since she had a similar injury and from what she was told, she was minutes away from death.

Many nights, even before her relationship with President Lee crossed over from friendly to intimate, she found herself tracing the scar that was left behind. Doctor Witt was truly an interesting man, and when he redid her stitches, he did so in a heart shape that made the resulting scar look more like a tattoo.

Mina remembered the first time President Lee noticed the shape; he had gotten angry about it and wanting to make the man feel better, she told him that the scar only reminded her of him, which at the time was true. Now, it just made her feel stupid weak and vulnerable and she wondered if all of it were a ploy to keep her in his bed.

"Why are you rubbing your leg like that?" Leal asked, and Mina tightly folded her hands in her lap to stop herself from doing it. "I already saw you. Are you hurt somewhere?"

"It's an old injury," Mina replied, hoping the man would drop it.

"What happened?" Nael asked. He had caught the uncomfortable expression on Ami's face through the rearview mirror, so he figured it had something to do with whatever man had broken her.

"I was shot," Mina admitted. "It was one of Sasha Ivanov's cousins." Leal turned to stare at Mina, who he felt was hiding a lot more than they realized.

"Why would he want to shoot you?" he questioned.

"I kind of robbed him," she replied. "Not criminally," she quickly added. "I just eavesdropped on his conversation with his business partner. In my defense, they were trying to rob my friend first."

"And that's why Sasha sent someone to shoot you?"

"Well…"

"Ami," Nael said in a warning tone. "What did you do?"

"I kind of lost him millions of dollars."

"Did that happen about three years ago?" Leal questioned, and when she denied it, both men burst into laughter, startling Mina, who was not expecting the reaction.

"Good for that son of a b*tch," Nael replied. "He owes us millions." Mina had been distracted by the conversation, but her mind went back to the man Nael shot when the brothers stopped mocking Sasha Ivanov.

"Will he be alright?" She asked. The man had been left behind without medical aid, and she knew that was probably a death sentence if the other men did not care enough to get him to a hospital.

"Don't know, and don't really care," Nael replied. He was driving, which was new for her, and the returned scowl on his face told her that he was still very upset about what transpired.

"I'm sorry," Mina said, not expecting the rebuke it brought on her.

"You should be sorry Ami. All of that could have been avoided if you would have just pulled the trigger. There were no bullets in the gun. The lesson was meant to be for him, but you turned it into one for yourself." Mina blanched. Her mouth hung open and in a moment of pure boldness, she refused to have the man blame her for a problem he caused.

"You know what else could have stopped that from happening?" She asked sarcastically. "If you would have treated me with respect in the first place; not call me Scarface, the b-word, ugly, fat and whatever other nasty little nicknames you've come up with for me." Leal chuckled, turning around to high five the woman who was in the backseat.

"You find that sh*t funny?" Nael asked his brother, who just shrugged.

"I never liked any of them. I only stuck around today because the last time Ami went shooting with you, I had to become a nurse." Nael gasped incredulously. He had helped his brother care for Ami when he realized she was not acting, and when he was not there physically, he was off doing the things that Leal would usually do.

"What is this? Gang-up-on-the-older-brother day?" Mina found herself snorting and Nael tossed a half empty bottle of water in the backseat. It hit her, but it did not hurt, and she knew it was in gest. "I need new clothes; these were the last pair of good jeans I had," the man suddenly added, and Leal directed him on where to stop.

After changing and burning the blood-soaked jeans, Nael suggested that they eat at one of his favorite spots, but Mina could see from Leal's expression that he did not think it was a good idea. He told his brother that the atmosphere was too rough for her. She knew what that meant because Mills had been worried about the same thing after they had gotten in trouble in Bal.

Eventually, Leal was overruled by Nael, who promised to keep Ami safe, and the trio started to walk toward the area where the restaurant could be found. It was in one of those locations that was so off the main road that cars could not get to it, and only men like them patronized the place that 'never saw anything' and 'didn't ask questions.'

As soon as Mina entered the place, she felt uncomfortable, but no one looked at her for more than a second. Almost immediately, two women were cuddling up to Nael, who chuckled lustfully as they pulled him toward a back room.

Mina found herself shaking her head at the man, who had more women than President Lee. She knew that a lot of the men Leal and Nael associated with were extremely free with their bodies, and from the brothers own accounts their father had many children because of similar behavior. She wondered if Nael had any of his own children, but Leal told her that his brother was so against the idea of having kids that he had personally taken women to terminate pregnancies that had even the slightest chance of being his.

"Isn't that cruel?" Mina asked, poking around at the dish they were served without ordering. The place had only two menu items, chicken, or fish, and they were all out of chicken.

"I guess, but the women he's with really don't have much going for themselves. A lot of them lose their children to traffickers, and none of them care." Leal was not actually being truthful with Ami, but the story was Nael's to tell, not his. There was a woman who wanted to keep her baby, but Nael shot her in the stomach, and pushed her into the ocean. After that, no one tried to force him to be a parent.

"But if you know they are losing the children, why not help?" Leal raised a brow at the woman. He knew she was naïve in her way of thinking, but she was not dumb; she had to know the answer.

"You traffic people, don't you?"

"Not in that way," Leal corrected. "We used to help smuggle people around, but we don't ask questions, so we aren't sure who's running away for freedom or who-" Mina stood, interrupting the man, whose words were starting to make her feel sick. "Ami, please calm down. Leal and I left that business years ago. We didn't realize the damage it was causing until we met Shani."

"What happened to her?" Mina asked, once again sitting in her chair.

"I shouldn't be telling you this, but she didn't board our ship willingly. She's pretty, so Nael took a liking to her, and when she was brought to his room, she told him that she had actually been sold by her father."

"Like your mother?" Mina added and Leal nodded.

"At least she was already twenty," he said, taking a sip of a drink that Mina knew was alcoholic.

"Is your father still around?" Mina did not mean to ask, but she had been wanting to know for a long time.

"Unfortunately. We want to kill him, but he has the gun Nael used to kill our mother and in Pan-"

"There is no statute on murder," Nael pointed at the woman, who had finished his sentence correctly.

"Is he blackmailing you?"

"In a way. The ship we are on belongs to him, so we have to give him a percentage of our earnings."

Mina could sense that the conversation had entered a place that Leal did not want to visit, so she dropped it, but she was in no mood to touch her food. Soon Nael returned to the table, and after dropping a few notes on its surface, he gestured for them to leave. Mina now understood why the restaurant was his favorite and it had nothing to do with food. Her mind wandered, and she ended up trailing behind the men, but it put her in the perfect position to see someone sneaking up behind them.

"Watch out!" she shouted, just as a piece of wood connected with Nael's head, and a pipe knocked the gun out of Leal's hand. She sprinted to the men, who were grappling on the floor.

Nael was closest, and her eyes caught the glint of Leal's gun, which had been knocked away. She slowly walked over to it, happy that the attackers were ignoring her as insignificant, and using the method the man showed her, Mina lifted the gun in her hands and pulled the trigger. Nael struggled to push the clearly dead man off his body, while Mina aimed at the other assailant. She squeezed, and once again, someone lost their life.