Olivia knew exactly what it ant, and that was exactly why her whole body was shaking, not only her hands but her arms, her legs, even her breathing beca uneven.
She had heard about it before, from the streets, from people who shared stories about Jas and how he liked to flip a coin, how he would let that small, simple object decide the fate of those who stood in his way, as if their lives ant nothing. They said he treated it like a ga, that he enjoyed it, that he found so kind of pleasure in leaving everything to chance, and Olivia had listened to those stories many tis.
But she had never truly believed them.
It never made sense to her. A man like Jas, soone young yet so powerful, soone with influence, with control, with people under him who would do anything he said, why would he rely on sothing like this?
Why would he enjoy flipping a coin and letting it decide sothing so serious, sothing so final? What kind of mind wuld find enjoynt in that?
It sounded unreal, like sothing people made up to make him seem more frightening than he already was.
And yet now, she could see that everything she had heard was true.
Jas held the coin in his palm that represented her life, her fate.
And he was waiting.
Waiting for her to say it out loud, to choose a side, to decide which face of the coin she would place her life on, and that silence between them made it more absurd. He was not rushing her, not forcing her, not even speaking, and that made it worse.
It just pushed the idea even more that this was about her and she understood it. She knew what kind of man stood in front of her, and she knew that this was not a joke, not a rumor, not a story from the streets anymore.
This was happening. Her life was being placed on a coin.
And in that mont, everything she had done ca back to her, every step that led her here, every choice she made, every mistake, every desperate action, all the things she did just to get here, just to beg for money, just to try and save people, and now all of that had brought her to this exact point.
To be in front of Jas, staring at a coin in his hand, knowing that sothing so small was about to decide everything.
And the worst part about all of it was that Jas was not smiling.
If he had been smiling, even just a little, Olivia could have told herself that this was so kind of act, that he was only playing, only trying to intimidate her. A smile would have ant sothing human, sothing readable, sothing she could hold on to and understand.
But there was nothing.
No smile, no anger, no excitent, not even boredom. His face was completely empty as he looked at her, simply waiting for her to pick a side, waiting for her to choose which one she would trust with her life.
"You’re scared, right?" Jas asked as he flipped the coin. "But there’s no reason to be scared."
"No... reason?" Olivia repeated, because in her mind there were a thousand reasons to be scared, a thousand reasons screaming at him.
"I an, you ca all the way here, into my kitchen," Jas continued. "So why would you be scared now? You got past ard guards, past dogs, so why would you be scared at this mont?"
There was logic in what he said Olivia knew.
She really had done sothing insane to get here. She moved like a fucking ninja slipping past guards who would have shot her the mont they saw her. That should have been the most dangerous part. At least, that was how Jas saw it.
But for Olivia, it was completely different.
For her, this was the true danger.
This mont, being in front of him, had been the most terrifying part from the very beginning, because she already knew, even before stepping inside, what kind of person she was going to face.
But one thing she knew for sure from the very beginning. That sothing inside him is not right, that there is no way his mind works like a normal person’s mind.
She knew she was going to talk to soone unstable,and now it was all playing out right in front of her eyes.
Because the fact that Jas was standing there, flipping a coin, treating this like a ga, pointed to sothing deeper.
Power.
The kind of power where he could decide who lived and who died with a single coin flip, and nothing would happen to him, no one would stop him, no one would question him. The kind of power that allowed him to play with life as if it had no value, as if it was just another choice he could make without consequences.
"Pick one, darling. You have been silent for a while," Jas voice ca, pulling her out of her thoughts.
"T-Tails." She said, her voice shaking and her eyes only just on the coin; she did not even look into Jas’s eyes.
"Good pick." His voice ca and after that he flipped it up into the air all the way up to the ceiling and caught it. But then, after looking at it, he reached his arm out to Olivia. "See it yourself." He said and let the coin fall into her palm and there it was. "What is it?" Jas asked even though he was seeing it himself.
"T-tails.."
"Now look at the other side."
She flipped the coin in calmness with a single shake. "Tails..." she said.
"You know, I am a cheater." Jas said with a giggle as the echoing filled her ears. "Usually I have a coin where I can change the sides, so when people pick their sides they pick their own deaths, but today is your luck. Because this coin stopped working. Maybe so dust or a little rock got into the chanism and didn’t flip the side to tails."
As Jas was explaining it, her heart was racing so much that she felt like it was going to jump out, like she was going to die from a heartbeat rather than a bullet. Like what the fuck, she had almost died and this guy was explaining why the coin didn’t work, but at least she won.
Maybe it was too much... Jas thought, because the coin was working, but he needed to intimidate her. There was no way he was going to let her go after walking in like she owned the fucking place
But now she was looking like a fucking corpse.
"Jas, are you here...." Another voice ca and it was a surprise to say the least.
"Sophia?" Jas asked as he looked at her. "I haven’t seen you in a long ti. Where have you been?"
"I have been busy." She said with a smile. "But who is she?" She asked, looking at Olivia.
"A business partner." Jas said, which for so reason Olivia nodded to. "And she is about to leave." He looked at her. "I will escort you out. I will be back, Sophia, so we can talk because you were truly away for such a long ti."
"Yeah, I want to talk too." Sophia said, but sothing was different about her. She looked completely fine, but the way she acted was different. She wasn’t all pumped up, ready to make love.
But before they went outside, Jas checked his phone because it was buzzing like crazy, and when he looked, it was Linda.
She had called him more than twenty tis.
"Wait," he said as he looked at Olivia. "I need to make a call. Sit back down until then." Jas said, and called Linda back. The phone was ringing and ringing for seconds, and then she picked up. "Why are you blowing up my phone—"
"Jas!" Linda’s voice ca as she shouted into the phone. "Sophia!" she shouted again. "She is there to—"
The only thing Linda heard was gunshots ringing out.
What she heard was death.
The death of a Bellini.
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