(Obi and Kot sealed a high-stakes deal with billionaire Yasir Amadi, a contract that promised luxury, control, and access to his global empire of pleasure. Yet beneath the glamour lurked conditions unspoken: exclusivity, secrecy, and a dangerous proximity to Darce, Amadi’s fiancée. What began as an opportunity soon smelled of entrapment, setting the stage for betrayals that neither partner could yet name.)

The future is such an enigma, and no one, no one can solve it.

Leaving the sit-down to catch my flight back to Nairobi, I felt eerily calm. The usual fire wasn’t burning inside, nor the trepidation I abhorred when I first learnt of Amadi’s interest in our ventures, a day after my first encounter with Darce, Amadi’s fiancé.

I knew I should have a sense of foreboding, but much as I sought, it felt like my sixth sense had let go; I felt nothing, just calm! Where were the trapdoors?

“Funny!” I mumbled.

“What?” Kot asked, taking his eyes off the road briefly.

“I said ‘funny’.”

“What is funny? That we may have just closed the deal of our careers, or that your romp with Darce may just go unnoticed. You know he will string you if he finds out, don’t you?”

“What is the deal with Darce?” I asked.

Kot shrugged.

“I mean, seriously, what is the deal with that lady?”

“Oh Obi Obi Obi, you really don’t see it, do you?”

“What is the story?” I asked pointedly.

“Alright, no need to get all riled up. The ‘soon-to-be five continents’ are hinged on the couple's nuptials, which I believe will be next weekend. Yasir and Darce's marriage is a merger of two empires. When it happens, the combined groups will own the largest hotel chains, East of the Meridian, with a portfolio nearing 100 billion dollars, not to mention other ventures in energy and precious stones.”

“I thought we were in the 21st century!” I exclaimed.

“Darce thinks so, too. And there is talk that when she learnt of the deal between their families, she was livid and threatened to break the engagement.”

“Why didn’t she?”

“Well, that’s the mystery. They must have found a compromise, I don’t know,” Kot answered.

“Or maybe, she’s just biding her time.”

“I guess we’ll see, now that we’re in the fold,” he replied, resigned to silence.

“Could we have jumped into a brewing storm, Kot?”

He didn’t seem to have heard me. Just kept his eyes on the road and drove on.

“Or maybe there lies our problem. We are suckers for chaos. Our very business is to tread the fine line between perversions and pleasure; we sup on risks by playing with matches in a straw house. This may just be perfect!” I sighed.

“What is your gut telling you?”

“My gut is calm.”

“Doesn’t that make you a psychopath?” He looked at me incredulously before saying, “Honestly, I’m scared,” he confessed. “Besides the loads of money this deal promises, I can’t help but suspect it’ll be accompanied by a fair share of headaches and fallouts, such that we’ve never had before. But we’re doing this, regardless,” he added.

After a minute of silence, I asked, “How did you learn about me and Darce, and what makes you so confident nobody else did?”

“I put one of my mutes to shadow you throughout the party,” he replied with a smirk.

“I thought we agreed that you won’t do that again after the debacle at 40 Thieves?” I demanded, feeling heat churning in the pits of my stomach.

“Honestly, after what happened, I knew I couldn’t leave you unattended in any of our debaucheries,” Kot said defensively.

“That’s not gentlemanly.”

“I know. I also know the kind of man you are, Obi.”

“So, you say,” I replied curtly.

“Better safe than sorry, brejin!”

As I checked in, memories of the fiasco at 40 Thieves came back. As much as I hated it, Kot was doing right by me by employing his mutes to shadow me. The assistants weren’t mute, but we called them so because they spoke, not one word of what they witnessed at our parties.

On that fateful day, I woke up at the beach just as the morning tide was coming in, bloody to my elbows on each hand, wearing a black leather kilt, knee-high leather boots, and a leather chest harness on my bare back.

Couldn’t remember what had happened the night before, after 48 hours of partying, until Kot filled me in, when one of the mutes dragged me in, barely able to stand upright.