FEROX FOREVER 1: Nothing Sinful ✓

Kabanata 02

Veric

The little shit couldn't stop crying. His cries could wake the dead and there was nothing I could do to shut him up.

Bringing the kid to the playground had been Hexon's idea. And lo and behold, it didn't change a fucking thing. The kid was still a bundle of agonizing mess.

"I wish I could smother him," I muttered through clenched teeth.

"Sleeping pills, sir?"

Inirapan ko si Hexon. "Do you think a fucking baby could take that crap?"

Hexon shook his head in disagreement. "Just pointing out that we've been sitting here for hours, boss. And he's been crying for hours. Baka magreklamo yung mga tao."

I cursed under my breath. Hexon was right. We'd been here for hours and we'd just recently come off from a long flight from Italy.

Fuck this.

I closed my eyes and tried to drown out the kid's endless crying. I'd thought for a second there that the kid would jumped at the opportunity to climb up the plastic slide to entertain himself the moment we'd gotten here. But no. The little fuck just dropped at the floor and screamed his lungs out as if the whole world was ending.

Good thing Hexon had sedated him during the flight or else I might've had shot myself if the kid had been crying for the last twenty-three hours and fourteen minutes from Sicily to Manila. Too bad I couldn't order Hexon to sedate him again. The kid wasn't an animal after all.

"Boss. We have company."

At that, my eyes snapped open.

A woman. Dressed in the most horrendous white medical uniform that didn't even fit her waist. It was too loose for her that made her looked like a puffing marshmallow sitting near a bonfire.

Goddamn, she needs a tailor.

In my confusion, she was approaching the kid as if she was just discovering the most sensitive and wild baby deer in forest, and that one wrong move, she might scare the kid away.

From her vantage point, she couldn't see Hexon and I due to poor lighting in the playground, and us sitting on a bench where the light from the lamppost couldn't reach.

Hindi ko alam kung saan nanggaling yung dalagita at kung bakit niya nilalapitan yung bata. She could have just turn away and ignore him. Malay mo, maligno pala yung nasa harap niya at inaakit lang siya nito.

"She's getting closer to Cal, boss," Hexon told me in a hushed voice.

"Tell me what I don't already know," bato ko naman.

"Should I stop her?"

Bago ko pa man sabihin na oo, the kid was already in the woman's arms, cooing him to stop crying. A few pats on the back. Gentle slides of her palm over the kid's head. Somehow, she was able to lessen the kid's crying and all that was left was his chocking sobs against the slot between her neck and shoulder.

Now my ears can rest.

"Wait," sabi ko kay Hexon na dahan-dahang 'nilalabas yung baril mula sa holster belt nito. "Let her."

I watched the woman cradling the kid, and staring at her from the darkness gave me the chance to study her uncannily familiar face.

"Cal couldn't stop calling her 'Mama'," Hexon pointed out. "Do you think because of her face, because, boss, she looks a lot like--"

I raised a finger to make him stop talking. I was still assessing the girl.

She was young, but the way she held the kid told me it wasn't her first time taking care of a child. Maybe she had a nephew the same age as Vanessa's son. Her black hair matched the kid's, and her skin was a few shades darker than brown.