Ms Animus Episode 4 by @Tomilola_coco #OctoberSpecial #MsAnimus

Tiwa hurriedly left the office. She was almost late for the little shopping Mrs Obisesan had invited her over for the night before.

When Dapo’s mother had asked for her to help with the shopping, she had been reluctant, wondering why it wasn’t Monica. But the woman had pleaded with her and knowing that she did not want to go home and brood on the most recent fate that had befallen her, she had accepted.

It also meant hanging around Dapo.

He offered so much comfort to her that even a few minutes with him was very much welcome.

************

He was staring at her from the kitchen window when she alighted from her car. His face softened and he watched her intently as she grabbed her bag and locked her door.

His mother watched him carefully from behind. She had made the right decision by trying to keep Tiwa close. Her son liked this woman and if her presence was the one thing that caused him to light up right now, then he would always have her close.

He turned and faced her. “Was it you that asked her to come here?”

She nodded.

“She is busy, mummy. She cannot just be coming here every-time.”

“I know. But you don’t seem to mind”

He didn’t say anything.

“You like her”

He ignored her and walked past her into the sitting room, in time for the doorbell to ring.

“I am a mother who wants her son to be happy. If Tiwa is the only one who would bring a smile to your face, then she would be a constant visitor in this house”

Dapo smiled and headed towards his room.

Mrs Obisesan opened the door and let Tiwa in.

“Good evening ma”

“How are you, my dear”

She offered Tiwa a seat and a cold drink. Then she feigned a phone call and muttered an excuse about how she had to hurry to go and attend to an emergency and why Dapo could go with her.

Tiwa had no qualms with that.

Mrs Obisesan got her son to dress up and head out of the house with Tiwa in no time.

Tiwa had given him the keys to her Mercedes Benz CLA and he had driven them towards the nearest shoprite outlet. Tiwa played her song on the moment and put it on repeat.

Dapo fell in love with the song instantly.

And he listened to it all through the drive there. It was all he did and it was all she did.

None of them said a word.

**********

There was no way he was letting her pay for the things they bought. He had paid with the money he had with him. Part of the money one of his Uncles had sent to him from the states when he got out of Prison.

“Do you always do that?”

“I told you I always take care of my women”

Tiwa smiled, “I am not your woman”

“Not yet”

She chuckled.

“If I continue to feel this way and my mother keeps using every trick in the book to bring us together, then you would be”.

“You think she is doing this on purpose”

“She’s my mother, b. I know”

***********

They drove home in silence. Breezy being the only one doing his thing on the car stereo.

When he parked her car in front of his house, he faced her.

“What’s on your mind”

“I just keep wondering why life is so unfair sometimes. I mean that guy murdered my mother, everyone knows yet the stupid law set him free because he was proven to be innocent beyond reasonable doubts?”

“I guess”

“That is so unfair. Seeing the lunatic locked up was the only satisfaction my sister and I could get for a while and now that is gone. Now mummy is dead for nothing. I guess we would have to be happy with the road that was named after her and move on like nothing happened.”

“At least your mother got a road named after her. My friends got nothing, people barely remember them these days”

Tiwa sighed, “This country is fucked up”

“I know right.”

A few seconds passed and nothing was said. She suddenly faced him and said, “Have you ever thought of getting rid of someone who wronged you so bad? or maybe not get rid of them… maybe just do something to hurt them like they did something to hurt you”

“Yeah, all the time. I still dream about killing that imbecile that supervised the killing of my friends”.

“Chris Owambe”

“His excuse was that he was running for an office and he was giving the people what they wanted.” He scoffed, “And what the people wanted was my friends to be dead. I have never heard that type of stupidity tumble off someone’s lips before.”

The hatred was beginning to well up inside of him once again and this time it was stronger, “This country does not believe in justice. Nobody cares. And that was why I was so bitter in prison, because I knew the idiot would walk the streets free. Him and the others who killed those innocent boys”

Tiwa realized he was worked up, she placed a hand on his shoulder, “You need to purge the hatred. You have your life ahead of you. Don’t let this evil man snatch it away from you.”

He nodded. Somehow her hand on his shoulder was soothing him. Somehow it made him feel okay. Somehow it made him feel like it was just them two in the world. And somehow, the world paused for a moment.

The knock on the glass brought them back to reality. It was Monica.

“Mummy told me you both went somewhere together. I have been waiting for you since.” She said to Dapo. Actually, everything she said was to Dapo. She barely paid Tiwa any attention and Tiwa took it as her cue to leave.

“I will see you tomorrow.” Dapo said to Tiwa and Tiwa was not sure which one surprised her more, the fact that he was somehow dismissing her or that he wanted to see her the next day.

Whatever it was, she looked forward to seeing him again soon.

*********

Chris Owambe was a menace to the society and everybody who wronged him. He went to extreme lengths to make people pay for their sins towards him and for him, revenge was not a dish, it was a three course meal.

He served it really cold and in death.

When he had lobbied for the release of the hit man Dynamite, it was because of one single reason, he needed someone silenced.

He was eyeing the Governorship seat of his state and his plans had been going on perfectly well until the party decided to allow Gideon Smart run alongside him at the primaries.

He had been angry and he had tried to make sure this didn’t happen because he knew with Gideon, he stood no chance. Hell would freeze over before he won anything over Gideon.

But nobody had paid him any attention, the reason was not far fetched. He had wronged the party chairman and his goons and this was his punishment.

In fact, he needed more than one person silenced, he needed three people silenced and murdering people had never been a strange thing to him.

He had supervised the killing of four boys who were burnt alive some years back and had a few other people assassinated. It was not a new thing to him.

However, one of his boys had been caught recently and the boy had been ready to run his mouth in exchange for leniency. Chris had to seek for help and he had been linked up with Dynamite who had done the inside job of killing the boy.

And Dynamite had done it in exchange for his freedom.

And of course, knowing that he would need Dynamite’s skills to silence his enemies and then silence more enemies when he eventually became the Governor, he had agreed.

And that was why Dynamite was now a free man again. After he had murdered the late Kuburat Abiona, a renowned activist, feminist and politician.

Now he and Dynamite sat in a very private spot in a high class restaurant discussing his next set of jobs.

***********

Tiwa was in no mood to cook. Actually, she was in no mood to eat but her colleague at work who saw her break from Chima as an opening for him had been pleading with her to go on a date with him and she had acquiesced, mentally ignored the cooking plans she had and followed him to his father’s restaurant.

Because his father owned the place, they could waltz in, find a very private place to sit and she could spot the two people who made her scared the most; Dynamite and Chris Owambe across the room talking in very low tones.

She was very much relieved when the two men stood up readyto leave. What unnerved her however, was that Dynamite had an envelope, left several minutes before and Chris left later.

They were being discreet and It just made her feel uncomfortable, like something was about to go down.

***********

Something did go down. And it was an overweight Gideon Smart in his hotel room that night after he stepped out of the shower.

He had been gunned down in front of his mortified wife and son.

Tiwa read it in the morning paper as she stood in front of her desk that morning when she got to work.

And she was more than a hundred percent certain that this was Chris Owambe.

*********

Tiwa opened the door and let Dapo into her apartment. She had invited him over to dinner in her house and he had obliged. She changed into a pair of slacks and a low neck tank and dragged him to the kitchen with her.

Dapo took a seat at the dining table in the kitchen and wondered if there was any other woman on earth who made slacks look so sexy.

He grabbed a carrot and bit into it, eating while she made them spaghetti.

“Monica thinks you are a threat”

“I hope you told her I am not”

“But you are”

The way he talked without mincing words was a huge turn on, she had to admit it. He said what he felt and what he was thinking, no you turns, no time wasting, no curves.

“I really like you. You would be in my bed if I wasn’t trying to figure out what I want to do post prison and if I was’t giving you a little time to purge your ex out of your system”.

She smiled, remembering Chima. She had not remembered him in a while. It was no surprise, Dapo erased every memory of any other man when he was close.

But there were more important things to be handled. The real reason she had asked Dapo Obisesan to dinner.

“So talking about your life after prison, are there any plans?”

He grabbed yet another carrot and bit it, “Asides trying to kill Chris? nothing else”

Tiwa nodded, the spaghetti was ready, She sieved it and let it remain in the colander while she turned on a little heat on the olive oil she poured into an empty pot.

“I think you should go to school because you are so bright, finish school and do something with yourself”

“Something like what?”

Tiwa poured the chopped pepper, minced meat, onions and tomatoes that she had preserved into the sizzling oil. “Anything.”

Dapo chuckled, “Anything? All you these butty children go dey yarn as if say money dey grow on top tree”

“Maybe not. But there is money”

“For you”

“For you if you want”.

Dapo didn’t get her, “Where is this going?”

“Where I offer you half of my inheritance.”

Dapo burst out laughing but after a few seconds, he realized he was the only one laughing. Tiwa was stirring the sauce and staring at him with an indifferent look. She was serious.

“Are you crazy?”

Tiwa abandoned the oil and walked out of the kitchen, she emerged a few seconds later with a document and dropped it on the table in front of Dapo. Then she returned to the sauce and emptied the parboiled spaghetti into it.

Dapo stared hard at the document in front of him while Tiwa left the food to steam a little.

“That is my whole inheritance. A little over hundred million naira. And I have a lot more in assets. I have three houses in Ghana, One in Dubai, one in Hong Kong, one in America and One in the UK. I own three cars, one of which could be yours…”

Dapo knew this was about something, this beautiful woman wasn’t fooling him one bit and so he asked her as calmly as he could, “What do you want?”

“I want you to murder Chris Owambe in cold blood and half of all these things would be yours.” She placed another document by the one on the table in front of him, “We would both sign this contract, so you know I am dead serious”.

Dapo stared at her, dumbstruck.