DUSK ( THE GECKO BROTHERS )

III. THE GECKOS

CHAPTER THREE
( THE GECKOS! )

ADELAIDE DIDN'T EXPECT THE TWO SUITED MEN TO BE THE INFAMOUS CRIMINAL GECKO BROTHERS. She knew she'd seen them before, their faces imprinted in the back of her brain. But still she hadn't put them together. Her idea of laying low was getting thinner and thinner, now that she was riding with high profile criminals. She had also learnt the name of the scared hostages, the father was called Jacob Fuller and he had uprooted his children - Kate and Scott - after their mother had died, leaving their religious responsibilities behind. Religion was extremely important to the three of them, but Adelaide got the impression that it mattered most to the daughter and that Jacob had started to fall out of touch with it. Adelaide had never been religious - not when she was younger and definitely not now - but something had made her path cross with the Geckos, resulting in this unusual beneficially coincidence, she just blamed it on fate or the shit-show they called earth that had rose criminality rates.

But whatever it was it had left her sitting silently in the back of the RV, beside the two frightened siblings as the older Gecko brother pointed a smooth black gun at them. Richie had been the one she had ran into earlier at the pool and the same one she'd had an arguement with. He was the 'dumber' Gecko, yet she found that hard to believe as she watched him with quizzical eyes; if she was honest she got the impression that he might have been smarter than all of them. But she couldn't deny he was dysfunctional. He'd been whispering to himself and jerking his head but Adelaide ignored it, acting as if the dusty road outisde the window was more fasinating. She wasn't here to make friends and fix broken people or bonds, she was only here for the ride to where she had been heading for a while; without any extra bullets to accessorise her body (her thin silver necklace dangling a simple charm around her neck and the subtle earrings being enough for her). It had taken her a while to fish the one out back at the last town, the entry wound leaving a scar on her right shoulder. So she just needed to be polite, quiet and still. But that was something Adelaide had always found difficult.

"Can you point that somewhere else please? Maybe at yourself" She spat suddenly, tearing her gaze from out the murky window and to Richie. She felt the pair stiffen beside her as the man watched her with narrowed eyes, his expression showing he was slightly shocked by her outburst. His obvious surprise made her smile, she liked being unexpected.

Richie didn't reply but instead just leant in further, twisting his mouth in annoyance.

Adelaide's arms were crossed tightly across her chest, and her green eyes skimmed from Richie's face to the hand holding the gun. It was bandaged and a circle of blood was leaking through the cloth, she furrowed her brows together in confusion as the corners of her mouth were pulled down.

"What happened?" She nodded to the wound and the three people near here all looked to it. He suddenly pulled it closer to him, his suit cuff shifting so it covered most of the wrapping. He shook the gun in his hand to attract Adelaide's attention to it (which it did) before holding on to it tighter, directing it's tip more to her than to the actual hostages beside her. 

She frowned and snarled her nose up slightly, not moving her arms from their forceful posture over her chest. "I'm willing to come with, remember? I'm not a hostage. So stop treating me like a kid who won't sit still on barney"

Before he could react to her statement (the pair beside her snorting a little under their breath) or she could snap anything else at the tall man, a gruff voice spoke from the other end of the RV.

"Leave her alone Richard" Seth Gecko warned, but his voice was more tired and condescending than threatening. He fumbled over from where he had been stood leaning behind Jacob in the driver's seat. He flashed Adelaide a small smile which caused her to return one as well. Richie's jaw clenched and he let out a loud sigh through his scrunched nose before turning his flashing eyes to the Fuller children.

Seth rested his muscular frame on the wall next to where the group were sitting, his dark eyes watching Adelaide before looking to his brother cautiously as if he were a baby that needed to be monitored. Or a rabid dog. Adelaide was beginning to think Richard Gecko was more like the latter. 

Seth was far nicer than his brother but just as attractive with his golden skin and dark hair; wearing a matching suit and gun to the older Gecko. He seemed much more sane too, and Adelaide could infer he was the leader of the whole operation, just like the reports had said. He was kind and she could see it in his eyes as they slid back to focus on her, watching her sympathetically with a mixed expression on his carved face.

The air was uncomfortable and stale in the RV and Adelaide bit the inside of her lower lip as she stared out the stained window. If Seth hadn't intervened who knew how escalated that conversation could have gotten, Adelaide wasn't one to back down and she had the impression that Richie was the same. They were quite similar. But he was the one with the gun and the short fuse. The one with a ominous wound on his hand and a tight grip on a weapon. The one who stared at with an intense gaze and an expression Adelaide couldn't decipher, that made her skin crawl and feel so uncomfortable that she couldn't help but shuffle in her seat as if she was under inspection. Why did keep staring at her? Why not the other two? 

She had to keep her mouth shut no matter how hard it was, she couldn't explode at him. She would even bite her lip until it bled if that's the only thing that would keep her quiet. She had that type of habit, digging her nails into her palms until the curved cuts turned red and wet, or chewing the inside of her mouth and lips so hard that she began to taste the familiar disgusting copper. 

She had to keep herself contained and tolerable. The other side of the border was waiting for her. The Titty Twister was waiting for her.

Carlos was waiting for her.