Nyctophilia

Chapter twenty two.

"Do you know where he is?" I asked. Maybe I was being paranoid, but being paranoid was a lot better than being sorry.

"At the café downtown." He answered, casually, "Relax, I'm sure nothing is wrong."

How could he just— Nevermind, if he's not coming with me, then I'll leave alone.

"You're either helping me," I announced. I don't give a single flying fuck if he doesn't come with me. I am the fucking Falcon and I won't ever need anyone, "Or I'm going alone."

He sighed— fucking sighed— in annoyance before turning to face me, "Fine, just give me a minute to change."

N Y C T O P H I L I A

"Are you sure this is the place?" Luc groaned for the uh, I-don't-know-what time.

"No, Luc we are at the wrong fucking place searching for our brother for the last half an hour because I was fucking bored." I grumbled, my gaze never leaving the monitor.

"And why are we not telling our old man again?"

"Because I might be wrong." I said, "And I don't want to raise false alarms because I might be wrong."

"So you bought me here because—"

"Don't pout, Luc."

"I'm not pouting, you're pouting." He huffed. He raised his eyes and blinked. "There." He muttered pointing to the corner-most camera.

Austin.

He was sitting there, peacefully, sipping his coffee and scrolling down his phone. Someone— a brunette woman— approached him, her loose hair swayed with every step she took. Seduction.

Please don't tell me he actually believed that act—

But maybe it was because she was so ravishing and graceful, or maybe it was because she came of as a friend that Austin decided to follow her.

"Wait!" Luc exclaimed, squinting his eyes, "pause and zoom in."

I did as he told me too. Pressing the space bar and then zooming in, the video was focused on where the woman sat beside Austin.

Austin— as naive as he was— peeped under the table, his hand gripping the wood in a death grip as if it were going to relieve him of his frustration.

The brunette had him as a hostage with her gun pointed to Austin's knee under the table.

"'Pa trained us in seduction," Luc said, "He knew there would be women who would use it against us."

And maybe he was speaking from experience, but I felt proud to at least know they weren't proud to the 'men-are-the-world' mentality.

Austin's expression never once faultered, he breathed.

The woman held her hand towards him and reluctantly, my naive brother took it. He should have known she wouldn't harm him in the middle of a café.

"Bitch." I muttered under my breathe.

"Now what?" Luc asked.

Walking across the knocked out man in the control room, I looked over my shoulder to him, "Gotta find our missing brother, should we not?"