Winning His War

33

"So you just left him there alone?" Barrett yelled, making the kid flinch back. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"He told me too!"

"That doesn't mean you should just do it," Devon scowled.

"He made it seem like he was going to be right behind us though! I figured we would all get here at the same time."

"Great," Barrett said sarcastically. "Well we officially have 30 minutes to hear from Jem before we go into evacuation all because you could force Jem into a car and make him come with you."

I watched as the poor kid shrank away from Devon, who towered over him, and Barrett, whose personality was bigger than any man I'd ever seen. He was shaking and his eyes were glued to his hands, which were red and covered with blood. Despite not seeming to be hurt at all, he was nearly see through.

"That's not helping," I find myself saying before I had a chance to stop myself.

Barrett's glare found its way to bare into the side of my head but before he has a chance to say anything else I pushed past him.

"What's your name," I asked just to get his mind off of everything that had happened since he got here.

"Jared," he said timidly, his eyes moving from his hands to the hall again.

"Is there someone you want to go check on? You keep staring down there."

"Ali. She's my girlfriend. We were supposed to go on a date tonight but Kellan said he needed us so we went to work and were going to do something after," he voice began to crack as tears filled his eyes. "I was the one who was called in, Ali only came so we could leave right after. It's my fault. She's going to die because of me."

"I know that I can't say anything to you that would make you believe this is the farthest thing from being your fault, but I hope you at least find comfort knowing no one in this building is going to let that happen," I said but he didn't really look like he believed that either. "Besides, Jem is too much of a control freak to let that happen," I teased as I bumped his shoulder playfully. "He would charm speak her back to life if it meant having his way."

I felt a bit better when he chuckled at the pathetic excuse of a joke.

"Why don't we go wash your hands and figure out what's going on with Ali."

Jared hesitated for a second, still on the debating whether or not his hands really needed to be clean but he eventually caved and walked away with the excuse that he was going to wash them in the bathroom.

"You can't just yell at people who are in shock," I muttered as I threw Barrett's glare right back at him. "It doesn't do anyone any good."

"I got what I needed, didn't I," he scoffed as he looked down at his phone, seemingly waiting on a call from Jem.

"But at what cost? This was traumatizing enough. There was no need to make his shock any worse than it already was."

"Well the next time Jem is missing and someone might know where he is and what condition he's in, I'll do a mental health assessment before I do anything else," he said with an eye roll before walking away without another word.

I fought the urge to yell a curse word at him as he walked away but the sight of Jared made the words die in my throat.

"So where would they have taken Ali," I asked, noting that Devon had followed Barrett without saying a word. Patrick seemed to be debating between whom to follow but when I jerked my head a bit to invite him to join us, he didn't need to be asked twice.

"The hospital. It's in the left wing," Jared said as he began walking.

"You guys just have a whole ass hospital in your house," Patrick asked as we began walking.

"Well, I guess Jem technically has a hospital in his house but yea. He says really hospitals ask too many hard questions and are too expensive. This way we can always see a doctor without having to pay an arm and a leg since Jem pays all the doctors a really good wage and pays for all the equipment."

"I really shouldn't be surprised at this point," Patrick sighed to himself as he pushed open a pair of double doors for us.

The waiting room was packed but it seemed that everyone, even those who had the lightest of injuries, were already being taken care of. Now the only ones crowding the room were those who were waiting for updates.

"You don't have to stay here," Jared said as he found a row of chairs away from the rest of the crowd. I watched as he pushed himself into the chair closest to the wall before balling up on himself. The poor kid was clearly exhausted but his body refused to shut down until he was sure he and Ali were safe. "I know you're really just here for Jem. You don't care about the rest of us."

"Just because we care about Jem doesn't mean we don't care about the rest of you," I told him the in the gentlest voice I could manage.

"But it's mostly for Jem and you're both really just here to distract yourselves until Jem gets here." His voice turned a bit bitter but I didn't let it get to me; the stress of the day he's had would get to anyone and make them grouchy.

"How about we distract each other," I asked as I took the seat beside him.

He gave me a skeptical look but caved quickly. We talked for a while, all about random things; his favorite movie, what he likes to do on his off days, if he had any pets (he didn't but he played with Charlie a lot), how each of us first met Jem, minus some key details about how he pushed us up against the sides of our cars.

Before long the tension in the air lessened and the exhaustion caught up to Jared. He fell asleep with his legs balled up in the chair while his head rested on the wall beside him.

I smiled to myself when Patrick took off his jacket and wrapped it around the poor kid who was still shivering.

"It makes you think though," Patrick said after a while. "I know this is a gang, and raiding warehouses is part of what gangs do, but what was worth nearly killing people? What could Jem have done to make this backfire on his men this much?"

"There's no telling," I sighed as I leaned back in my chair. "I just hope he's able to figure it out before anyone else gets hurt.

Last updated March 7, 2022