"You did what?"
Macy's voice could have scared off bats. Kyle tried his darn hardest not to wince, but he wasn't sure he'd managed to pull it off. He was more than happy that it was just him and Jessie facing her this time. The others didn't need to see this.
"Come on, Macy, it's not that big of a deal," Jessie said with a shrug that was bordering on insane.
"Not a big deal? You announced your breakup in front of a crowd without consulting me first!"
"No one cares--"
"I'm selling of your engagement tour, not your breakup tour!"
"Macy--"
"Macy nothing! I let you kids have all your backstage drama, but this? Going behind my back like this?" The woman shook her head, her small body trembling with anger. "No, I'm done."
"Macy, come on," Kyle said, figuring it was about time he stepped in. "Jessie's right. No one cares."
"My campaign cares! My marketing contact cares! The audience who already canceled their tickets cares!"
Yeah, that didn't sound right. "It can be fixed."
"Of course. You can show up with your new boyfriend and girlfriend and everyone will love that!"
Kyle was pretty sure they would, but that was not what they meant. "If it's that big of a deal we can make a show of it. Pretend that we're upset. Then we can have a grand making up and get engaged again." He definitely didn't like the idea of that, but if they had to, they would.
"Kyle..." Jessie sounded drained and he hated it.
But then again, she hadn't even made her relationship with Jimmy an official thing and maybe putting him through all that was a bad idea. Some things were more important, real love being the most important.
"I'm just so sick of all this," Macy said, though she sounded less inclined to end them. "Just... I'm done. I have booked your next location in Dallas, but after that stretch of the tour is over, you're on your own."
Kyle opened his mouth to protest, to come up with other solutions, try some bribery, but Jessie clasped his forearm.
"We understand."
Macy nodded and let herself out. Once she did, Jessie heaved a giant sigh and curled back into the armchair in the room, like she always did when she was distressed.
"What's going on?" he asked, his tone wary. "Our engagement was a lie. We can lie about anything else to make this work."
"I know. And I appreciate your creativity. But I'm tired of lying. It's stressing me out so much."
He tilted his head. "Really?" It had been her idea in the first place so he'd never considered she hated it more than he did.
Maybe she didn't at first. Maybe Jimmy complicated everything in the best possible way.
"Yeah, really." A small smile lifted the corners of her lips. "I never thought play pretend would be so difficult. But we'll figure out what to do after we get to Dallas. We have other things in mind for now. Where's this famous cabin Joey mentioned?"
"About two hours away." Kyle hesitated. "Are you sure about this? We don't have to go if you don't want to."
"And miss this place of legend?" She let out a laugh. "No way. I want a few days of carefree fun. Let's not think about this, okay? We'll have enough time to panic over it later."
Kyle just nodded. He really wished it could be like that, that she could forget about her troubles for a few days. And he was going to do everything in his power to make it that way.
Fortunately, unaware of Macy's threats, the others were cheerful on their way to Joey's uncle's cabin, bantering over how to split the rooms. Finally, given the thin walls of the place, they concluded that it was best for the girls to take the bedrooms and the boys to settle in the living room.
When they got there, it was already dark so they decided to explore the very next day. Kyle was a little unsettled by the sense of longing as Kay headed to one of the bedrooms with Kelly, but the fact that Joey noticed and started laughing at him ended any potential plans for sneaking her out.
"And you were giving me a hard time!" Joey said with an annoying grin.
"Of course I was. You were planning a romantic getaway with two single people one of which was right after a messy breakup."
"Uuuh, that doesn't sound too great," Tom said.
"Yeah, rather insensitive, really," Jimmy added.
"Hey, just because he's your brother, it doesn't mean you have to be on his side!"
It apparently did, because Tom and Jimmy continued to grill Joey about his decision to plan a romantic getaway with Kelly and invite Kyle and Kay along in a house with paper-thin walls.
Kyle just left them to it, impressed by how they could do this even better than him who knew Joey's buttons and how to push them. But at the mention of his newfound relationship with Tom and Jimmy and without Kay to distract him, his mind started going in much darker places. He hadn't gotten to talk to her yet, and, to be honest, he was trying to delay it as much as possible.
Max had been honest with Tom and Jimmy as well and had provided them with two potential theories as to why they'd never known they had a family. Both of them absolved his parents, so Kyle wasn't sure which one he hated more.
The one in which his brothers were taken as revenge or the one in which their parents abandoned them for their own protection.
In what world was being divided better than standing together? The whole thing stirred the darkness inside him and it suddenly felt impossible to be in that room, hear the laughter.
"Kyle, are you okay?" Jimmy asked.
No, he wasn't, but he didn't want to show it either, risk losing it. So he shrugged and got up from his mattress on the floor.
"Yeah, I'm fine. This whole conversation just has me needing to be outside for a while. For old times sake."
"Are you sure?" Tom asked with a frown.
They were very perceptive, the two of them, much more so than Jerry or Sam and it only heightened the anger slowly bubbling beneath his veins. Because he was very aware they had no choice but to be very careful and aware. Harsh life did that. They didn't have the option to be oblivious.
"Leave him to it," Joey said with a wave of his hand. "He does need his alone time."
Yes, he did, and Joey had never been aware why. It was one of the few things Kyle hadn't shared with his best friend. The rage, the lack of control, the possibility for danger. Kay had been the first and only person beside Max to know.
But now, Joey's breeziness suited him, so he just shrugged and walked out. The moment the fresh night air hit his face, the vice inside him seemed to unclench the slightest bit. It was odd how the weight of Max's confession had finally sunk it now.
His feet carried him away from the cabin and towards the lake. The short wooden pier was quickly turning into his go-to place in time of struggle.
He'd come there after he'd first realized he wanted Kay desperately in order to clear his head and replenish his infinite stock of denial.
He'd come there once he'd realized that Kay had been taken away from him and he had no change of finding her because he didn't even know where to start looking
He was here now as he tried to work through the information he had and figure out what to do next. Guess why his family was the way he was, why his parents had a criminal after them and had never bothered to mention it.
The accident came to his kind. He'd blocked it out the best he could, but he sometimes visited it in his nightmares. The way the car had skidded and launched into the ravine, the few seconds of helplessness as he realized there was nothing he could do about it, the pain as he crashed through the windshield and into a tree, breaking his ribs on impact. The fear when he found Kay and panicked so hard that he couldn't even feel her pulse.
It hadn't been an accident. Someone had cut off their breaks. Someone who might have wanted to hurt him because of his parents. The parents that never even acknowledged what had happened to him.
They married him off to Jessie for money. They abandoned him with Max. They probably gave Tom and Jimmy away for whatever stupid reason. Or let them get stolen.
But how could they not know? His mother must have known that she was carrying twins. It happened twice, a little more than a year apart. How?
The rage under his skin continued to shimmer as the questions surfaced and demanded answers, explanations beyond what Max could give him.
A sudden rustling of vegetation had his body tensing. There was no wind. He recognized the sound. He'd heard it before, almost in the same place, only this time, he wasn't fooled.
It wasn't some wayward animal. It was human.
Clenching his fists, he waited. He was on edge enough to cause damage, so unless the intruder headed for the cabin, he saw no point in moving.
After a few moments, the rustling was accompanied by the sound of light footsteps on wood. Whoever it was, they were on the pier with him. The tension in his shoulders grew, but he kept still, waiting.
The footsteps stopped. For maybe a minute, there was no sound, but Kyle could feel the presence behind him. Someone standing there, waiting. For what, he wasn't sure, so he decided to ask.
"What are you waiting for?"
There was a huff of amusement. "Honestly, I'm not sure." The voice was that of a man, deep and filled with amusement.
Kyle didn't move and continued waiting. After a few moments, the stranger came closer. Kyle sidestepped to make room, but didn't turn his head. Finally, the other man stopped next to him.
"Are you the criminal with the wacky name?"
The man huffed again. "Max always had a way with words. Because I'm guessing it was him."
This made Kyle turn to his right. The guy was a little bit shorter than him, maybe around Jimmy's height. He was dressed in black and seemed to be wearing and AC/DC t-shirt. His hair was dark and he had a goatee.
"Well, are you?"
The question seemed to plunge the stranger into deep contemplation. "Depends on how you look at it."
"Do you work for him?"
"You could say that."
"Why?"
The stranger turned to him. It was hard to say given the lack of light, but his eyes seemed go be blue and he looked to be in his early thirties.
"Why what?" he asked.
A very good point and Kyle wasn't sure how to answer that. Just looking at the guy unsettled him, but not necessarily in a way that signaled danger. More like with a type of morbid fascination that he knew wasn't right. But he was too confused and he couldn't pick up any kind of threat from the guy.
"Why everything?"
The man shook his head, the bitterness on his face unsettling. "Oh, you poor clueless kid."
"That's putting it mildly." He looked back towards the cabin. "Do you know?"
"Which part exactly?"
"Tom and Jimmy. Why that happened. Why everything else that's just so weird in my life happened. Keeps happening."
"I actually do, but I wouldn't want to take the pleasure of coming clean away from your parents."
"What did they do?"
"Not tell you anything for one thing."
That was so true. And it somehow drained the energy out of him, made everything even more annoying and complicated.
"Max said he'd been training me because of you."
The man nodded. "As far as he knows. The thing is..." He drummed his fingers on his chin. "I didn't necessarily want to come here, but the turn of events fascinated me."
"Which part, exactly?"
"First off, I never expected Freider to go bankrupt. He's been sitting on a pile of old money for years. Second, marrying you off? It's so medieval, I had to see how that went. And now you ran into your long lost brothers. I thought it would all go much differently."
Kyle had no idea why that affirmation had him on edge. After all, the conversation with a potential murderer and kidnapper was going smoothly. Much better than any talk he'd had with his actual father.
"Different how?"
"They will come for you," the man said, and for the first time there was an edge of danger in his voice.
"Who will come for me? Except you."
The man shook his head. "I think I'm the least of your concerns now. The Counters will come for you. They're already lurking. And I thought they would be the ones to bring you all together."
"The what now? The CIA?"
"Oh no. Their evil bastard step-brothers. They'll pretend they want you for the good of the world. They'll sell you a pretty story about keeping the order, doing the right thing."
Kyle just stared, unable to wrap his mind around everything. "What?"
"When they come for you, listen. And after you listen, remember this conversation. If you will feel that it's wrong, that you don't want it, I will find you again. If not..." The man fixed him with an intensive gaze. "I will kill you. All of you."
Kyle had no idea what to say to that. All he could acknowledge was that they were in no danger from this particular person right now. The rest was some future bullshit that he might have to face which seemed to be something else from what Max had warned him about. As it was, there were way too many questionable people after him.
"What about what my parents did?"
"If we get to the point where I'm not killing you, I'll let you know about that, too. For now, enjoy the little freedom you have left." And without bothering to keep silent this time, he whipped around and stalked away.
As the footsteps faded, Kyle could finally unclench his fists. His palms and fingers hurt. But the worst part was he had no idea just what the fuck had happened.
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Well, that took an interesting turn. Hope there aren't too many typos in there because I didn't read back to check. Just want to get the story moving.
Because as it is, we're heading for the climax and the conclusion as our heroes chose the path they want to follow from here on out.
Stick around for the rest of this version and leave a vote for support.