Chapter Twenty-Three: Special Offers
***
Immediately, there were only two possible ideas that hit me about what Alex's brother was referring to - and neither were great, if I'm being honest.
The first was that mentioning me was to rile Alex up, or perhaps refer back to the time where we were kids. During the brief time we knew each other, I never knew of Alex's eldest brother; he must have wanted to keep that a secret, even at the tender age of thirteen. I wasn't sure quite how I fit into that equation, but maybe I was the key to referring to the past? After all, Matthias certainly didn't know we were speaking again.
The second was that Matthias knew something and would hold that as leverage over his brother. From the tone Alex's brother was speaking in, this theory was the most credible in my head - he hadn't come here for a simple visit, that was clear. And surely after being estranged for so long, he knew it wouldn't be easy to sway Alex into any decisions that would be made. Matthias probably knew he needed to encourage Alex to participate in whatever he needed.
I was thankful neither Hale boy spotted me. I was firmly away from sight, I knew that. But just the chance that one of them could turn their head in my direction, peer over the door a little, brought me fear. Maybe Alex wouldn't do anything - maybe he'd pretend I wasn't there. But I wasn't sure about his brother.
It felt like hours until somebody spoke. In reality, it was only a few seconds before the shock wore off Alex, but time has a weird way of warping and stretching itself when things like this happen.
"What exactly do you want, Matthias? You'll gain nothing by pissing me off like that." Alex said, and even without seeing him I could tell his jaw was clenched.
"Calm down. I'm not intentionally trying to piss you off, Alexander. You've always been quick to the trigger, haven't you?" There was a hint of teasing in Matthias' tone. "Regardless, I promise I brought up your precious friend for good reason. You see, word on the street is that you're now... what's the best way to say this... involved. At first, I couldn't believe it - Alexander, my baby brother, the guy who found it so hard to attach himself to any sort of romantic feelings, has found himself a girl! But then, the more I heard, the more I was impressed. From a virgin to a fuck buddy in less than a few hours. Have to hand it to you, Alexander; you've got game."
A jolt went through me as his words rang through my head. What on earth was Matthias referring to? Who on earth had told him all of this? Clearly not everything was correct, but he knew the majority of it. And he seemed to be amused by it all.
Who the hell is Matthias Hale?
"Fuck. Off. Don't you dare pretend you know shit about me." Alex said, and though the majority of his voice was that of anger, I could hear the slightest bit of something else too. But I couldn't quite figure out what. Not before his brother started to speak.
"All right, all right, I'll stop. Should I just ignore my grand explanation and just cut to the chase?" No reply. That didn't stop Matthias. "Okay, I'll take that as a yes. See, I need you to do something for me in return for a favour I know you won't be able to resist. I can't take this to Mom or Dad, and I'd rather not bother dear old Nick with it either."
"But you'll bother me?"
"Of course. You're the only logical one in this family. Aside from me, of course."
Alex scoffed in response. I would have too if it wouldn't have alerted these two people of my presence. The more hidden I was from them, the better.
I should have probably just headed upstairs and waited for everything to resolve itself, but I couldn't help myself. I needed to know, or it'd drive me insane.
In a move I'd come to regret, I tried stepping forward to have a better look at the two of them - I wanted to see their facial reactions, body language, things that would present more about how they felt than just their words. But of course, it wasn't as easy as it should have been, as I ended up tripping over my own feet and stumbling forward.
Just before I fell, I managed to catch myself by placing my hands on the wall. Unfortunately, that made a noticeable banging noise, and the brothers promptly became silent.
"Guess your guest decided to join us," Matthias said after a short while. "Come on out, doll. Join the party - I don't mind talking with you around. Unlike my brother here, I wouldn't leave you casted aside. Come, join in."
I didn't move. I also held my breath, hoping he'd drop it. Alex, thankfully, spoke before his brother could do more prodding.
"There's nobody there. Stop being an asshole and talk already. I'm ten seconds away from calling the cops on you."
"Your own blood? How cruel, baby brother." Matthias said, but not the slightest bit of hurt remained in his tone. "But that's exactly what I was hoping for. This family is made to be ruthless. The weak are left with nothing, don't you agree?"
Alex's voice was deep as he said, "not in the slightest."
"In any case, I have a proposition for you. See, your whole thing with this girl isn't the only thing I've heard. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've learned everything there is to know about you, every side there is to you. And see, I could easily take the blackmail route - if you don't do as I wish, I'll do this in return, make your life hell, expose this, something else or whatever. But I'm not going to. As a token of my good faith, I want to make a mutually-beneficial deal." Matthias said.
"Gee, how gentleman-like of you."
"Thanks." I'm sure Matthias grinned when he replied. "Well, here it is: I'm in a hell of a lot of trouble. Bad business moves, corrupt alliances, wrong people trusted. I've gotten myself quite the rap, and I need to... undo it, I suppose."
I gulped. Of all things I expected for Matthias to want from Alex, I didn't think it was anything like this. Obviously it made the most sense - what else would somebody like Matthias need from someone he hadn't seen in five years? But it still felt strange.
In that moment, I wished I knew what Alex was thinking. He'd never been the most articulate person around—I knew that from the stupid things he'd pulled over the years - and despite the girls that enjoyed to swarm him, he'd only really stuck by two people. Something this grandiose must be out of his comfort zone entirely.
"Undo it?" Every syllable was spelled out carefully. Alex waited for a few seconds before continuing. "I don't know how you expect a high school student to help you fix your dumb mistakes."
"I don't expect you to do anything directly. Rather, I need you to pull a few strings - get in contact with some of Mom and Dad's contacts and remind them exactly of who I am. Get the correct files and make sure they never see the light of day. Change a few numbers to fit my documents. Oh, and keep it from our dear parents; we both know what they're like the minute their perfect picture threatens to shatter."
Alex seemed exasperated the next time he spoke. "So you're essentially asking me to do two entirely illegal things for you? Fraud isn't enough, so you have to throw in embezzlement?"
"For a good cause, of course." Matthias pointed out. "In return, I let nothing out about your secrets. In fact, I'll do my damnedest to prevent anyone else from doing the same. For good measure, I'll even prevent your precious Kelsie from being harmed, and I can't guarantee she'll be okay without my intervention. So, what do you say?"
I didn't hear what Alex said in return. But several seconds later, I heard a scuffle from the living room, and I took that as my cue to leave before they spotted me.
**
Alex came back upstairs not even two minutes later. I heard the front door close, followed by his footsteps coming up the stairs, and soon after he stood by his door. The desire that I saw dancing in his eyes had long gone. Now, all that was evident was annoyance and anger. Anger like I'd never seen in him before, not even after our initial fall out.
"Hey," I said awkwardly, watching as he just stood against his back wall. He made no move to join me on the bed. "Want to talk?"
"Why'd you come downstairs? I told you to stay here." He snapped.
I pursed my lips momentarily before I answered. "I was just curious..."
"Curious?" He scoffed. "That could have been anyone, Kelsie. And my brother was the worst case scenario out of everything. He was never supposed to know about us, but because you couldn't listen, I'm now stuck as his puppet and you're his bargaining chip."
I threw my hands up in surrender as I jumped up. "Look, I know I shouldn't have eavesdropped, but I'm not the asshole that practically blackmailed you like that. If you're looking for a person to blame, you're pointing your finger at the wrong person."
He groaned. "Kelsie, my brother isn't a good guy. Not at all. He left five years ago because my family cut him off. My parents were one mishap away from renouncing him as their son, and the rest of us were already looking for a way to get rid of him. There's a fucking reason you didn't know about him. God, why did you have to get me into this mess again?"
"Okay, I'm sorry." I said. "But stop acting like this is my fault!"
"It is your fault!" He called out, running a hand through his hair as he pushed himself off the wall to walk towards me.
Frustration bubbled in my throat as I also stepped forward. "How exactly, Alexander? Before we had sex, I had nothing to do with you. You can't possibly be saying that in the past few weeks I've managed to snake my way into your family drama and have your dickhead brother use you like a pawn for his idiotic actions. So tell me, how the fuck is this my fault in the slightest?"
There was no hesitation in him as Alex rebutted rather loudly with, "because if you didn't mean anything to me, I would have never accepted his fucking deal!"
My throat suddenly felt dry as his words rang in my head for a second time. And then a third. Before the fourth, I managed to compose myself and whisper, "what?"
"God," Alex huffed. "You're so fucking dense."
My heart skipped a beat. "What do you mean?"
"Nothing. I mean nothing." He breathed out. "I need to cool off. Feel free to stay here tonight. I won't kick you out or anything. See you."
He began walking towards the door, not even bothering to pick up his phone that sat on his desk. I watched him for a second, flabbergasted, until I kicked into gear and ran towards him. I managed to grab his arm just before he threw the door open.
Alex was stronger than me - I knew that. If he wanted to wave me off, he could have done that easily. However, he didn't make any such move. He just let me stop him, waiting for me to say something.
My voice was calmer as I asked, "where are you going?"
And his voice was calmer as he replied with, "I can't be here, Kelsie. Not with you. Not tonight. We can speak tomorrow... but not tonight. Bye."
This time, I let him leave.
•••
As a full-time university student, these updates are hard to do regularly, especially with classes starting up yet again. But here is the long-awaited chapter... early in the week, because in reality it's late. Whoops.