Author's Note: Yay! Another new chapter already. I'm excited with where the story's going and I hope you all are too. :)
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Harry's POV
"Styles!"
I groaned and tried to open my eyes, but if felt like they were glued shut as I had literally just fallen asleep.
"STYLES, HELP!" my eyes shot open and I raced out of the room to the front door. "THE POLICE ARE HERE. They're here!!" Michael was having a full blown panic attack as he stared out the window at the six cop cars with lights on parked on the side of the road. My heart raced. I tried to make a plan. I didn't expect this. At least not so soon. It'd only been three days. "I don't know what to do!! What do I do?! What do I do?"
"Calm the fuck down, first of all!" I yelled. If he kept yelling at the top of his lungs, the police would know that there was more than one person here. "Go out the back door and stay against the back of the house. Get between the air conditioning unit and the bricks. Stay there. Don't move. Whatever happens, don't move. I don't care if I end up dead, ok Michael? Just don't fucking move." I grumble.
"Be safe." Michael ran through the living room of sorts and out of the back door. I wanted to roll my eyes. He was so willing to let me cover for him. But then again... I was willing to. There was a heavy rapping on the door and I was quick to answer it. There were two officers standing at the doorstep. The others will still in their cars.
"We need you to come with us." one of them said. I wanted to slam the door in their faces and run away, out the back door, just like Michael did. But that was the child inside of me. The one that was still terrified every day. I didn't know what I was doing. But I did know that I shouldn't be doing it. Just like a child. I knew I had to cooperate with these guys. Otherwise, I'd just make things worse. Just like I always do.
"Yes sir." I grinned and followed them out the door and to one of the police cars. Because I wasn't being arrested, I got to sit in the front seat. I'd never been in the back seat of a police car before, but they don't look comfortable and I've heard horror stories about them. Even from Michael who ended up back there often. I wondered if he was still hiding in the backyard. I wondered if he would still be at the safe house when I got back. I gave him no further instructions than to hide behind the air conditioning unit.
"I noticed that you didn't ask why you're coming to the police station with us." the officer next to me said casually. I was surprised that he had said anything. I had assumed that this would be a mostly silent ride. Most officers around here aren't that chatty.
"Well, I heard that Mr. Barker was killed and I was just at the station a few months ago to discuss his tax fraud with Chief Harris. So, I assume that I'll have to answer some questions so they can see if I know anything about what happened to him."
"It seems to me like you don't know much about it then?" the officer questioned and I shook my head.
"I only know that he never paid his taxes and he owed a lot." I replied, smoothly.
Once we got to the station, I went and sat in a room that was next to the chief's office. Last time, we had just chatted inside his office. I guess that was a less tense conversation, though. I was alone for nearly half an hour when the door opened. I expected Chief Harris, but another man walked in instead.
"Harry Styles,... I'm Detective Hernandez." he said, holding out his hand for me to shake and I did.
"Pleasure." i replied, already constructing responses to his questions in my head. My mind drifted to Charlotte. She had called me twice during my ride here, but I couldn't answer for obvious reasons. I never don't answer my phone. She's probably a little worried at the moment.
"How did you know Mr. Barker?" Detective Hernandez asked. I hesitated for a moment, thinking of the best way to state that I'm in a gang that's affiliated with illegal trades and transactions. "Listen, I've heard that your no saint. You can tell me the truth. You're not going to end up in prison for it. Your answers are confidential in a way.
"Uh... I met him a long time ago. I worked for him for a while."
"Doing what?"
"Making sure that other people were keeping up their ends of deals with him. Nothing crazy though, honest."
"What were your relations with Mr. Barker when he was killed?"
"I hadn't talked to him in months, maybe even a couple years at this point. Look, I really don't care for the guy so I hadn't seen him in a really long time. I don't want to. Not my type of guy. And I'm trying to get out of all of that sort of stuff anyway."
"Did you owe him any money when he died?"
"No, he actually had owed me money, but I hadn't bothered trying to get it back for the time that I haven't been talking to him. It was just a few thousand and it honestly wasn't worth it." I answered.
"Would you say that you resent the rich?"
"Yeah, but not in the way that you think. I have no violent feelings towards the rich. I just prefer to stay away from them. We're in different social classes." I grumbled and Detective Hernandez nodded like he understood.
"Now, this one is a serious question. Because this is one that just doesn't add up to me. Why weren't you at your house when the police came to get you. What were you doing at that other place?"
"It's a-" I was about to joke that it was a vacation home, but I knew that I shouldn't be joking. Besides, they would know that the house wasn't registered under any name, so I couldn't claim that the house belonged to me. This would dig me into a hole that I can't get out of. "A friend of mine used to live there and sometimes I like to hang out there."
"I should inform you that that's illegal since the home is no longer registered to any resident."
"I won't go there anymore. I had no idea that it was illegal." I claimed and it was true. I genuinely didn't know that it was illegal. I guess when you do things as illegal as i do, you forget about the little stuff.
"Chief Harris tells me that you know a man named Michael Clifford."
"Yeah, I hang out with him sometimes..." I said, slowly. I was uncomfortable now, but the second that I let Detective Hernandez know that, it was game over.
"Hang out with him... What does that mean exactly?"
"He's in my... group of friends... I see him every few days or so." He did say that I wouldn't get arrested for anything I said, as long as I didn't admit to murdering Mr. Barker.
"Does your... group of friends do illegal things sometimes?" he asked, pacing the room.
"You're making me nervous with your pacing, Detective. I think everyone does illegal things sometimes and we're honestly not that bad. I don't do anything illegal more often than an average person."
"When was the last time that you saw Michael Clifford. Chief Harris told me that he also recently had contact with Mr. Barker."
"I saw him earlier today..."
"And where was this?"
"At a race track... He's not there anymore, though."
"Then, where is he now?"
"I don't know..." I answered. At least that was true.
"Would you be willing to help us find him?"
"Honestly, not really. That's his business and I can guarantee you that you know just as much as his whereabouts right now as I do."
As I drove home, I thought about how Charlotte was going to find out about this. Maybe she already knows. Maybe she called Michael and he told her where I was. For whatever reason, he's dedicated to telling her the truth at all times, even if it involved exposing me. Not that I should be keeping secrets from her anyway... I glanced at my phone as I walked out of the police station and noticed that Charlotte had called me several times and left a few voice mails. She must already know. I let out a loud sigh and called her back.
"Where are you?" she asked as soon as she answered.
"Walking home from hanging out with Michael."
"You were still with him?" she asked. "What's going on? I know that something is happening. I know this game all too well by now. Where are you? Can you come see me? I need to see you because I need to know that you're ok. And no, I can't just take your word for it." she insisted. I really didn't want her to be anywhere near me right now. I didn't know what was going to happen to me and as long as that was true, she wasn't safe near me.
"Why don't you come to mine? It's been a while since you were here. I miss you." I said and hung up shortly after she told me about her day and that she went to go see one of her old friends today. On my way home, I passed a jewelry store. Something in my chest hurt. If we weren't in this situation, I'd really like to marry Charlotte one day. But with this situation,... it just wasn't possible and it never would be. I could never give her what every girl deserves. "Shit, Michael..." I said to myself and immediately called him. "Where are you right now?" I asked when he answered.
"Looking for Calum." he answered.
"What? Why!? In your corvette? Like that isn't obvious... Get back to the safe house! I was just questioned by the police about you and you're going to drive a luxury car down the same streets that you murdered a man on?"
"Shut that fuck up, Harry. I didn't just murder a man. I was simply protecting my best friend." Michael snapped. It surprised me to hear him call me by my first name. I wasn't sure that I liked it. Or the fact that he was so willing to talk back at me. "I know that you don't care about anyone in this entire world besides Charlotte, but I do. I care about Calum and we need to find him. He could be dead. He's never been like this before. You wouldn't know that because you don't care about him, but I know because I do care about him. I can't just keep sitting around when I know he's out there somewhere, probably still freaking out." he panted. I wanted to tell him that I actually do care about people and the people that I care about include him. But I wasn't about to talk about my feelings. And now wouldn't be a good time anyway.
"Listen, you're going to get arrested if you stay out on the streets. The last few questions that they asked me were all about you. They're on your tail. They think that you have something to do with it. Why don't you go back to the safe house and let me and Charlotte go look for Calum."
"You're with Charlotte right now? She knows? You told her?"
"She doesn't know yet and I'm not even with her right now. But I'm going to be with her in a minute and I'm sure that I'm going to have to tell her. Why do you care so much if she knows anyway?"
"Don't worry, bro. I'm not trying to hit on your girl or anything. She's just been a really good friend to me and I don't want her to think that I'm a shitty person. When you tell her, make sure you tell her the whole story. Don't just tell her that I killed Barker. Tell her that Calum was going to die if I didn't do something. She'll understand."
"I know she'll understand, Clifford. Don't worry about it. Everything's going to be fine. Trust me, ok? I won't let anything bad happen to you."
"What?" Michael's voice cracked like he didn't expect to hear me say something like this.
"Just go back to the safe house. We'll look for Calum." I said and hung up.
Charlotte got to my place only merely minutes after I had. I hadn't been here in days and it felt unfamiliar- like it does when you get back from a vacation.
Charlotte's POV
As soon as I got to Harry's house, I knew that something was wrong. The way he was moving was mechanical. He had seen something he didn't want to see or heard something that he didn't want to hear. "Baby, what's wrong?" I asked, wrapping my arms around him. He shook his head and grinned.
"Nothing."
"Bullshit. Tell me right now before things get worse than they already are." I snapped. I wasn't angry. He hadn't lied to me. Not yet, anyway. I didn't want to give him the chance to. He let out a big sigh and sat down on the couch. I sat next to him and gave him my undivided attention.
"Something bad's happened..."
"As if I don't already know that. Is everyone ok? Is someone hurt? Is it Louis? Is it Michael? Oh no... did he wreck at the race? Is he alive, Harry?" my stomach began to twist when I realized that Harry had been at a race with Michael and then not seen me for a few days.
"Michael's fine. Well, sort of... He didn't wreck his car. There was no race..." he admitted. I glared at him. I should have known he was lying. He never hangs out with friends. Especially not in a setting as casual as that. "He's got himself into trouble again." I tried to interrupt but he didn't let me. "It's not like last time. This is serious. You have to listen to the whole story before you judge him, though."
"I won't judge him. I like Michael. He's a good guy." I said.
"He killed someone."
"What?" my stomach dropped. None of the guys had ever killed anyone. It wasn't even an unspoken rule. They broke the law nearly every day but they would never dare kill anyone.
"He was protecting Calum, Charlie. Calum would be dead right now if it weren't for Michael." Harry explained. My head was spinning. There were so many questions that I wanted to ask. I didn't know which one to ask first. I felt sick to my stomach.
"Where's Calum? Who did Michael kill? Why were they trying to kill Calum?"
"We don't know where Calum is right now... He disappeared after the whole thing went down. Michael killed Roger Baker. He was a bus-" I only felt sicker. I recognized the name. I met the man the night that Michael and I were looking for Harry.
"I know who he is- was... I met him. I met him the night that Michael and I were looking for you."
"So I've heard..." Harry grumbled. "Shortly after the night that you went there and found me, I had to go down to the police station. I think you remember. I had to leave in the middle of the night and you were worried but I told you that I was just going to the police station. I told them about Mr. Barker's tax fraud." I nodded. I remembered, but I didn't think it was a big deal at the time. I was just relieved that Harry wasn't going to go get killed in the middle of the night.
"Wait, so Mr. Barker was going to kill Calum just because he knew you?"
"Well, not me... Because you and Michael were there that night, Mr. Barker assumed that it was Michael that had gone to the police. He thought that he had just pissed Michael off so Michael was going to expose him to the police. However, Michael hadn't been around there in a long time. Mr. Barker probably knew that Michael and Calum are good friends. He might have even heard it around recently because Calum had been doing all sorts of stuff on 53rd street. I don't know how much of it was illegal. Calum likes clubbing so it might have just been a lot of that. I don't really know... He sent some guys to Calum so they could figure out where Michael was. Calum called Michael for help. Michael got there, helped Calum out. But then Mr. Barker showed up. He had a gun pressed to Calum's forehead. Michael didn't know what else to do so he stabbed Mr. Barker with a knife. Everyone scattered and I guess Barker bled out."
"So where's Michael? Where's Calum?"
"I don't know where Michael is. He was just out looking for Calum but I told him to go back to the safe house that we stayed in for a few days."
"Is that the same safe house you were at with Louis for a while when-"
"Yes." Harry answered before I could even finish my sentence. He probably didn't want to talk about that.
"Where's Calum?" I asked.
"I already told you. I don't know here he is. Michael doesn't know where he is. Calum had a meltdown right after Michael killed Mr. Barker and ran away. We haven't heard form him since then. We've called him countless times, but he's not answering. I don't even know if he has his phone." Harry explained.
"We have to go look for him." I said.
"I don't know if I want you to come with me, Charlotte. You know it's dangerous. I don't like you getting involved in all of my work stuff. It's not safe for you."
"I don't care if it's safe for me!" I yelled. "We have to go! Calum could be hurt. You said that they were beating the shit out of him before Michael got there. Hell, Calum could be dead. We have to go right now, come ON." i insisted, yanking on Harry's arm. He begrudgingly gave in and called Michael to bring him his car from the safe house. When Michael arrived, he threw his arms around me.
"You don't think I'm horrible, do you?" Michael asked.
"Of course i don't. You saved Calum." I said. "You wouldn't have killed anyone if you didn't have to protect your best friend."
"Ok, I'm coming with you guys. Let's go." Michael said, trying to stroll out the door.
"No way in hell. Just stay here and I'll take you back to the safe house when we get back from finding Calum." Harry practically yelled. He was very insistent on Michael staying here because he didn't want him to get arrested.
"I'm not about to let you look for my best friend who could very well possibly be dead without me, ok? If you leave me here, I'll just walk and then I'll be even more in the open." Michael argued. Harry pinched the bridge of his nose as he paced back and forth by the front door.
"Fine. I just don't understand why you can never fucking listen to me, Clifford. It really pisses me off, you know that? You're really pushing your boundaries." Harry snapped. Michael chose to ignore this and followed us out to the car, keeping his head down.
"What if he's dead?" Michael asked as we turned down yet another street.
"Shut the fuck up. I asked you not to come." Harry snapped again. "Keep your mouth shut or I'll throw you out of the car." Michael immediately silenced and sunk down in his seat.
"Stop being so mean to him. He's worried about his best friend. Just like you worry about me and I worry about you." I suggested, squeezing Harry's arm. He shook me off and kept his eyes on the road.
"Michael's not in love with Calum... I'm just trying to protect everyone." Harry groaned. He sighed and ran his fingers through his short hair. I still wasn't used to his hair cut, but I still fell in love with it every day. "This is impossible. We're never going to find him. It's not like he'll be walking down the sidewalk. He's probably hiding somewhere. He's not at his house. I already checked. His sister had no idea where he was and she was freaking out... I don't know where he'd hide."
"Wait." Michael said suddenly, breaking his silence. "I know where he is. He always goes there. Turn left on the next street."
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Author's Note: Sorry to end the chapter here but it was actually getting really long which is rare for me. Expect another update very soon. :) I know exactly where it's going.
Edit: Just heard the news... Completely heartbreaking. RIP Robin Twist. He was such a great guy and an even greater step father to Harry. He will be missed by all.
Always love, P