SIERRA AND MACHAYLA were sat on the trunk of Carter’s car waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive when Jason, Cater and Victor stepped out of the office and into the garage. They’d once again found their selves back in the shop after Jason called them less than an hour ago about a shooting at his apartment.
Cater and Sierra rushed to get to their meeting spot while Victor, who was only a few blocks away when he got the news, unlocked the garage and awaited everyone’s arrival. Chico and Dennis were both across town and said that they’d get there as soon as possible and as for Drake and Tabitha, Jason didn’t bother calling them… but Sierra sure did.
“Aren’t they here yet? Miami Shores doesn’t take this long to drive through! And where’s Drake and Tabs? Anybody heard from them?” Victor grunted.
Sierra rolled her eyes at Victor’s random outburst. “A little patience won’t kill you Vic. They’ll all be here.” She shot a look at Jason as she emphasized the “all” in her statement.
Jason ignored her and inched closer to Machayla. He was about to ask her why she was so quite when the automatic door to the garage started to roll up and cut him off. Three cars rolled into the already packed garage one by one. After they were all in, Jason clicked the control button on his key ring and the door began to shut once again.
They weren’t taking any chance this time. Jason wanted them all to lay low and stay out of sight from now on. Mason was obviously getting desperate and so were the street rats who looking to make some quick cash if people were shooting up his apartment.
Tabitha and Drake stepped out of her car with matching scowls on their face and Dennis and Chico followed suit.
“Why didn’t you call me?” Drake bit out the moment his eyes landed on Jason.
Jason scoffed. “Sorry if you’re not the first person on my emergency contact list!”
“Since when?!” Drake’s stomach suddenly dropped, he was always first on his brother’s emergency contact list. Even their mother came second to him on that list.
Jason’s green eyes darkened. “Since you started fucking my girlfriends!”
“She was never your girlfriend!”
“That’s no fucking excuse, brother!”
Jason uttered the word brother with so much disgust that it both pissed and hurt Drake at the same time. He was trying but Jason wouldn’t to give him a chance to fix it and he knew that. If anyone could hold a grudge, it was his little brother. “Fine!”
“No, it is not fine Drake. You did nothing wrong!” Tabitha interjected.
“This is between Drake and I, stay the hell out of it,” was Jason’s angry retort.
“Don’t talk to her like that,” Drake snapped.
“Or what?” Jason sneered. “What the fuck else can you do for that bitch now that you haven’t already done?!”
Drake was on Jason and roughly pinning him to the side of Carter’s in a blink of an eye.
“Hey! That’s my car!” Carter wailed somewhere in the background.
“Don’t you ever call her out of her name again or you’ll regret it!” Drake growled down at his brother. “That ‘bitch’ over there saved your ass the other day and you have yet to do anything but give her shit for it! Listen to me and listen to me good, I love that girl over there and I’m sorry for what I did but I can’t take it back.”
In answer, Jason shoved him away and muttered a “fuck you” before walking away to the other side of the garage where Machayla followed him.
With a heavy heart, Drake wrapped an arm around Tabitha’s shoulder as everyone gave him and Tabitha accusing looks. They’ll get over it, he thought and hopefully one day, so would Jason.
Machayla sat on the bench beside Jason and started to rub circles on his back to try and calm him down. She didn’t know the whole story between the two brothers but she’d never seen him so hurt and angry before. He was breathing too heavy and too fast which meant his stress level, his blood pressure and his heart rate were probably through the roof.
She needed to calm him down.
Leaning into him, she rested her chin on his tight shoulders and spoke. “It’s going to be ok baby. Just breathe. Can you hear me Jason? One breath at a time.” When he said nothing, she pushed. “Nod if you can hear me Jason.” His head bobbed up then down in response. “Good. Unclench your hand for me, I want to hold your hand.” Jason did just that and she laced her fingers with his. She kissed his cheeks and kept going. “Can you look at me? Look at me Jason. Focus your attention on me.” It took a couple of seconds for him to do so but he did and she kissed him deeply; in hopes that he’ll forget whatever issue he had with his brother over Tabitha and focus on her.
Victor watched the way Machayla strategically took The Hulk and turned him back into the Jason that they all knew as a twinge of the green eyed monster stabbed at him.
He was jealous!
It seemed like everyone was paired up with someone who at least gave them a shoulder to lean on when they most needed them; everyone but him. He’d admit to himself and everybody in this room that he’d screwed things up with Sierra. But at twenty-three, he wasn’t ready to be tied down to just one person. He was young, he wanted to live a lot more but it seemed that he went about it the wrong way.
On the other hand, it was nice having someone to depend on when things got rough. Even Drake would agree. Especially after his admitting that he was in love with his brother’s ex-girlfriend. The situation might be weird but at least he had someone to be in a situation with.
With a shake to his head, he pushed away from the wall that he had his back against. “If we’re done with this whole damn love debacle, can we get down to the real reason why we’re here…again?”
“Just as soon as Jason let his chikita go long enough for her to breath. The girl is turning purple for fuck sakes Jason,” Chico yelled out and smirked when Jason threw him the finger behind Machayla’s back as she continued to hug him.
Mason looked down at the sleeping man before him and scowled. He wasn’t the type of man who killed without letting his victims know that they were about to take their last breath but in this case, it couldn’t be helped. It was the smartest way to get them to come to him, rather than have an immature or a money hungry street rat, screw up what was left in his and Aiden’s plan.
He didn’t have time to chase all over town for Machayla and that idiot that she was running around with. Sure he could’ve easily find them at his apartment or that garage that they called their headquarter, but he wanted to scare them. He wanted them to feel fear. The same fear that a lion instilled into a deer. He wanted to be the predator to their prey.
Fortunately for them, the lieutenant was getting antsy and wanted this damn thing over and done with so they could move on with their plan and close the deal with Santiago. The only good thing that this delay caused was the execution of this cocky son of a bitch that laid before him, unconscious.
Slipping one of the pillows from behind his victim’s head, Mason positioned it over his pale face…
“Excuse me but, may I ask who you are?” A voice asked from the doorway.
Mason’s head snapped up and he quickly dropped the pillow. Stretching a fictitious smile onto his lips, he turned towards the person that he now recognized as a cute young nurse and relaxed. It wasn’t going to be hard to get rid of her and quickly.
“Hi, I’m just a friend from out of town. I heard about what happened to my buddy here and quickly came to see how he was,” Mason lied smoothly.
“Did you check in with the front desk?”
“I did,” he answered smoothly with a hundred watt smile. He didn’t.
She smiled back. “Really? I’m sure I would’ve remembered you if you did.”
“Maybe you were a bit preoccupied with more important things.”
She fluttered her long lashes. “Like what?”
“Well, this is a hospital and you do play an important role nurse…” He waved his hand in gesture that asked her to fill in the title.
“Lisa. I’m Nurse Lisa,” she replied eagerly.
“Nice to meet you Nurse Lisa. If you don’t mind, I’d like to have some personal time with my friend here. Can you excuse me?”
“Oh! Yes, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“It’s fine Nurse Lisa.” Mason wanted her gone already.
“Ok, I’ll see you later then?” It was a suggestion rather than a question and they both knew it. Any other time, he would’ve taken her up on her offer but at this moment, he was pressed for time and there was only one woman on his mind right now.
“Yeah, later.” He sent a wink her way and waited for her to leave before he hurried to the door and closed it shut. Time to get back to business
“…we already know what they’re after so we basically have the upper hand…” Jason and his crew were still huddle up in the garage an hour later when Victor’s phone went off in the middle of Drake pitching another idea of how they were going to handle this mess.
He took a look at his phone and his perfectly cropped but thick eyebrows wrinkled when he frowned. It was Cameron, Brandon’s little sister. Why would she be calling me unless…
“Hello?” He answered before the phone could cease its ringing.
“…Victor…” Came a shaky voice.
“Cam? Cam what’s wrong?!” Victor’s heart began to pound a mile a minute as his palms suddenly became clammy. “Cameron talk me,” he practically growled.
“What is it?” Jason asked as he approached him.
Ignoring him, Victor pushed a hand through his long dreads and tried again. “Please Cam, you’re scaring me. Is it your parents? Talk to me.”
“H- He’s gone Victor. Brandon is- Brandon is gone!” She wield through the phone. “My brother is dead!”
Victor felt his whole body go limp as the phone fell out of his grip, away from his ears and landed hard onto the shop’s floor. His mind went blank, his speech became impaired and his heart finally broke as he tried to process the news.
He felt as if acid was burning the pits of stomach as it rose up, threatening to come out but he swallowed.
It couldn’t be true! This was a sick joke that Cameron was playing on him. She was known for being a twisted little sister who gave anyone she came in contact with, hell. He had to see for himself. He had to see if his best friend was indeed dead. He couldn’t Brandon!
Swiping his now broken phone off the ground, he ignored everyone’s questions and pulled out his keys. “Open the fucking door, now!” He barked as he quickly jumped into his car and started the engine.
“What’s going on?” Sierra asked hands spread on his window.
Victor couldn’t bring himself to say the words and instead screamed again for someone to open the door or he was going to go right through it.
Chico finally did the honors and started to pull up the door when someone tore his car door open and latched onto his shirt with a tight grip. “Damn it Vic, if you don’t tell us what’s going on I’m going to beat you till you turned purple.”
Suddenly, the last bit of sanity that he was holding onto, snapped. Thinking quickly, Victor reached under his chair and pulled out a 9 millimeter hand gun which he pointed towards Drake. “Let me go!” He snarled.
Drake must’ve seen the turmoil in his hazel eyes due to the fact that he let his grip slip away from Victor’s shirt and took a step back. Satisfied, he closed his door shut and sped out of the garage without a second thought.
“Follow him!” Drake ordered as he turned and looked at Jason dead in the eye. “I have a feeling I know what this is about.”
“This better not be what you think it is,” Carter muttered as he latched onto Sierra arm and pulled her towards his car.
While everyone quickly jumped into their respective cars, Jason stood in the middle of the room wondering why everyone was so frantic suddenly. If it was Cameron calling then that could only mean that Brandon was coming around… right? It couldn’t be anything else. Brandon was already in a coma; how much worst could his condition possibly get?
He shrugged. They’re being over dramatic, he thought.
“Jason? Aren’t you coming?”
In the far recess of his mind, he heard Machayla’s voice calling out t him but couldn’t quite make out what she was saying. “Huh?”
She frowned, “I asked if you’re coming.”
Nodding, he looked at her. “Yeah sorry, let’s go. It’s probably nothing anyways.”
Victor ran to the waiting area, ignoring every nurse who tried to stop him on the way. When he finally spotted Cameron and her parents huddled up in a corner together, his paced slowed down. The picture he saw left another crack in his heart. She wasn’t playing a cruel prank on him, not at all. “Cam!” He called out.
Cameron lifted her head from her mother’s shoulders and the second her eyes landed on him, she rose and ran straight into his arms. “Victor he’s gone!” She sobbed. “I can’t believe he’s gone. Wh- what am I going to do without my bro- brother,” she hiccupped as she clung onto him with all her might.
Victor couldn’t bring his self to speak. He was already having enough trouble getting air into his lungs to utter anything. And even he could speak, what would he say to sooth her? He could barely stop his own tears from rolling down his cheeks as he clutched onto her for some sort of strength.
“What’s going on? Mrs. Knight, why are you crying?”
It was Jason and the rest of his crew. He was aware of them following him to the hospital but in his state of mind, he quickly forgot about them the second he stepped out of the car.
“Oh Jason!” Brandon’s mother left the embrace of her husband and wrapped Jason in her arms as she continued to sob.
Jason, with his brows furrowed, looked over the crying woman’s shoulder and eyed her husband with a questioning eyes. “What happened?” He asked once more.
“Victor didn’t tell you?” Mr. Knight asked as he wiped a lonely tear from under his eyes.
“No,” Jason responded and he Victor an accusing glare.
“It’s Brandon, Jason. He’s- he’s dead,” Mrs. Knight answered as her sobbed harder.
A resounding gasp came from the girls behind him. Jason’s arms, which were around his best friend’s mother, fell limp to his sides. “Come again,” he said not believing his ears.
“He died about two hours ago son,” Mr. Knight answered for his wife as he rested a hand on Jason’s shoulder.
Without any warning Jason stepped out of Mrs. Knight arms and smirked. Next he cracked a smile, then he started to chuckle which was followed by an outburst of laughs. Every one of them, whom were either in shock because of the news or devastated already, suddenly looked at him as if he’d grown another head.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me with this” he uttered as he started to walk out of the room backwards.
“Jason-” Machayla started to say but was quickly cut off.
“Shut up,” he snapped. “I don’t want to hear it.” He quickly turned and walked out, leaving them to grieve in silence and leaving Machayla torn on whether or not she should respect his wish and let him be and not follow him like she wanted.
Choosing to give him a minute to himself, because she understood what he was going through, she looked over her shoulders and wished she hadn’t.
Victor looked to be in so much pain at the moment that she couldn’t help but run to where he sat on a chair next to Cameron and hug him.
Immediately, Victor wrapped his arms around her shoulders and a wretched sob broke from his chest as he leaned on her. She let him. If he needed to borrow whatever strength that Mason left her with at the moment in order to make sure he got through this, she would. She would separate that semblance of strength to each and every one of the broken hearts in that room if she could.
But honestly, I can’t, she thought regrettably as she watched them all with tears in her own eyes.
“Oh my God,” Tabitha said softly as tears raced down her now red cheeks. “If I’d just stay in Boston-”
“No!” Drake snapped. “This was not your fault and don’t you dare start blaming yourself, you hear me.”
Tabitha sputtered as she shook her head and continued to cry. Meanwhile Sierra, with a wet face also, was trying to calm Carter down as he continuously fidgeted while sitting on one of the waiting chairs with a tight jaw and flared nose. Dennis, with his head bowed, threw up a silent prayer up to the so called God that his mother trusted so much and Chico went totally mute, as if his vocal cords were damaged he uttered not a single word. After all, he was familiar with this scene. Too often, he’d stood in waiting rooms in hospitals as a doctor announced to him that he had once again lost a family member. To him, this was the norm. To him, this was life.
Agent Leah Hassan watched them as she sat in a chair in the corner of the room, unnoticed. This was indeed depressing but these were the people that she needed to break the news to. These were the people she needed to give an explanation to of how their friend died and these were the people who were going to lead her right to Mason.
Machayla Daniels specifically.
After a few long hours of research, she finally connected the dot on this case. Her earlier thoughts were correct, she was looking in the right place but for the wrong thing. She had a crooked cop on her hands and that just made her case ten times harder to take care of by herself but with the help of Machayla and Jason, it can be done.
Rising to her feet, she cleared her throat. “Excuse me…”
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Funny how i was listening to Evanescene - My immortal while writing this... listen to that song, will ya