Dominick
The moment I heard the car pull into the driveway, I warned the boys. We all hightailed it out of the front room to the basement. We knew that something bad had happened. Hopefully Ren hadn't been the cause of it. I had gotten a text from Dean saying that Zach had gone to the school. It was like my high school days. I knew something was bad the moment I was called to the front office.
"Why are we coming down here?" Kais complained. "It stinks like blood and--"
"Shut up," I snapped. "No one wants to be in the same space as those two when Zach is mad. Or when Ren is mad. That girl...Just go in."
Kais walked in and stopped suddenly, causing me to walk into his back. If I were any shorter, I would have probably broken my nose. I looked over his shoulder and wasn't one bit surprised to see who was in the middle of the room. Cory walked around us and I could see the surprise in his body language. He hadn't known Nathan to lie, so I can see why he was surprised. I knew Nathan like the back of my hand. He lied as often as he told the truth.
"So, Nathaniel lied," I remarked. "Now, Kais, could you move? Unless you want to end up where Trixie is sitting."
He scampered out the way over to where Nathan was standing. His hands were in his pockets and he looked deep in thought. What had him so distracted? Did Trixie happen to tell him something? Like something more on Ian? I would definitely love to know.
Trixie looked up and I could see the smallest hint of a smile on her face. What? Did she think she was going to convince any of us to let her go? If Nathan said no already, I wasn't going to say yes. Unless it meant being petty. Which I'm very good at.
"So...the whole gang's here," she muttered. "What convinced you all to come visit?"
"I just thought you needed company," I retorted. "Considering the fact that in less than a week you'll probably be dead."
"A week?" She barked out a laugh. "I'll say nearly a year before you kill me."
"I never said it was going to be me. Dean really expressed how much he wanted to kill you, so we might let him do it."
Fear flashed across her face. Long enough for me to see it and laugh. Fast enough for the rest of them to not see it. Sometimes they never caught on to things.
"Did she just flinch?" Kais asked. "I think she's scared of Dean."
"Duh," Cory said. "Who wouldn't? He dared to beat up Zach."
We all sat down on the floor, too tired to actually stand. I chose to sit in front of her, taunting her to try and kick me. I'd break her ankles. Kais sat on my left and Nathan on my right. Cory thought it would be hilarious--and it was--to sit behind her and start chopping off her hair. I could see her flinch each time without knowing he was only cutting small pieces at a time. Who was going to tell her that? Not me.
Soon, we were laughing and taunting Trixie to do things she wouldn't normally do. I was just waiting for her to break and try to kick one of us. She'd wish she hadn't. Cory stopped laughing and looked to the doorway.
"Hey, bro," he called out. "Ren made you mad or something?"
"No. Grayson thought it was going to be hilarious to try and trick Ren into sleeping with him today. Either that or he was trying to figure out who was her boyfriend," Zach said.
Let me guess, you came to pick her up and he pretended to not know you and Ren defended him, claiming he was only her friend?" I asked. "Don't ask how I know that. I just know it's something that might have happened."
"...Okay. Well, that's what happened. Now, I think something is wrong with her. I was explaining why I didn't like Grayson and she just stared at me without saying anything."
"I'd ignore you too if you were telling a boring story." Kais laughed. "Just like Trixie. She seems a little...sleepy. Can't you wake her up, Nathan?"
Nathan reached up and slapped her across her cheek. She jolted from her stupor and managed to glare at him. In the dying afternoon light, I could see that she was mad at him and would do almost anything to get back at him. Kais laughed at this and looked at me in delight.
"Anyway," Zach snapped. "I told her I was going to get her something to drink and she only shrugged. When has my girlfriend switched from being scared of me to not caring that I was telling her the reason behind my anger in a matter of minutes?"
"Since she learned you were a gangster," Cory muttered.
"Not funny. I'm going to go talk to her again. Maybe she's...back to normal."
"Why did you come down here anyway?"
"To see if the men were still alive, but apparently they don't deserve to live for more than two weeks after being captured."
"...Well, you should have threatened to kill yourself and maybe Dom would have let them live longer. A week tops."
Zach left the doorway. Trixie thought it would be funny to insult Ren and it was Kais who smacked her. That's my boy.
"Nathaniel Kalman!" Ren yelled. "Get your behind up here."
We all looked at Nathan in confusion. What had he done? Ren had never gotten mad at him before. Welp, there's a first time for everything.
"You too, Zacharias Matthews!"
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"So...they're gone. I think Ren found out that Nathaniel was taking her brother to the warehouse," Dean said. "Sounded like they were arguing about a lost puppy."
"Why are you joking at a time like this?" I snapped. "If she finds out exactly why we take her brother everywhere, she'll freak and most likely kill us all."
"Whether you know it or not, she's not that smart of a person. No offense, but she's only good in the business area."
That was true. Lately, Ren has been acting a little stupid. One time, she asked if I could tell her about my family. I never told anyone about my family. I even mentioned it to her before she started acting weird. Kais told me she asked if he'd go with her to her parents house for dinner when he clearly told her how much he hated them and how uncomfortable he felt around her mom. She found that hilarious.
I don't know about Cory. Or Nathan. I just hope she never finds out what we really do when we pick up her brother. When he was younger, we did take him to the movies, but he's nearly eighteen. I don't think he'd want to keep going to see the same movies every single week. So, I did offer to take him to the warehouse. The one Trixie never knew about until a couple of weeks ago.
"Anyway, why are you guys in the basement?" Dean asked. "You're sitting on the floor like little kids and it's kind of scaring me."
"We were just..." Kais started.
"Nothing." I got up from the floor. "What do you need? I'm sure we can help you."
"Nah. I don't want to scar poor Kais."
"I'm twenty-one. There's nothing I haven't seen already."
"...Have you ever seen someone hanging onto the last sliver of life with their insides hanging out their body?" Dean smiled. "If not, then I advise you to run if you don't want that to be you."
Kais decided not to take that to heart and stayed put. He was going to get it by Dean when they were alone. I wasn't going to stop him. Kais needed to learn to listen if he didn't want to get scarred again. I guess one time wasn't enough for him.
"I think we should hurry and go to Nevada," I said. "Ren already knows about us and everything, so we should just show her the other warehouse."
"...When did you come up with such an extremely dumb idea?" Dean laughed.
Cory stood up and brushed the hair off his pants. "He's actually right. I have business I need to do there. If not for a month, then a couple of days."
"I wish it were that easy, but with Ren knowing all about us, it's only a matter of time before she knows the whole truth."
"Are we just pretending she is super smart?" Kais asked. "There's no possible way that she'd be able to figure out her true destiny. Not unless her parents tell her. If they haven't said anything now, what makes you think they'll tell her later?"
"So, you do have a brain?" Dean asked. "Why don't you ever use it when we actually need it?"
"That's mean. This is exactly why you don't have real friends."
The basement was quiet for a moment, until someone thought it would be smart to laugh at this. You all know who that someone was. Dean turned to Trixie. Kais got up from the floor and moved away quickly. Cory smiled at this and left the room with Kais calling for him to wait up. When was that man ever going to really grow up?
"Trixie, if you want your tongue, you'll keep your mouth shut and wait until you are spoken to," he growled.
"I'm not afraid of you," she spat.
"She's lying," I muttered. "I mentioned your name earlier and she shook like a leaf."
"I know she's lying. No one continues to scream for mercy when I haven't touched them yet."
I bit my bottom lip to keep from laughing. That sounded like something Trixie would do. It was probably why Devon took her in after Ian's "death". She most likely went to him, begging he didn't hurt Ian and he decided to hurt her instead. Probably by saying he'd only fake his death and hope Trixie wouldn't tell anyone.
"I only came down here for one thing. You know how I get to see Ren more often than you guys?"
"...Sure."
"I noticed that she's more distant with me than any of you. When I tried asking her about her day a couple of days ago, she shut me down and told me to mind my own business. I tried to speak to her the next day and she asked me who I was to know."
"And your point is?"
"We used to be close as friends. Not driver and passenger. Something has changed about her and it's really making me pissed."
"Ooh, sounds like you have a little crush on her," I joked.
"Not funny," he snapped. "I just want to know if there's something wrong with her mentally. I know I joked about her being slow, but that was before she started closing me out. Before we know it, she might stop remembering who we are completely. Imagine that. She won't remember you like her and she'll kick you in the balls for trying to flirt with her."
Now that he brought that to light, I had to stop Ren from forgetting me. Yeah, she was dating my best friend, but she also had Cory wrapped around her finger. There had to be a way to explain what was happening to her. I would never let anything bad happen to Ren. If something did, Zach would gladly blame anyone until he found out the truth.
"...Are you suggesting that I go and tell Zach that his girlfriend might possibly have brain damage or something?" I asked.
"If you could. He trusts you more than he trusts me."
"You're his bodyguard. How could he possibly trust you less than me? We barely talk about our feelings," he muttered.
"Your feelings don't matter to him. Now, you tell him or I tell him and tell him you knew before me."
"He won't believe that."
"Trust me. He believes nearly everything I tell him."
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✖DAVI