"Dad believes him?" William sputtered, gazing up with wide eyes at Josh who was leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed. His perpetual annoyance not shaded as it would have been if their father was in the room.
"Took it as some kind of sign from God that he deserves the company and estates." Josh answered, clenching his jaw.
Liam rolled his eyes and settled farther back into the couch where several of them were sitting, then crossing his arms as Josh had, "When did they leave for church?"
Oliver glanced up from his phone, which he seemed to be using to attempt to block out their misfortune--more accurately, the injustice forced on them, "They should be back by now, Liam, it's already 2:30." His irritation could be plainly seen as soon as he turned back to his phone; the jerky movements he was using to scroll were clear and forceful.
Ryder entered the living area with a humph, shoving Josh out of the doorframe. He slouched onto the couch and nearly spilled the coffee that was clenched in his hand in the process.
"What do you think of this latest development, Ryder?" Josh sneered. All of the brothers had looked up and were watching Ryder after his dramatic entrance. He had not shown so much open disgust at Joseph and their father in a long time.
Ryder grunted, "He has gone too far this time."
A gleam entered Josh's eyes and he watched Ryder steadily, "I mean, us saluting him? And him in a suit and us in rags? Does he plan on throwing us out?" He slowly walked over to a chair that had been dragged in at some unknown time in the past to make room for all the brothers--except Joseph, of course. He slowly sat down, keeping his calculating look glued on Ryder's face, "Something really does need done now."
Ryder merely stared down at the coffee in his clenched hands and said nothing.
Johnnie, who had been half-listening the whole time, being occupied with whatever it was Oliver was looking at on his phone, leaned forward and away from his distraction at Josh's cold words, "We really should do something."
Josh glanced at Ryder again, maintaining his cool, calculating demeanor, "What if we got rid of him," he paused, "Got rid of him and make it impossible for the dream to come true."
Ryder glanced up, irritated, "and how would you go about doing that?" This time he jerked enough that he did spill some of his coffee. He yelped, then scowled and started muttering under his breath before looking up at Josh with annoyance written all over his features.
A smirk slowly appeared on Josh's face as he thought, stalling for as long as possible, hoping Ryder's ire would continue growing with each second, "You know what we could do?"
"What?!" Ryder burst, then slammed his coffee onto the side table after spilling some more on himself.
"We could send him into the army."
Ryder merely rolled his eyes and muttered even more irritably to himself.
Johnnie, however, looked at Josh sardonically, "Uhh, you do know that the person has to be willing to enter the army. We could never get away with that." He leaned back against the couch to once again glance over Oliver's shoulder at his phone.
Josh rolled his eyes, "I know that, idiot. We would just need to do a little convincing."
Liam looked up before slowly leaning forward and grabbing Ryder's coffee for himself, a calculating gleam to rival Josh's appearing in his eyes, "What do you mean by that?"
"Beat him up, blackmail him, threaten to kill him, I don't know! It's not that hard." Josh's hard voice brought all the heads in the room snapping towards him. No one was distracted any more. Oliver even turned off his phone and set it down, looking half-shocked.
William, who had been standing quietly in the corner behind Josh the whole time, huffed and strolled towards the middle of the room so he could see Josh's face, "Joseph isn't that stupid. He would know that he could just go to the police. And all that would do is get all of his problems out of the way."
Noah, who had also been in the corner with William, followed him soon after and looked each of the brothers in the eyes, malice spilling from his own, "Not if we beat him up bad enough, and threatened his precious little brother."
The visible shock on Ryder's face which had almost faded since Josh's statement reappeared with a vengeance, "You wouldn't."
Noah just looked at him steadily, cruelty coursing from him, "It would work, and get all of our problems out of the way," he spread his legs and glared at each of the brothers in turn, almost as daring any of them to challenge him.
Josh merely smirked, while Johnnie, William, Liam, and Oliver wore varying combinations of thoughtfulness and uncertainty.
Ryder, on the other hand, looked incredulous, "But he's just a kid!"
"Yes, he is," Noah mocked, "and it's unlikely we would really ever need to do something to him, but Joseph would not know that."
Ryder just stared, but the incredulous look in his eyes gained a more thoughtful side. The others still sat in partial shock, watching the exchange with calculating gazes.
Josh's grin grew slowly, like the Cheshire cat's, "And then we could crash his car or something. That would make sure his dream would not come true," He leaned back in his chair and laughed-- a harsh sound, "We could also give him a taste of what it's like to be wearing rags in front of all his brothers." The gleam in his eyes turned ugly as he grinned, scorn coming off of him in waves.
Johnnie glanced at Ryder, shifting slightly on the couch, as malice-filled hope and uncertainty dancing across his features, "Are you sure that's a good idea?" he paused, "and anyway, what would we tell dad?"
Josh tapped his knee with his fingers and rolled his eyes as if Johnnie were a school-boy who had just asked a stupid question to which the answer was obvious, "Johnnie, you are as in to this as me. And we could easily come up with something to tell dad. Crashing his car would fix that in itself."
Johnnie narrowed his eyes at Josh, sarcasm dripping in his tone, "It would, until the police found that no one was even in the car."
Josh continued tapping his knee, body as relaxed as ever, as if patiently explaining something unfathomably simple to a child who should have known it all along. The hardness in his eyes, however, increased significantly, "That's easily fixable. After we beat him up—"
"If we beat him up," Ryder interrupted, giving Josh a hard look, "this is extreme, guys. No matter how we feel, we can't let our caps blow off completely. We need common sense at least."
Josh merely looked at him with a deadpan expression, eyes helplessly cold, before continuing as if he had not said anything, "After we beat him up, we put him in his car, let some blood get around. Take some of his bloody clothes, leave them in the car, then ditch his car into a lake or something. Or even have it crashed against a tree and make it look like he was taken by a kidnapper." Josh shrugged and sat back, pleased with himself.
"He would have been taken by a kidnapper," Ryder muttered, half to himself, although nearly everyone else shifted uncomfortably at the statement, "Us." Only Josh and Noah looked unshaken by Ryder's assertion.
Josh just gave Ryder an irritated glance before giving each of the other brothers a confident look that expressed the anger that was within all of them. "It would work perfectly."
Josh huffed when Ryder crossed his arms, shifted to the edge of the couch, and contradicted him again, "And how exactly would you get him into the army, all beat up? Plus, he's only seventeen."
Josh rolled his eyes and stood up, leveling his anger-filled glare at Ryder, and letting out a sound that could most closely be described as a growl, "I'm not stupid, Ryder. Stop doubting me. All that would need to happen is one of us would go on a trip before we told Dad that Joseph was dead. That person would have Joseph with him and be taking him to the army. By the time Dad finds out Joseph is 'dead' Joseph's wounds would be healed enough for him to go into the army and never come back. Also, all that is needed is Dad's signature to get him into the army. That is easily forged."
Oliver cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably, causing all the brothers to look at him, but his discomfort disappeared within seconds when he squared his shoulders and nodded once at Josh, agreement in his eyes, "That would work."
"Yes, it would." Josh sat back, looking pleased with himself and glancing at each of the other brothers, eyes lingering on Ryder.
"You do realize the horrible thing we would be doing to our own brother?" Ryder's knuckles were white from clenching his arms and anger was spilling out with every word, although now it was not obvious whether it was directed towards Josh or Joseph, or perhaps a bit of both.
"Oh, shut up, Ryder," Liam said and snorted, standing up and getting behind Josh's chair, "You are just as affected as us in this situation."
Ryder grunted and Liam continued, "Just the anger you are showing right now proves it. There's no reason to hide it."
As he spoke each of the other brother's faces slowly turned from uncertain to hard and determined. One by one they all stood up and walked to stand behind Josh, glaring at Ryder and daring him to join them.
Liam smirked slightly, anger radiating from his gaze, "And think about it. What about your own children that will surely come soon? With Joseph out of the way, Father will show them more of the love that they deserve. Your children will get attention and money from Father, not the half-hearted attention given to everyone but Joseph now."
Ryder stood mesmerized as Liam spoke, and his own frustration faltered at Liam's mention of his future children and their wellbeing. He looked down and all the other brothers held their breath.
When he looked up again, his eyes were hard, "Alright, let's do it."