~~~
“Don’t talk to me.”
“But babe!”
“Get lost.”
“Honey, I am sorry.”
“Go pee on yourself.”
“Very mature.”
Mom looked through hooded eyes at my dad. “Really Ashton? Do you really want to set fire to my anger?”
Dad raised his hands, shook his head wisely, and took a good step away from her. Mom rolled her eyes, giving dad another stink look, and went and stood beside Liam.
I wanted to shout, scream, scold them to stop acting like children and start realizing the deep shit that we were in but I had basically lost my voice or the will to speak. We were all huddled up in mom’s room at my place, seeking comfort from each other, and instead, my mom and dad had been arguing for the past 10 minutes.
Apparently those two gunshots, they weren’t for us or anyone. That was the signal for all of Angelo’s men to come out of hiding, point their guns at us, demand for us to go in one room, shoot near us if we complained or disobeyed, and then lock us inside while they did god knows what downstairs.
And although dad fought pretty well and got himself nice busted lips, he was no match for the strong and 20 mission oriented gangsters.
To say mom was shocked to see my dad walk in with a gun pointed at his head would be an understatement. She almost fainted but then she saw Angelo came in and straightened. “What the bloody hell is happening?” Were her words. “Get your filthy feet off my home!”
“Hello there Diana. You look lovely.” Angelo simply said and then motioned for his guys to take us all into the room. We all struggled and screamed profanities and the result was just us having dry throats.
And now here we were, me and Colton near the door, his hand around my waist as I greedily drank the comfort his body provided. Josh, Nathan, Drew, and Adrian were all sitting on the corner of the bed whispering something like teenage gossip girls. Eva, Ira and Simone were in the opposite corner, hugging each other, I felt bad that I didn’t want to join them and instead wanted to stay here with Colton. Manh I was a bad friend!
Mom and Liam were standing beside the bed and Dad was in front of them, looking at mom with longing. Something told me all he wanted right now was to hug his wife but I was with mom on this one, after everything that we had been through, dad was going to have to work pretty hard for us.
Josh still kept glancing every second minute at dad, still not believing he was alive and with us in the same room. Throughout this time they hadn’t said a word to each other.
“I wish they had forgotten to take our phones with them.” Nathan grumbled, leaning his head on the bedpost.
“That would make them pretty awful gangsters then.” Eva retorted.
“So what? We just stay here?” Colton groaned, putting his head on my shoulder.
I patted the top of his head lightly. “I don’t think we have a choice.”
“A few men will actually come in about 2 minutes.”
All heads shot up to look at my father. With Colton’s speed, our heads banged, making me wince but I could hardly register the pain since my brain was still comprehending dad’s words.
“What?” Mom questioned for all of us.
Dad shrugged, doing his famous proud moment style, smirking and leaning on the wall with ankles crossed. “I was a pretty great detective, managed to disappear for over 4 years. You didn’t think I didn’t have a plan B and a few tricks up my sleeve now, did you?”
Mom pressed her lips together, shaking her head and rolling her eyes at Dad and then turning her attention to Liam who immediately gave dad a smug smirk making my dad scowl. They were acting like teenagers trying to win over mom!
“When I said I wanted to be a part of this I didn’t think it through.” Simone mumbled, shuddering silently. “At least we’ll be getting out soon.”
“So you are not pissed?” I grinned at her, rubbing my head trying to lessen the pain.
Simone snorted. “I am until you buy me food.”
Typical Simone.
Suddenly there were bangs, gunshots and shouts from below and then complete silence, eerie kind.
I pressed my ears against the doors, my arms trembling in fight, “Are-are they dead?”
My answer was answered in the worst way possible, the door flew open, hitting the side of my head, the same one Colton’s head had hit earlier. The force of the door made me stumble back and fall ungracefully on the floor on my butt. I finally understood what ‘seeing stars’ meant. I could see them dancing over my head.
Expecting to see a couple of policemen with smiles, seeing Angelo and his men with big fat guns was a huge disappointment.
“Motherfuc-” I started, rubbing my head and groaning in pain.
My mom gasped. “Racheal!”
I couldn’t even roll my eyes at her. “Seriously mom? We might be dead soon, are you really going to shout at me for cussing now?” I gratefully took Colton’s extended hand as he helped me get up.
“You’re right.” Mom nodded. “Motherf*ckers let us out of here, you assholes and shitfaces!”
This time Liam chided her. “Diana don’t antagonize them.”
“Ugh.” I grumbled, leaning my throbbing head on Colton’s shoulder. He rubbed my back and then kissed my forehead. And I don’t care how cheesy it sounds, the pain actually dulled a bit. So I muttered, “Kiss me again.” Yep, I had definitely hit my head.
He raised his eyebrows his surprise and but didn’t reply, just kissed my forehead a few times more, thrice to be precise. “Okay now?” He smiled down at me.
I smiled back, despite the tiny pain. “A bit.”
He grinned and kissed again, making my smile widen.
Our moment was interrupted when Angelo banged the door shut behind him. My dad instantly grew stiff and stepped forward, motioning all of us to go behind.
None of us needed any more indication or motivation, we scrambled at the end corner of the room, all of us cuddling and hugging each other. Mom was the only one, sitting on the bed, watching with wide frightened eyes as her not-anymore-dead husband played hero.
“What do you want Angelo?” Dad asked, his back was stiff and his fists clenched. I knew he was seconds away from punching the Italian mafia murderer and he would have too if it weren’t for all of us in the room.
Suddenly going out for taking out the trash, didn’t seem like a good idea. ‘Should have just gone to the kitchen’ I thought to myself, ‘at least there’s food there and no mafia people.’
But then again, if the mafia wants you, they’ll hunt you down even if you are deep in the sea, inside a pineapple.
“I wanted you dead but that didn’t happen, did it?” Angelo said, he seemed at ease, as if he had anticipated this situation, and I wondered what those noises were downstairs. “And those men who came-” He pointed with his thumb to the door, “-just five of them. You of all the people should know that my pet dog can kill more than six in a minute.”
“I didn’t expect you to be so disappointing.” He decried, shaking his head. “But I guess four years of no practice does that to you huh?”
“You know why I left.” Dad gritted out and I couldn’t see his face but I knew his eyes were turned into slits and lips in a straight pissed off line.
Angelo grinned at his saw Dad’s reaction, showing off his golden teeth. “I know.” He looked at mom and then at me and Josh, winking as his eyes landed on me. I felt a dreadful shiver pass up my spine but that soon disappeared when Colton’s arm tightened around my waist and he pressed his lips on the side of my head. “I am here.”
“I threatened to kill your family if you didn’t stop coming after my drug racket.” Angelo told as if it wasn’t a big deal, which was true for him. But a shocked gasp passed around us, ending at mom.
“Ashton?” Her pained eyes looked at Dad’s back. He didn’t turn back.
But Angelo’s grin widened. He looked at mom, “His eyes are shut from the pain.” He informed gleefully.
Mom jumped up from the bed. “You sick son of a bitch!”
Liam immediately held mom’s hand to stop her from doing something stupid. Angelo simply shrugged. “My mother was actually a bitch. She left me with her abusive partner when I was five. Then at twelve, I got fed up of him coming to my room every night so I killed him one night, slit his throat with a blade.” Angelo sighed in pleasure, his eyes glazing over. “That was a good night.”
“Oh fuck! He’s a sick bastard.” Simone whispered, her voice trembling. Her fists were balled around Adrian’s jacket and if it weren’t for this situation I would have teased her about it.
“I know.” I whispered back, the image of a twelve-year-old Angelo slitting a man’s throat kept appearing in my brain. I held Colton’s hand even more tightly, bringing our bodies closer. ‘God save us from this horrible man.’ I prayed mentally.
“Anyways.” Angelo waved it off. “Did Ashton listen to me? Nope, he still went after my business. But I guess when I almost burned him to death, he got his senses. I should have known you were alive when nobody opened the casket but I was so busy giving free beers to my people in celebration of your death that I didn’t think much of it. Never again am I making that mistake again. But I guess it was worth to see your family in so much pain.”
“So Ashton.” Angelo continued, bringing out his gun and putting bullets in it. My eyes went to his people, there were just four now but I knew there were more downstairs. All the four men had a gun in their one hand, their eyes look straight ahead, at the plain wall, hardly blinking. I vaguely wondered if they were allowed to move in case they felt itchy or had to scratch their butt.
“What did you do these four years? Missed the long nights with your lovely wife? Missed your daughter grow into a woman? Your own son turning into a playboy? How did you cope with all the guilt of leaving your family and letting them think your dead? Did you see them cry for you every night? Or you just didn’t care?” Angelo continued to taunt dad with a sneering voice. “Do you think they would bury you again when I finally kill you now?”
I saw dad’s shoulder loosen up a bit. “You won’t touch a hair on my family Angelo.” Dad swore. “And as for what I did these four years, you’ll see-” he paused, glancing at the digital wall clock. “-in approximately three seconds.”
All eyes went to the wall clock and just as it read 21:10:00, the lights went out.
There was a shrill noise that crippled our ears, soon followed by inappropriate cuss words from us, shouts to shoot anyone at sight from Angelo, Dad’s hearty chuckle before the sound of a bone-breaking and vague sounds gunshots, screams and aggressive words from downstairs.
“What the hell is happening?” Eva questioned, and due to no light I couldn’t see her but I knew she was stiff scared, we all were.
“I don’t know.” I whispered guiltily.
“You know how I said to invite me in your mystery solving?” Simone said in a low voice, “well I take it all back. I just want to go home, grab some pizza, get into my soft blanket and watch some zero action film.”
“I swear, no action for me for a few months now.” Ira agreed, followed by Drew’s yes.
“Diana don’t!” our heads turned at Liam’s sound.
“What’s mom doing?” Josh asked with worry.
“She’s going after your dad.” Liam grumbled.
I saw that the bedroom door was now open and there were four bodies next to it – they looked a lot like the men with Angelo – but he was nowhere to be seen, not that we could see clearly in the dark night.
Sudden brightness filled our eyes making us wince.
“Fuck they should give a warning.” Nathan grumbled, rubbing his eyes.
We blinked as the lights turned on again. Our eyes settled on the dead bodies and all of us took a step back at the sight of four hefty dead men with blood all over them.
“I am scarred for life.” Ira shuddered.
“Me too.” Eva said, both of them clutching each other’s hands tightly.
“I am going to go and check up on mom.” Josh said, starting to move.
“What! No!” I exclaimed in horror, pulling at his tee.
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Why not?”
I shook my head at his ridiculous question. “Because there are people with guns down there who wouldn’t think twice before popping off your head. You are annoying as f but that doesn’t mean I want you dead.”
Josh shrugged my hand off his tee. “I appreciate you caring for me but that’s mom down there. She is unstable, you know that. Dad’s appearance has affected her and even if she won’t say it out loud, she is crazy happy that he’s alive and she’ll die before letting him die again. And no way am I letting it happen.” He jumped over a body and went to the closet.
“But-” I started to protest.
“He’s right, I’ll go down with you.” Colton said, giving a manly nod to Josh.
I slapped his arm, glaring at him. “No, you won’t. Are you stupid? This is a family matter.”
A hurt look passed Colton’s face and I instantly regretted the family sentence.
“So I am not family?”
“You know what I mean!” I said in exasperation. “You are Colton Hastings, if something was to happen to you, your family would sue me.”
“Mine won’t.” Nathan assured, before following Josh and taking a gun from him.
“My family wouldn’t sue you okay. I have been with you from that start and I am staying here.” Colton assured.
I couldn’t smile ad I was busy staring in horror as Nathan and Josh counted the bullets and my fear increased when Drew joined them. “Wow guns, I’m in!”
“What is happening?” I screamed in complete frustration. “You don’t understand these people are dangerous. I don’t care if you want to be a part of this, if you guys get hurt, I’ll feel guilty and never be able to forgive myself.”
“Honey we want to do this. Let us. You are family.” Drew smiled, kissing my forehead in a brotherly manner.
Just as I opened my mouth to respond, “Hey are those Tasers? Give me one.” Simone said giddily.
I stared at her with incredulity. Josh threw one on the bed and she picked it, admiring it. “This is cool.”
“Show me, show me.” Ira and Eva piped in oh-ing as they touched it. “Give me too.”
“Ugh!” I exclaimed. “Did I develop a condition where I talk and no one listens? And from where are you getting all this?”
“Dad’s drawer.” Josh answered as he gave guns to Colton and Adrian as well. By now everyone had a weapon and they were all staring at me expectantly.
I groaned in defeat. “Fine give me a gun.”
“A gun? You sure?” Colton asked, I narrowed my eyes at his sexist comment.
“My dad’s reborn and my mother’s kicking ass downstairs, what do you think?”
“Touché.”
We crossed the bodies trying not to see much of them and went out. It was a total mess, broken doors, broken windows, broken chairs. Everything was broken.
“You!” Some guy shouted, coming out of my room, pointing his gun at us.
“Taser bitch!” Ira screamed with Eva and then both tased the poor guy until he fell down in a heap.
“Was I the only one who found this hot?” Drew muttered blinking at Ira.
All he got was a flat look from all of us.
“Okay Racheal, Colton, Drew and Ira go downstairs and we’ll cover the back.” Josh said, starting to go down.
“Whoa.” Ira shook her head. “We are twins.” She pointed at Eva and herself, “We don’t separate.”
Josh rolled his eyes. “Fine Simone go there.”
“But I want Ira.” Drew grumbled.
“Oh my God!” Josh exclaimed angrily. “People are dying here and you want to sniff your girlfriend’s ass.”
“I’ll go there.” Adrian said before Drew could retort.
No one said anything after that, we crept downstairs and nodded slightly as they went backdoors.
I peeked into the living room and saw a few dead men on the ground along with many guns and a few fighting each other. But Dad, mom or Liam were nowhere to be seen. ‘Where the hell are they?’ I wondered loudly.
“Catch her!” Some mafia guy exclaimed as he pointed at me and I immediately shot his knee. “Next time it’s your head.”
“Wow, now I know how Drew felt.” Colton said, winking at me.
Despite the situation, I smiled.
As I stepped fully into the living room, I recognized a few people. They were dad’s friends, they were all there at the funeral. “Uncle Joe?” I blinked in disbelief, he was fighting two mafia guys with bare hands, I am guessing their guns fell.
As he turned to me, a guy punched him in the jaw making me wince. Simone immediately tased him and Adrian shot the other guy on the shoulder.
Soon two other mafia guys started shooting at us and we ducked behind the couch. “This is actually cool.” Simone grinned, peeking out a bit and swiftly tasing another guy. She sure had a good aim.
Colton shot the other on the arm, taking their guns away along with all the fallen guns.
Joe was now fighting with another man and Colton passed him a gun, without blinking Joe shot the gun in the forehead.
I grimaced at the scene.
“What are you doing here Racheal?” He asked, turning to me.
“Saving your life apparently.” I sassed.
Joe didn’t say anything, he nodded at another man whose name was Ken or Kendrick I think.
“Where’s mom and dad?”
“Outside.” Joe pointed at the door. “But don’t go.”
“Why not?”
“Ashton’s asked me to keep you safe. Where’s your brother?”
“Upstairs.” I lied and pointed behind Joe and screamed, “Oh God.” As soon as he turned, I pulled Colton’s hand and ran outside.
“Racheal.” Joe called from behind but I ignored him. Keep me safe, my ass. Shouldn’t have lied and left in the first place.
“What are you doing here?” I asked Nathan, shooting the guy he was getting punched from.
Nathan fingered his busted lip. “Some asshole smacked the gun off my hand with some crazy high kick so I sneaked here to find another gun where this guy found me and started punching me.” he winced as his finger touched his cheek. “Manh mafia training must be having good teachers. These people can hurt.”
I rolled my eyes, “It’s their job.” I looked around and finally spotted my Mom and Dad.
Dad was fighting off two men together while mom was punching another guy.
I stared in wonder as she did a Karate kick on the man’s chest and then a Karate slap right at the side of the neck which resulted in him closing his eyes in pain and falling on the ground.
“Your mom is a badass.” Colton whispered in awe.
I frowned. “I know. But when did she learn all this? I have never seen her fight.”
At my voice she turned, wiping some blood off her eyebrows. “Racheal, why are you here? Go back to the room!”
I glared at her. “Don’t you ground me now. And where did you learn to fight like this?”
A look of fright crossed mom’s face and she glanced at dad. “Nowhere.”
“Mom!”
She sighed, pulling us at the side, “When I first met your father, he taught me.”
“He taught you to fight? Why?” I always wondered what my parent’s story was but they never told me.
“Because I was in danger.” She muttered before punching a man that suddenly came out of nowhere. “Can’t you see I am talking to my daughter here?” She yelled, twisting his arm and making him groan in pain. “Sorry, ma’am!”
“He is mafia?” Adrian snorted.
We were interrupted when Josh and everyone came running at us. Ira and Eva didn’t have a scratch but Josh look severely bruised and Drew and Nathan had splattered blood.
“Oh my God, Joseph! What did you do?” Mom gasped in horror as she saw her son, limping. She kicked the mafia guy in the back of his knee, making him kneel over, and then grabbed a fallen stone and hit the back of his head with it, promptly making him faint.
“That wasn’t even more than three seconds.” Simone blinked in admiration.
Mom smiled proudly. “I know right. I didn’t know I still had it in me.” She then turned to Josh, helping him near us. “What happened?”
Ira started to answer. “He thought-”
“Shut up you exaggerate too much.” Josh snapped, leaning against the wall, his left elbow clutched in his right palm. “I was fighting this mafia guy, pretty amazingly, when Ira here screamed because she saw a spider, a spider! So I turned because I obviously thought she was in danger and the sneaky guy took out a knife and sliced my elbow before kicking me in the stomach and legs.”
Ira narrowed his eyes at him. “And then I tased the guy, saving you.”
“Maybe you should have tased the spider instead of screaming.” Josh retorted.
“You-” Ira started but mom interrupted.
“Okay, that’s enough. You all shouldn’t be here in the first place.” Mom growled at us. “And Josh, raiding your father’s closet? Really?”
“Not telling us the real story of you and dad, really?” Josh immediately countered.
“Yeah, mom, what is the real deal?” I joined Josh. Why was she in danger? From whom? And how?
Mom rubbed her forehead. “It was a long time ago, okay. It doesn’t even matter now. You just know your father saved me.”
“But from what?” I yelled out in frustration.
“What is this, a reunion?” Dad joined, limping at us. He instantly noticed Josh’s limp and smiled at him proudly. “You kicked ass!”
Josh grinned, basking in the glory of his father’s praise after 4 years. “I did!”
He looked around at us. “And all of you too!”
“Ashton, don’t encourage them.” Mom chided.
He turned to mom, winking at her. “You still got moves babe.”
It was awkward and yet so heart-warming to see my mom actually blush. They were so perfect for each other.
Unconsciously I glanced at Colton who noticed my gaze and turned to me with raise eyebrows. I shook my head, he didn’t say anything just put his arm over my shoulder, bringing me closer.
“You okay there?”
I snuggled closer and rested my head on his shoulder. “Now I am.”
“There they are!” a booming voice came and we all stiffened but it was too late.
There were three loud gunshots before we could grab and point our guns and then a painful scream.
“Oh my God!”
“Who got shot?”
“I don’t know.”
“Fuck there’s so much blood. Call an ambulance.”
“Stop the bleeding! I’ll cover.”
“We don’t have our cell phones.”
“The bleeding won’t stop!”
“Angelo, I’ll kill you!”
“We are losing the heartbeat.”
~~~