“What the fuck? Wrong twin dude!” I yell into the air, not exactly sure where Damion is sitting, but then the ‘sorry’ comes from my right. I’m getting more and more uncomfortable every passing second and I shift again to relieve my aching muscles.
“Fuck this!” I swear softly, cursing Garcia and all his goons. This has been a pretty stressful month and I don’t have the patients for this shit. I really don’t.
Being Aria’s fake boyfriend is driving me up the walls. It’s only been a short time, but I can’t stop thinking about her, wanting her, needing her. Not to mention the huge unsolicited hard-on I have to deal with on a more than regular basis. I swear I’m officially going crazy, feeling stuff I haven’t for a very long time, if ever.
And to make things worse, her working in the club, put me straight into hell. Every single guy tries his luck with her, some even cross the boundaries of personal space and touch her inappropriately. Yes, she quickly sorts them out, but still, it places me in a bad situation ’cause I want to commit murder each time. I fucking punched more guys this last week than in the rest of my life combined. I’m a lover, not a fighter. It’s been so bad I had to take her from waitressing to put her behind the bar where, at least, they can’t reach her. It doesn’t stop them from trying though. But what’s actually my biggest problem is that Brian fucking Cruise became a regular face at the bar, making eyes at my girlfriend, trying and succeeding might I add to piss me off.
Hey, let’s sing a song … ” Jackson breaks through my clouded mind, “… I’ll start … ‘the wheels on the van goes round and round, round and round, round and round, the wheels on the van goes round and round, taking us to trouble’ … ”
“Shut up, Jackson! You’re just making things worse,” Axel utters from opposite me, “cause you can’t sing to save your life.”
“Hey guys, Garcia won’t harm us, don’t worry,” typical brooding-genius Ilkay is back, but I think he’s right, or rather, I hope he’s right.
“You can’t know that for sure, and what if it’s not him …” Noah says.
“If not Garcia, then who can it be?” Axel asks.
“Remember that ‘Old Man’ guy that’s trying to expand his business into San Francisco do you think it could be him?” Alejandro asks.
“The dodgy European mafia old stagger,” my twin seems to have forgotten about his singing. “He helped us before … so why kidnap us now?”
“Oh, my word, what business would a mafia grandpa have with us? ” Lee sounds pissed, “And what use would we be for the Europeans? I’ve never even been to Europe!”
I’m starting to see why Jackson is so hooked up with this guy he seems to have an irritating temperament and blabbers out everything that comes into his mangled-up head things that sometimes don’t make any sense like now.
“And the Old Man is in New York, not Europe!” he continues under his breath. If I wasn’t sitting so close to him I would not have heard that. What does Lee know about the Old Man?
“If I were him, I would kidnap us,” Damion answers his fiery roommate, “Just think about it, he can blackmail Garcia by using us, Inferno is the perfect place to sell drugs and there are some serious world-famous money-bags in this van.”
“Not you Lee though … I’m sure you’re just collateral damage,” Jackson just couldn’t let it go. They are always in each other’s case. I swear one day there’s gonna be a murder. Usually, I’ll put my money on my brother to be triumphant, but I’m not so sure this time … Lee seems to perfectly match him in any way.
“Blarg!” Lee makes a puking sound, “I’m sure you guys are not that important,” Lee snorts, “and too stupid to work it out.”
“What do you mean?” I ask the pipsqueak. Silence falls among us, waiting for his answer. Does he know something we don’t? Is he working for the Old Man? What is he hiding?
“Eh … I just think that you guys are way too self-insured … San Francisco doesn’t turn around you …” He just back-stepped like a cat on a hot tin roof. But why? I’m now not sure I trust this little man … I’ve read somewhere that guys with small hands are not dependable … or were that small ears? Doesn’t matter, everything on Lee is small. I’m pretty sure even his dick is tiny. Maybe that’s why he’s so arrogant … what do they call it … little man syndrome?
“What’s wrong with being confident?” Damion asks this time.
“Confidence is great … arrogance – not so much,” Lee answers immediately.
“Look who’s talking … ” I start but swear lightly to myself when the vehicle stops abruptly, throwing me sideways to crush the person next to me while bumping my head against something hard.
“Ouch! Get off me you lump!” Lee shouts. Great, out of everybody in this van I have to fall on him. I probably broke that small body.
“Don’t get your knickers in a twist, bro, I just lost my balance,” I try to explain to the hot-tempered little guy that my equally stubborn brother seems so fond of. And what’s worse is that my fake girlfriend is also way too attached to him. Even though Aria explained that her friendship with Lee is just that and nothing more … I still don’t like it much; in my experience, a guy and a girl can never have a platonic affinity … either the guy wants to fuck the girl or she wants to fuck him! Unless one is gay or they’re related and sometimes even then it still happens. Sick but true.
“If you damage my goalie, I’ll have to hurt you brother,” Jackson says playfully, but I know my twin too well those words are not said idly he means it.
It’s as if Jackson got hooked by Lee’s huge soulful eyes, protecting his little roomy like a mother hen, something he’s never done before. Since Lee arrived Jackson is acting even more mysterious and psycho broody, coming home with more bruises and cuts than before. I can’t say I’ve seen Jackson without a mark on his body since the whole Harry debacle. I’m one of the few that knows about his secrets, but if you want my opinion, he’s pushing it these days.
I want to utter something back to my stupid brother, but the words die on my lips when the sound of the door sliding open fills the air.
Before I can even come to my senses, I’m roughly dragged out and pulled forward.
“Hey, stop pushing me or I’ll kick your balls up to your throat, dick-head,” a girl shouts from somewhere in front of me. My heart skips a beat or two. It’s Aria, I’m sure of that, but what is she doing here? And the little flipping screwball is gonna get herself killed with that big mouth.
“Just get on the boat!” a rough voice orders.
“Boat … great, they’re gonna throw us into the ocean!” Jesse grumbles, but my mind is still evaluating why my girlfriend would be here.
“If you touch me again, I will pull your larynx through your ass and make you wear it like a tie … ” Okay, that’s definitely my sweet little sister and she’s just as loony as my girlfriend. Here comes trouble … with a capital T, that’s for sure.
“Mel!” Damion shouts next to me and I can feel him struggling to get free, so he’s probably being held down by a guard.
THUD!
“Ouch! You gonna pay for that!” one of the guards swears behind me.
“Damion, stop fighting, I’m okay, don’t worry,” Mel shouts and I roll my eyes. The biker got a blow in somehow. I suddenly understand what he must be going through right now, cause my heart feels as if it’s getting squashed by a vice grip, but at the moment our hands are tied … literally. I also know that patience is not Damion’s strong point.
“Psst, bro … calm down … let’s wait until we can see what’s going on … ” I whisper softly at him.
“I’ll fucking kill them,” he mumbles and I totally agree … if anybody so much as hurt a hair on Aria’s head … or my sister’s … they’re fucking double dead!
“Stop pushing me, shitface!” That sounded like Thalia. It seems they captured all the girls too. But why? And then my heart stops beating altogether.
“Sis, I’m scared!” Leyla. Fuck!
“Don’t worry, Leyla, I’m here,” little Luke answers bravely. They even got the kids. I’m getting seriously worried now Garcia won’t kidnap his own son.
“Fuckers!” Noah shouts.
“Hey, guys, keep calm … now is not the time,” Alejandro says, and he’s right.
Then with one quick motion, the bag over my head is removed. I blink a few times to get my eyes accustomed to the sudden light. We are standing in front of a huge yacht, docked in a small private harbor of some sort. And when I say huge … I mean huge. I look around frantically, but there’s no sign of the girls.
Damion gape at me, speaking a thousand words with his eyes, his jaw tight. I nod, letting him know that I’m with him – we’ll fight till the end if needs be. All of us will. This ‘Old man’ type is gonna get his false teeth knocked out.
“Walk!” A guard pushes me towards the ship and I walk onto the boarding ramp. Another man is waiting for us with folded arms, his face as serious as that of a lying politician.
Next to him is some steel drums, filled with concrete with a chain fixed into them. Okay, this is NOT looking good.
“Fucking Alexander,” I swear to myself, blaming my gran it must be his sins that are visited upon us, putting us in harm’s way all the time.
“Told you we’re going to go down the deep blue,” Jesse mumbles as he glares at the drums. Poor guy … he’s not one of the bravest souls out there.
“Take them to the back,” the man orders and we get pushed along the luxury vessel.