POV: Miguel
“You should have said something if you knew he was here; why do you always love to see me at my weakest? Why do you love making me look stupid?” I asked him, glaring at him as we walked back to the car. He laughed at my anger, teasing and giggling like an idiot.
“It’s fun to see that you are not as tough as you pretend to be. You may act all tough and dangerous, but that is just pretense.” He joked, laughing like an idiot. I refused to be called a fool; I refused to laugh along with him; I just walked faster and left him behind, leaving him to laugh as much as he desired.
“Asshole!” I muttered under my breath as I walked away from him. I guess my tone and the way I banged the door is enough to tell him that I’m fucking pissed off at him. He walked faster to catch up with me, but I was already in the car before he got in.
“What the hell is your problem, Miguel?
One minute you are cool with me and the next minute you are acting like a complete douchebag!” he accused, sounding offended.
“What does she have on you, why the hell were you so calm over there?” I asked him, yelling back at him. He squinted his eyes in thought, taken aback by my outburst.
“What the hell are you talking about?” he retorted furiously because he knew what I was about to say to him. Yeah, I could see it in his eyes; he knows what I mean; he knows I’m about to confront him again and ask him why he did not yell or scream at Eloise the way I did.
“You were being all nice and diplomatic with her and it seems as if you didn’t want to offend her or something. Now in my experience, if someone starts being all nice and shady around the enemy, it means they have something to hide. So I ask you again, Raphael Hawkins, what does she have on you, why the hell were you being nice with her?” I asked him angrily. If he thinks I will be intimidated by his glares, then he needs to think again.
“Stop staring at mas if I’m a fucking alien, Raphael. This is not how I expected you to react when we come in contact with the evil witch that we have been searching for. You acted so furious and hurt when we were searching for her, and then you had a chance to tell her just how furious you were, but you suddenly went mute on me and decided to play the long game of silence. Who the hell behaves like that?
You are supposed to be on my side, Raphael. When I scream, you scream too. When I attack, you do the same. You don’t go mute on me and let me yell alone like a damn fool!” I told him angrily. He scoffed and shook his head at me as if I were a clown.
“You are unbelievable, you know that?” he asked me, the veins on his forehead popping out in anger as he focused on the road and drove us back home to freshen up.
“Every fucking time I try to make you understand that we are dealing with a dumb psychopath, and every fucking time you prove to me that you are even dumber.” he accused, sounding furious. I glared at him, but that didn’t stop him from raining abuse on me.
“Eloise is not as smart as she thinks, she is just paranoid and dumb. She could do anything if provoked, so we need to be smart if we are going to find the girls alive. Provoking her and making her hurt the girls even more is not an option. I’ve said this before and I’m going to say it again, Miguel. Your emotions are all over the place; you need to put your emotions in check and act wisely so we don’t provoke her to the point where she kills the girls and still blames it on us.
You must always remember that Eloise has nothing to lose, literally nothing. She would kill them if we pushed her beyond her limit. So instead of trying to provoke her and getting the girls killed, why don’t you follow her instructions and also find little evidence from just watching and listening?” he asked me, sounding pissed.
“If you had paid attention to the details instead of yelling at her like a damn fool, you would have heard the sound of the boat’s engine and the sound of the coast guards patrol horning from afar. If you had been less aggressive and listened attentively, you would have heard the sound of the water and realized that they must have landed so close to the water and they were using a boat to get to their final destination.
Yeah, you are right. I got all this information from the few minutes she yelled at us. And if you weren’t hell-bent on yelling back at her, you would have noticed these things and more too.
So the next time you think of blaming someone, I suggest you blame yourself for being an arrogant fool!” he accused me, yelling and scolding me like a damn child. To think that I was busy trying to annoy Eloise while he was working to save my sister. This goes a long way to prove that he is not as annoying as I would love to imagine.
He wasn’t hiding any damn secret, he was trying to stall her to keep her from ending the call because he was trying to find out where she was. His silence was just to get her talking while his ears and eyes worked on finding more clues and pinpointing her location.
So, while I was arguing with Eloise, Raphael paid attention to details; he was listening to the noises and trying to figure out what was making the strange noise in the video. I heard that noise too, but I thought it sounded like water on a beach, and I didn’t think to listen to anything because I was too furious with her to think of anything else.
“What are you saying? Do you think she has a boat? Is that where she is keeping the girls?” I asked him urgently, earning a scoff as he ignored my question and just drove up ahead, pretending I wasn’t there. I feel so stupid right now, it’s my fault she got taken away and I’m letting my emotions get in the way of this investigation.
Gosh, I’m so stupid!
“I’m sorry man, I don’t know what I was thinking,” I told him calmly, thinking he would let it slide. But he wasn’t buying my explanation this time. He swerved the car sideways and pulled over on the curb, and then he turned to me with a deadly glare, the heat of his gaze boring holes in my skin.
“No, Miguel!
Don’t be sorry!
You do this every damn time, and you say sorry at the end, but it doesn’t change how you feel about me; it doesn’t make you trust me any less. You have an issue with me and I want to know why. You find every chance to prove that you are better than me and ive tried so hard to make you see that it’s not a business deal and it’s not a competition either.
We don’t have to be rivals, there are no losers or winners in this case. So what the hell is your problem with me, why won’t you listen to me and follow my instructions?” he asked me angrily, his eyes fixed on me, watching my every reaction. I couldn’t even lie this time, not when he was watching my every move.
“Fine!
I’ll tell you what I have against you, Raphael Hawkins. You act as if you love and care about her more than I do, and if I don’t put as much effort as you do, you will find her all alone, and she will love you more!” I let out angrily, speaking my mind.
“I just want to be the one that saves my sister this time. I want her to look up to me the way she looks up to you. Did you notice how she kept calling out to you, asking you to save her?
She didn’t even act as if I was there; she never acknowledged my presence, and it’s because of you!
She loves you, trusts you, and is beloved of you as if you were her family. But you are not her family, Raphael, I am. And it’s unfair that you get to be treated the way I’m supposed to be treated. It’s just not Right!
To think that she was supposed to be angry with you after you lied to her for God knows how long. But she is not angry with you because she loves and trusts you. I have never lied to my sister; as such, I should be treated better. And she would have treated me better if you weren’t in the picture.
So you see, it’s all your fault. You are trying to take my sister away from me and I won’t let you!” I told him sternly, looking out the window to control my emotions. I guess it was about time that I finally opened up to him that I felt jealous when Victoria asked him to save her instead of me.
“I’m her only brother, and I’m capable of saving her; she needs to trust me more. I know you would think that I’m just being jealous and petty, but that’s not my business. Trust me, I don’t care what anyone says, I know it’s all your fault. If you weren’t in the picture, she would trust me. She would love me like she is supposed to and she would depend on me completely. It is you, Raphael Hawkins. You are my only problem!” I confessed in my anger.