ChapterSeventeen
“What do you have planned for this evening?” Milo asked as he walked beside me towards the school’s exit. The day seemed to have drug on forever after lunch. There hadn’t been any more run-ins with either the Valentino boys or Dom and Angel. Which surprised me. I half expected to be cornered somewhere by one of my boys with all kinds of questions about what happened in the hallway.
Perhaps seeing me almost choke the life out of one of their enemies was enough to make them happy. That didn’t mean I was in the clear with them. I would be seeing them again, and soon if I knew them. They weren’t going to let this all go.
“I have a few things I need to handle later, but it should be a fairly quiet night. My uncle is due back in the next day or two. I need to sit down and figure out how to handle him.”
That wasn’t something I was looking forward to. I could already see where it was heading and how he was going to respond to me questioning him. It should be an interesting conversation. That’s for sure.
“You haven’t talked to him at all since Jasper told you all of that?” He pulled the door open and held it for me to pass through. I had to admit the guy was a gentleman like I hadn’t seen in a while. It wasn’t just me he did stuff like that with. He also pulled out chairs and opened doors and shit for Alicen too. I found it kind of sweet.
“No. I think it would be better to get to the bottom of it in person. My uncle is a great liar, but his eyes also give him away. At least with me. We tend to have that same dead vacant look to our eyes, but when he lies, he tries too hard and puts emotions into his looks. It’s a dead giveaway. If I’m going to get real answers, I need to talk to him where I can see his face.” I also don’t want to give him the chance to run off on me.
I would hate to think he’s the type to attempt a disappearing act when he’s caught in this rather huge life altering lie, but you can never really know someone. I wouldn’t put anything past anyone. Even my uncle.
Students were still pouring out of the school and into the parking lot. Alicen was avoiding me. She might’ve said she had some after school class shit to do, but I knew better than that. She was pissed at me for what happened that afternoon. Since meeting me she liked to believe she was a badass. There were times when she had her moments, but she didn’t have to put herself through that when I was around. Dom and Angel were my problem. They were here because of me. If there was something going on with them, I would be the one to take care of it.
None of that mattered to her. I didn’t even get to sit down completely in my chair at the lunch table before she was jumping down my throat about making a scene in the hallway and saving her like she was some fucking damsel in distress. That hadn’t been my intention, but nothing I said could make her understand that.
I was just trying to make sure Santiago’s men understood what lines they could and couldn’t cross. If I didn’t put them in their place they would continue to try and run over us all. This wasn’t their show to run, it was mine. I wasn’t even sure what their purpose here was other than to keep tabs on me to report back to their boss. Soon that would be something else I needed to put a stop too.
The closer I got to the end of my plans the less I wanted him to know about.
“You want us there with you?” The question was asked in a hopeful tone that I wasn’t sure if I should ignore or not.
There has been something going on with Milo as well lately. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I planned to find out. Since becoming friends with him, he’d come out of his shell more and more as the weeks went on. Whatever was going on with him had started to push him back into his box. It had him jumpy and being more cautious than I’d ever seen him be.
I knew without a doubt that whatever was going on was happening at home. I will be making a trip to his house soon to check it out. If I found out anyone was hurting him there, I’d put an end to them the same way I had Jasper’s father back in the day. No one hurts the people I care about, and Milo was on that list.
“No. I don’t know what will happen when I start questioning him, and he can be just as dangerous as I could. If you and any of the others are there, you could be used against me. That isn’t something I would be able to handle. I don’t want to put any of you guys at risk.” Me and Uncle Tony weren’t really the caring and sharing type of family. We didn’t really talk about our day to day lives much, so he didn’t know anything about Alicen and Milo. At least I hoped he didn’t. He had his own people he used on occasion for recon or intel work. It’s possible he could’ve been keeping eyes on me with them, but I doubted it.
He knew I would take care of my own shit, and that was my only focus. He didn’t tell me what I could or couldn’t do. There would be no reason for him to pay out money to have me watched. Especially since Santiago had his men on me.
“You need to remember that you’re not in this alone. Jasper’s been on your side for a long time, but now you have me and Alicen too. We care about you, and don’t want to wake up one day and you just be gone. I know it’s hard for you to open up and let us in, but you need to remember that you have people on your side.” He’d grabbed my wrist and stopped me from walking the last ten feet to my car. I could see the sincerity in his gaze, and I was honestly touched.
Jasper had been the only one to give a shit about me in a long time. Having Milo and Alicen to stand next to me was kind of great, but it also scared the shit out of me. Neither of them had lived the kind of life where they had to handle the kind of things that went on in my life.
There was nothing but blood and death that surrounded me when I was away from them. I didn’t want them mixed up in all of that. They were my safe space. The place where I didn’t have to think about all the pain I brought about.
Alicen gave me moments of pizza, beer, and cheesy romantic movies while we talked about boys. Where we binge watched TVs and painted our nails. Girly shit that I never did before I met her. Milo told corny jokes that no one really thought were funny but couldn’t help but laugh at because of the ridiculous expressions on his face when he delivered the punch line. Jasper had been part of the darkness in my life for so long that I was worried he didn’t know how to live in the light anymore.
I’m a selfish creature by nature, and I didn’t want to give up what I had with them. It meant so much to me to know I could call them, and they’d come over without hesitation. That when they arrived, we didn’t have to talk about anything to do with the Valentino boys or Gio if I didn’t want to.
“I know you’re on my side, and I can’t thank you enough for that. You’re my friends, and that’s something I haven’t been able to say in like ever. Jasper is the only person I’ve allowed close to me, and that wasn’t even by choice. He just kind of pushed his way in and wouldn’t leave. I appreciate that you and Alicen don’t have anything to do with that side of my life. You’re not covered in the blood I’ve spilt. Instead, you two are the people in my life where I can just be a regular teenage high schooler. Where I can talk about exams, stupid girls in class, and boys that think too much of themselves. That’s what I need from you two. I need that more than I need anything else.”
A softness entered his eyes as he looked at me. He knew what I was talking about. He’d seen me on occasion after Jasper had pulled me out of that warehouse where I’d woken up from nightmares, covered in sweat, and consumed with the need to vomit up all the contents of my stomach. I’ve always had an issue with seeing the faces of the people I’ve killed over the years. They were on a slideshow in my mind that played over and over again. Their faces were never far from me. I tried over the years to push them away but knowing what I’d done to them and acknowledging what that made me feel was probably the only thing that was keeping me somewhat human.
For some reason what happened to me at the docks is the thing that threw me into strange uncontrollable bouts of PTSD. Even loud sounds had been bothering me. I could still hear the sound of that gunshot ringing in my ears.
That being said, Milo had seen me at my weakest point. He knew what I’d gone through. That made him feel soft towards me. It made him want to take care of me whenever he could. I didn’t know if I looked weak in his eyes, but a small secret part of myself liked that he wanted to take care of me. Even Jasper wouldn’t go as far as to try and care for me the way Milo tried to. It made me appreciate his sweet demeanor all the more.
“Fine, but don’t think I’m happy about you running off to do whatever…” whatever he was going to say was cut off by the ear-splitting sound of my car exploding.
We didn’t have time to brace ourselves. There was no ducking for cover. The heat of the explosion blew over our bodies as we were thrust to the ground.
The jolt felt like nothing I’d ever felt before. My ears were ringing. My skin felt singed. Heat covered me, and the smell of smoke filled my nose. Even my vision felt affected by the blast. My bones felt like jelly, and there was a pain starting in my shoulder and hip where I’d hit the pavement on my side.
Debris from my car was raining down from the sky around us. Slowly I turned my head to find Milo lying beside me. There was a small smattering of blood on his forehead where he’d landed next to me, but he was awake. His eyes were closed tightly, and a hand was raised to his head.