“So now what? You must have come back for a reason,” I say, biding my time. No one goes anywhere alone, and my brothers will be coming soon, if they are not already here. But also, I know something he doesn’t and all I need is time.
“Nothing has changed, Joseph. As soon as I get you out of the way, I will be you. Or us? Whatever. And now I have a wife! Thanks for that by the way; she’s a looker.” He laughs again and blinks a few times and struggles to focus his eyes.
“Are you ok?”
“What? What did you do to me?”
“Too bad you were so focused on my favorite color and food, then maybe you would have learned my specialties when I was in the Marines. Not only am I a deep dive specialist but I am also proficient in poisons. My gun, the handle is covered in it. It’s absorbed through the skin, I made this a little slower acting so I could get some answers, but it’s obviously starting to kick in. Once we get out of here, we can have some real fun.” He pulls my gun out and tries to fire but nothing happens, so he tries again with the same result. “It’s biometric, coded for my fingerprint.” I stand and walk around the desk. “Where is she?” I ask, leaning down in his face.
“You touched the handle too! You’re going to be just as bad as me in a second,” he says smugly.
“Yeah? So, you think I’d really create a poison and not create the antidote too? Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. Now WHERE. IS. SHE!” I say between clenched teeth. Before he can answer, I watch his hand drop to the desk and he slumps down face first. He is still able to look at me, but just like I was immobile because of him, he can’t move either. The office door opens behind me, and my brothers rush in and immediately take in the scene before them. “Tie him up and put him in the truck and help me find Joyce,” I bark at them, and we are in motion before the words are all the way out of my mouth. We spread out, calling her name and looking behind every door and possible place he could have put her. I start to walk past the walk-in refrigerator, but I stop and turn back to it, a sick feeling in my stomach. That room is kept just above freezing for the ingredients to last longer. I pull the door open and there she is in the corner, balled up, trying to keep warm and most likely unconscious. I scoop her up and rush with her outside to get her warmed up. And I feel like I can finally take a deep breath, because this nightmare is finally over.
1 Day Later
“Weren’t we just here?” I ask my brothers.
“Yep,” Aryan answers.
“Well hopefully this will be the last time. All this shit started happening when Josh married Savvy; before that we lead peaceful lives,” Asher says.
“I see someone wants to get fucked up today. I can’t wait for your woman to come along; I am sure she is going to cause this family more trouble than all the wives have put together,” Josh says.
“I doubt it. I will be the one brother who maintains his singleness,” Asher says.
“Famous last words,” Jaasiel says. “But I think I’ll be staying single with you, brother.”
“Way to guarantee some fucked up shit happens to you,” Aryan says laughing. “All I am going to hope for is I can handle whatever comes my way.”
“Well, it doesn’t seem like Brooklyn has much in her past,” Atlas says and chuckles at Aryan’s deer in the headlights look.
“I know you didn’t think you were hiding that, did you?”
“I didn’t know I had to hide anything but being attracted doesn’t equal marriage.”
“True,” we all agree.
A moan interrupts our conversation and brings our attention to the man on the cot in the middle of the garage. You would have thought we were out having a drink and shooting the shit with each other, and not talking shit while waiting for an unconscious man to wake up.
“What did you do to me? I can’t feel my legs.”
“And how does that make you feel?” I ask like a therapist would during a session.
“I told you I didn’t mean for you to get hurt that bad. I just wanted to be a part of your family! You guys were the ones who told me I could be a Gideon!”
“When the hell did we tell you that?”
“When I completed a project on my own and Josh said, ‘You did an amazing job You could be a Gideon’,” he whines.
“Wow, and you thought he meant that literally?” I ask.
“Like I told you, I wanted to be a part of this family. I never had a family really; it was just me and my mom until she took me to school one day and never came back. My dad died before I was born, and I don’t have any brothers or sisters, so I was on my own. I just wanted a family.”
“So, after you got to know what you wanted to know about me, what would you have done with me?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie now, Scott. What is your real name?”