by G. Bailey
“So are you going to tell me who you’re hanging out with all the time?” Sebastian asks. I nearly spit my beer out, and I glance at Blake, who wasn’t listening, before answering.
“Just Allie,” I say with a shrug and try to look casual.
“No, I think you’re seeing someone. Who? I won't threaten them . . . much,” he says with a chuckle. I mentally try to think of a way out of this conversation.
“She isn't going to tell you if you say you will threaten them, Seb,” Elliot says, showing me a little, rare smile.
“He’s right,” Blake says with a small smile. I know how guilty he is feeling and how he hates lying to his friends. I know he would rather them threaten him at this point, but nothing they could say would make him stay away from me. There’s nothing they could do that would make me leave Blake either, he has become a part of me.
“So, Sebastian, where have you been going all week? Do I need a list of all the broken hearts?” I ask and raise an eyebrow at him.
He laughs off my comment. “It’s not the same, and I'm not that bad.”
Blake snorts, and Sebastian kicks him. I just laugh and drink a sip of my beer. The rest of the night, until about midnight, we play games and the boys drink more beer. I don't even finish my first, as I'm not a fan. Soon, we walk up the stairs to bed. I can feel Blake’s eyes on me as I walk up.
“See you in the morning,” Sebastian says, and Elliot grunts as they walk into their rooms. I walk to mine, and Blake opens the guest room two doors down from mine. He smiles at me before going in, and I do the same before I start undressing. I only have my bra and panties on as the door opens and Blake closes it. He looks shocked for a second, taking in what I’m wearing, and then he walks to me in three big steps until I’m forced to look up into his dazzling, blue eyes.
Blake pulls me up to his chest and pushes me onto the bed as he kisses me deeply. I wrap my legs around his waist, and he reacts by letting out a groan, pushing him into me more.
I'm so lost in Blake that I don't hear the door open, but I do hear, “What the fuck are you doing?” Sebastian shouts, his voice making both me and Blake freeze.
Blake jumps off me and stands in front of me to hide my state of undress, or to protect me, I’m not sure which.
Blake doesn't say anything to defend himself, but Sebastian rushes forward and punches Blake in the face as I watch in horror. They wrestle onto the ground as Blake blocks most of Sebastian’s punches with his arms, but he doesn’t fight back, or try to stop Sebastian at all. It’s like he wants this punishment, like he wants to suffer for loving me.
“She's my fucking sister, not one of your fuck buddies!” Sebastian sneers, managing to knock Blake’s arm away and landing a sickening punch. I hear people running into the room. I look up to see Elliot, followed by Luke and Harley. I don’t take my eyes away from Sebastian and Blake for more than a second though. Blake still defends himself but won’t fight back, while Sebastian tries to get in more hits.
“Stop them!” I shout at my other brothers with tears running down my cheeks. My shouting at them makes Harley finally snap out of his shock, and then he pushes between them and holds Sebastian back.
“What's going on? Calm the fuck down, Seb,” Harley says calmly, but I can see the threat in the way he stands holding both of Sebastian's arms at his sides.
“I love her. I’m in love with your sister, and I’m not one bit sorry,” Blake states, and his blue eyes meet mine.
“Hell, I have been since I met her. She isn’t a fling. We have been together about a month now,” Blake says as he stands and stares at me for a second before looking back at my brothers. Blake wipes the blood from his lip, and I sit on the bed in shock at his words as the room falls silent.
Blake loves me, he actually loves me. No one says anything as I hop off the bed on the other side and pull on my dress and leggings. I walk to Blake’s side. My brothers finally notice me and look away from Blake and to me.
I entwine my fingers through his and stare at my brothers, waiting for one to speak.
“No, not her. Damn, Blake. You’re like a brother to me, and you had to go and fuck my sister. Of all the girls you could have, she is too good for you to do this to her. I don't believe you when you say you love her,” Sebastian says and shakes his head, shrugging off Harley’s grip.
“You should have told us, both of you,” Elliot says, but he is still glaring at Blake as he crosses his arms.
“I'm surprised no one guessed before this. They are kind of obvious when they sneak looks at each other,” Luke says.
“You knew, and you didn’t stop this!” Sebastian shouts at him and gestures his hands at us.
Luke holds up his hands in surrender. “I didn't know they loved each other; just that they were together, and he wouldn’t hurt her. For fuck’s sake, look at the way he looks at her. I believe him,” he says, and I’m grateful for Luke saying that. Luke smiles and nods his head at us both.
“You don’t know Blake like we do. Luke, he goes through girls like they mean nothing, and our sister is just forbidden fruit to him,” Sebastian says angrily, and I tense at his words. Blake squeezes my hand in comfort.
“Leave,” Sebastian shouts as he points a finger at Blake.
“I think it's for the best, until we all calm down, that you leave, Blake. We can talk about your relationship in the morning. I’m disappointed in both of you that you didn’t tell us,” Harley says, looking at me, and I feel guilty.
“I'm going with him,” I say, and all of my brothers start shaking their heads in disagreement.
“No way,” Sebastian says and moves toward me.
“Yes, he's been drinking, and, to be honest, I want to be with him. You need to accept that. I love him, I won't give him up. I’ll be back tomorrow with Blake after school, and then we can talk calmly,” I say, looking at Harley who nods his acceptance. Harley is the only one who could stop me as I’m still seventeen and under his guardianship.
“There is no way you are leaving with him!” Sebastian shouts and tries to grab my arm.
Blake shoots his hand out and pushes Sebastian away from me. “She is if she wants to. Seb, you can't make her stay, and you need to realise that Izzy is an adult. I won't hurt her, ever, man,” Blake says while staring at his friend. Sebastian doesn’t stand down as he watches Blake, clearly thinking his words through.
“Just go, you two, and we will speak tomorrow,” Harley says and grabs Sebastian again as he says ‘no.’
Blake pulls my hand, leading me downstairs. We pull our coats and shoes on before we leave and get into Blake’s car.
“Damn, I left my phone,” I say as I'm putting my seat belt on and adjusting Blake’s driver seat so I can drive it.
“They can call me, did you mean it, Izzy?” he asks and looks into my eyes as I sit back.
“Did I mean what?” I ask, thinking of everything I said in there. The whole night was madness.
“That you love me,” he asks quietly.
“Yes, I love you, Blake,” I say tenderly. Blake places his large hand on my cheek as he kisses me hard and fast. I moan slowly in the quiet car at the feel of his soft lips.
“I love you, too. Everything will be okay, beauty,” he says and smiles at me, but I can see the worry in his eyes about losing his best friends.
“It will be,” I say confidently, lifting our entwined hands as I kiss his knuckles.
I start the car and we drive off. As we pull out of my drive, I notice a white van parked outside. I can't see much other than it is a large van with two people in the front. It turns its lights on and follows us. I first think it's just a coincidence, but then the van speeds up and is following us way too closely.
“What the hell is this guy’s problem?” Blake asks, looking back, and I speed up a bit to put some distance between us.
The car behind suddenly takes to the other side of the road, so that it’s next to us. I’m thankful we are in the middle of a country road and the
re aren’t any other cars around. I look across Blake into the van and can't see anything other than the shadow of a person in the window, as it’s too dark. I’m wondering what the hell they want when suddenly the van hits our car, hard, and we fly off the road. My scared face looks to Blake’s as the car flips.
The next few moments are blurry. I remember screaming and hearing banging, then pain. I try to wake myself up as I'm pulled from the car by my one arm, and I hear a crack followed by blinding pain in my other arm. I can’t see or hear anything. There’s nothing but the pain in my arm for a while. But then I try to look up. I can feel my head pounding as I lift it slightly, and one side of my face feels wet and warm. I know its blood pouring down the one side of my face. I try to ignore it, the arm that's not being pulled is so painful I can’t think of anything else.
When I finally look up to who is carrying me, I’m a little taken aback to see the face of a massive, bald man. The scary-looking man has a snake tattoo down his neck, and I don’t know if it’s the pain that is making it look like the snake is eating his ear or not.
The man’s gaze hits mine as he walks, and he throws me over his shoulder. Everything is blurry, but then I remember as my head hits his back.
“Blake's in the car, my boyfriend, please help him,” I slur my words and I’m not sure if anyone can understand what I just said.
“Shut up, little girl,” he says in a cracked voice. I shiver and try to fight him to make my way back to Blake. I try screaming Blake’s name, but I feel myself being thrown into a van. The door slams behind me as everything goes dark. The pain from my head is now blinding as I try to lift it, only to see a skinny, brown haired-man going through a box next to me.
"Izzy," I hear my name being shouted by Blake, and the next noise I hear is a gunshot. Before I pass out, I scream and scream until a sharp prick on my neck takes me into darkness.
25
Blake
Why does my head hurt so fucking much? I ask myself as I slowly take in my surroundings. I'm in a car and, other than my head banging, everything feels all right. My eyes blur as I open them.
I’m hanging by my seatbelt, and I’m not fool enough not to realise the ringing in my ears isn’t a good sign. I can smell smoke, but I can’t see much in the dark night with just the car lights shining across the empty field. I look to the driver’s seat to see it empty. I unclip myself from the seat belt and fall to the ground with a thud on my side. I’m lucky I didn’t hit my head on the way. I look back at the empty driver seat, and it all comes back. I remember the car driving us off the road.
Izzy was driving.
Where the hell is Izzy? I think as my whole body starts panicking, and my eyes dart around the outside of the car. The broken glass cuts through my hand as I pull myself up to my door, but I don’t feel anything as my mind desperately thinks of where Izzy is.
I slide through the passenger seat and out the door, and as soon as my feet hit the cold ground, I see a shadow of a large man with a girl on his shoulder walking toward a van.
I feel sick as I clumsily start running toward the van as he throws her inside of it. I hear her say my name in a slurred voice, and a rush of fear fills me as I try to run faster toward the van.
"Izzy!" I shout into the silent night with only the sounds of the van’s engine and the sizzling noise from the crash behind me. The giant bald man, who had Izzy, turns to me, and I recognise him instantly from the snake tattoo on his neck. Izzy is in far worse trouble than I ever thought. Fuck. I need to get to her.
"Stop," I say breathlessly as I run toward him with all of my strength. I’m too focused on Izzy in that van, and how she might be hurt from the crash, that I don’t look at the snake tattooed man as I run the last few metres to the van. The idea of anyone taking her is scaring me more than anything else at the moment. I don't see the second guy come out of the van, but I do hear the gunshot and feel the stabbing pain in my upper arm.
I fall to the ground in blinding pain. As I lie on the cold earth, I hear the van take off into the night with Izzy. I want to shout and scream, but everything goes black.
My eyes open to a blurry night sky, and I quickly realise I must have blacked out.
I have no choice but to look at my arm as the pain is sharp, so I rip my shirt at the top with my other arm so I can see. It isn’t bleeding too much, the bullet must have gone straight through as I can feel the exit wound on the other side. It takes all of my strength to get myself up off the ground, but thoughts of my time with Izzy flash through my mind, making it possible.
I walk slowly back to my wrecked car as it’s on its side and open the boot to find my gym bag. I tear a shirt up carefully, even though it kills my arm to do, but I’m fucking lucky that I have a pocket knife in my boot. I grit my teeth as I look back at my arm, I know what I fucking need to do. I force more thoughts of Izzy into my head as I make a knot around the bullet wound on my arm with the torn shirt, pulling it tight with my good hand and teeth. I have to hold back a scream, as, fucking hell, it hurts so much. I swear I saw my mother’s face and then Izzy’s as my vision blurs again.
I have a strange thought pop into my head of Izzy smiling at me as I hold her in my arms. Izzy’s strawberry scent filling my mind as she sweetly kisses me as I watch her lean back and smile at me. I know there will never be another girl like her for me. I would die a thousand deaths for my beauty.
My Izzy, my beautiful girl, gets me through the next few minutes without passing out, and I remind myself I need to move because I know who fucking has her.
I shake my head and call a cab with my phone, which was in my pocket, after trying to ring the brothers first. I’m fucking lucky I have spare cash in my gym bag too.
It takes a little while for me to walk down the road and find the end, to tell the cab driver where I am. I can't have him seeing the bloody crash because he will call the police, and Izzy doesn't have that much time. I pull a hoodie on, and, fuck, that hurts, but I'm so buzzed with worry about Izzy, it doesn't matter.
My fear for her life is overpowering any concern I have for my body now. I can pass out when she is safe in my arms.
I try calling all the brothers and none of them answer, it makes me want to punch something. I guess they think I'm calling to say sorry, but they still should have answered the bloody phone.
Fucking hell. They need to answer their phones, I think as I call Harley’s phone again. I send some messages asking them to call me, and it’s important, but none are read as I wait.
The cab finally pulls up and the driver just frowns at me as he asks for the address. I tell him Izzy’s address, and he just nods at me and drives. I’m lucky this one isn’t a chatty guy.
When we pull up, I pay him one hundred pounds and ask him to forget seeing me. The man looks at me for a second before he agrees. I walk straight up to their house and open the door, not bothering to knock as we don’t have any fucking time. That monster could be doing anything to Izzy.
"Seb! Hell, all of you, get down here!" I shout loudly, and I hear my voice echo throughout the silent house.
"What the fuck do you want? Isn't our sister enough," Seb's sarcastic voice comes from the kitchen. I turn to see him and Luke walk in. Seb stops in his tracks as the anger fades from his face, and I lock my eyes with him as I sway a little. I can feel the blood sticking to the side of my face and dripping down my arm.
"Whose blood is that?” Seb asks with a worried voice, coming over to hold me up on one side.
“It doesn’t matter. Arthur has Izzy, and, damn, it's a long story," I huff, finally feeling my body catching up to me.
"What?" Luke asks in a dangerously low voice.
"Please say that's not her blood, too," Seb pales, and I can see the worry, plus a hell of a lot of anger, running through both of their faces.
"His goons ran our car off the road and took her. Then they shot me when I tried to stop them. She didn't look good when I last saw her. We need to get to her quickly," I say, rushing my w
ords, but I know they understand me.
"Where have you been shot, man?" comes the dark voice of Harley, and I look over to see him walking the last steps to the bottom of the stairs, with Elliot following just behind him. I’m guessing they heard what I’ve said by the dangerous looks on their faces.
"My arm. I'm fine, we need to find her," I say, pushing Seb away from me to stand as I groan from the pain.
"Let me look and sort you out. Seb, go and get the guns.” Harley sighs, moving to my side, and I let him help me.
“Elliot, find out where she is, and Luke, you get the first aid kit," Harley finishes in a sharp tone that leaves no doubt he is serious. Everyone moves into action without asking a single question. I forget how loyal this family is to each other, but it’s clear from the determined look on their faces that they would fight for Izzy, just like I am going to.
"Leave my arm, we need to find her." I shrug off his attempt to look at my arm.
"You’re bleeding on the floor, and if you pass out, you will be useless to her. If you really love her as much as I think you do, let me sort you out. We are going to need your help," he says, walking with me into the kitchen.
"Fine. I'm just going mad thinking about anyone touching her," I pant, pulling off my hoodie with one arm while I talk. The action kills my arm, but Harley helps me get the last part off so I don’t nudge it too much.
Harley looks at me for a second, with what I believe to be understanding, and nods as he sighs. “Go through everything from the start.”
I do as Luke comes back, and they wrap my arm up to stop the bleeding. Harley tells me I need stitches, but from one look at my face, he knows there is no chance until Izzy is safe.
"Izzy is at The Cage. Tristan messaged me. He can't help, but we know why," Elliot says as he comes into the room, now dressed in all black.
I'm surprised Tristan helped us considering the last time he helped Izzy he got into trouble, and I punched him in anger. It wasn't the best move, but I saw red when I looked at him and thought of him touching Izzy.