Chapter 15

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"Oh my God, your eye –"

"It's fine." I cut Claire off as she looked at it, pushing her hands away when she tried to touch my face. Up until now I had avoided my friends like I usually did but I guess they were becoming more persistent in finding me.

"Like hell it is." Jordan said, "Who the hell did this to you?"

"It doesn't matter. I said it's fine." I hissed shoving by them to walk into the building but Jordan grabbed my arm just above my elbow.

"Enough." He glared at me, "What the hell is going on, Alex? Who are you 'visiting'?"

"I don't owe you an answer to that, Jordan. You're like a brother to me but step off; I can take care of myself."

"Yes, your eye shows that perfectly." Shiloh inserted.

"You're one to talk." I replied before I pulled my arm from Jordan's hand and walked into school.

I let out a sigh annoyed with myself and completely regretting what I said to him, after all, but I forced myself not to look back at them before I turned down the hallway and began walking towards the last lecture I had. I was being so childish...

A few hours later I sat in the back of the room with my hood on and my headphones beneath it trying to avoid anyone that I knew might speak to me. I was sick of getting questions relating to my eye. I had spent every lecture like this, taking notes on the words I barely heard through my music as the professors spoke. I needed a break, and this was as much of one as I was going to get so even though I knew I would have a ton of work to go over when I got back to the house, I didn't really care.

The class finished and I grabbed my things quickly and made my way outside to find Clyde in his car. I greeted him with a grunt as I climbed into the car.

"Well, someone's still grumpy from getting their eye all battered up. Soon you're going to look like another one of Sasha's stitched dolls." He said. I let out a humourless laugh giving him a flat stare. He called Kiera over this morning to stitch my eye up before we left. "On a serious note: try not to get yourself killed."

"I had been doing really well with that until I met all of you." I muttered.

"Right." He chuckled.

I frowned letting out a sigh as I dropped the money into the cubbyhole.

"Can I get out?" I asked.

"Right now? Why? Are you sick?"

He raised his brows glancing at me and outside the car.

"No, of this. Can I leave? I've made you a shit ton of money already."

"Sergio decides when you've made enough." He replied.

"Sergio doesn't even know what the hell he wants, probably hasn't ever had enough of anything in his mind."

"Say that to his face or around anyone besides me and I promise I'm not calling Kiera to fix your other eye and whatever else you need to be kept together." Clyde said as he stopped at the house. I attempted to get out but he grabbed my shoulder as he locked the car's doors. "Looking at you when I didn't know you, I would never have thought you could put up any type of a fight, I'm happy you can but you need to know when to keep your mouth shut, Alexander. What if Nigel decided to use his gun before that drive-by? Forget what type of threat we are to your family and friends, you're on the verge of getting yourself killed, how do you think they would feel about that?" he asked before he unlocked the car tossing the keys at me and left.

I frowned as I watched him walk into the house while I thought about what he said. If I get killed I'll never be able to explain to Jordan and the others that this wasn't something I had chosen to do. I would die a lying, low-life gang member in their eyes. I let out a sigh as I got out and allowed myself to be surprised by the fact that Clyde had left me alone outside with his car, a cubbyhole full of money and the keys. I smiled shutting the door and making my way into the house as I locked the car. I think he trusts me... weird.

I grinned as I spotted Kent on the couch with his feet on the coffee table.

"Really?" I asked.

"This is what I do when I'm here by myself." He smirked.

I laughed as Clyde frowned at him from the hallway. My smile fell when the door smashed open behind me and Ben stormed in followed by three other men that looked just as angry.

Why was someone around here always ticked off?

"Have you heard from Sergio?" Ben asked Clyde.

"Not since last night, no. What happened?"

"The baking factory has been burnt down."

"Burnt down?" Kent had already left the room at this point while Clyde stared at Ben in disbelief.

"We hit a couple of guys as they left but they're both dead so we don't have any type of lead on this." A guy that was covered in tattoos said as he leaned against the couch.

"Does Sergio know?" Clyde asked.

"We don't think so, we can't reach him." The same guy replied.

I wanted to leave the room; I didn't need to know any more about this shit. I attempted to walk out but I stopped when the door opened and Sergio walked in.

He stopped instantly sensing the tension and looked around the living room. I noticed that everyone – including Clyde – looked somewhat nervous right now. I looked back at Sergio and tried to figure out if he had a side I hadn't seen yet. Probably. I had not exactly ever pushed him to breaking point but he must have gone there in front of them. He must have had a pretty terrible bad side for them to be this nervous in his presence when he did not even seem angry.

"What happened?" He asked; his face neutral, voice calm.

"One of the baking factories burnt down." Ben replied.

"Oh, okay. Well, I took care of that. Is that what you're all worked up about?"

"Took care of it? How did you know?" The tattooed guy asked.

"I got your text so I checked the cameras around it and I happened to know the two men that got away. I took care of it because apparently I hired a bunch of useless bystanders to protect my merch." Sergio said as he pulled his jacket off and hung it on the rack beside the door.

"Sergio –" Ben began.

"Shut up." Sergio cut him off, "I'm not interested in your excuses – any of you."

"How did you take care of it?" A blonde guy that had no trace of any body-art spoke.

"If you must know, I had two of their warehouses burnt down, which is what you should have done instead of wasting time calling me all fucking day." Sergio muttered as his phone began to ring. He let out an annoyed sigh which was the only thing beside his words that showed that he wasn't as calm as his face and movements were showing. "What is it now? You better not be calling me for trivial shit." I watched his jaw clench as he listened to the voice at the other end. He hung up and put his phone into his pocket looking at Ben and the other three men. "Can you do a job or do I have to get someone to hold your fucking hands going through it?"

I should leave now... I edged slightly closer to where Clyde was but did not just walk out because I did not want attention drawn to me. That was the last thing I needed.

"We'll handle it." Ben spoke. I raised my eyebrows seeing how much Sergio being angry at him upset him. He seriously liked him? I wondered if Sergio noticed that. Ben wasn't putting much effort into hiding it.

"Nigel's dead. I want you to send a message worse than that." Sergio said.

"How about Aaron's son? He should be on his way home from soccer practice and will have to fetch his sister from kindergarten in about ten minutes, we can meet him halfway." Blonde said.

"Right. Kill her." Sergio said like it was nothing, "Make sure he has something to tell his father about." I stared shocked as he left the room heading into the hallway.

Ben and the others walked out leaving Clyde and I in the house. I saw Clyde swallow nervously before he walked upstairs.

I ran upstairs past Clyde and shoved Sergio's room's door open to find him undressing casually. He still had his pants on but his chest was bare as he turned to me.

"You can't be serious! You're going to kill a little girl?!" I asked.

"You have one job, unless you want to get caught up in this, stick to what I tell you to do and shut up." He said.

"She's someone's daughter. She's a child." I said.

"You don't consider the fact that Nigel has two daughters, a son and a younger brother that he takes care of?" he raised his brows at me, "Oh, I mean had taken care of because he's fucking dead. They're all below fifteen years old, they had no one besides him, and now they have no one at all. He worked as my guard for seven years and I'll be damned if his death goes unpunished." Sergio said. I stepped back a little listening to the venom in his low voice before I straightened up.

"Two wrongs don't make a right." I said.

"Maybe not in your world, but here we avenge and we fight because what we want – what we need – doesn't come in the form of a perfect little rich family and tons of inheritance. Everything we have, everything we need comes from hard work and war. We have to fight for it. Welcome to the real world, Richardson." He shut his door in my face and I figured that Clyde had told him about my parents.

I shoved his door back open and glared at him.

"My parent's money has nothing to do with me or this. This is some foolish game all of you have made up and in the midst of it innocent people – and fucking children – die and lose their way of life because assholes like you are too lazy to do legitimate work. So don't fucking blame the fact that I know this is wrong on my money, because you know it too." I said.

Before he could reply I was shoved back by Clyde who then pulled the door shut.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Clyde hissed as he shoved me into my room, "You have no fucking idea how he feels right now, if I had killed Shiloh you would have slit my neck at the first chance you got and you know it. And don't try to act like a saint in all of this because all those people you sell to, when they OD, their deaths are pretty much on your hands." He slammed my door when he finished leaving me alone in my room.

I let out a sigh sitting back on my bed and decided to ignore all of this. I didn't care, none of this was my problem and as far as I was concerned, they were all really bad people, so whatever they got they deserved.

Well, so are you.

Maybe I was, but she wasn't. Kindergarten? She had to be younger than Sasha. She couldn't deserve this.

I covered my face trying to push it from my mind. There's nothing I could have done about it.

*****