20. Same Heartbeat #2
Snapping out of his thoughts, Caleb looked at the bag of food sitting on the counter. He thanked the cashier with a nod and grabbed the food. His eyes darted, expecting to see him. Hoping. But Korea had a population of 52 million. Finding his brother was like finding a needle in a haystack.
Watching the cars drive by, Caleb couldn’t help but wonder how Jamie had coped. He was barely an adult when he was forced to live in a country where he knew not the language, the culture, or the customs. But Jamie was a quick learner. He was also a survivor. They both were.
Caleb’s heart hurt. He almost wished he had never learned Jamie was still alive. The thought of knowing but not knowing where Jamie was or how to find him hurt so much more.
His beating heart… was missing.
Turning a corner, Caleb stopped short and exhaled his frustration. “Did you guys really follow me?”
With his hands in his pockets, Keith walked up behind him. “I mean, I preferred to stay at the hotel to have some Creme de la Pussy, but she begged us to keep an eye on you.”
Caleb rolled his eyes as Ian strolled on the other side of him. “She’s worried about you,” Ian said. “We all are.”
Caleb shook his head. “Why? Not like he means anything to you.”
“He’s still family,” Ian insisted.
“You called him a lost cause,” Caleb muttered.
Ian exhaled sharply as he looked at the sky.
“Jamie was… is… unhinged. But it’s not really his fault, is it?
Your father abandoned your mother, who sold her body just to put food on the table.
You two worked two jobs while going to school, only for your mother to die before she saw freedom.
You raised yourselves before my parents took you in and abused you.
And then The Society made him disappear, severing any ties he had with any family or friends… ”
A pregnant silence lingered. “Shit… I’d go fucking crazy, too,” Keith snorted.
“You are fucking crazy,” Caleb said.
“Yeah, but not Jamie crazy,” Keith retorted.
“Debatable,” Caleb and Ian said simultaneously.
Caleb leaned against the railing. “I just… I need to see him. I need to see my brother,” he said, fighting back tears. “To be this close to him, and yet still so far away… It’s fucking killing me.”
“Jamie doesn’t even know you know he’s alive, Caleb. Because you’re not supposed to know. That was the pact Jax and Jamie agreed to with The Society in order for you two to keep your lives,” Ian reminded him.
“I would have chosen death over this!” Caleb snapped angrily. “If I had the choice, I’d choose my brother. I choose Jamie over the fucking Society.”
Ian slowly exhaled as he looked at Caleb empathetically. “That’s precisely why you didn’t get a choice. Jamie and Jax both chose this, Caleb. They both chose you…”
Caleb wiped his face in a fight to stop his tears, but he couldn’t stop his broken heart. He felt like vomiting. His chest caved in as he struggled to breathe. His ears rang, and the lights felt blinding. “We should take him back,” Ian said to Keith.
“JJ?”
Caleb blinked, confused at a young Korean woman in a mini-skirt and thigh-high boots.
“No, I’m… I’m Caleb,” he said. The woman looked at him, confused.
“Wait… Did- did you see someone who looks like me?” Her eyes widened as she stepped back while speaking in Korean. “What is she saying?” Caleb asked.
“She said, 'Never mind.’ She confused you with someone else,” Ian frowned.
“Ask her if she saw someone who looks like me,” Caleb said. Ian spoke to the woman in Korean, but she frantically shook her head and took off in the other direction. “Wait, come back!” Caleb shouted, running after.
A satiated smile painted Deja’s face as she rubbed Jax’s chest. “I don’t know what demon possessed you, but you turn into a monster when you’re fucking,” she mused.
“...is that a compliment or a cry for help?” Jax asked.
“Both. I feel like you knocked a few years off my life,” she laughed as she stood from the couch. “I’m thirsty. Can you crack open a few drinks while I get some ice?”
“I’ll get it, baby. You stay here and recover,” he teased, grabbing her hips.
“Ah, no. I need to stretch my legs, you almost broke,” she smirked as she pushed him back down on the couch.
Looking up at her with a mischievous grin, Jax playfully bit her waist. “Hurry back…” he said, squeezing her ass over her robe. He teasingly slapped her ass before she left the suite.
Hugging the bucket to her chest, Deja headed down the hallway and jumped, startled by a woman’s scream. She stopped to listen closely and heard a woman moaning in Korean in one of the other rooms. “Oop! Guess I wasn’t the only one getting my back blown tonight,” she grinned.
Marla stumbled down the hallway, her bloody fingers dragging across the wall as her vision blurred from blood loss. She glanced over her shoulder to see if he was following her, but the hallway was dark and quiet.
“Please! Somebody help me!” she cried breathlessly, holding her bleeding waist. Her robe flew open behind her like a cape, exposing her naked body, soaked in her own blood. “Please- Somebody!” she cried.
She heard a door open and spun around, hoping it was a visitor. Instead, her stomach dropped, and her blood ran cold.
He was still shirtless, wearing her blood like a badge of honor on his muscular torso covered with tattoos, scars, and the wounds she had given him in the fight for her life.
A white, blood-stained mask hid his face, revealing his terrifying green eyes.
He casually walked down the hallway, dragging his sharp blade along the wall.
Marla’s face melted into tears. “Please!” she begged. “Just leave me alone!”
She watched him pull one of her severed fingers from his pocket and hold it up to his face as he hushed her. Using her severed, bloody finger, he pointed to the neon sign on the wall that read: Quiet Hours.
Marla cried helplessly, stumbling away from him until she tripped over her robe and fell to the ground. Tilting his head to the side, Jamie watched her crawl backward, away from him.
Marla scrambled to her feet, her stub fingers sliding across the carpet as she cried out in pain before she ran into the stairwell. Staggering on the stairs, her blood stained the railing as she pulled all her energy just to make it to the next floor.
The sound of sharp metal scraping against the wall made her heart drop as he got closer.
“How does this thing work…?” Deja looked at the ice machine, confused by the buttons. “Do I push this? No, that’s- wait… Hold on.” She tried to read the instructions, but they were in Korean. “I need Google Translate or something. Maybe I should have made Jax do this…” she muttered.
Pulling out her phone, she texted Jax when suddenly she heard a loud bang. Startled, she looked around as the bang came again.
“Please!” Marla cried helplessly, banging on the locked stairwell door from the inside, which required a key. “Please help me! He’s going to kill me!” she screamed.
Taking a few steps down the hallway, Deja tried to listen to see if the banging was coming from any of the rooms.
She slowly crept down the hallway towards the door to the stairwell.
“Over here!” Marla waved frantically, trying to get Deja’s attention. She cringed at the pain in her side as she waved through the small, tinted window.
Glancing over her shoulder, Marla screamed before Jamie roughly grabbed her throat and smashed her head into the wall, knocking her out.
Deja tilted her head as she neared the door. She could barely see anything through the small window. “Hello-” She jumped, startled at the sound of her phone ringing. “Dammit!” Cursing to herself, she answered. “What?”
“Why isn’t your ass in my hands by now?” Jax asked.
“I can’t figure out the ice machine!” she snapped. “What happened to good old-fashioned ‘press the button’ and woosh, out comes the ice?! There are like 8 buttons. It’s like trying to navigate a spaceship!” She could hear Jax chuckling on the other end. “Don’t laugh at me!”
“You should have let me get it.”
“Whatever. I’m a scientist. I’ll figure it out.”
“I have faith in you, baby,” he teased. Deja rolled her eyes as she hung up. Looking at the stairwell door, she sighed before readjusting her robe.
Marla’s body hung over Jamie’s shoulder as he watched Deja readjust her robe before she headed back down the hallway.
His blade playfully tapped the window before he carried Marla’s body back downstairs.
“Caleb… I think we lost her,” Ian sighed.
“I’ve never seen a woman run that fast in 5-inch heels,” Keith said. “She earned that escape.”
Caleb exhaled his frustration. “She looked scared of me…”
“No shit. She was being chased by 3 white guys,” Keith snorted.
Caleb sighed impatiently as he anxiously ran his fingers through his hair. “Good point.”
“We should head back,” Ian insisted.
Chewing his bottom lip, Caleb looked around at several people muttering in Korean as they stared at him fearfully. “What are they saying?” Caleb asked.
Ian raised his brows in surprise. “Something about a… green-eyed devil.”
“That sounds like our Jamie,” Keith said.
“That’s why they’re scared of me,” Caleb said. “Because I look just like him.”
“Nice to know he’s still terrorizing people everywhere he goes…” Ian muttered sarcastically.
Caleb turned to his cousins. “I have to keep looking.”
“Caleb, I told you-” Ian started.
“Look, I don’t want to keep Deja waiting. You guys go back. I’ll be okay,” Caleb insisted.
Ian slowly exhaled, exchanging glances with Keith.
“I’ll stay with him,” Keith said before Ian could respond.
“Our girl hasn’t eaten yet. Bring back the food.
I’ll keep him company.” Caleb and Ian both looked at Keith, surprised.
“Don’t fucking look at me like that. I’m sacrificing precious Deja time to look for my psycho cousin.
Just leave before I change my mind,” he muttered.
Caleb smirked at Keith before meeting Ian’s gaze. “Be careful,” Ian warned. Caleb nodded before Ian walked off.