Sixty-One
It feels like I just walked onto the set of a movie during a live-action sequence.
I could hear someone jumping out of the Tahoe to run after me as soon as my feet hit the sidewalk, and instinctively knew that it was Alvi, hot on my trail.
I was on a fucking mission and bolted down the block to get around the building.
I was still tracking Ed and had that fucking dot zoomed in as far as it would go. From what I could tell, she was still outside the shelter. I stopped in the middle of the road to determine the fastest way to get there when Alvi, my brother, and Max finally caught up to me.
“YOU WERE GOING TO THROW THE FUCKING GAME AND YOU DIDN'T FUCKING TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK WAS GOING ON?!” Chase screams while running as fast as he can toward me.
“WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU, HUNTER?! WE’RE FUCKING brOTHERS, MAN!
” he shouts, pushing his hands into my chest and shoving me back a step.
It knocks me down a peg when it registers in my brain that he fucking called me ‘Hunter.’ He rarely calls me that, and it sounds fucking bizarre coming from him.
“AND WE’RE FUCKING TEAMMATES!” he adds, balling his fists at his sides.
He’s pissed, and I get it, but I know that he would’ve done the same to save Red if the roles were reversed.
“I had to hear this fucking shit from Tommy after you jumped out of a moving car like a fucking madman. That’s not fucking okay,” he adds.
He sounds slightly calmer before raising his voice again.
We’re all out on the street in the middle of the fucking night, and although it’s just us, I can sense that there are others out here.
“And then he tells me all this shit about Ediso–”
“You’re fucking done now,” I tell his ass as soon as he tries to say her name. We step into each other so that we’re chest to chest, nose to nose. He’s holding me up out here and wasting time that we don’t have.
He’s expecting answers right now, and that’s not gonna fucking happen. He can get mad later. Big mad, I don’t give a fuck. Throw a tantrum if he has to, but right here–right now, is not the time.
“This is for me to handle alone. For once, I have something that’s mine that I don’t have to fucking share with anyone else. She not only needs me right now, but she’s fucking counting on me. This is my fucking redemption from every fucked up, shitty–”
“Back up, man, we don’t have time for this right now,” Max interjects, cutting me off as he shoulders himself between us.
He’s either the bravest motherfucker in here or the dumbest, getting between us like that.
Alvi shifts uncomfortably beside us as he stares at his phone.
“You need to fucking come clean about all this shit later. We expect the full fucking story,” Max says.
“No, we’re fucking done. We’re going this way, and you’re all staying behind me. Don’t fuck around, you guys have no fucking idea what’s up ahead,” Alvi demands, leaving Chase and Max speechless.
“Neither do you.” I snap back.
“At least I have a gun, dipshit.”
“Then give me something, Alv,”
“Fuck. Take this,” he says, pulling out a pocket knife and handing it to me. What the fuck? Ed’s shit is bigger than this. “Now get behind me.”
“What are we gonna do, man? What happens next?” Chase questions. I crack my knuckles, switching the blade from one hand to the other. I feel jacked up, and I’m ready to kick some fucking ass. LET’S FUCKING GO!
“They placed bets against a team that won when they should have lost. Money comes and goes. That’s not what I’m really worried about.
I’m more concerned with the emotions caught up in all of this.
Tonight was supposed to settle a score, and that’s not how it panned out,” Alvi pauses and clears his throat.
“Plus, I already know that these assholes have your girl clocked–”
“How do you know they had her followed?” I ask, cutting him off as I look over at his screen.
“I had my guys follow the ones tailing her.” He’s got some app pulled up that’s tracking several moving dots.
I move closer to get a better look at his phone and realize that those aren’t dots on the screen.
They’re heat signatures, and they’re moving quick.
“This isn’t my first fucking time doing this shit, man, come on now.
You’re girl just led them to my wife’s fucking doorstep. ”
“Why didn’t I know that you had a secret fucking wife?” The fuck?!?
“Not now, Three… we’ve got fucking company,” Alv huffs out and sends out a text with his left hand while holding his gun up with his right.
“Eyes up, head down. And don’t be a fucking hero.
All you’ve got on you is a Swiss Army knife and an ego that a bullet wouldn't miss. These assholes may not be professional, but they’re not new at this either. You are.”
“I just want my girl safe and sound. I’ll settle whatever fucking debt she has, even if I need to wire the fucking money. This shit ends tonight,” I reiterate. I hear my voice start to crack and feel my panic start to rise while I watch the heat signatures on his screen move closer to a building.
Alvi doesn’t say a word before he’s booking it in the direction of those dots, leaving us all holding our cocks and scrambling to catch up. He saw something, or someone, on there that lit a fucking fire under his ass, and I’m glad that we’re all on the same page now.
The three of us jog up to the back parking lot of the shelter, Alvi leading the way and all of us ready for a fucking fight. According to my tracking app, I’m as close to her dot as I’ve been all fucking night, but I still don’t see her.
And then I do. She’s on the back concrete stairs, standing in front of a metal door at the back of the shelter under a bright spotlight. At the bottom of the stairs is that fucking punk Dylan, and he’s pointing a gun at the love of my fucking life.
The dragon in my gut is blowing fire and ready to tear him to shreds, but before I can lunge at him, the back door opens, and the woman who runs the shelter steps out into the night. In that moment, everything descends into fucking chaos.