Chapter Twenty-Four
Amelie
After Sawyer talks Baxter through everything, we are brought back to Monty’s house. We have to stay put while we wait to hear what’s going on.
My phone vibrates in my pocket.
“Hello?” I say, knowing that it’s Adrianne because I texted her earlier.
“Can you tell your pain in the ass friend that you only need a couple of sets of clothes and your toothbrush! Why is she packing everything?”
“We don’t know how long she is staying,” Elsie chastises.
“She doesn’t need three power suits, three bikinis, and fourteen pairs of underwear.”
I laugh at their bickering. “Elsie one pants suit, one bikini and half the underwear. Pyjamas would be nice too.”
“Fine,” Elsie huffs.
“And only Adrianne can drop off my clothes to the security at the front gate because they’re not letting anyone in until this whole mess is cleared.”
“Okay, boss, I’m on it.”
I send Baxter a text to see if there’s an update.
Amelie
Any news?
Baxter
Not yet, you’ll be the first person I call.
Amelie
Okay, don’t kill anyone.
Baxter
I make no promises.
The mood in the room is tense. Sawyer is typing away on his phone.
Onyx and Slate are staring off into space and Kalen disappeared fifteen minutes ago.
I put my phone in my pocket when I hear Kalen snicker.
I turn my head just in time to see him pop Onyx in the side of his head with a nerf gun bullet.
Onyx roars in anger while Kalen laughs. “Ammo is in the kitchen, it’s a safe zone,” he yells, taking off back the way he just came.
I look at Slate and he smiles. We both stand at the same time and race to the kitchen.
“Winner gets to see me naked!” I yell, to make sure everyone joins in.
Onyx overtakes and beats us to the kitchen, snatching a gun off the table and clearing out before we can see which way he went.
We hear girly screams coming from Kalen, so Onyx must have found him.
I snatch a smaller nerf gun from the bench and a handful of bullets.
I make my escape, and see Kalen has set up buckets around the house with extra bullets.
I make a mental note of where some are placed as I race into the living room and duck behind the sofa.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Onyx taunts.
I stand and fire, but the bullet falls short and he looks down at it in front of his feet. He snatched a gun that can shoot bullet after bullet, and runs towards me. I scream and run out of the room, bumping into Sawyer. I use him as a human shield.
We’ve been running around shooting at each other for over an hour when Frost walks into the hallway. Kalen shoots at him, and he stands there with his hands on his hips shaking his head.
“I don’t know what’s going on here but Amelie, Adrianne dropped off your clothes.”
He points to a suitcase by the door. I thank him and he nods. With one last unamused look, he walks away.
Two days. Two freaking days we have been locked up here like prisoners.
We ran out of things to keep us amused. The weather is damn freezing again – even though the guys think it's good weather, they forget that where I’m from this is winter weather, so the one time Kalen convinced us to go skinny dipping was enough for me.
Nerf wars are only fun until Kalen declares war at the most inconvenient times, like when I’m in the shower or in the middle of the night.
And all the sex is mind blowing, but the not knowing what’s happening is killing me.
Baxter hasn’t responded to any of my messages.
Sawyer paces the damn halls half of the day.
“Is anyone hungry?” Sawyer calls from the kitchen. I follow the amazing smell of chicken into the dining room.
One by one we all file in and sit around the large table. Sawyer has cooked us all a roast dinner, Aussie style. I still can’t get used to Yorkshire puddings, they taste like deflated rubbery rolls. It’s super weird and must be something you just grow up with, like vegemite.
Sawyer hands me a plate loaded with chicken, corn, peas, roasted potatoes, carrots and pumpkin. Slate slides the gravy boat my way and my smile is so big it hurts my damn face. I miss Sunday roasts with my family. It might not be Sunday, but the thought he has put behind it makes it special.
“This looks amazing.”
“Thank you. I called Chelsea and asked what she makes for you. She says chicken is your favourite.”
“I can’t believe you managed to get pumpkin. I thought you guys only got these in the fall.”
“Autumn.”
“Whatever.”
“Well, I know a guy and what my lady wants, my lady gets.”
“Two, four, six, eight, bog in, don’t wait,” Kalen sings, and I snort. His brothers look at him like he is crazy.
“It’s something Aadi or Smalls would say before food. It’s stupid but it reminds me of them.”
“How are things between you and Jason?” Sawyer asks. I love that nicknames weird him out. He always almost stumbles on the name if he says Smalls.
“Better, especially now that he’s seeing someone.”
Onyx tenses up as we talk about Smalls, Kalen shovels food in his mouth as he listens, and Slate remains neutral.
“Ugh, Katie is on my shit list, she dressed up as a clown and I almost shit my pants,” Kalen complains between mouthfuls.
“She lost a bet, Kalen, and we take that seriously. She had no choice but to pay up. I really like her, she’s good for him.”
“Do we have to always talk about him?” Onyx snaps.
“Jealousy doesn’t look good on you, brother,” Sawyer laughs, and if looks could kill, Sawyer would have just dropped dead.
“He was my best friend for years and will continue to be a close friend forever. I’m always going to talk about him.
I won’t give him up, and it’s not fair of you to ever ask.
I love him, but I’m not in love with him.
I can see the difference now. I was young and I went through something really traumatic, and he was always there for me.
With how close we were, lines were blurry but they’re not any more, so you have nothing to worry about. ”
“You still fuc…..”
“Onyx,” Slate growls. “Enough.”
“It’s okay, we should hash this out right now.
Yes, I did fuck him as you were so eloquently going to put it, but at the time I needed to erase the crawling feeling under my skin from being violated.
He helped me to have a positive relationship with sex, so screw you,” I snap.
“Besides, you don’t see me getting pissed because all of you weren’t virgins when we met, do you?
I refuse to be held to some bullshit double standard. ”
“I’m sorry,” he snaps through gritted teeth, standing and leaving the room, obviously going off to seethe and sulk. I begin to stand but Sawyer places his hand over my arm and stops me.
“Leave him, he needs to work this out for himself.”
I nod. Sawyer’s right, I can’t run after Onyx every time his temper gets the better of him. I don’t regret it and I can’t take it back anyway. Not that I would.
We all eat and enjoy our meal. Onyx’s tantrum is quickly forgotten, and we all retire to the living room to watch a movie. Kalen moves all of the furniture around to make it easier for us to actually watch the TV.
Kalen puts on ‘Central Intelligence’ with Kevin Hart and The Rock because he’s dumbfounded that neither me or Sawyer have ever watched it.
Unfortunately, when Kalen has seen a movie more than once he can recite all the words, and he is terrible at an American accent.
“Stop, just stop,” Slate laughs, tears rolling down his face. Kalen is saying the words and mimicking the moves in a fight scene.
“You’re just jealous that I have sick moves,” he replies, throwing a punch into the air.
I’m snuggled into Sawyer’s side and we have a blanket pulled over us.
“Sick moves?” Onyx questions, finally returning from his tantrum, all sweaty in his work out gear.
“It’s an Aussie thing,” Kalen replies. “You wouldn’t understand.”
Onyx flips him off and comes to drop down on the other side of me.
“I’m sorry I was a dick,” he whispers. I turn to face him.
“I can’t change my past, just like you can’t change yours. So let’s not fight about it.”
I lean forward and place a kiss on his lips. “Go and shower, you smell.”
He smiles against my lips and then nods his head before getting up and leaving the room. Kalen continues with the dramatics.
By the time the movie has finished we are all ready to head to bed. It’s been yet another day that we’ve heard nothing.
‘I’m a Barbie Girl’ starts playing from somewhere beside me and I look up at Sawyer as Kalen starts laughing like a hyena. Sawyer throws him a glare but pulls his phone from his pocket and answers, putting it on speaker phone.
“Any news yet?” he asks Baxter.
“Yes. We’ve finally traced the breach to a computer at a property half an hour west of here. I had a team sent in.”
“Who was it?”
“An Order member by the name of Tony Kean, he was already here under lock down. He grew up with Harold and was against females joining. He claims he was working alone to undermine The Order, but when pushed about Harold he just said he can’t wait to see what wrath he brings down on us.
I looked into their friendship and there really wasn’t one.
They went to school together and that was about the extent of it.
Tony had put a few requests in over the years with Harold but they all went ignored.
It seems to me that Tony had a boner for old Grandpa Knox. ”
“Are you kidding me? We’ve been locked down because Harold has a fucking fan club?” I say exasperated. I rub at my temples, this is never going to bloody end.
“Don’t worry, I took pleasure in dealing with him. And I have made sure to reiterate to every other member that going against you will result in a meeting with me.”
“Thanks, Batman.”
Onyx snorts. “Yeah, thanks, Batman.”
“You’re just jealous,” Baxter goads.
“Of what, I got the girl, remember?”
“Correction, you share the girl. I’m her BFF as she likes to put it.”
“Actually Bax, you have to compete with Smalls, Elsie. Adrianne…” Kalen taunts.
“I’ll kill them, easily fixed,” he snaps.
“Okay guys, enough. No need for a pissing contest. Thanks for the update.”
“If it were a pissing contest, I would win.” Kalen laughs. Baxter groans and hangs up the call.
Sawyer sits up straight, and I move from leaning against him. “I have to go and make some calls.”
“Sawyer, I’m the boss, I should be making calls, you need to hand this over to me.”
Frost walks into the room. “With all due respect, I’m head of security and it’s my job to keep you safe, Amelie. Until Sawyer hands over the day-to-day control to me, he does need to go over the security updates.”
“Fine, but Sawyer, tomorrow you hand that title to Frost. He deserves it, and I trust him to have that position. Any and all Order security now needs to be handed to him, do you understand me?”
Sawyer grins at me but nods his head. He is so damn stubborn, needing to be in control of everything.
“So, I guess this means tomorrow we are free again?” Kalen sing songs.
“You’re an idiot, Kalen. We were always free. Amelie wasn’t,” Slate explains.
“Wait, what?”
“Amelie, you’re the most important person to this organisation now.
We might be from founding families, but we are not the target,” Onyx insists.
My mind swims with this information. I swear I'm the idiot, not Kalen. There has been so much information to learn, that everything that’s common sense hasn’t even crossed my mind.
My phone pings, and I’m thankful for the distraction from that conversation.
Elsie
Baxter tells me dress shopping is happening.
Amelie
Since when do you talk to Baxter?
Elsie
Since he messaged me and said ‘dress shopping approved.’
Amelie
Sounds like a plan.
I switch from messaging Elsie and message Baxter
Amelie
I hate you.
Baxter
No you don’t.
Amelie
I do, I could have gotten out of dress shopping!
Baxter
You wouldn’t want to let your BFF down.
Amelie
Jealous, much?!
Don’t be salty, you will always be my main squeeze.
Baxter
DO NOT SAY MAIN SQUEEZE AGAIN!
Amelie
Don’t yell at me. I’m all powerful and shit now.
Baxter
So powerful, with an entourage of dipshits protecting you.
Amelie
I can protect myself, thank you very much.
Baxter
I’m going to be protecting you for life if that’s your defence.
Amelie
I feel so safe now : )
Baxter
You shouldn’t. I could change my mind about you.
Amelie
You won’t, you love me too much.
Baxter
Keep telling yourself that so you can sleep at night.
Amelie
Goodnight, Baxter.
Baxter
Goodnight, Amelie.