31
Austin
“Are you alright, Em?”I ask my girl, squashed beneath me.
“Yes, but what was that?” she trembles as the sound of running footsteps comes up the stairs, followed by Xavier yelling, “Austin! Are you alright?”
“What happened?” Em cries out as I roll off her, slip my sweatpants on, and open the door.
“I think we just got shot at,” I reply, as Xave relaxes in relief when he finally sees me alive and well.
“Again!” Em shouts angrily.
“Em’s alright?” Xave asks, hearing her voice chiming from my bedroom.
“She’s fine,” I reply. “You reckon it’s the Viches?”
“No doubt,” Xave ascertains as Aaron’s broad frame appears on the stair landing with a handgun in his hand.
“Aaron called the cops,” Xave informs, walking past me to look inside my bedroom.
“Xavier,” Em cries out, and I poke my head back inside my bedroom to find him hugging our sweet girl.
My eye catches a bullet hole in the wall, and I poke my finger inside, relieved that it wasn’t closer to the bed.
“They’re angry with us,” Em states the obvious, encased in Xavier’s comforting embrace.
With the window smashed open, freezing air streams into the bedroom, and the blinds flutter in the breeze. The sound of a car driving around the corner prompts me to peer carefully out the window to find a dark-colored sedan with the headlights turned off, driving slowly.
“Here comes another one,” I call out to the others while pulling open my bedside drawer to grab the handgun inside. Checking the barrel is loaded with bullets, I click the safety cap off and peer around the side of the window. “Take Em into the bathroom on the other side of the house.”
Scrambling for her clothes, Em quickly dresses while Xave guides her into the bathroom down the hall. Aaron appears at the doorway, now with a long-range firearm, and switches the light off, steeping us in darkness.
“I’m glad you got some, bro,” Aaron says, making light of the situation by acknowledging that I fucked the girl I’ve been lusting over since the first time I laid eyes on her. Honestly, it’s been a while since I had sex, and my cock sliding inside the girl that I’d do anything for, lay down my life even.
“Thanks, bro. Do you reckon they’re here for her?” I ask him.
“Nah,” he answers, standing on the other side of the window opposite me with a loaded rifle ready to do some fucking damage. “They’re here for us.”
“Did anything get hit downstairs?” I ask him.
“The living room window is smashed,” he fills me in. “So, fucking close, bro. I heard the whizzing sound of the bullet going past my ear and saw my life pass before my eyes.”
“That’s deep, bro,” I tease, even though I can tell he’s clearly affected by it. Aaron has finally found some humility deep down inside.
“Yeah, well. ‘Depth’ is my middle name,” he jokes quietly.
“It’s moving, coming this way,” I say as the sedan moves at a snail”s pace and rounds the corner as a rifle pokes out of the window, aiming upwards at us. “Armed.”
Xave appears at the doorway, with his handgun limp in his hand, as the only brother who’s not comfortable with a weapon in his hand. “Careful, bro,” I warn, “they’re about to”
Gunfire shoots out, followed by several popping sounds as bullets strike the side of the house. Aaron pokes his rifle out the broken window and fires a round of ammo, striking the car as tires screech, and they drive off at great speed.
Sirens ring out, and I can see the blinking red lights of the police coming this way after Aaron called them on his cell. One of the cop cars flies by, heading toward where the Viches went, and I stretch my neck, trying to see if they’ll catch up to them.
Three cop cars pull up outside, and the armed officers file out. “Are we in the shit?”
“Nah, we were protecting ourselves,” Aaron points out, and I hope he’s right because there’s no fucking way I’m going back to prison. The road is quickly cordoned off by cop cars as the officers below stand behind their vehicles, using them as shields while pointing their guns at us.
This doesn’t look good, and I glance back at Xavier and smile reassuringly. “Whatever happens,” I tell them. “It was me. Tell them it was my idea, and I got the guns.”
“Bro, what are you talking about?” Aaron argues. “It was my fucking idea to get the weapons.”
“You’ve got a good career ahead of you, Aaron,” I proclaim sternly.
“Nah, bro, I’m not letting you do this,” Aaron sets me straight. “This is fucking self-defense.”
He is sure until an officer calls out on his bullhorn, “Drop your weapons and come out with our hands up.”