Always?

Chapter 3

Ani was staring at the man on their couch before she peeled away to look at the apartment's stone fireplace. She had sat on the ground near the fireplace, too exhausted to move. Now that the adrenaline had finally worn off, she could feel every hit, punch, and kick she had received from those cartel members. She stared at the black wooden flooring before looking back at the man.

He was handsome, she knew that. He had pale skin and blonde hair, was lean, and was tall enough that his legs hung off their sofa. They had to move the small side table they had kept there so he wouldn’t knock off the purple vase with sunflowers. His white shirt was stained with blood, and there were tear stains. Amber must not have been kidding when she said the man thought he was going to die and had shed tears.

Matt walked over to her and handed her the dark purple coffee mug. She was too tired even to say he had the wrong mug; the purple mug with the constellations on it was Amber’s. He took a seat beside her with a smile. “Tired?” he asked gently, knocking their heads together affectionately.

She nodded, leaning her head on his shoulder, groaning a little. “Those men did not go easy on us,” she muttered, sipping her coffee. “I’m going to be bruised like a motherfucker tomorrow.”

“Close or ranged?” Matt asked.

She sighed, closing her eyes. “Both. I had my gun and knife on me. If they were close enough, stab if too far, shoot. How’s Helios?”

“Fine, he cancelled our lunch date and came home, but he didn’t even tell me he was at home. Alec told me when he went to tell Max we were coming here,” Matt grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Max didn’t say anything?” Ani asked, rolling her eyes at Matt’s childish behaviour. When the two men had first announced they were dating, everyone was sure it was just a scam, a ploy to get Oliver and Damian jealous or something similar, but no. They were dating and had been going strong for over a year. Good on them.

“No, he was spending time with his brothers.”

“Hm,” she replied. She could feel the sleep slowly lulling her away, the quiet murmurs of her friends further soothing her, and she was so close to drifting off.

Ani’s eyes opened wide when Damian burst through the front door, and his eyes landed on the group just as Amber walked down the hallway, her hair wrapped in a towel and some fresh clothes on. She sat on the barstool of the breakfast counter and turned it around so she could face the rest of the group blankly.

Damian sat on the spare armchair as Amber calmly explained everything that had occurred from when they left the apartment to when they arrived back with the man. He had listened to the whole thing silently, and when she was done, he stared at them, glaring. “So,” he said after a moment of silence, probably trying to find words to describe how insane they had been. “Let me get this straight, you three went on the job, did the job correctly and then brought back a f*****g living human from the job.”

“Yeah,” Alice said, nodding. She waved her hand towards the couch. “Help him.”

Damian sighed, exasperated, as he stared at them. He motioned above his head, “I am up to here with your f*****g shit.”

“Mhm,” Amber replied, sipping from the white mug with sunflowers. Ani smiled. There was her cup. “Stitch him up.”

Damian muttered something incohesive as he went to the kitchen, stood with his back to the group, and washed his hands with soap. Before slipping on his gloves, he sat on the ground before the unconscious man and motioned to his briefcase. “Oliver, open it.”

Ani watched, exhausted, as Oliver and Damian cleaned the blood and forced some pressure on the wound to stop it from bleeding before he cleaned the place with alcohol. Ani cringed; she knew how painful that could be from first-hand experience, but the man didn’t wake up despite the pain; he didn’t even flinch. It took Damian and Oliver a little over an hour after pulling the bullet out to finish his final stich.

Alec frowned as he walked over and checked the man for a pulse. He nodded, relaxing a little when he felt one and returned to leaning against one of the black bookshelves near the TV.

Once he was done, Damian groaned. Standing up and stretching, he took off his blood-stained gloves before rinsing the blood off under the sink and then throwing them away in the trash. He stared at the blood, which had pooled and semi-dried on the black wooden flooring. “Clean it up.”

“And the couch?” Matt asked.

“Burn it and get a new one.”

“Where?”

“Max’s place,” Alec said, frowning. “We burn it and then drop it off at the local scrapyard. They ask, a candle falling onto it. Also, burn it with a candle. Don’t give them any more reason to look into us.”

Ani was staring at Amber, who seemed to be a million miles away, and she frowned. Something had happened, although she wasn’t sure what exactly. Amber had been on edge since they got back from the job. Maybe it was after they had found the man, or it was before. Her memories seemed hazy from everything, but Amber had been shaking as they helped him back to their car, which they had parked a few blocks away; Amber caught her gaze and smiled. Of course, Ani smiled back.

“He’s stitched up,” Matt said, clearing his throat and filling the silence that had filled the room. “Now what do we do?”

“We wait for him to wake up and get answers,” Oliver deadpanned. “And if we don’t like what we hear. We kill him.” His knives had appeared, and he waved them at the man.

“No,” the group deadpanned.

~*~