Always?

Chapter 4

“It’s been three hours, and he hasn’t woken up. Max has texted me three times asking where we are, and I hate lying to him,” Alec deadpanned. He had moved and was no longer standing beside the black bookcase; he was now sitting on the barstool, spinning around it, bored off his head. “I’m going home; text me when he’s up. I’ll bring Max with me. He needs to know about,” he trailed off a little and waved his hand towards the unconscious man. “This whole situation.”

“Helly’s off work and asking where I am,” Matt added. “I haven’t even spoken to the dead man, and I dislike him already, taking up my f*****g time. So, when he’s up, text us, and I’m going home to see my boyfriend, who I haven’t seen or had a proper conversation with in almost three days.”

“Trouble in paradise?” Oliver deadpanned.

“He’s been busy, bitch.”

Oliver didn’t reply; he just shrugged. Alec and Matt stood up, getting ready to leave, when they heard no arguments. Just as they were about to reach the door, Damian snapped his fingers and motioned for them to sit back down when quiet grumbles were heard from the black couch.

The man shot up in a panic, and Alice saw his hand reach under his pillow. When he felt nothing, he froze briefly, slowly taking in his surroundings. But he shifted when he realised he didn’t recognise his surroundings. The girls knew their apartment was somewhat eclectic, with Ani’s lighter pastels and colours of the greenery in every corner, Amber’s astrology, crystals and tarot cards all in much deeper colourways ranging from blacks, dark purples, dark blues, and Alice’s grunge-style leaning more towards black and white, but they made it work.

The man stared at the group of people surrounding him, all of whom had guns pointed at him. Hell, Oliver had his knives at his throat. Alice wasn’t sure when he’d gotten off the floor, his notebook left discarded to one side where he had been sitting and moved to the couch, but there he was. “One wrong move, and I slice,” he deadpanned.

“Who are you?” Amber asked, her eyes narrowed on the man. She was fiddling with her amethyst bracelet, not really looking at the man.

“What were you doing at the warehouse?” Alice added, staring at the man. As much as she loved Amber and knew despite the job they did, she was a kind soul and wouldn’t let anyone who didn’t deserve it die, there was something off about the man on the couch. Now that he was finally awake, they could all see his bright green eyes staring at the group with wide eyes.

“Who shot you?” Damian asked, frowning as he crossed his arms over his chest. He leaned back in the chair to get a good look at the young man; he had to be in his early twenties at least.

“Who stabbed you?” Ani mumbled, trying to rub the sleep from her eyes as she looked at the man through bleary eyes.

“Who sent you?” Oliver hissed.

The man looked around the room in confusion and slowly raised his hands. “My name is Cai, I was hiding for my f*****g life, I don’t know, and no one sent me,” he said his voice husky.

Ani narrowed her eyes as Alice stared at the man. There was something off about the man. Why would he be in a warehouse for a cartel group if he had nothing to do with them? How had he managed to sneak past so many members who had been keeping an eye on their surroundings? They had to knock them out, even killing two of them who had not gone out as quickly as some of the others, and the man was easy to spot. He screamed old money, and they should have noticed him lurking, so why hadn’t they done anything about it?

“Okay, Cai,” Ani said gently, tilting her head. “Why are you lying?”

“Tell us the truth, or I will kill you,” Oliver deadpanned, pressing the knife into his skin and drawing a thin line of blood as further proof of his bloodlust.

Cai didn’t respond for a few minutes. He slowly stared at them one by one before letting out a shaky breath and then at the weapons pointed at him. With his eyes trained on Alice, he asked, “Who are you?”

“Mercs,” Alice said, waving her hand. “Who are you? And what were you doing there?”

“In the middle of a shootout,” Alec tacked on. “Unarmed.”

Cai wet his lips broken, and he looked down, pulling his shirt up to reveal the stitched and bandaged wound near his hip. “Who did this?” he whispered, looking around.

“Him,” Matt replied, pointing to Damian. Cai’s eyes widened as he looked over at Damian, the one you’d think was the thug and not the doctor. “Despite how he looks, he’s a doctor. He knows what he’s doing.”

Cai nodded slowly and looked up at the group, his face oddly blank. There was no panic, no fear, and nothing. “I’m hiding,” he said after a few moments, his voice void of any emotions.

“From?” Alec asked, his eyebrow raised as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“This group.”

“Go on,” Matt said, tilting his head a little, a slight frown on his face when he realised Cai wasn’t giving them any more information.

“That’s it. I don’t know much about them. They came in, wiped all of us out, and disappeared without a trace. It’s like they never existed. It’s like we never existed.”

“They killed your buddies and let you live?” Alice asked, a scowl on her face. The longer he spoke, the more she realised something wasn’t right. Why would you kill an entire organisation and let one man escape? To spread the word? To put the fear of this unknown group into others? Or was it an accident? Was there a target on his back? Were they about to have another target on their back due to Amber’s actions?

“They don’t know I exist.”

~*~