Caught In Between

XIX. The Identified

What? How does he know Asher is the Cobra? I didn't think they knew what he looked like. I thought the Cobra had some super secret identity.

Asher got up from where he was on the parking lot ground and swung a quick, powerful punch to my father's nose.

"Hey! Stop!" I yelled while getting in between Asher before he can hit my dad again. Or before my dad can hit him again. I turn around to face my dad and his nose is dripping with blood. I can't even lie Asher punching was hot as fuck, but I can't think about that right now. I bet he broke my dad's nose with that punch. Damn. "What do you mean by 'Cobra?'" I play dumb, so he doesn't suspect anything. Dad knows about Asher being the Cobra now, he can't know that I know anything about Asher's involvement in his gang.

"This fucker standing in front of you is the Cobra. Brooke, get to the car." I glance between Asher and my father. "Now." His voice definitely sounds more like the voice of a gang leader than the voice of the caring father I've gotten to know these past few months.

"There's no way he's the Cobra, dad. You've got the wrong guy! You said yourself you don't even know what he looks like. He keeps his identity a secret. Why are you accusing some random ass high school boy?" Okay, play dumb.

"It's not like I haven't seen him before. I've seen most of his face and his hair. I've been having meetings with him for a couple of years now, I'm not fucking stupid I know he's the damn Cobra. Now get to the car right now, he isn't a good guy, Brooklyn. Go to the car right now." Of course he recognizes him from before - it's not like he's never seen him before. I glance back to Asher and he looks nonchalant right now. I don't see any fear on his face. He's a blank slate right now, but I can tell by the twitching of his fist that he's pretty damn angry right now.

"Dad, I know there's a war going on right now, but you can't kill him. Not here, at least. Look around." We all start looking around the parking lot and there's quite an audience now. All around, students are watching the interaction between Asher and Dad. "You can't do anything with everyone watching. Some are probably even recording." I turn back to my dad who's seething with anger, but he knows I'm right. He can't do anything with witnesses around. At least it buys me some time to come up with a plan on how to keep Asher and my dad from killing each other.

"Don't think for a second this is over. You're gonna fucking die for what you did to my son. You can deny it all you fucking want, but this feud with your gang and the bloodhounds is over." My dad says while looking directly into Asher's eyes with an indescribable amount of fury seething from his words. Instead of waiting for a response, Dad roughly grips my arm and yanks me towards his car. I turn around and get a glimpse of Asher. His eyes meet my own and I can tell he's worried right now. Worried for what's about to happen with his gang, his friends, himself and me. He's worried about what's gonna happen to me.

I look away from him when we reach Dad's car and I slip into the passenger's seat. Dad gets into the car, puts it into ignition and drives out of the parking lot.

"Why are you hanging out with that murderer? He killed Ty. He fucking killed Ty!" His voice starts to get louder.

"Dad, I didn't know he was the Cobra. But there's no way that boy would ever have killed Ty. He's innocent." Please listen to me.

"Like hell he's innocent. Open your eyes, Brooklyn. He's the leader of the silver snakes, a gang leader, a murderer. He was gone for weeks, of course he killed Ty during that time."

"You're a gang leader too! You can't use that against him when you're one yourself. That's hypocritical."

"Are you seriously standing up for him right now? You're standing up for the guy who killed your brother?" Now, he's yelling.