Gangs and Roses

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

That afternoon:

“How could—I mean, I could they!” I shouted, my whole body in full-ranting mode. “We don’t even know who they are or whether it’s more than one person! How did they know we pot-loads of money at the house. Have they—have they being spying on us? Spying on us this whole time? That’s just—”

            “Paige!”

            I was knocked out of my hysteria by four men staring at me, their eyes wide having just interrupted me.

            “What?” was all I could say. I crept back into my shell, sitting down at one of the bar-stools. I let out a large exhale, feeling incredibly helpless in this situation.

            “Look,” Joe said, having joined us shortly after finding out about the closet. Seb had rung him, not knowing what to do or what had happened. I used to think that Seb was the guy who always kept his cool but after these past couple of months, I was beginning to have second thoughts. Now Joe, on the other hand, looked as cool as a cucumber, looking undoubtedly cute in his leather jacket and gelled back hair (but not too much) into a quiff; kind of like Justin Bieber but more, you know, mature looking. “I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”

            “Huh?” I was confused. How could we not be worried about this?

            “What do you mean?” Luke countered, looking as lost as I was.

            Joe shrugged. “These ‘robbers’, or whatever, they probably just found it out of luck. Look at the house from the front and you can see rich written all over it. They broke in and just happened to find the closet. They probably just picked it with a paperclip. Simple.”

            “But the front door wasn’t forced at all,” I said. “How could that have happened?” Then I realized. I gasped, my hand flying to my mouth in horror.

            Joe already knew what I was going to say. I could already see it written across his raised eyebrows.

            “I left the back door unlocked.”

            Everyone’s muscles in the room relaxed. Will and Seb exhaled deeply, trying hard to not look cross. Luke started banging his head on the counter. Joe just smirked.

            “Well that’s ten million out the window…” he mumbled.

            Seb’s hands clenched into fists. I wasn’t sure whether he wanted to punch Joe or myself. I most definitely didn’t want to find out.

            “I don’t get it, though,” I said, frowning. “I mean, how come nothing else was taken? Like the telly or Luke’s stereo. Or my car.” My precious car. 

            “You think they would bother stealing a TV of a stereo when they’ve just found ten million pounds in gold and cash?” Joe asked me, deadpanned.

            “True.” I felt incredibly dumb. And very, very guilty. How could have something like that just slipped my mind?

            I had gone to take out the rubbish, I remember. I had gone around all the house’s bins and packed all the waste into one bin-bag to take out back. I had unlocked the door, putting the keys into my hoodie pocket. I then took the rubbish out and came back into the laundry room and closed the door behind me…that’s when my mind went blank. I must’ve just walked away and just…left it. How had I done that? My face scrunched up into a tight ball, knowing how hard Seb and Will worked to make sure that everything was locked up so that something like this didn’t happen. I had been a dunce. I had forgotten once and it just so happened some burglars came past. Brilliant.