With Love

Chapter Eighteen

Hello!

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Silence enveloped us as we walked through Brooklyn. The streets were empty considering the explosion and chaos from the industrial district earlier that night. Finn's phone had died after we crossed into the residential areas about twenty minutes ago.

My thoughts constantly turned to my brothers and the others, wondering if they were okay. The news probably received wind of the explosion and was no doubt snooping around looking for any piece of information they could spread. The police had to be there by now.

I kept looking over my shoulder, waiting to see one of my SUVs driving down the streets but not one car came by. Few people walked around in the middle of the night.

Feeling uneasy and in need of a distraction, I spoke. "What happened back there?" I asked curiously. "You were so close to him when they started shooting, how did you get away?"

He spared me a glance. "As soon as I saw Jasper holding the guy, I ran. I know it makes me look like a coward but, I ran."

I shook my head, disagreeing with him. "It doesn't make you a coward, you wanted to survive, what's wrong with that?" I asked rhetorically, giving him a tight-lipped smile.

We walked across the cobblestone street, disappearing back into the shadows. "Did your father teach you that too?" He asked.

I couldn't stop the burst of laughter that left my lips. "Of course not, he would have called you a fucking coward and would have thrown you to Stanley," I commented, sidestepping a lone bag of garbage.

Finn looked at me quizzically. "Stanley?"

I gave him a rueful smile. "The cranky old bastard of an instructor my father hired before I could even learn basic mathematics. If you ever did something wrong or disobeyed in any way, Stanley was in charge of our punishment."

A few people walked around the corner and we kept close and quiet. Finn stiffed as they got closer but when I surveyed them, it was clear they were no threat to us. They nodded their heads our way, close-lipped smiles on their faces, and moved on. I smiled to myself when Finn visibly relaxed.

"You seem like someone who doesn't listen to the rules," he joked, giving me a mischievous smile.

My smile fell away, replaced with a blank expression. "On the contrary, I did everything my father told me to do whether I wanted to or not," I explained, a faraway look in my eyes as they glazed over. "I was everything I needed to be." My voice sounded hollow.

Finn cleared his throat, clearly understanding how much I didn't want to talk about myself right now. "What about Elijah?"

"Oh he was a little shit, always did something naughty and got in trouble, every single time," I said with a chuckle, covering my mouth to quieten my laughter. "Once, he and Santiago locked Stanley in a supply cupboard for fourteen hours, suffice to say Elijah refused to come out of his room after punishment," my voice tapered off, thinking of how my little brother was hurting, and yet I did nothing to help.

We lapsed back into silence. He walked slightly ahead of me and I took a moment to appreciate the view. His black suit jacket had dust marks over it from the explosion and from having to crawl across a dirty warehouse floor. One look down at my outfit showed the same outcome. I patted away at some patches but the dust seemed to have settled into the fabric.

Lifting my attention back to Finn, I noted how similar he looked to the rest of my men, none of the younger men had massive muscles, they were all lean with definition and if I were to lift Finn's shirt, I'm sure I would see the same thing. His ass didn't look too terrible either in those pants.