Homebound

Chapter Eighteen

His words of comfort should relax me but they don't, instead they create anger.

"What do you mean you're sorry, Hex?" I sniffle back my tears as I push on his chest. It doesn't do much, he doesn't even stagger back but the look of surprise on his face proves he didn't expect it.

"I'll tell you when you calm down, Poppy" he says as he reaches for me again. I take another step back and wipe the remaining tears off my face with my sleeve.

"No Hex, you tell me now" I stand my ground "no more secrets" in my heart I knew I should've pushed him to tell me sooner, all I wanted was to respect his boundaries but now that everything I thought I knew was wrong, I need to know.

Hex holds eye contact with me and then when he realises I'm being serious his hands go to the back of his head as he looks at the ceiling and turns his back on me. All his actions show signs of stress as he tugs on his hair.

"Is it the men from Darby's, Hex?" I ask, trying my best to pull an answer from him. He grunts and continues to face away from me, not being able to look me in the eyes. His muscles are tense under his shirt, the tattoos on his back being slightly visible through his light coloured shirt. "Is it?".

"Yes Poppy" the confirmation just confirms that it was them following me from mum and dads tonight.

"It was never West?" my voice trembles as I hold back more tears. Hex winces when he hears my voice but still doesn't turn around.

He shakes his head, no. It breaks the dam building behind my eyes again as I try and breathe through the wave of panic as I realise that the man that had been following me for the last two years wasn't who I thought he was, he was a stranger and for some reason it makes me feel worse. At least I knew West personally and that gave me a strange sense of comfort that he wouldn't hurt me but this unknown person has no connection to me and therefore nothing is stopping them from harming me. And not only is it one person, it's two.

"Remember the last time you visited me at Hellbound? And Briggs had a visitor?" Hex rumbles out, his voice deep and dark with hate.

The flashback of Aaron coming into the room, his taunting smirk as he sat down with an older male rushes through my mind. "Yeah, the older guy" I sniffle; Hex nods as he faces me again, his hands resting on his hips.

"That's Amos. The younger one is Ace, he's the one that's been following you" he must be the one I mistook for West. The more Hex talks, the angrier his eyes become. The two men are by no means his friends.

"Who are they?" I sniffle "why are they following me?"

"They're Alex's father and brother, baby" Hex says almost hesitantly as he watches my reaction.

Alex's brother and father? The man that Hex beat until he sustained a brain injury and the reason Hex ended up in Hellbound, his brother and father are the ones following me? Is Aaron in on this too considering he's Alex's bestfriend? Is that why they met during visitation? To plan my torment?

"Why?" I have to hold back the vomit rising in my throat as I choke the words out. "Why are they after me?" my voice breaks again.

"They're not after you" Hex sighs and runs his hands angrily through his hair, making the neat mess an actual mess. "They're after me but they're using you to get to me".

"They want revenge?" I ask, my mind having flashes of Hex in a similar position as Alex and it almost makes my legs collapse under me as they wobble. Hex sees it and takes a step forward, ready to catch me if they give out.

"Yes".

"Amos, Ace and Aaron all want revenge on you for what you did to Alex?" I clarify.

"Yes" Hex confirms again.