The Ones Who Saved Us

Chapter 48

Avalee's POV

Hours had passed since the accident, and Teddy and I hadn't left the warehouse, Leo and Elijah not wanting to let us out of their sight as they continued working. As phones rang and hushed whispers filled the other side of the warehouse, Teddy and I were on the floor engaged in an intense game of chess, a game that I was almost one hundred percent sure I was about to lose.

My hand was hovering over my knight before I slowly lifted it from the board, my eyes glancing for a split second in Teddy's direction to gauge for his reaction. When I saw a small hint of a smile, I placed the piece back down, deciding to move one of my pawns on, but placing it down as well when I saw Teddy's small grow slightly wider.

"What?" I said, glaring at my little brother.

"Nothing," Teddy said, nonchalantly, a slight smirk pulling on the corners of his lips.

"Then what the fuck is up with your smile?"

"Nothing."

My gaze moved from my irritating brother to the chess board, once again trying to decide what to move. Teddy must have noticed my hesitation as my hand once again moved to the knight because he said, "It doesn't really matter what you move. I'll beat you in a few more turns anyways."

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

Teddy nodded his head. "You had a chance to beat me three turns ago, but then you messed it up for yourself. Any amateur would've known not to move the bishop from where you had it. But I guess you didn't, and you opened up a straight path to your king."

Teddy moved my knight to the space where I was planning on moving it. He then took my knight out with his rook and moved my pawn to block his rook from killing my king. His rook took out my pawn, leaving my King vulnerable to his pawn, rook, and king. It was checkmate.

"I hate this game," I grumbled.

"It's all right. You might beat me next time," he said, patting my arm. "I mean, you probably won't, but miracles happen."

As he gathered the pieces together, he looked at me and asked, "You want a rematch?"

"Just so I can get beaten by an eleven-year-old kid again? No thank you," I scoffed.

Teddy shrugged his shoulders as he continued cleaning up the game before nudging his head over to our brothers who seemed to be on an important phone call, their voices low and backs turned towards us. They shared a pair of earbuds between them as they listened to whoever was on the other side, presumably our oldest brother.

"What do you think is going on?"

"I'm not sure," I said, "but I wish they would tell us. It sucks being the last ones to know things."

Teddy rose to his feet and held his hand out for me to take. "Let's eavesdrop. I doubt they'll notice given how focused they are on the call."

The two of us slowly made our way nearer and nearer to our brothers, making sure to keep a distance large enough to remain unnoticed yet close enough to still hear.

"I know," Elijah said. "I just—I can't believe they were all able to come here with such short notice."

"Especially the French," Leo said.

"And I especially can't believe," Elijah said, "that we have two awful eavesdroppers listening in on this private conversation." Elijah pulled the earbud out of his hear as he turned towards us, beckoning us to him with the wave of a hand.

"Are we in trouble?" Teddy asked, taking a seat next to Leo while sat next to my little brother.

"No, it's fine," Leo said, an amused smile on his lips. "We were about to call you over anyways."