Caught in the Midst

Chapter Two

Two Years Later

If there is one thing to learn in life is that you should never wake up a hormonal woman by hitting her with a pillow, especially if the sun isn't out yet. Mickey learned this lesson the hard way. He though it would be humorous to try and initiate a pillow fight with me this morning, and when that didn't work he decided what better to do than jump on my bed. He no longer thought it was a good idea when I yanked the covers from underneath him causing him to land on his ass. Now he is mad cause I turned his ass black and blue.

I chuckled at the memory. Right now I was cleaning up after the night crowd at Stella's. It was retro themed cafe that all the locals raved about. I could see why. Stella Manolo sure knew how to make some mean banana but muffins.

The place was almost cleaned up when I saw my brother's Chevy pull into the parking lot. He insisted on picking Mona and I up everynight from work.

I quickly threw the broom into the storage closet and tossed my apron behind the counter. I grabbed my purse and headed out the door, locking it behind. I closed up Stella's quite a bit. She had three wee ones at home that needed her more than I did.

When I looked through the windshield I saw the agitated look across my brother's face. He still couldn't be pouting about this morning. He may be the oldest out of the three of us, but maturity wise Mona and I were way ahead of him in that department.

I quickly jumped and turned to him smirking.

"What's with the sour look, grumpy face? Your ass still throbbing?"

He just turned and shot me a glare. Geesh, maybe I wasn't the only hormonal one.

A heard a chuckle behind me and turned to see Mona trying to hold in a laugh.

"Why are you here? Your shift doesn't end for another half hour. Won't your boss be upset that you left early?"

"Doesn't matter." It wasn't Mona who spoke, Mickey did. His voice was gruff.

"If she wants to keep her job, yeah it is. Her boss is a tool." I shot back, picking up the water bottle in the console before taking a gulp.

"She won't be going back, and neither will you."

I nearly sputtered out the water in my mouth.

"Again? What is it this time? Please don't say it's just a feeling. That's just an excuse."

I was tired of moving. I was never warned. One day he would pick us up after work and we would never be seen again.

"It was Rory." That shut me up. My body tensed at the name of his watchdog. Rory was not somebody I had the interest of running into again. His cold, mischievous eyes were enough to warn me off.

"How did he find us?" I asked.

"Dumbass, here decided not to tell that his co-worker from back in Boston has been contacting him." I turned and shot at glare at him from Mona's words.

"You told us not communication. That we couldn't afford them to be able to track us."

"I trust Donald. You know I would never jeopardize the safety of the two of you. He's clean. He used to be on dad's radar for the Dominique case."

"You remebered that?"

"Yeah, who do you think help him with all the stakes out. I watched Donald for weeks. He's clean. I trust him, Ellie."

"You know trust is a luxury we can't afford. We trusted somebody before that we though was innocent, now look what that led to."

"Guys let's just get back to the problem at hand. Okay?" Mona said. I was a little peeved with Mickey right now. After we first left he would constantly lecture us on the importance of keeping a secret. He would remind us that the only people we could trust was eachother. It made sense. He had "friends" everywhere.

Mickey nodded and said, " Donald called me last week to inform me that some guy was walking around showing our pictures, asking if anybody knew us. It is a good thing we change our names with each move otherwise they might have found us by now."

"Do you know who it was?"

He shook his head. "No, it was probably just one of his watchdogs he has. Or one of his connections. I didn't think to much about it because we were far enough away and they didn't have a solid enough theory as to where we were.?

"What did Donald tell him?" I asked.

"He told the guy that he has never seen us. So did everybody else. According to him, the guy a lot of the locals a bad feeling."

"When were you going to say anything to us?" Mona asked. It was easy to hear she was irritated.

"Honestly," Mickey started, "I wasn't going to say anything. But when I was leaving for work today and I saw Rory in the boss's office talking to him I decided we needed to leave. It is not just a coincidence that he showed up her of all places." His forehead crinkled as if he was thinking long and hard about something.

"He is not playing a fair game. He knows all the players on our side but we only know a percent of those on his." Mona commented. She was right. He knew everything about us. He knew it was just the three of us, but we had no idea who he had working on his side.

"He never plays fair, Mona. That is why he is feared so much by everyone. He is unpredictable. But he is also good at manipulating people into trusting him." I said. The thought that he knew where we were didn't sit well with me. I didn't like that he had the advantage.

"We were once feared to. Before he betrayed our fathers, people we intimidated by us." Mickey reminded.

"That doesn't help us now, though. We don't have the connections and resources we used to." We truly didn't. Other than what our father's taught us we didn't have to ability to take him down. We just didn't want to realize that yet.

"Why does he even want us so bad? It's not like would say anything. We have no evidence of what he did, or even if he did."
"He did." I shot at Mona. "That's not a question we are stilling trying to figure out the answer to. He might not have been to actual one who did but he still has the blood on his hands. We all know he was the one who made that call."

Mona just signed and slumped back into her seat. Next to her I saw all our belongings. It wasn't much. Just some clothes and other things we licked up over the years.

"We are heading to a small town up in northern Maine. He wouldn't think to look there." He brought up. It had been silent for the past twenty minutes after what I said. It was a sensitive subject to bring up. I still hasn't moved on from it. The pain I felt just turned into rage, and they knew it was better for them if they just didn't say anything.

"Why? Why is it so special?"

"That's a really long story. Not one for tonight."

"Just sleep, Ellie. It will be a long drive. I'll wake you both up when we get there."

I didn't feel like arguing with him. I instead looked out the window. Every time we had to leave and run to someplace new I always ended up thinking about what our life would be like. If what had happened two years ago didn't happen. Mickey would be graduating college, Mona and I would be in our second year. Our lives would be normal. The biggest thing we would have to worry about was how we would pay next months rent. No one should fear for the life. No one should have to run to feel safe. I didn't enjoy living out of a small bag, meeting new people knowing I would eventually leave, I hated leaving without a goodbye. They left without one, and I still havent found closure. No one wants to wake up one day realizing someone they held dear is gone and wouldn't be coming back. Nothing left behind, not even a reason.

My eyes began to felt droopy and before I knew it was welcoming a much needed sleep.