Locked in chains

Chapter 7

The night is settling outside and the moon is shining at its brightest in the sky. I haven't left my room since this morning, and I have locked my door to make sure no one comes in. I need to pull myself together. I don't understand why things aren't going as planned. I never had difficulty with missions before, but it seems that it keeps on getting worse. Something needs to change and now.

I finally get up and head to the kitchen to make myself something to eat. I take two slices of bread and some peanut butter. It's simple but so good. I can't eat anything else right now, so better this than nothing. The house feels so empty, I take a quick look around and see that the guys already left the building, I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't notice. I finished eating my peanut butter sandwich and wanted to go back to my room, but I saw behind the kitchen hallway, where the office is located, that the lights were on. Weird. Only Cole usually goes in there. I walk up to the door and push it slightly to enter. As I walk in, I see him sitting at the desk staring at his documents. He was so focused that I thought he didn't see me walk in.

"Can I help you?" He says, still looking at his documents.

"Uum... "

He finally raises his head to look at me. Probably annoyed by my lack of response.

"I don't have all night, Leila."

"I just wanted to see if it was you in here."

"The guys went to Rocan's club, I decided to stay."

"Since when do you refuse a night there? "

"Since I choose to. "

"Ok. Anyway, I'll let you be," I say.

He returned his attention to what he was doing, I closed the door and went to sit on the swing outside. I love this part of the garden. It reminded me of the one I had at home when I lived with my parents. A light blue, with a touch of green and yellow. It isn't the cutest, but it doesn't need to be, It's perfect the way it is. Anyway, tonight's a hot night I can feel the humidity in the air, and you can hear the locusts too. I glance at the pool behind me and without thinking it too much, take off my clothes, keep my bra and panties on, and dive into it. The coldness of the water felt so good that I started doing some laps when a voice said: "What are you doing here?"
I turn around and see him standing on the side of the pool, looking at me with his eyebrows raised. "I was hot," I say. He sits on the pool's edge and puts his feet in the water. He looks exhausted as if today had knocked him out, his hair's a mess and falls in front of his face, not that he isn't cute or anything, but he doesn't look like himself in this state. He's wearing a black shirt per usual, and I can see the tattoos on his neck with this shirt. He has so many, it's hard to keep track, but my favorite is definitely the eagle on his shoulder.

"Will you come with me?" I say, swimming towards him.

"No." He answers back while leaning on his hands. I keep on swimming towards him, closer and closer. "Don't even think about it, Leila! I didn't come here for this."

"Why did you come here then if not to swim with me?"

I take his hands in mine, not letting him answer or run from me, and pull him inside the water with me. He laughed a little and threw some water on me as revenge. He swims to the edge to hold onto it and says: "Just admit that you wanted me with you in the pool."

"You wish."

"Oh yeah?" He says, tilting his head slightly.

"Don't get any ideas, Mr. James." He laughs at my comment and starts to swim at me. He's so close, that I can almost feel his breath and body touching mine.

"You know about earlier, with Marcus..." he starts.

"I don't want to talk about it. He's right, I need to get back in the game that's all."

"He's going to send you elsewhere if you don't improve, Leila."

"Elsewhere? What do you mean?" I say all confused. I see him tense up and clenching his jaw.

"Don't mess up during the next mission" he says with a harsh tone.

I'm about to reply, but Lucas appears in the house with the others and comes outside to see us. This conversation is going to be postponed. Cole immediately moves away from me and goes towards the steps of the pool to get out. 

"What's going on here?" Lucas says, looking at Cole and myself. Cole walks past him without saying anything and goes into the house. I start swimming towards the pool exit and get out myself.

"Nothing," I say.

Lucas is very protective of me, he almost fought with Kyle once because he thought something was going on between us. We had to have many conversations to make him trust us on this, even Emma didn't believe me, she's still asking about us from time to time. At least Kyle and I know the truth. Lucas needs to learn to let me live my life and accept that one day I'll be with someone.

"You want to explain?" Lucas adds.

"There's nothing to say."

"Do you think I'm an idiot?" he says, grabbing my arm and getting me out of the pool.

"Let me go, will you? Nothing is going on with Cole," I said while breaking free from his grip and started walking towards the door without looking at him. Why is he so mad? Even if something happens with Cole or any guy, it's my right to do so. I hate when he tries to control my life and my every action.

The next day at 11 am, we were sitting in the living room, and we received a message from Marcus giving us information about the new mission coming. He's sending us to Toronto to do business with another gang. We usually never make alliances. Since the mission against the Devils, I haven't heard or seen anything that indicates we're at war with them. But I know the storm's coming sooner than later, I can hear it coming.

"That's to protect ourselves from the Devils, right?" I say.

"Marcus will explain more when he comes back. For now, let's just obey the order," He says.

The Devil's warehouse was just a small base for them. They are a big gang in California, just like us, but they have more people and that's a problem. Marcus wants to rule, and if someone tries to take him down, watch out. Maybe he's finding some alliances to help him against the Devils, that's what I would do if I were him.

"Get your bags ready, we leave soon," Cole says.