Cleo

Liam

Things seemed to quiet down over the next week. The killings stopped the moment I joined forces with Jesus and Gio. The town grew quiet and everyone seemed to settle down and return to their normal routines.

Jasmine had moved rooms, taking a spare in the basement and doing her best to make it as homey as she possibly could. She sat with Louis and ordered some things from online and of course, used the quickest delivery possible. And that was fine, I wanted her to be comfortable.

Liam was still mad at me, he hardly spoke to me, and he was too busy with the gang bangers to even care to look at me. Harry was the opposite; he was trying really hard to get me in bed whenever
there was a spare moment to breathe. But I didn't give in, not since we gained a large am
ount of company. Niall was still working with Zayn and Harry, I found myself with them mostly. We talked about plans in case the Cobra‟s attacked. "You and Jasmine are in the panic room." Niall said to me at one point.

"No, I'm not hiding." I fought back.

"He's right, Cleo. We need you, Jasmine needs someone she trusts. Louis will be out with the rest of us. Niall, you should stay as well." Niall glared at Zayn before shaking his head. "Yes, as amazing as you can be handling a gun, you hesitate. There is no time; we don't need to lose you too."

"I've actually got a better plan." Liam walked up behind us. "Let's bail."

I turned to look at him and furrowed my brows. "We are not running away. We have nowhere to go right now."

"I think it's time to take you home, Cleo." I shook my head quickly. "Yes, you were right, taking you was wrong. We were pretty damn heartless. But we can fix it, or at least try."

Harry, Niall and Zayn watched Liam and I as we glared at each other. "You guys made me leave
three years ago, I couldn't even say goodbye. My family isn't going to be welcoming. And I'm not giving up what I worked damn hard for."

"You have enough money to live happily for years. It's time you go back to college and figure yourself
out. Grow the fuck up." I slapped him, but he hardly moved. "We send Jasmine ahead." He turned to the guys. "Give her the card numbers, have her get us a motel room, apartment, anything. Then we leave, it will be less suspicious to these guys and the Cobras. It's time we get out of this, before we die."

Harry looked at me and nodded, "I agree. This has gone on long enough. We need to give up this life." I crossed my arms.

"I'm the one in charge here, I say we fight."

"And die. You really want to die? We have twenty men that will fight against an entire gang. We are
screwed!" Liam got close to me, his breathe warm on my skin. Harry stepped up and pulled him back,
turned and grabbing me.

I struggled against him until I was free of his grip and looked at Liam. "I'm not a coward. I don't
run away from my problems."

"Well, apparently I do." He turned to the others, "We'll discuss this later, get everything set up and send Jasmine out." He looked at me again and half smiled, "It's time we collect our winnings before we bankrupt."

I wanted to follow him when he left, but I knew it was probably best not to push anything. He was pissed as it was; there was no point in adding to the pile. I walked out of the room without another word to the others. The nerve they had, to belittle me, make my opinions matter as much as an ants. This was bullshit. I was not backing down; I wanted nothing more than Manny's blood spilled. He was a heartless man with no right to live.

I felt the tears burning my eyes. It seemed like forever since the last time I cried. I shut myself in my bedroom and curled up in a ball in the middle of the floor and cried. I let it all out, trying my best not to let anyone hear me. My head was pounding and I was nearly gagging when I finally sat up and pulled myself together. I could have cared less about it though. Too much was buzzing around my head to even bother getting up and taking a pain pill. Besides, I felt like letting myself suffer, just a little pain to remind me this was real.

Liam was outside of the room when I opened the door. His back was against the wall facing me. He had his arms crossed and his gaze fixed on the dark blue carpet. "You're getting weak." He said
softly.

"I'm getting weak?" I scoffed, walking towards the kitchen. "You're the one running away."

Liam gripped my shoulder hard enough to make me wince, "I'm not being weak or being a coward, Cleo." I didn't let myself look at him, "I'm being smart. I'm thinking logically. The Cobra's are an
army of their own; we are just a group of hippies tied to the tree they want to tear down. They won't hesitate to run us over."

"Screw the tree, I don't care about the fucking tree. I care that Manny bleeds. That his blood covers the town, that his head is on a stick in front of Sevens and his 'family' gets pieces of him slowly, just to make them suffer as much as he made everyone else suffer."

"You're soft. You are just a naive little girl with dreams of world peace. If you wanted world peace, you should have joined Miss. America. You are here, heading a group of people who knowingly sell drugs and woman for money they could do without."

"Don't. Just shut up. Leave me alone."

Liam laughed and pressed his body to mine. "What's the matter? Can't talk to me without little Harry as your bodyguard? Where is he? Huh? Keeping your bed warm?" I closed my eyes tightly and bit my tongue. "Come on Cleo, say something. Get angry; pull another shit comeback from your pretty little mouth." I felt the tears again and tried to hold them back, "Be the big bad mob bitch you think you are. You can't even look at me." He turned me and I nearly fell over. "Try to shag me to make me shut up, something."

I looked at him and tried to speak, tried to tell him to fuck off, to die in a hole. I tried to say something, anything to get him to back off, but all that came were tears, the uncontrollable tears that I held back for years.

"Cleo." He whispered, wrapping his arms around me. "Don't do this. You are stronger than this." I pushed against his chest, trying to get away, but he wouldn't let me. "I care about you." Like hell. I thought. "I don't want to see you die or have you see one of us die. We are like a dysfunctional family. We need each other, we strangely love each other and we try to do what's right. We need to leave, to get out of here before there is none of us left."

My nose was running and I felt disgusting as his shirt soaked with my pitiful sadness. "Fuck you."