Insufficient

Chapter 33 - Hide and Seek

Zeke's POV

Three hours and twenty seven minutes.

That's how long ago Massimo and Juliana should have been back. I told them not to send him to pick her up. I knew that bastard would get the two of them into some shit. They could be lying dead on the side of the road right now for all we know.

Holy shit. I'm never going to see them again, am I? I can just picture it. A joint funeral. Two caskets- Well, one casket. We'll have to cremate Massimo because of how heavy that bastard is. Otherwise there'd be no getting that thing off the ground.

I can practically envision the headstones. Cause of death: Stupid older cousin, can't drive.

How long has it been? It must have been a few hours since I last checked- Nope. Still three hours and twenty seven, no, twenty eight minutes.

I let out a breath, tapping my stupid watch after the screen goes blank again. Nobody has gotten any word from Massimo, or Juliana. The bastard turned his fucking phone off when we started calling too many times.

We being me, but that's not important information. When we checked the GPS to the car, we saw they were in some weird as hell location nearly thirty minutes from here.

Whatever this was, it had to be Massimo's doing. That asshole couldn't follow simple directions to save his life. No. It always has to be his way. His orders, his directions, his smelly breath.

"Zeke, for the last time, I am going to ask you to please stop wearing out my carpet. I get that you're worried but I don't plan to refurbish anytime soon, thank you." Uncle Stefano calls out to me tensely.

Okay, so maybe I've been a bit annoying with my pacing, but can you blame me? I mean, am I the only one that cares for Juliana's- I mean, our cousins' safety?

It's been three hours. I can forgive maybe ten to fifteen minutes, but hours? Come on. Something has to be seriously wrong.

"What if something happened to them? I mean, how do we know that Massimo didn't drive the car off the fucking cliff, or- oh my god, Massimo's driving.

They're dead. I'm never seeing mi piccolo angelo again." I hear laughs, but they don't faze my thoughts.

Poor Julie. She was too young. Too young to be subjected to Massimo's non-existent driving skills. He's probably traumatising her at this very moment, and we all know she doesn't need any help with that.

"They're sitting in the driveway now, you dramatic shit. Jeez, and he's how much older than us?" I don't pay attention to Angelo, instead I make a beeline to the front door.

How dare Massimo do that to us? Does he have any idea how worried I- how worried we all were?

I get outside just in time to see Massimo slinging Juliana over his shoulder. Because yeah, it's not like he could bust the stitches around her g-tube by doing that.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I demand, and Massimo looks up at me, still bent over, not in the least bit surprised.

"I'm getting the child you're currently attempting to wake up inside of the house. Why?" He replies cooly, reaching his arm inside of the car and pulling out two flimsy cups filled with I-don't-even-want-to-know-what.

Part of me relaxes in seeing the two of them okay, but that part is quickly overrun with agitation. Does he know how reckless he's being? Nobody knew where they were or if they were alright.

And yes, I did make sure to give him a piece of my mind all the way into the house.

"Dad, please make it stop." He complains, interrupting me might I add, but Uncle Stefano only laughs at him. Good, at least he sees reason.