A single bullet // M.C ✔️

60

Luke's voice was drowning out Calum's as they argued in front of me. My hand was slowly tapping the pen top against the tabletop as I just let it happen, zoning out and only occasionally picking up words. The whole thing was technically my fault for nearly outting Luke to Alex about knowing Michael and how close they really are.

'She didn't know,' Calum would argue, making Luke flip out even more, saying I should know. I had tried to speak my reasoning as I had never been told, but I got shut up straight away by them telling me to keep out of it.

"This isn't how a leader would act," I scoffed, rolling my eyes and leaning forward against the desk, stopping the annoying tapping that I made fill the room. If only I could go back in time... The glare Luke sent my way and the look of 'shut up' Calum gave me made me recoil slightly, cringing and screwing my face up. "Or they would. What do I know?" I awkwardly laughed before looking down, knowing I was digging myself in a deeper hole. 6ft under. Actually, no, fuck this. "Actually, no, they wouldn't, Luke, man. The fuck up. I had never had that backup plan explained to me. I didn't know if one gets caught, you drop each other... Family and all that."

"Be quiet, Nicky." Calum hissed, stepping forward so he was in-between me and Luke in case he went for me.

"Listen to Calum, Nicky..."

"He's your brother, Luke, and you dropped him! I don't give two shits if it's your plan. Alex wouldn't have done anything."

"You're not really in his best books, though, are you, Nic?"

"No, I might not be... but I do know my blood brother and know no matter how pissed at me he was, he wouldn't have done anything to any of you. He already has Michael. I thought you would have been showing him proof Michael didn't kill her, not just chatting about work, which, by the way, you're in charge of giving me articles. If you forgot,"

I stood up, my vans hitting against the wooden floor, scraping the chair against the grain, making the sound fill the room. I was tired of this conversation that they clearly didn't want me to have a part in, and I wasn't going to fight to let me have a part in it. "Pretty shitty boss," I muttered, walking past him, banging shoulders into him, and ignoring him as he cursed me out.

I watched the footage back to back, rewinding to the point of Michael entering the building and leaving with blood on his hands. They were right; no one else was seen entering the building or leaving. It was almost as if the video had been edited, cutting out any other human entering that building, even as I scrolled to when I would have arrived, I wasn't there.

It just seemed like he had returned to the crime scene to do whatever he did and then called the police quickly, running out. Quickly, I tapped the pause button; Michael never phoned the police. Kensie did. CCTV didn't have audio, and if it did, it would show that; this just makes it seem like he was rerunning away from the café. He would have been trying to find where me and Calum were to get us over.

He really was being framed.

"Are you fucking kidding me, Nicky?!" Kensie. She barged into my place, looking all frantic and pissed off, as she glared down at me, making me silently shut my laptop and look up at her, confused.

"What's going on?" I muttered, almost silently moving my laptop off my lap and going to stand up, deciding against it.

"Just because your "boyfriends" are in prison doesn't mean you can have a go at mine! Calling him a shitty boss, who do you think you are?" I sighed, regretting even mentioning that to him.

"Kensie-."

"No, you don't get to talk to me," she hissed, pointing at me. "That's my boyfriend; you disrespected him. He's taking on so much with Michael in jail and still trying to run the newspaper and everything to do with that. You don't even understand!"

"No one asked him to step up and fill Michael's spot. I was perfectly capable of doing it."

"That's rich," she laughed, shaking her head. "I really doubt that, Nicky. You couldn't tell someone how to kill, what to do on a mission. How to punish if they disagree or don't do what you say. You don't have it in you." She sneered.

"Kensie, shut up," I begged. I didn't want to argue with her about this. I felt awful about what I said to Luke, but I also know everything I said was true. Alex wouldn't have done anything if I told him not, no matter how much he was pissed at me deep down. We were family, and that comes before anything else.

"Don't! Don't start trying to boss me around too, Nicky." She moved her hand to her hair, pulling it up into a claw clip. "Was Luke not enough?"

"You can't say shit like this, Kensie. So just shut up," I moved my hands and re-grabbed my laptop, opening it and meeting the frozen screen of Michael leaving the café.

"No, you don't get to just cut me off and change the subject." She muttered. "Did your dad not teach you manners?"

I felt my whole body stiffen as I registered what she just said to me. I watched as the colour drained from her face and her mouth fell open. I heard her start to splutter out apologies instantly, shaking her head and trying to suck the words out of the air.

"He did..." I whispered, feeling my hands shake slightly against my laptop. "Before he was killed."

"Nicky...." She trailed off, obviously not knowing what to say that could make this whole situation better.

"I think it's best if you go..." she nodded once, taking a huge step back, placing her hand on the doorknob. I bit my tongue, wanting to spew a million words her way about how I feel. How shitty she's made me feel? How much I hate her at this moment? How I've experienced so much loss and I'm still here. How I'm currently trying to fight my ass off to try and get my boyfriend out of the hell he's currently in. How no one else seems to give a fuck about what I'm dealing with, how he could be feeling!

"Nicky, we are trying to help!" She yelled, shaking her head. "He's our boss; of course, we care and are trying to help him." Shit, none of that was in my head.

"Well, then you're all doing a crappy job. Now, I'm serious; get out of my house."

"That Michael owns, Luke owns, Calum and Ashton all own Nicky."

"So what, Kensie? I live here."

"If you bad-talk Luke one more time, Nicky, you can say bye to this place. They don't accept threats or dishonour to them. One more bad thing, and you're out of the gang, out of the place with no Michael to save you." She informed me, finally opening the door and stepping over the threshold. "Just be careful with what you say next time; I would hate for something worse to happen than me just shouting at you."

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