I'd Kill You First: when bad meets bad

Chap. 45

BRODY:

Matt, Keenon, and I sat in the hospital cafeteria at a small side table with our elbows propped in front of us, all rubbing our faces with exhaustion.

"We've been going over things for hours," Keenon sighed in a hoarse voice. "We need Soda to be involved."

I shook my head vehemently before he had even finished his sentence. "No, no way. She's been through enough for a lifetime and then some, I am not bringing her into this."

Keenon heaved in frustration but cast me a careful look. He had been walking on egg shells around me lately and rightly so. I hadn't told him I wasn't really mad at him, so he thought he was still on my personal hit list. Ha.

"She knows all the names and places that we are missing," he explained with a strained sound. "We can sit here and try to act like we have a clue what to do all we want, but all we are doing is bullshitting with ourselves. We need Soda to help us. We are just groping for the light switch in the dark without her."

Matt sat back and completely covered his face with his hands for a minute before splitting his fingers to see me through a small slit. "He's right, Brody. She knows all the answers to the questions we keep asking each other."

I glared at them both. They didn't understand that she was my little Soda Pop, and I just could not let her down again. "I don't care. We don't even know that she would help. She kept it from all of us for a reason. If I know my sister at all, I'm thinking she wouldn't help anyway."

"But you don't know that!" Keenon huffed in exasperation. "She may be just as tired of all this as we are! Maybe she is looking for a way out and just can't find one. We could be that way for her!"

"Again, he has a point, Brody," Matt spoke up with those deep eyes penetrating me. But then he turned his solemn gaze to Keenon. "But, I know her better than both of you. If we take the chance of asking for her help, we are exposing our plans to her. If she doesn't want us to help out for some reason, she will bolt. If she thinks we are going behind her back, she'll leave faster than you can blink and you won't be able to find her. Believe me, I've experienced it."

I cast a bewildered look at both of them and threw my hands in the air. "Well this is perfect. We are still stuck in a shithole with no plan. All we have is the name Drake, the Brooks Street spread out of theirs, and some dude named Boss. Freaking great."

We all went back to rubbing at our bloodshot eyes and grumbling things to ourselves. This seemed so hopeless.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••

SODA:

I opened my eyes and yanked up with a jerk, last thing in my mind being the strange act of being kissed by Keenon.

Keenon.

I remembered him now. All of it. I had liked him, enough to make out with him and not even finish my routine fuck session with him. But he was different now than I remembered. Harder, icier maybe.

I remembered my screw ups with Boss and his threats. I remembered my last client and his consequential trip to the hospital. I remembered the run in with my dad and how he tried to kill me. How Trace had just stood there and watched. How Keenon had helped me. The events following. It all rushed in so fast I got a massive headache, but maybe that was just from all the knots on my head.

The door to my room opened and I really wished people would leave me alone. I was so tired of people.

"Well isn't this a sight to see."

I tensed at the ragged voice that circulated through the quiet room and stung my ears.

"Don't like it? Maybe you should think twice before you try to kill me next time," I spat, glaring at him.

He chuckled deeply and lazily lowered himself into the chair by my bed. I flinched when he settled back, and he raised his brows. "Relax, Bree. I'm just here for uh, I guess you could call it a follow-up appointment."

"Don't call me that," I hissed. "And I'm fine, no thanks to you. Leave."

"What's the rush?" he drawled, putting his hands behind his head so that his large arms flexed. "Afraid big brother is gonna walk in and find me?"

"More afraid for you actually," I smirked. "If Matt finds you here alone, you're dead."

His eyes narrowed. "That son of a bitch is here? Geez Bree, what is it about you that makes these guys follow you around like puppies?"

"Stop calling me that!" I yelled, then lowered my voice so that the nurse wouldn't come in. I may be a bitch, but I didn't want to see an innocent lady die, and that's what would happen to her if she walked in on Drake. "Just leave before Matt kills you."

"Aw," he cooed, "are you worried about me? How cute."

I sneered at him. "You know damn well that if Matt sees you, he will kill you, and if Matt kills you, he goes on the hit list. As much as I would just love to see you get killed by your baby brother, I don't want him to die too. You aren't worth it."

Drake glared at me so hard his eye twitched. "You didn't tell him my real name, did you?" he asked in a low, warning voice.

"Oh please," I scoffed, "I'm not stupid. It would be a total blood bath if he knew it was you. He would kill you, Boss would kill him and probably me too, then Brody and Keenon would die for being loose ends. Your family would be ended as well, and Boss would just move on. We all die. Not a happy ending."

"Ever the drama queen," he said with a yawn. "Look, I'm here to make sure you're still aware of the fact that Boss owns you. You are expected to report for duty immediately."

He leaned forward in his seat and stared me down with an icy gaze. "And let me make one thing clear for you. Your friends are down there in the cafeteria planning a way to kill Boss, thus getting us all killed too. I can have my sniper take them out now, but then you would have no more incentive to behave anymore. So listen up, Bree. If you so much as give one tiny little thought to helping them figure out the operation, I will strap you down and make you watch while I kill my little brother myself, right in front of you. Then Brody will be next, and then Keenon. Though I would make him suffer a lot more since he's been reaping havoc for us on the streets. Quite the fighter. Then after they die, all your new friends here will go next, Toby and Lacy and Kyle and what not. And well, I'm sure you get the picture by now, right?"

I swallowed hard, heart pounding at just that thought, but forced myself to meet his cruel gaze. "Got it. If I screw up, everyone dies. Woo-fucking-hoo."

He chuckled and stood up. "If you weren't such a back stabbing bitch, I think I might would like you."

"Good thing I would plant a knife in between your shoulder blades first chance I got then," I said with a sweet smile.

He snorted and headed for the door. "Be prepared for the ride, doll. You passed the trust exam, so don't screw this up. Things just got a little messy."

"Fuck off," I growled.

He threw his head back and laughed as he stepped out the door. "I'll see you real soon," he called over his shoulder before the door shut again.

I was left to wonder how he had gotten into this room in the first place and if that sniper on my friends had a trigger happy finger.