The Heartbreaking Agreement

Chapter XIII

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You are a part of our family...

My hands were shaking, my legs weakened, my mind lost in thousand thoughts. Loud music faded away, vision became unclear. My heart's beats were crazy, uncontrollable.

This couldn't be right. This wasn't true. I couldn't be a part of some street gangs. I walked into this with confidence, but I wasn't aware of how realistic this was, how much in danger I could be in. Jerome said I was already in a bad position, but Quinn was responsible. I wasn't sure what exactly he meant.

I didn't show them how much I was afraid and what was going on inside of me. I walked out from the Old Man's office with Jerome by my side, his hand holding my arm tight. When we reentered the pub, I noticed more people dancing near the DJ and less at the tables. Although, a lot of them screamed to turned up the song it wasn't loud enough to silence laughs of people that sat by the bar. As they had our back to us, I saw three tigers and two phoenix on their leather jackets. Like the one that Quinn had, those with Phoenix also had Rome above the image of a bird. For the tiger one, there was simply "Wild Ride" written above the head of the animal.

Jerome walked towards them, showing me with his index finger the person closest to our right. A guy with a black slick hair and the phoenix jacket was talking to some brunette, laughing at his joke. He moved his hand to touch girl's wavy hair and I saw a phoenix tattoo. It was similar to Jerome's.

A proud bird spreading it's wings.

"Kile!" Jerome called his friend. Kile looked at him and greeted us with a warm smile.

"Well, well. If it isn't our little boy, Jerome. What took you so long?" he asked and then looked at me. His honey eyes seemed to wrap me in a welcoming hug, which made me feel a little uncomfortable. I didn't like that look.

"A lady shouldn't stand. Please, sit next to me." he pat the bar stool next to him, while the brunette on his other side lost interested and walked away. I wasn't sure if I could trust him, but I knew Jerome was here. They wouldn't hurt me, especially that I'm "the part of their family" now, right?

"So? What happened to you?" Kile continued, moving his eyes from me to focus on Jerome.

"I rather not talk about this here" he simply said and Kile got it. He narrowed his eyes, as he took a sip of beer. "Tigers" he mouthed and all Jerome had to do was a simple nod. Without a question I could see they understood each other. They probably were really close to each other. It reminded me of Quinn.

"Well, I'm sure whatever it was it probably involved this lady" Kile spoke a little bit louder on purpose so everyone could hear him. He moved his eyes to me again with that creepy, yet confident smile. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."

He quickly exchange looks with the barman and moved his index and middle finger in a wave-like movement. Few seconds later, three shot glasses were in front of us.

"Evangeline" I took one glass. From the smell I could guess it was tequila with coke.

"Evangeline. Oh, Evangeline!" he said my name several times, whispering it, screaming, like he was testing its sound. From the expression of his face I could guess he liked it.

"Stop that" Jerome lightly hit his friend's arm, sending him a warning look. "She's here to decide if she wants to join the Tigers or Phoenix."

Wait, what? Was he serious? I thought it was obvious I would go where Quinn was and from what I noticed it has to be the Phoenix. Otherwise, why would the Tigers go after him? What do they even want from him?