remember that you're mine {joshler}

vi. but you fit me better than my favourite sweater

A/N: at the end of this chapter there is a brief description of a murder, pls stay safe. Merry Christmas i love you all and i hope you have a great holiday, whatever you celebrate!

-x-

Brendon gulped loudly at the metal biting into his skull.

"H-hey Tyler, long-time no see huh?" He stammered out after slowly turning his head to the side to look Tyler in the eye.

Tyler remained expressionless as Josh stared on, his eyes searching Tyler's own but their gaze never met.

"Where'd you hide it?" was all Tyler said in way of easing the tension.

"I-I don't know wh-what you're talking about man, I'm just trying to do an honest deal here." It was almost comical how much Brendon had started sweating and that drew josh's attention to the fleeting glance he gave to one of the boxes in the corner. With a glance at Tyler he was instructing someone to open the box in question.

After what felt like years, Michael bulled a small device from the very bottom of the crate. Michael inspected it before tossing it to josh who caught it in his free hand, he furrowed his brow as he looked at it.

"Tracking device." Tyler spoke up, still set in his stone-like stance, gun pressed to Brendon's temple. Josh looked down at the object then back up at Michael for confirmation, he nodded. "Check those guns too, the ones on the top will be legit but the ones at the bottom are probably fakes." Tyler continued, Brendon squeezed his eyes shut, his frame shrinking in defeat. After a minute of inspection, Michael was nodding in confirmation a second time.

"How did-" Josh trailed off, shaking his head in disbelief. He had too many questions to deal with right now.

"Beebo here used to work for my dad, he taught him that trick. Steal one real crate of guns and use them to hide the fact that the rest are fakes. Then plant a device so he knows where you're keeping them, he'd have stolen them back by the end of tomorrow." Tyler moved to pat Brendon on the shoulder causing him to jump and shake with fear. "Probably planning on making it look like it was my dad, leave him chance to take your money and skip town, then he'd just repeat the process with the next gang he can find."

Josh willed the feeling in his chest to go away as he watched Tyler, a small smirk on his face. He was still going to have to ask the other questions he had

"Take him away." Josh motioned for his men to take Brendon from Tyler's grasp into their own, dragging him as he struggled, shouting about this being a 'misunderstanding' and that he can 'make it up to him'. Josh shook his head a small chuckle escaping both him and Tyler. Their eyes met again, a familiar feeling bubbling in josh's gut.

Josh cleared his throat. "Michael, get rid of these fakes, keep the real ones, and dump this tracking device in the furthest corn field." Michael smirked at that.

"Sure thing boss." Then he and the remaining men were sorting through the crates. Combing through everything.

Josh shut the case of money before taking it and Tyler out of the room and back out into the club.

"I have questions." He whispered into Tyler's ear, his whole body pushed up behind flush to Tyler's, Tyler swallowed hard as he stumbled to put his gun away. He nodded slowly.

Josh brushed past Tyler to push aside the dark red curtain that hid the doorway from club goers. He stopped dead in his tracks causing Tyler to bump into him this time. "Shit."

"What?" Tyler's eyes went wide as he searched Josh's stony expression.

"My father is here. You need to go." He started anxiously looking down the corridor, wracking his brain for another exit.

"Josh!" Tyler brought him back to reality before he could panic. He'd never seen this side of josh before, was he that scared of his father, it caused a feeling to stir in Tyler but he couldn't put his finger on it so he stuffed it to the back of his mind for later. "it's okay, you go and talk to him, distract him and then I will sneak out." Josh took a deep breath before nodding.

"Okay, but don't think we're not talking about what happened back there." Tyler relaxed his shoulders before stepping back to let Josh go find his father.

After a minute he glanced out at the club and saw Josh talking to a tall man, he had the ghost of Josh's appearance across his own, with greying hair. He looked soft around the edges but there was something about the way he carried himself, the way josh's whole body language changed in his presence that made him incredibly intimidating. Tyler shivered before dashing towards the exit.

He needed to get his gun back into the safe before his father could figure out it was ever gone. As soon as he got back he carefully slipped back into the study, he had just finished putting the painting back on the wall when he heard footsteps. He grabbed a book from the shelf and sat in one of the ugly green chairs just in time for the door to open.

"Tyler what are you hiding in here for? Dad needs to see us in the basement." His brother Zack eyed him suspiciously as Tyler tried to shrug it off.

"Wanted some quiet." He closed the book and put it back on the shelf before following his brother out the room and towards the basement. As they approached the stairs Mark joined them.

"Where were you?" he snapped, his voice low in Tyler's ear.

"Needed to do something." Tyler replied before walking ahead, ignoring mark's huff of annoyance at the vague answer.

"Your dad's proper pissed Tyler, this isn't going to be anything good." Was all he said.

Tyler gulped but before he could answer the door opened to reveal Chris Salih stood against the wall, Tyler's father opposite and a group of his men stood around behind him. His father was holding a gun, suddenly Tyler couldn't breathe.

"Father-" Zack started but at the downright vicious glare his father gave him Zack stiffened and cleared his throat. "S-Sir," he corrected himself. "what's going on?"

"You're just in time boys, I'm showing my men here what happens when you fail me." He said solidly. Before either Tyler or Zack could ask what he meant, he lifted the gun in his hand and pulled the trigger. Chris hit the wall and slumped lifelessly to the floor leaving a giant splatter of blood and brain matter all over the floor.

Tyler almost collapsed in shock but mark caught him, there was no air in his lungs. What had he done.