Invictus

Chapter 23: Takedown

We waited outside a rundown apartment complex next to an abandoned movie theater. Two men stood below the old unlit sign, the title of some ancient film scrawled onto the overhead structure jutting from the second story.

We were back in the hood again. More bars on windows, cars with no mufflers, graffiti, trash scattered about in the streets, and a lot of sketchy looking thugs strolled about a few blocks away from us... but not on our block. Even a stranger to this part of town could have seen that this block, this movie theater belonged to someone you didn't want to mess with.

The only gun I'd ever seen was the one Tia kept for home security, the fake ones in the movies, and those on my VR games. They looked just like the one's the two Hispanic men were carrying outside the empty ticket booth, only much more intimidating.

"Looks dangerous," I shifted in my seat and leaned forward to get a better look out the windshield.

"You can't die, what are you worried about?" Trenton asked bitingly.

Trenton's words irked me. He and I had been cordial for the past two days, so his aggressive tone threw me off. It was like he was angry with me.

I turned to him in surprise, "What's your problem?"

"No problem, just stating the facts."

The bitterness in Trenton's response was something I hadn't experienced. He'd been like this with Santiago, but not me.

Annoyed, I tried to think what I'd done to him or even what he'd seen that was making him act this way. I leaned back in my seat and waited for someone else to start talking.

"What's the plan?" Kya asked while rubbing her hands against the jeans on her legs.

"Nervous?" I asked her, giving a breathy snort.

"Leave her alone," Trenton said defensively.

"Oh, you her protector now?" I snapped back at him. He was beginning to get on my nerves.

"Both of yours, actually," he said with a head bob that reeked of pride.

"I —"

"You what Z? You gonna hit me?" Trenton said, looking back at me in the rear view mirror with a smug smile.

I clenched my fists. What was his problem? Was he trying to rile me up? Because if that was the case, it was working.

"What are we waiting for?" Kya asked loudly, trying to de-rail the argument Trenton and I were having.

Trenton turned back to Kya and gave her a soft response, "We're waiting for that storm to move in. Shouldn't be to much longer now."

Dark clouds hovered in the distance just west of us. They looked bad. We spent the rest of the time in silence till we heard the rain start to hit against the glass.

"Alright. Follow me," Trenton got out of the car then turned back when he saw that Kya and I weren't following him, "lets go princess," he said shouting into the car. He slapped his hand on the hood to drive his point home.

"Sorry, Trenton. I'm just... are you sure this is a good idea?" Kya's voice was barely audible as she spoke.

"Oh no, not you hun. Your the queen. I was talking to princess Z back there."