Straight through the Heart

Chapter 32

"Wait..who are you again?" Nicco stops all of us to look at Ben. 

"I'm just here to help." Ben raises his arms immediately to surrender. I'm beginning to wonder what's in that head of his. From the training and fights, I know he is a capable fighter. He also excelled at the tests since I remember him ranking in the top ten. Lucian ranked everyone based on skills and the bottom ten would also be taken away to be test babies (though that's my own deduction). 

"I don't really know him." Nicco directs his questioning but hard gaze at me. 

"I'm not comfortable with a stranger trailing behind my back." Nicco's voice grows deadlier by the second. I gulp as he directs his full glare at Ben. 

"I'm only here to help." 

"Oh really? That sounds like a damn spy. How about you go find someone else to help?" Nicco and Lorenzo straighten to their full height and give a withering glare. Honestly, I would have turned tails and ran if I was in Ben's situation.

"Why the hell did you let him tag along?" Nicco asks my brother and I incredulously. I don't like the way he words and asks the question, as if he's babying us again.  A part of me gets ticked off.

"He's useful. He got us here. I'm not about to kill him off in cold blood." I press my lips together tightly. 

"You're too soft." Nicco sets his jaw as he steadies the gun pointing at Ben. 

"The fuck you saying?" My pupils flare at the offensive remark. Nicco realizes he has vocalized his thought aloud as his forehead creases. 

"I-" He begins.

"You know what? You-" I raise an eyebrow and am about to continue, but Lorenzo steps between us. 

"Enough." A muscle in his jaw twitches. "You. Leave." He commands Ben. 

To our surprise, Ben merely sighs. "Geez. See ya." He pastes a grin on his face before leaving. 

"That was a little too easy." Rob speaks up in a wary manner. 

Nicco and I face towards Lorenzo, but Lorenzo gives a sharp look of 'shut the fuck up' before walking away. 

"Whatever. Let's just stay on guard and ready." I don't want to waste more time as is. Our family needs us.

My brother furrows his brows as if he wants to comment, but shakes his head against it. Instead, he catches up to the twins and asks, "Where are we heading?"

Nicco lifts up his watch to show the pop-up, three-dimensional blueprint. He flicks around and then zooms in on several blinking red dots. I look closely and see the red dots moving around erratically. One..two..three...five...All accounted for? I peer at the watch. It looks like a simple leather watch with a matte black circular screen. 

"Nice watch." Rob inspects the design. "Looks almost like last generation's Apple Watch."

"Sky created it for us. He said he tinkered with the design and now it has a lot of cool features. I would show it to you but..." Nicco lowers his voice, "They seem a little cranky."

"Oh, don't mind us." Lorenzo waves him away. I stick my nose in the air and ignore him. "Keep talking about that watch." Of course, his body language is the same as usual. Whenever we go out on missions, Lorenzo tends to act like he has a stick up his ass. At this moment, I don't mind it because I'm annoyed at Nicco.

Nicco clears his throat. "Follow me." He scurries forward at a much faster pace. The three of us follow Nicco silently behind him. As time passes, the path becomes more cluttered. There are more destroyed walls and crumbling building parts.