Running Wilde (#Wattys2015 #Urban)

Running Wilde

1

Family Matters

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“Tell me what happened.”

“I told you; I sent him out to get some more formula for Jamie and he never came back.”

“Didn’t he give you money to get all that last week?”

“Yes, but it ran out.”

“You’re telling me that Jamie finished a whole tub of formula in a week?”

“Yes!”

Aiden’s jaw tightened, “Sofia, do I look stupid to you?”

“No Aiden.”

“Then why the fuck are you lying to me?” He growled.

“I’m not Aiden, I swear.”

“Yo Doug!”

                A tall wiry figure appeared from a dark doorway of Sofia’s home, dressed head to toe in black -the signature colour of the Diamond Mafia -with his baseball cap pulled down low so that the peak shadowed his eyes; Dougie Monroe, Aiden’s best friend and most faithful lieutenant with a reputation for being one of the most lethal hitmen the streets of London has ever known.

“Yeah?”

                Aiden glanced over his shoulder at his friend; “Go to the kitchen and open the cupboard next to the cooker. Tell me if you see a tin of SMA baby formula.”

Dougie nodded and went to investigate, moving silently like a trained assassin, a skill he had mastered many years ago; you never knew that Dougie was coming for you until it was too late.

Sofia Sanchez, mother of Aiden’s 7 month old nephew Jamie, tried to keep her body language calm. She knew that if she started fidgeting, even a little, Aiden would know for sure that she was lying…not that it mattered now; once Dougie looked in the cupboard he would see the two large tins of baby formula that she purchased last week when Keegan -Aiden’s 19-year-old brother and Jamie’s father -paid her child support. She wanted to believe that the fact that she was Jamie’s mother would stop Aiden from killing her, but deep down she knew that wasn’t true -Aiden is no soft touch and once he found out what she did, all hell would break loose. Keegan is missing and it’s all her fault.

                “Yeah, there’s two of ‘em,” Dougie called from the kitchen.

Aiden sighed irritably and slowly turned back to Sofia with his jaw clenched and his nostrils flared –he hated being lied to; he saw it as a waste of his time because he was always hell bent on knowing the truth by any means necessary. The more time that was wasted getting Sofia to confess what she knew about Keegan’s sudden disappearance, the more time whoever took his brother had to take him further away and do God knows what to him.

“Two tins?” Aiden growled quietly as the deep brown colour of his eyes hardened.

“My mistake,” Sofia shrugged almost carelessly, hoping that he didn’t notice the way her voice quivered slightly as she continued to avoid telling him the truth, “I thought we ran out.”

Aiden crouched his thick, six-foot-four frame down low, so that he could glare at Sofia at eye level as she sat stock still on her two-seater sofa with tears behind her eyes. She tried her best to hide her fear but he could see that she was afraid, and she should be -Aiden Michaels didn’t become one of the most notorious and highly dangerous drug lords of one of the biggest organised crime cartels in South London by allowing people to think they could cross him and get away with it. There were only two things that Aiden cared about; his money and his family, Keegan especially. Growing up on Myatts Field Estate (one of the rougher sectors of Brixton) had been tough on him and his younger sibling; with a junkie for a mother and both of their fathers pulling a disappearing act before they were born, Aiden and Keegan only ever really had each other. Nine years his senior, Aiden had done his best to try and raise Keegan; stealing food to feed him when their mother had used up their benefit money on drugs and cheap cider, teaching him how to fight so that he would be ready for the day someone from a different block would eventually try to jump him, protecting him from witnessing the things their mother did when she was skint and desperate for her next high (which usually involved her and a suspicious looking man behind a locked door), making sure that he went to school every day (even though Keegan would end up ditching halfway through the day), he bought him his first gun and taught him how to use it, showed him how to make fast money the smart way, and even taught him about girls -something Keegan picked up effortlessly. Keegan, as troublesome as he was, was Aiden’s world, and now Sofia was the reason that he was missing. Aiden reached behind him and pulled his revolver out of the waistband of his jeans and pressed it to her temple.