Once A Bad Boy (He's A Bad News Sequel)

16 - We Are Bros

"He doesn't want to go back to sleep." Erick can hear Isabella sighs as she's coming down the stairs, so he put back the phone to where it was.

Bella comes down with Jaime and sit on the couch with Erick. "What's wrong, Jay?" Erick asks as he took the boy onto his lap. He then throws his gaze on Bella. "If I ask you anything about my past, you'll answer it honestly, right?" he asks.

Bella answers yes, deep inside she was afraid that he's going to ask about Juan. Some part of her just want Erick to stay not knowing about Juan being her brother. Or that Juan made him killed people. And most importantly, the fact that Juan almost killed him.

"You won't lie?" Erick asks for assurance. He's looking straight to Isabella's eyes. Again, Bella said yes. "So is there anything that you hide from me?" he adds.

Bella shook her head no as an answer. "Okay then." Erick replies. He knows she's lying. Of course she is. She obviously hid Juan's pictures in her phone from him. He just doesn't know why.

Erick hands Jaime back to Isabella. He then stands up from the couch. "I'm going out for a run." he says before he goes for a change and leaves the house.

While running a lot of thoughts running through his mind. He sure ran far enough that he ended up in front of Juan's workshop. It looks like it has been closed for a while now.

He stood there for a while, trying to connect the dots in his head but nothing comes out clearly. But he's sure he remembered being beaten up by Juan in there.

--

In the band's house Richard and Chris went out somewhere, leaving only Joel and Zabdiel. Joel was on the couch, chatting with his little brothers online when someone knocks on the front door. 

He opened it up, a guy approximately around 30 in a suit showed up. "Joel Pimentel?" He asks. Joel looks down the guy's hand. It's covered with tattoos. When he looked up, even the guy's neck is tattooed. There's a black SUV with tinted windows parked in front of their house. Warning, he tells himself. 

"Who are you?" Joel asks, not answering the guy's question. Zabdiel is still sleeping upstairs. He can't be there to back him up. 
"I don't have all the time in the world, kid. Come with me." The guy dragged his arms out the door. 

"You're not even sure if I'm Joel!" Joel tries to make a way out. The guy stopped, still holding strong on Joel's arm. "If you're not him I will just throw you somewhere no one won't find you because you ain't no shit." He says with a dirty smirk that brought chills down Joel's spine. 

Joel didn't know how to counter that. The car's window rolled down, just halfway down the frame. It only reveals the shades covering the eyes of that person sitting on the backseat. 

"Go easy on him. You got the right guy. Get in, Pimentel." A husky voice came out from the halfway down window. 

He was forced into the car. As he got inside the doors were locked. Someone sitting in the front passenger seat has a gun pointed at him, scaring Joel for his life. What's scares him even more was the owner of the husky voice that called him in just now. Juan.

"What do you want from me?" he asks in fear. He doesn't remember having anything related with Juan's business. Other than being friend with Erick. But that's not strong enough to get him involved directly to Juan.

Juan answers with a smirk. "You are going to help me meet my old friend Erick." he tells Joel. "For you to try to kill him again? No way. Try all you want but I'm not going to sell out my bro's life." Joel replies.

His answer makes Juan bursts into his evil laugh. "Protecting your bro, huh? Oh boy, you're going to be surprised. And maybe you're going to thank me later too." he squeezes Joel's shoulder.

"Ah, I almost forgot." Juan says as he takes out his phone and shows a few pictures of Joel's little brothers. "You don't want to lose another brother, Joel."

--

Erick was trying to connect the dots in his head when his phone blew up. He didn't look at the caller ID when he answers it. He was too busy studying the workshop in front of him.

"Erick, are you at home?" Joel asks from the other side of the line. "Nope. I went out for a run. Why? Are you coming over? It's still early." Erick answers.

It took a while before Joel asks him where he is. Erick just answers that he's at Juan's workshop. "I'm coming. Don't go anywhere." Joel replies, but his voice was shaking.

"Hey, bro. Are you okay? You sound weird." Erick asks. The fact that Joel wants to meet him there in the morning is weird too. "Just wait for me there, okay?" Joel replies. Just before Erick puts the phone down, Joel calls for his name again.

"We are brothers, Erick." Joel says before he ended the call.