Three Hearts Left Intact

Chapter 55: Suspicion

Even after an hour following the entire dispute between the brothers everyone around the house was on edge. Alex had just begun making all his phone calls when the argument started up. And despite being all the way in the back of the cabin, their yelling and shouting became apparent to anyone he was on the phone with. Pushing through the noise, he was able to call all of his connections and gathered a decent amount of information.

As he opened his bedroom door, the house was eerily quiet. Walking through the hallway, he could hear Nina and Zander whispering inside her bedroom. Passing them by for the time being, Alex sought out Mallix.

When he saw him sitting in the living room with his forehead in his hand he knew whatever was going on earlier was rough on him. "Hey M." He sat besides him.

Lifting his head from his hand, Alex now had full view of how distraught Mallix was. His eyes had very apparent dark circles under each one, his nose was as red as a cherry, and his lip trembled with every sound he produced. Deciding not to bring up what caused this look for him, Alex brushed over it and got back to business hoping to help Mallix focus on more important matters.

"So, I finished up those calls you wanted me to make and there wasn't much but I found out some stuff. Not surprisingly, turns out the security for the building is very strict. Not only do we have to worry about cameras in certain places, but in the halls are these guards." Taking a quick pause Alex looked over to Mallix who looked at him with a blank stare.

Clearing his voice he attempted to continue on, "right, um, so in terms of getting them out that's going to be tricky. Each of the girls have these bar code looking tattoos on their necks, if we leave the building without deactivating whatever those bar codes are connected to then that can cause some problems." He looked down in his lap not able to look at the miserable look on Mallix's face. "One of the guys who works inside the building said that if we take them out without deactivating them, it could alert the entire security system and we'll be caught immediately."

With the tension between both men growing, the conversation was becoming hard to continue. However, despite the awkward air Alex shook it off knowing Mallix would need to know of the information he found out. Deciding it would be best to just spill everything at once he did just that. "I don't fully understand the mechanics to how the tattoos relate to a security system, but apparently they do. And earlier I had someone email me a picture of what the security guards look like as a reference. They also said well be able to know the difference in departments based off the interior design, and the whole place is surrounded by tall fencing. There's two different open yard spaces where other captors in the facility work or spend time, so well need to be ready to avoid them." He inhaled running out of air from explaining all that in one breathe.

"Thanks." Was all Mallix said to all the news.

His face never changed from it's blank stare the entire time, even when Alex thought he had some serious concerns Mallix didn't even do so much as bat an eyelid at them. "What happened M?" Alex couldn't contain his curiousity anymore. While he could hear yelling from his room, after all the sound passed through different walls to make it to him it had become blurry. He couldn't make out what the brothers were going on about. Only that whatever it was, was serious.

For a moment Alex thought Mallix would just brush off the topic, but he was taken by surprise when Mallix actually begun to talk about it. "James," there was a very long pauses as he took a deep breathe, "he really pushed it this time."

"What'd he say?"

The bloodshot look Mallix gave Alex made the tan man swallow hard as he felt nervous. "He said..." chuckling with anger in his voice Mallix pushes through, "he said that it was my fault Lain and Kaila were taken. As if it was my fault, the only two people in my life who I love with all my heart, were taken away from me! God you should've been there Alex, James didn't even do anything the entire time we were being ambushed. One moment he was there, then next thing I know he wasn't. Like he was a ghost. And yet he accuses me of letting them be taken from me! Jerk wasn't even there to put any effort into keeping them safe!"

Mallix's voice softened as he leaned into Alex, "I swear I was thinking back to his story he told us when he first showed up and you can't say that it wasn't suspicious that there just so happened to be a field of corn near the gas station he ran from, or the fact that the men who supposedly took him didn't chase after him. Then today after you had gone to make the phone calls like I asked you to, his phone goes off in a matter of minutes."

"What're you saying M?" Alex whispered.

"I...I don't know just that maybe James knows more than he's letting on."

"If your suggesting that he works for the Cave then we're going to have more on our plate to sort out. There's some really shady things going on in the Cave, even worst than the Fendly's. And if James is involved well then we'll just have to make sure none of his connections know about what we're up to. If there's any word of us trying to break in or out of the Fendly's complex there's going to be a bounty on all our heads."

"I say we take James out of the plan altogether. Until we know if what he said happened was true, I don't want him knowing what else we're going to do." Alex nodded in agreement.

"But what about Nina and Zander? We're telling them about this too aren't we?"

Mallix looked away for a moment to think. He breathed heavy shaking his head, "if Z knows he won't be able to keep it a secret for very long. And even though they aren't talking at the moment, I think if N knew about my suspicion the first thing she would do is confront my brother about it."

Alex sighed rubbing his face anxiously, "alright another secret to keep. You've got my word M this won't leave this couch."

"Thanks Alex." They swung their arms at one another griping at the elbow region as they shook on it.

"Anytime," Alex stood up along with Mallix seeing how much better he appeared. His tired and blank look was filled with more life.

"Do you have that picture of the security guard they emailed you?" Mallix asked out of nowhere before Alex could walk away.

"Yeah..." he said.

"Can you send that to me?" Alex nodded silently looking at him with a long face.

"Alright thanks," Mallix said slowly as if in the middle of planning something in his head while Alex walked towards Nina's room.
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Let me know what you think about James. Thanks Lexx signing off