A Light in The Dark

Chapter Four

Seth steped into the room, Richie and I copying his movements. Noticing the younger boy in the room, Richie draped his free arm around my shoulders, pressing my back to his front, and pointed the gun at him, cocking it threateningly. The boy was around my age, maybe a few years younger.

"Man said shut your mouth."

I tilted my head in Seth's direction at his words to see him staring down at the man on the bed. His stoic expression left no room for interpretation. There was no way for me to tell what he was thinking. I turned away from the emotionless man to face the boy who seemed more angered than frightened.

With a sigh, I removed Richie's arm from my body, ignoring the slight butterflies I felt from touching him. I moved closer to the boy with my hands held up, showing I was on his side. "What's your name?" I asked gently, glancing back at the brothers.

Richie had his gun pointed at the ground now, sporting a confused expression on his perfect face. It was the opposite for the other brother. Seth seemed beyond pissed that I wasn't acting like a good little hostage like he'd expected.

"Why should I tell you?" The boy hissed, regaining my attention. "You're with them."

"How'd you come to that conclusion? Was it before or after you saw me restrained by both of them?" My point was obvious, there was no way I was anything more than a hostage to them.

"Scott."

I gave him a faint smile. "Well, Scott, if you stick with me and do what they say," I pointed at the idiots behind me, "nothing will happen to you."

Scott seemed skeptical, but who wouldn't have been in that situation. "Promise?"

"I promise." I grinned at the boy, and motioned for him to sit on the bed, truly believing in my words. I walked into the bathroom and grabbed a towel to give to Scott. "For when he wakes up," I explained, motioning towards the sleeping man behind him. He nodded in thanks, still glaring at Seth.

"Richie, why don't you go grab our stuff?" Seth speaking reminded me the Geckos were still there. Richie sighed, but proceeded to move to the door, following orders.

"I'll go with you." I wanted to get my bag, plus a few things from my car, and I didn't trust anyone with my belongings.

"No," Seth grabbed my arm, preventing me from walking out the door, "You're gonna do what you're told, for once, and stay here."

"Tu te moqués de moi?" I was ready to bite his head off. "Screw you. I am not your hostage, Seth Gecko. I am here to make sure you don't get anyone else killed! You might think you control me, but you don't. My father got me into this mess, and I can easily get myself out of it. So if I want to go with Richie to get my things, you can't stop me." I jerked out of his grip, storming out the door.

He was so infuriating, and I had only known him a day. A day. It'd been a day since I'd walked into that liquor store and watched my mom bleed out on the floor. It'd been a day since I lost my best friend and got stuck running from the law with the infamous Gecko brothers.

"He was trying to protect you, you know."

"Holy crap!" I whirled around to face Richie, a hand placed over my racing heart, and took a deep breath. "From what?"

"He's worried I might kill someone else," Richie shrugged, walking towards the room where we met.

"And he thinks that 'someone else' is gonna be me." It made sense. He already killed the bank teller, so why wouldn't he kill me? But for some odd reason, I wasn't worried that he could hurt me. I knew he wouldn't.

As soon as he unlocked the door, I waltzed straight into the bedroom, fully intent on grabbing my bag and getting back to the others. Did I think Seth would kill them? No. Did I worry he might hurt someone due to his extremely short temper? Yes.

"Ready?" I heard Richie call from the other room.

"Yeah." By staying with the Geckos, I was basically signing my death certificate, but I'd be damned if I didn't make sure no one else was killed.

***

"The hell took you so long?" Seth's voice rang out through the small room as Richie closed the door behind me.

"The Princess had to get something from her car," Richie explained with an eye roll. I couldn't tell if the annoyance was directed at me or his brother, not that I really cared.

We set the bags that we'd retrieved down by the door. Our little trip took an extra ten minutes because I had to get something from my car. If everything went their way, we would probably never be back in The States.

"So what's with the asian kid?" Seth asked the man, who was seemingly wide awake, "Trick-or-treat for UNICEF?"

He looked over at the boy perched on the bed beside him before saying, "He's my son." The expression on his face was one of confusion and offense.

With a heavy sigh, I walked over to the other bed and fell onto it, placing a pillow over my head, so I didn't have to listen to Seth being an even bigger jerk. My actions probably seemed inappropriate for that situation, but just wanted some peace and quiet. Even that was too much to ask for.

I thought back to earlier when Richie and I almost... No, not thinking about that. He was attractive, there was no denying that, I mean, they both were, but that didn't mean I should kiss him. I didn't even really know him, for goodness' sake.

My small amount of quiet time was interrupted by a sharp blow landed to the back of my thigh. I immediately yanked the pillow off my head to glare daggers at the culprit. Dear Lord, please give me the strength to not kill this man right here.

"Did you need something, or do you just enjoy provoking me?"

Seth raised an eyebrow at my boldness, but no words came out of his mouth, so I assumed he wasn't mad.

I was ready to yell at him again when a knock sounded at the door. "Housekeepin'."

Seth seemed to slightly panic but did his best to mask it. "She knows my voice," he told me.

I wasn't sure when they'd spoken, but I guessed it happened while I was asleep earlier. Quickly, I got up, grabbing a towel from the bathroom. In three long strides, I made it to the door and cracked it open, plastering an apologetic smile on my face. "Sorry, I was actually just about to shower. Could I ask you to come back later?"

"Sure, sweetheart," she sent me a genuine smile, "No problem."

I smiled one last time, thanking her, and shut the door.

Facing Seth, I crossed my arms over my chest. "You're welcome," I huffed, rolling my eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This chapter took a lot longer than expected because school's a bitch. I'm ready for Christmas.

Published 10/8/2020

(Unedited)