Caged

8

We decided to spend the rest of the night watching movies since schools had closed tomorrow because of the snow. Elijah had gotten home an hour ago, and now the five of us were in the living room with the fireplace on and a movie playing.

I lay my head in Elijah's lap as his hand glided through my hair and my feet were resting on Kaiden. I had insisted on a holiday movie, after suffering a painful two hours of Ethan's choice, and I found myself drifting in and out of consciousness as sleep began finding its way to me.

Elijah's hands running through my hair didn't help, and the pattern was lulling me into a sleepy trance.

Ethan sat on the other couch, his attention switching between the movie and his phone. Caleb had fallen asleep on the black loveseat near the fireplace.

"You tired?" Elijah murmured, his hand halting the relaxing pattern it had been doing in my hair. Kaiden glanced over at us.

"No," I mumbled, suppressing a yawn. "I'll sleep later." Elijah chuckled, but resumed running his hand through the tangled strands.

He didn't say anything else, and I went back to watching the movie. A few minutes later, my eyes snapped open from where they had been drooping closed as Elijah's phone began ringing from where it was on the coffee table in front of us. I barely had the chance to read the name that maybe seemed to begin with the letter A, before Elijah gently picked up my head from his leg, and pushed himself out from beneath me. My head fell back down against the couch as he stood up, grabbing his phone, and walked out of sight.

I wondered who could be calling at one in the morning.

Kaiden had dozed off too now, and I picked my head up to watch him for a moment, making sure he was actually asleep. I sat up on the cushions, and gently pulled my feet away from his lap. Standing up as quiet as I could be, I slowly made my way out of the living room, towards the direction Elijah had gone.

When I heard his voice coming from the hall that led to the kitchen, I hid myself behind the wall and did my best to listen.

"What the fuck do you mean you lost them?" He growled into the phone, his hand gripping the edge of the wall as he stood with his back to me. "What the hell did I tell you before I left?"

I wondered if it had something to do with his work. Elijah worked in the nightclub industry, hence why he was gone almost every night and stayed in the city many nights. His businesses depended on nightlife, and I didn't know much about them, but I knew the basics after the years. He split ownership and profits with his partners. Alastair was one of them who I was familiar with since he'd spent a lot of his time with us. It was likely he was on the phone with Elijah right now.

"Fuck," he groaned, turning around so suddenly, I barely managed to quickly move out of sight.

My heart was thrumming against my chest loudly as the thought of accidentally being caught.

My brother hated eavesdropping and I had never been caught before. And I did it a lot. I never wanted to find out how he would react if I somehow managed to be caught in the act.

Before he could walk my way, I scurried over to the kitchen as I remembered I needed to ask him something.

"You're done watching the movie?" He asked, as he strolled into the kitchen, raising his eyebrows in question. I leaned over the island counter on my elbows, and traced a finger over the cool marble surface. Elijah walked over, a bottle of vodka in his hand.

"Hm, no. I just needed to get up and stretch for a moment," I began, debating how I'd approach this. Elijah studied me, propping himself back against the fridge as he stood across me, opposite the island. He waited for me to continue because he figured there was obviously more.