“That’s probably Jason’s fault.” Hayley replied, turning on her turning signal.
“Why do you say that?” I asked, furrowing my eyebrows.
“Remember before we left when your mom said Jason ‘used’ to be in the military?” She reitterated.
“Yeah, what about it?” I asked again, breathing out smoke.
“You put a gun in that guy's hands, and all of a sudden he thinks nothing can touch him. He stopped listening to orders and began to be a risk to his platoon. His C.O decided it might be best if he was dismissed from his duties for the past year now, or, should I say, at least before we met you.” She says continuing to drive down the next street.
“You’ve known me for eight months now, which means he must have been let go twelve months ago?” I say, keeping an eye on the cop car behind us.
“Yeah, give or take that.” She nodded; her blue eyes kept flickering in her rearview mirror. “We are getting close to the grocery store, you think we will pull this off?”
“Again, we don’t have much of a choice, if something happened to him, Hayden was like me; he didn’t have a family or anyone who could check up on him. That was our job; you and the boys were; are my family, I wouldn’t have survived this long without you.” I began to feel a bit weepy, I could feel the tears swelling up in my eyes.
“Hey, everything will be okay; the boys will find the twins, and Hayden is probably just sulking from the discipline from what happened.” Her voice turned soft, and she took one hand from the wheel and rubbed my shoulder. I responded with a nod, sniffling.
“Alright, its game time,” she says, pulling into the grocery store parking lot.
I threw the cigarette out the window as we went and parked next to an old, gray Chevy truck.
The cop parked a bit farther away; thankfully, he didn’t get out.
We got out of the car and walked through the parking lot towards the doors. “We will walk in, walk around to the exit, and wrap around towards Hayden’s.”
“Alright, I’ll follow your lead.” Hayley said as we walked inside.
She followed close behind as we weaved in and out between the people buying their groceries, and towards the exit, the officer seemed to be far enough away to sneak around with ease.
We walked out the automatic doors wrapping around the building, and down the side street.
“How long do you think we have before that cops get suspicious?” Hayley asked looking at the time on her phone.
“I say twenty minutes, but you should turn your phone off; they might be tracking it.” I reply, noticing we were close to Hayden's building already.
“You read way too many thrillers and action novels. You’re being paranoid; its fine.” Hayley responded jokingly.
In all honesty, she had a point. Everything I learned about all this is through the novels I’ve read growing up. Maybe I was just being paranoid. “You’re probably right, sorry.”
“Its all good.” She said with a weak smile as we made our way through the building's front doors, which were unlocked, but I guess that was normal when you live in a rundown place like this.
We walked down the hallway, but something seemed off. It felt too quiet, almost as if the place had been cleared out.
I gave Hayley a look, and she nodded as if she knew what I was thinking, and then there was the smell as we got closer and closer to his apartment, and I already knew we were too late.
His door was wide open, blood smeared on the door.
I swallowed harshly and shut my eyes.
‘No more.’ I thought to myself. ‘Please, I can’t take it.’
“We have to go in Chloe.” She sounded like she was mostly trying to convince herself.
I felt her hand hold onto mine. I opened my eyes and looked at her for a moment. “We need to know how bad this is.”
Shes right, we have to go in, for Hayden, and tell Jason what happened. I took a hesitant breath and pulled Hayley with me through the doorway, and what I saw is worse than I expected.
Colby’s P.O.V
“Put the gun down, Colby.” Ale said, walking towards me, his gun raised.
“Come on, Ale. You know I can’t do that.” I reply, standing my ground.
“Put the gun down, brother.” I heard my brother's voice and then saw Jason being thrown to the ground; his face was busted up and swollen, and my brother was the one who pushed him into the open.
“You were going to ambush us.” Ale laughed, and walked over to Jason, pulling him by the hair to face me.
“I’m going to do to you what you had done to me;, I’m going to kill this guy in front of you, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it.” He placed the gun against Jason's temple.
I looked at Jasper, and I tried to keep my voice from shaking. “Are you really okay with this?”
“Him? It was his idea, and a god damn good one too.” Ale said clicking the safety button off.
“Alright, hold on a second. I’ll put the gun down.” I said, glancing at Jason and putting my hands up defensively, hoping he knew what I was thinking.
I could see him swallow hard while watching me. I took the gun from my waistband and bent over, acting like I was placing the gun down on the concrete, but instead of pushing the gun across the ground just fast enough for Jason to get it, Ale was about to shoot. Jason elbowed him in the stomach, forcing Ale to double over. Jason released the safety aims for Ale’s chin and pulled the trigger.
I run forward, going for the guy who is now aiming for Jason's head and smashing him fast in the face, knocking the gun from his hand and onto the ground.
I quickly grabbed the gun. Now, back to back with Jason, my aim is on the guy I’ve never seen before, and Jason’s on Jasper.