~25~ S.O.S

“You have my note!?” Angel yelled when I told her I had the paper that was meant to be burnt. “We burnt that!”

I shook my head.

“But I haven’t read it!” I informed. “If you want, you can have it back…”

She paced around the room.

“Keep it,” she hissed. I was screwed, and she was mad.

“Angel, I didn’t read it—”

“I don’t care,” she said, looking to me. “Read if you want. It doesn’t matter to me.”

Read it? Fine. I reached in my pocket and unballed the paper.

“Zachariah Tyler,” I read the top of the paper that was addressed to me. I noticed that she sat down on the recliner, facing away from me. This is it. “‘You’re arrogant. You’re a jerk. You’re Lulu’s obnoxious ex. You’re an a$$hole. You’re stupid. You’re stubborn. You’re completely opposite than me. You…you have some façade that everyone sees but me.’”

Was this a letter about her feelings toward me, or just a hatred letter? I scanned over the rest of it, but found only the insults that she wrote…and the fringed bottom of the paper that she tore off. But what am I supposed to say? It was all true.

I pulled a different note out of my pocket and placed it at the foot of my bed.

“You can read mine if you want,” I allowed.

“What’s the use?” she asked. She turned and I saw that she was frustrated. And then she realized something as she looked around the room. “Why are you even here?”

“About that…” I trailed. Now was the right time to tell her. I couldn’t keep lying to her—for both of our safeties. I grabbed her hand and she allowed me. I looked into her brown eyes and she still said nothing. “I—”

When I was seriously about to tell her, an alarm started to ring and red lights flashed. Suddenly I heard two gun shots. Angel flinched, but I immediately stood up and started to leave the room.

“Zac, you can’t—” Angel tried to preach when she kept her hold on my hand.

“I have to,” I said to her sternly.

“No you don’t,” she whispered.

“Yes I do,” I insisted. I started to pull up my firefighter pants that were baggy, but left the straps down. Angel still looked worried. I grabbed her hand before I left and another shot an out.

“Zac, please,” she pleaded. I shook my head.

“I’ll be fine,” I promised, even though I wouldn’t know the outcome. I kissed her cheek and adrenaline rushed through me. “I’ll come back, just stay down.”

She nodded and ducked down behind the bed. I exited the room to find the Chief and Marshal with a shot to their leg and chest. Of all the other officers and firefighters, they were all passed out on the floor and groaning in pain. Crap…

I raced down and across the hall to Joey’s room and found his bed to be empty with his mom tied up to the recliner.

I shook my head. I looked out the window while Joey’s mom sobbed and then saw as Joey, Devin, and Brian were being hauled into different vehicles by the aide of familiar people. Sh!t…

I started to run back to my room where Angel is. When I got there, she was still out of sight under the bed.

“Angel, we have to go—”

I stopped when someone appeared from behind the bed. Not just one person—it was two. But the one that was most important to me was held at gun point.

“Welcome back,” Angel’s captor said with a smirk on his face. I looked over my shoulder to find that I was held at gun point as well. FML. He nodded for me to exit and I was held captive as well when escorted out. In the hallway, I was trying to resist their force—as I saw Rivers try to hold up his gun to shoot—but it only led to Angel being put in more danger.

“Shut up, old man!” someone yelled before he shot Chief Rivers in the chest. Of course he’d have no guilt about it. Of all the villains that have been here that I’ve seen, none of them would have any guilt or sorrow about Chief Rivers’ death. Angel broke out in a sob.

“Shut up!” Angel’s captor yelled at her and grabbed her arm tighter. I stopped walking and charged into him, slamming him into the wall.

“Stop acting like such an a$$hole to her,” I hissed at him. My anger had started to prevail, so I had started to feel my fists heat up. Then I heard a gun cock. Not to my head, but to Angel’s.

“Think about your options,” he said. My options? All these guys had been my friends since middle school and now they’re threatening my life—and even worse, Angel’s? Fu** this.

They threw Angel in an SUV with surprisingly no witnesses—probably scared off—but Dale grabbed my shirt and threw me into the back of a van. But that didn’t stop me from seeing Devin in the passenger seat of the SUV.

“Should’ve known…” I whispered to myself.

“Let me guess,” a voice said, scaring me. I found it to be Joey. Great… “Devin’s in on this.”

“And you all wondered why I didn’t trust him,” I sighed. He grabbed my arm and I looked up at him. What was his deal?

“Where’s Angel?” he hissed. I gulped.

(Angel’s POV)

“What makes you think that you can steal my man?” Luke asked me. We were at some underground place and I didn’t know why. Just like I didn’t know why they separated me and my brother, or why Brian was blindfolded…But who knows? Luke was stupid and I could swear he was recently high or something.

“I didn’t steal your man,” I denied to him with a roll of my eyes. He’s gay? What a shock -_- …

He leaned down to me.  

“Whatever, Hot Head,” he hissed. That. Stupid. Nick. Name!

“Look, I don’t know why I’m here, so can I go, please?” I asked. When I was held at gun point at the hospital along with Zac, I had felt scared because I didn’t know what I was dealing with, but now that I know Luke is behind it, what was there to be scared about? He’s stupid enough to screw everything up.

“Let go of me!” I heard a familiar voice yell. I looked around and saw Joey and Zac being hauled in forcefully. They sat Joey down in a chair as he hissed about them grabbing his burns. They put him by the fireplace though. It’s not like a fire was burning; only hot coals.

Zac, however, came in soaking wet. This isn’t the time to go swimming though.

We all sat maybe twenty feet away from each other in a circle around the rectangular room and now Luke was laughing.

“Okay, lady and gents, this is how things are going to work,” he started. He turned and gestured to Devin. “You are gonna make me that drug and then…yeah; that’s it. You’re gonna give me the drug and that’s it.”

“And what if I refuse?” Devin asked. Luke strode over and punched Devin in the face.

“Do it,” Luke hissed. “I dare you to refuse.”

Devin shrugged and looked to Zac, Brian, and Joey. Luke laughed again.

“Don’t look at them; they can’t do sh!t for you,” he notified. He stopped kneeling down to my brother and then decided something. “But let’s test the waters, eh?”

What’s that supposed to mean?

He walked over and made me stand up. He smirked before leaning down to kiss me. I couldn’t do anything but try to barf. I looked over to Joey and he was angry. So was Zac. Steam started to come off his body and his face had anger. What was going on?

I looked up to Luke with clenched teeth and he smirked at his work.

“Fu** you,” I told him.

“Boys, get Tyler,” he said before leaned down to kiss me more, but I had moved back and hit the chair.

“Fu** you,” I repeated.

“Oh, so you did like me kissing you,” he assumed my insult in a completely new way, as I now sat.

“In your dreams,” I spat. He snickered to himself and then held a gun to my head.

“Like me now?” he asked.

“Even less,” I smiled sarcastically. He still held on to the gun, but grabbed my waist. I felt the metal from the gun hit the metal from the handcuffs. He took the position of sitting before pressing his lips to mine. all I tasted was smoke and alcohol. He pulled away. Thank God…

“You’re gonna kiss me and like it, or else there’s gonna be a bullet through your skull,” he whispered on my lips before kissing me. This time, I kissed back for fear of my death. I heard something crackle and then pulled away—finding out that I was allowed to this time. The hot coals by Joey had turned into a full on fire by now. Luke smirked, his breath hitting me, and then he sat me back down on the chair. I noticed that Zac was doused with another bucket of water and now sat in a bucket.

But Luke only walked right over to Joey. He added a chair and sat in front of him.

“Angel’s your girlfriend, right?” he asked. Joey nodded. “So you like her.”

“With all my heart,” I heard Joey say.

“Do you love her?” he asked. Where was he going with this?

Joey sent me a look and whispered his answer to Luke.

“Bro code, right?” Luke said loudly. “That’s a’ight. I get it. It’s not like I needed you to tell me, cuz I already knew.”

We all scoffed.

“But you hate me more than you love her,” Luke presumed.

“That’s not—”

“Then why are you still here!?” Luke yelled. “There are buckets and buckets of water—that you can control and yet you’re still here because you know that your hatred can’t do anything for you.”

“How do you know about that!?” Devin yelled. Luke walked back over to him after grabbing a bag from his friend. He dropped down three binders. Then he turned to Zac, who was now—not only drenched with water, but sitting in front of a fan blowing at high speed as if it was cooling off his anger or some sh!t.

“I don’t know why you didn’t listen to me. You could’ve just stolen it,” he laughed, but Zac’s face was as serious as before. I’d never seen him this pissed off before. His fists were balled up and the fire in the fireplace went ablaze once more even though Luke’s henchmen had put it out.

“He knew?” Joey asked. Zac’s face stayed the same. The thought of me trusting Zac was long gone. He had lied to all of us here. So then why wasn’t he on Luke’s side?

Luke crossed his arms and looked around to Joey and Devin.

“Man; you should’ve kept him in your little group…look at all that power!” he yelled.

“Wanna see me use it?” Zac hissed.

“You wouldn’t,” Luke smiled. “We’re bros—”

“I disagree,” Brian said something for once, considering he had been blindfolded this entire time. “Bros wouldn’t treat bros this way.”

That’s saying something considering that he and Luke were blood brothers.

“Yeah. Get me out of this sh!t, Luke,” Zac said, starting to be more friendly instead of pissed off. “If you wanted the drug this bad, you could’ve just told me.”

“Just like you told me you worked for Rivers and Sherman? Not a chance,” he scoffed.

“The only reason I work with them is for you to stay out of jail!” Zac yelled. So I guess he was an even bigger liar. “Why do you have me locked up like this!? I’m on your side, you idiot!”

Luke shrugged and then turned the fan off. He even unlocked the handcuffs. I shook my head. I should’ve known Zac would show his true colors…

But I still had a gun held to my head by someone else.

“You screw up, she dies,” Luke told him.

“That’d be doing me a favor,” Zac smiled evilly. Luke and him did their signature hand shake and hugged.

“Nice to have you back, man,” Luke said. I shook my head as I was being locked to the chair, which was now locked to a railing.

And to think…I fell for Zac. I was about to tell him and…ugh. I felt used and all the while, he secretly just wanted me dead.