| 01 |

~ Banks Woods ~

I try my brother's number for the fifth time. Sixteen years old and he still manages to get lost like a little fucking kid.

It wasn't even like I was on my phone for too long. I just glanced at my screen for two seconds to re-check the grocery list and boom – I lost a brother.

A part of me says to say hell to it and go back home, letting him learn a lesson of disappearing on me like that, but the other part – the older sister– tells me to go look for him while shouting his name out loud for the whole city to hear.

I pay for the groceries while trying his number again.

Maybe he's still somewhere inside, hidden between aisles, secretly trying to sneak a bottle of alcohol because he thinks he's "cool". Biting my lip, I contemplate screaming his name once, but then I remember the old lady standing in front of me at the cashier who looks like she'll yank my ear off if I do so.

No one told me raising a brother all by myself was going to be this difficult. It's been almost five years since Mom, and Dad died. In the beginning, it was easy taking care of Caleb, before he hit puberty. We lived with our aunt – who is a major bitch – and I tried my best to move out of her house the moment I turned eighteen and had the money.

While Caleb was pretty cooperative and supportive of every decision I made, there's still that feeling he gives off that he isn't exactly happy. Like happy, happy. He's a pretty good kid but he always has a knack of finding himself in trouble.

Teachers call me from school expecting to hear from his parents, but when they find out it's his older sister, they're voices instantly switch to a skeptical tone as if our parents dying explains why Caleb gets into fights.

I make my way out of the grocery store and that's when I start screaming his name. A couple of people startle, but I don't care. Caleb's gonna get a fucking earful once I find him.

Holding my heavy grocery bags in one hand, I weave past the busy streets, looking into every alley. On the other hand, I try dialling his number again and again, but the damn thing keeps sending me to voicemail.

My eyes keep a lookout for his dark hair. I pass by an alley, noticing a group of people in there who look like thugs and move on, only to freeze and backpedal when I realize a certain teenager standing in between.

"Caleb!"

My brother's eyes lift and meet mine. Relief passes over his features before he notices my furious expression as I storm towards him. He backs up to move away from me and bumps into a blonde man standing behind him. I march right towards him and grab his ear, pulling hard.

"Are you a fucking kid? Wandering around and getting lost." I demand. "Why the hell did you come out here?"

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow." He winces, trying to get my hand off his ear. He keeps glancing ahead with a half-embarrassed expression.

"And where the hell is your phone? How many times have I told you not to ignore my calls?"

"Read the room. Read the room." He quietly hisses at me, still trying to yank my hand free.

I furrow my eyebrows. "What? I couldn't hear that."

"Let go of me!" He finally manages to yank my hand away. He glances ahead again and that's when I realize that we have an audience.

Two guys stand ahead and behind me. The one ahead looks up to no good with his shadowy face and thick beard with a toothpick hanging from his mouth. His height towers me and Caleb a good amount.

Behind me, the man has blonde hair and while he's pretty tall too, I blink when I take in his clean and sharp face with the bluest eyes I've ever seen. He wears a neatly ironed gray suit that hugs his muscular frame. His posture and aura scream money and wealth. While his body looks fit enough to ram me over and crush me, there's something gentle and boyish about his face. His eyes curiously watch me as his eyebrows draw together the tiniest bit.

Why are these two men with my brother all alone in an alley?

"Who are these people?" I ask Caleb, my back tensing up with that protective instinct.

I quickly think of my weapon options. I have a key in my pocket that could be pretty sharp to the face. I have a huge bottle in my grocery bag that I can slam into their faces. I have...carrots? The fuck is a carrot gonna do? Maybe I can poke their eyes deep enough to blind them.

Caleb shuffles closer to me, eyeing the rangy-looking man ahead of us. "This man was trying to steal a watch, so I tried stopping—"

"Shut up, kid." The man with the toothpick spits out.

My fist clenches on its own accord and I shift slightly so I'm shielding Caleb. "Don't talk to him," I warn.

His eyes slide to mine and rake over me. I'm immediately filled with disgust at the way his eyes assess me in that creepy way. 

"What are you looking at?" I snap.

He looks back at me. "Just give me everything you have, and I'll let you go."

"That's not the right way to steal from someone," Caleb speaks up from behind. "You're supposed to snatch and run instead of—"

"Shut. Up." I hiss.

He clamps his mouth shut.

"I was doing exactly that before you shitass butted in and tried fucking me over." The toothpick guy seethes. "You want me to snatch and run? Fine. I'll do it." He takes a menacing step forward and I quickly throw my arm out to block him.

"One more step and I'll kick your fucking head off." I threaten.

Do I know how to fight?

Nope.

Will I be able to defend myself if this guy decides to punch me?

Nope.

Am I still going to act tough and defend my brother?

Yes.

"There's no need to harm her." A voice speaks up from behind me. Shit. I completely forgot about the blonde behind me. My eyes flick in his direction just in time to see his hand reaching out towards me.

Instinct kicks in and I raise my hand, barely registering Caleb yelling at me to stop. My fist slams straight into his nose, eliciting a crunch. 

"Banks!" Caleb gasps.

The blond stumbles away from me with a wheeze, clutching his nose. My knuckles flare with pain from the hard contact, but I stop my face from displaying it.

He stumbles around the alley as he keeps groaning and cursing. Something dark falls onto his tie and it takes me a second to realize it's blood.

While I'm busy watching him, something hard hits me on the back of my head. I fall forward and Caleb catches me just in time before I hit the ground.

"What the fuck?" My hand reaches up to the back of my head.

Toothpick rushes past me towards the Blond and slams him against the wall. Before anyone can do anything, he punches Blond in the stomach before taking his wrist in his hand. It takes me a moment to realize that Toothpick is fiddling with a golden-looking watch.

"Hey!" Caleb shouts. "Let him go!" He lets go of me and marches towards them, but I pull him back, shoving him behind me again. "Banks!" He protests. "We have to help him!"

But Toothpick already has the watch in his hand and runs past without a backward glance.

Now it's just me, Caleb and the groaning man.

I blink in confusion as I stare at him. "They...weren't together?"

"No!" Caleb throws his hands up. "That thug was trying to steal Lance's watch and I was trying to stop him!"

Lance?

Realization hits me as I stare at the Blond who fishes for tissues from his pocket while holding another hand to his bleeding nose.

"You're telling me I punched an innocent man?"

Said innocent man chooses to lift his eyes at that moment and meet mine.

"Thanks a lot." He grumbles, wiping a hell lot of blood off his face.

"I saw your hand moving towards me." I defend.

"I was reaching towards Caleb. Not you." He removes the tissue from his nose to inspect it. Muttering a curse, he puts it back to his nose. 

"Oh." Regret comes over me but not exactly making me feel guilty. What if he was with the thug guy and was trying to harm me or Caleb? I couldn't have waited to see if he was actually decent.

"I'm sorry," I say.

"You don't look sorry."

Because I'm not really. Caleb almost got hurt today, and that's all that's replaying in my mind. Toothpick was easily able to hit and get through me. What if he was aiming for Caleb instead? Could I have been able to defend him when Toothpick easily knocked me off my feet?

"That's a lot of blood, dude." Caleb whistles.

"I know." Blond glances at the tissue again and wrinkles his nose.

"Ew. That's gross." Caleb's face scrunches with disgust.

"We're leaving." I hike my grocery bag up my shoulder. Grabbing Caleb's arm, I turn around to flee.

"Not so fast, love." A voice stops me.

My eyebrows furrow at the nickname. I turn around to face him.

He pushes himself off the wall, stalking towards me with his long muscular legs. He finally got his nose to stop bleeding. It's pink and red and turning slightly purple. Surprise enters me when I realize the damaged nose doesn't alter his appearance to look ugly at all.

"You broke my nose and distracted me, which led to the thug stealing my watch and fleeing away."

I did...

"How do you know your nose is broken?"

"I've dealt with a broken nose before." He replies. He doesn't look angry, which concerns me. Instead, there's light in his eyes as if he's...amused? Why is he looking at me like that? "You're coming with me."

"Excuse me?" My eyebrows shoot up.

"To the hospital. You're going to drive me there."

"Uh..." Caleb speaks up but I cut him off.

"I'm not going anywhere with you." I frown.

"You are."

"I'm not."

"Consider it as a payment for breaking my nose."

"I didn't mean to. It was out of reflex."

"Still." He shrugs. "You broke my nose; means you broke my nose."

Caleb raises a finger, leaning in. "Lance. Banks can't' dr—"

"I'm not driving your car," I state, firmly.

A smile comes on his face. "Then I guess I'll have to report to the police for assault."

"What the fuck?" My eyebrows furrow in disbelief. "It was an act of self-defence."

"Defense from what? I wasn't hurting you, or doing anything wrong."

"Still." I cross my arms. "You can't blame me for punching you when there was a literal thug ahead of me who was going to hurt Caleb."

My heart stutters when I think how the thug could've easily gotten rid of me and hurt Caleb. It makes me want to march forward and punch Blond again, but I hold myself back.

Barely.

It's not his fault. I know that. This city has some pretty bad people. It's just those damn instincts that always get the best of me and make me lash out.

Blond looks at Caleb. Warmth enters his eyes, and he holds out his fist. "Thanks for the help, man. Even though my watch still got stolen."

Caleb happily fist-bumps him as if this man is handing him the Nobel Prize. "Anytime, dude. That looked like a pretty expensive watch."

He nods. "Yeah, it was a couple of thousand grand."

My eyes nearly bug out of their sockets.

A couple of thousand grand? Seriously? Where is this guy coming from? I knew he would be rich, but not this rich.

Caleb doesn't hide his shock. Openly gawking. "Do you work in the mafia or something?"

He smiles, amused. "How about the assistant of a CEO?"

"Boring." Caleb snorts. "You're from the mafia. The Italian-Russian Mafia. And your secret name is Lorenzo Slayer."  

"Cool. Maybe you can be my personal bodyguard since you helped me with that thug."

An excited look comes on Caleb's face. "Seriously?"

"Yup. You'll have to attend meetings, events, parties, secret missions and all that stuff with me. I hope you're ready for a life of tough work and dedication."

"Awesome!"

My eyes swing back and forth between these two. Something about this doesn't feel right. Since when is Caleb ready to be someone's bodyguard? He doesn't even socialize with kids his own age and now he wants to dally in a fake mafia fantasy with a complete stranger?

"Let's go, Caleb." I grab his arm again.

"What about my nose?"

"Your arms are still working. Drive yourself. I have a busy day." I move to turn around.

Am I being completely rude after breaking someone's nose?

Yes.

But I don't like this. This guy comes from a completely different world than me. He probably earns a hundred times more in a day than I do in a whole fucking month. He's someone I need to keep away from Caleb because people like him will only fuel Caleb with fantasies and dreams about things that I can't afford. I'm already struggling to keep us under a roof and pay for his school and groceries.

And also because he seems like the type of person who can easily whisk Caleb away from me just because he has that natural charm to him.

I'm ready to lose and sacrifice anything in this life. Everything except Caleb.

Will I ever say that to his face?

Hell fucking no. We'll both cringe so bad that he'll beg me to eat those words back up.

"But he's seriously injured, Banks." Caleb grabs my arm, stopping me.

"We don't have time for this." I hiss under my breath.

"We do. Let's just drive him to the hospital and leave."

"You want me to drive a complete stranger's car?" I argue.

"You did break his nose."

"It was because you can't fucking stay out of other people's business!"

"Are you really gonna scold me for helping someone?"

"Yes." I glare. He could've gotten hurt or badly injured. What if the thug had a knife or a blade?

"Banks, you're being unreasonable."

"I'm being unreasonable? Don't you dare fucking start with me when I still have an earful to give you."

I continue glaring at him, but he holds my stare, giving me a determined look.

Our stare-down goes on for about a minute before I finally let out a sigh and squeeze my eyes shut. "Fine."

A grin spreads across his face that drains some of the tension from my shoulders. This darn kid.

I turn back around towards Blond to see him already beaming at me with a huge smile at winning this.

I give him a warning look. "If you try anything funny, I'll break more than just your nose." 

"My car's this way." He lifts a hand, gesturing for me to go ahead first.

Caleb's grin dies down as a look of realization comes on his face. "Uh oh."

✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

Things are about to get even more chaotic ;)

Thank you all for picking this book and giving it a try! Hopefully you all have a great time and enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed writing it!

For people who come from "No Shame in Desiring", hope you enjoy the little snippets of Castle and Holly from the future (;

Words: 2,600

Date of publishing: 20th May 2024