I DID ITTT! Not impressive or very long but it's SOMETHING. I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things, please bear with me.
Not much to say, just sorry it's taken so long for me to get to this again and I wish every one a happy and safe New Years!
See you in 2020!
Ch 16- Die to Save You. Tuesday, November 3rd.
"I'm surprised you came." Voltaire said in a cool tone as he lowered himself into the uncomfortable chair, the table he had become so accustomed to sitting behind separating him from the other just sitting opposite of him.
"Well, when one receives an order from Voltaire Hiwatari, one doesn't simply ignore it."
Voltaire's lips curled into a smirk, the air about this one different. He was arrogant, very much so, spoiled and knew the types of power money could give one and Voltaire hated everything about him with just one look.
"Yes, well given your current situation I was certain you'd have declined." Voltaire spoke, his eyes not leaving the teal that bore back into his own. It wasn't something he was accustomed to, where someone looked and stared back with such an intent gaze and he hated that more than he admired it.
"Now why would I do that?" Brooklyn asked as he gestured grandly with his hands before him, "You could have made it simple by just killing me instead of picking me up, but it seems you may want something from me. So please, humor me." He smirked back, his teal eyes glistening.
Voltaire held in the scowl. Whereas Ray had a cockiness to him, his was born from the need to protect himself. This one, he only had it because he looked at it like a birth right. As if the world continued to owe him something, kiss the bottom of his shoes just simply for being alive. The difference between them was Ray's would always be there, where Brooklyn's could be used as a means of breaking him down bit by bit and Voltaire intended to use that to his advantage.
"I could have, and although you're not wrong, it's not often I ask for someone's presence these days. Should feel honored at least, boy."
Brooklyn's eyes continued to sparkle, finding delight in the old man's clear distaste of him. Laying his arms on the table, Brooklyn leaned forward slightly with a crooked smirk on his fair lips.
"Oh I am, after all the things Kai told me about you I'm surprised he's even come to you at all." He sang out with a lyrical tone, "And the only thing I can think of, between the two of us, is we have one common interest. Am I wrong?"
Voltaire's eyes hardened at the insolence, his whole body tensing at the tone and the look on Brooklyn's face that set his blood a boil more than Ray's had ever done.
"I wonder what he ever saw in you, Kon I can almost see the appeal. You… You must have been just nothing but to spend his time on because he had nothing better to do." He coolly snapped back, enjoying the glint in Brooklyn's eyes dying away to something almost murderous.
"Such a waste of time at that. Thought I had raised him better than to go crawling to the scum of the earth, but no worries, he's found something slightly better up on the totem pole."
Brooklyn held in the growl at the back of his throat, the murderous look in his eyes getting deadlier as he scowled at the old man knowing what he was trying to do but wouldn't let it show. Though it hit the mark where Voltaire wanted and they both knew that, could see it and feel it in the already thick and heavy air around them.
"Now, for why you're here. Seeing as how both you and I do have something slightly in common. Your plans, what are they?" Voltaire asked once the silence had lingered.
"Get rid of Kon."
Voltaire nodded, "Yes, I gathered that. But how?" He stressed.
Brooklyn stared back. When he had been contacted by Kai's grandfather he wasn't sure what to expect really, he had never met the man before. He knew Kai had contacted him by the black cars that had shown up at his parents house the other night, had seen the men in suits grabbing Kai and holding him back from the fire he had set to the house. He had been expecting to be on the receiving end of a gun the moment he was picked up, instead the man in the suit brought him to the prison and sat him down in front of Voltaire before leaving the two of them in the room.
The questions had come in and out as to what the old man wanted, knowing that he and Kai didn't have a good standing relationship by any means from everything he had told him during their relationship.
Voltaire was right though, they both had one common enemy and that was Ray. The one that had come in and slithered his way between him and Kai, had put him and Voltaire behind bars. Ray was the one he wanted; Kai was just the prize at the end of the game he could have back.
"I take it you have some ideas." Brooklyn stated more than asked as he leant back into the stiff chair.
"I do." Voltaire nodded once more, folding his hands over the top of the table. "If you care to listen to them."
"Don't think I have much a choice here." Brooklyn quipped back with another smirk, his eyes holding their shine to them again.
With a tired groan, Ray buried his face in the plush pillow that didn't have any traces of a familiar scent to them. His head jerking out from the soft case quickly as his heart slammed in his chest, tired eyes trying to focus and take in his new surroundings before everything began to slowly click into his head.
The light of day seeping through the white French doors that led outside onto a private porch, where he could see the large landscape and another pool deck just outside to the right of the bed. The room felt as though it stretched on, almost as big as their entire first floor of the apartment while the bed was just as impressive and a lot more comfortable than his own. Except, it was empty beside him.
"Kai?" He called, though couldn't hear anything in the otherwise silent room.
Shifting himself off his stomach and throwing his legs off the side of the bed he carefully landed on the soft carpet under his bare feet, sliding the glass door to his right open that revealed the large en-suite that sat behind the wall the bed was pressed up against. Traces of shampoo and steam lingering in the air but the bathroom was just as empty as the bedroom was.
Finding his bag on a chair by the door he grabbed some clothes and threw them on, throwing his hair up in a sloppy ponytail before making his way out into the hallway. The indoor pool house sitting to his back, it's doors closed and lights off while the library's doors were left wide open but once more not a single soul could be seen or heard in there.
Not really knowing where he was going he followed the white marbled flooring down the long hallway, coming to another set of larger French doors that looked out to the back yard and the other pool that sat outside with a fountain in the center of it and more peeks of the landscape that encompassed the entire deck.
Finally hearing some chatter and clinking of silverware on plates he continued down the hall to the very end, coming up to the side door they had all entered into the night before where the kitchen sat at his right along with the empty dining room just before the kitchen.
"Good morning, love." Natasha was the first to look up when he entered, her own tired eyes meeting his while she looked at him over her shoulder from her place at the stove to the right of the archway.
"Morning mom." He waved to her, taking in the size of the kitchen itself and everything in there as quickly as he could.
If it weren't for the circumstances that had brought him to this new house he would have felt like he'd died and gone to heaven. There was more open counter space than he could ever dream of, a two-top burner stove and oven that could probably fit two twenty pound turkeys side by side. The kicker and icing on the cake though was the island in the center of it all, it's counters almost reflecting the floor with their white pristine sheen that reflected the lights hanging above it's marble tops.
At the very back was a round table fitted for eight people sitting shy just of another set of doors that led outback, the walls at the back of the kitchen more rounded than just square in shape like that of a cathedral tower. Light poured in from the top over the table and space beyond the kitchen's reach, the roof made of glass with intricate iron designs running through out.
"Come pull up a chair." Lu called from her spot at the table with the others, waving him on.
"Has anyone seen Kai?" Ray asked as his bare feet moved him to sit with the others, pulling up the empty chair beside Max and Lu.
"We haven't, but then again it's pretty hard to find anything in this place." Tyson provided, digging into his plate of eggs and bacon Natasha had made them all.
Ray nodded, that was true and he hadn't even checked upstairs or even knew what was up there to start with or behind any of the other closed doors he had passed on his way to the kitchen. Without Kai or Voltaire's men they were all going to get lost.
"He's been gone since before six this morning." Wyatt supplied on Lu's other side, being squished between her and Micah around the table.
Ray's eyes shot up to him, fighting the frown that wanted to come over him. Why would Wyatt know where Kai went, or at least what time he left?
As if reading the question in Ray's head Wyatt went to quickly shaking his own, "I only know because I came down here for a drink of water earlier, he was leaving with Nick and Shamus."
Ray cocked a brow, "Did he say why, or where he was going?"
Wyatt shook his head again, "Just said they were leaving and wouldn't be back for a few hours."
Ray's frown finally came over his face though he didn't know what he could really say, his phone had been left in the bedroom and it was a long trip back to it that he didn't feel like taking right at the moment.
"Here, eat something." Natasha broke through, setting a plate down in front of him and tensed slightly under her gentle touch on his shoulder.
"Thank you…" He mumbled, being hit with everything that had gone on that resulted in her and Micah no longer having a home.
"You're welcome." She pat him on the shoulder before moving away and back to the stove, as if she didn't have something to occupy herself with at the moment she'd break down all over again like she had once her and Micah were given a room to sleep in during the night.
"So… What're the plans today then?" Max asked as he watched Ray picking at his food beside him.
Ray's shoulders came up, head down as if he couldn't really bother to look at any of them in the face right now. It was because of him all their lives seemed to be getting uprooted, his parents the ones worse off as they were hit by Brooklyn first and hard, he was only slightly thankful they were all there with him; safe.
The other part was that he just wished it all hadn't turned out this way, where none of them had to worry or stop living their lives because of his and Kai's past. It seemed, as hard as they kept fighting against it, it just kept coming back to bite them in the ass and this time it was biting back harder than ever.
"Oh…" Max seemed to deflate, but really if he and Tyson went back to just sitting and staring at the lavish walls of their room that was bigger than anything he had ever seen in his life, he would go crazy.
"There's a living room, a billiards room, library, the theatre, gym, or sauna, and a game room for you all to occupy yourselves with. Or, the indoor pool is an option." Charles' monotone voice cut through the air as he stepped into the kitchen with them all.
All heads turned towards him with shocked expressions and confused brows raised high before they began to look like excited children on Christmas morning.
"An indoor pool? Why do you have an indoor pool and an outdoor one that's like two miles long?!" Tyson gaped past Max's shoulder at Ray around the table.
Ray wanted to smack his head into the table, cursing Charles for telling them all about the indoor pool.
"I didn't even know he had any of this to start with." He defended as his head finally lifted from his plate, "This is the first time I've been here."
"Should break up with him, how dare he keep this from you. It's okay though, I'll take care of him for you." Lu chuckled as she placed a hand to his shoulder.
Ray's lips twitched at her joke, "I'm sure you can have the pool house."
"Uh-uh, that's mine." Tala jumped in quickly, "Place is like a mini studio, it's beautiful for a pool house. Couldn't even tell it was one when we were shown it last night."
"Got too many damn windows though, sun poured right in and hits you in the face no matter what direction you're facing." Bryan seemed to grumble beside him.
"Guess we just… Occupy ourselves for the time being then, huh?" Wyatt asked as he seemed to shrink down into his seat. "Are we allowed to contact anyone on the outside?" He asked sheepishly as his brown eyes shifted to Charles making himself comfortable at a stool behind the island.
"I'm afraid you're not permitted to at the moment, no."
Wyatt nodded back his understanding, "Oh… Okay…"
Ray frowned a little at him, shifting in his seat a bit as the topic he never wanted brought up again was the only thing that smacked him in the head.
"Are you worried about Mariah?"
Wyatt nodded a little, "She was supposed to be coming over for Thanksgiving with Rose." He explained with a small blush on his cheeks.
Ray nodded back, shifting harder in his seat and before he could stop himself he turned around to face Charles who felt eyes on him and looked up.
"I can see what can be done." The monotone voice offered.
Ray nodded back, swallowing around the lump in his throat that had formed. It wasn't what he wanted but if it began to mend some of the broken pieces of their lives that he had just gone and taken a hammer to he would endure it.
Wyatt gave a curious look at Ray, "Are you sure that's a good idea?" He questioned.
It had been revealed not too long ago, when Ray was helping him learn how to run without dying, that Mariah was Ray's ex-girlfriend. He had been spared the grizzly details of what happened though knew Rose wasn't Ray's child just by looking at her, and to him it didn't matter seeing as how he and Mariah were truly happy with one another and it seemed as though and Kai and Ray were happy with each other at the time too.
"To be honest, no." Ray answered as he shifted back around in his chair, "But for now, it's the least I can do seeing as how you got roped into this mess. The place is big enough, I doubt we'll see much of each other if she can come here to start with."
"What about Kai?" Max asked beside him.
Knowing all that happened two years ago, the heartbreak that Ray had endured for what Mariah had done, to the stunt she pulled in claiming the baby was Ray's and landing him in the hospital, he couldn't help but feel a bit of pride for his lifelong friend doing this for Wyatt, knowing it must have taken a lot for him to even suggest it while on top of being wary.
"I'll try and smooth it out with him, but like I said, it'll probably be rare any of us really run into each other unless we're in here eating. So it really shouldn't be a problem, and we have bigger problems to worry about anyways." Ray explained.
The others nodded around him, Wyatt finally smiling for the first time since he had woken up.
"Thank you."
Ray gave him a small nod back, going back to his untouched food on his plate that he continued to pick around at. His head only lifting again when Lu patted him around the back in a comforting gesture that he gave her a small smile for.
"So…" Tyson cut over the silence again, "Who wants to check out the game room with me?"
"You don't even know where it's at." Max rolled his eyes at him.
"I'm sure we can find it." Tyson seemed to pout back at him, "Better than just staring at the walls again." He said before a wiry grin spread over his mouth and nudged Max in the shoulder with his own.
"Or the ceiling."
Max's face flushed red, quickly smacking him on the arm with the back of his hand. "Tyson!" He hissed, the others at the table snickering at the two as Micah took that as his cue to pick his empty plate up and leave them.
"Least you didn't have to worry about the gardener taking a quick peek at you." Bryan grumbled again, seemingly still sore about all the windows in the pool house.
"Ah, but what a show he would have gotten." Tala wiggled his brows with his wolfish grin plastered on his face, "Would have missed the first half, seeing as how we already found the sauna."
Ray about choked on his first bite of eggs. It was one thing for him and Kai getting up to stuff in the pool seeing as how it belonged to Kai, but the thought of Bryan and Tala's naked asses touching things made him shiver slightly. Hopefully if Kai had cleaners they'd come in and scrub the sauna down with bleach before any of the others chanced to use it.
"Should we order some mattress covers for all the beds here?" Lu asked in a joking tone, "Aside from mine apparently."
"Who said we did it on the bed?" Tala continued to wiggle his brows, Lu matching his smirk with her own.
"The image you just gave me." She fanned herself, "But seriously, we should find something to do before the lube runs out and ya'll are unable to walk."
Tyson, Bryan, and Tala howled with laughter. Max and Wyatt's faces turning thirty shades of red as Ray wasn't sure what his was wanting to do, his face becoming just as red as the other two while he tried hard not to belt out a laugh where his shoulders began to shake keeping it all in.
"Game room it is then?" Lu asked as the boys around her howled and became flustered, a few of them nodding back.
Once the laughter had died away, their faces returning back to normal colors and the table was cleared up the group headed for the stairs on the hunt for the game room while Ray stayed back with the three adults still crowding around the island in the center of the kitchen.
"Are you ready to go then Master Kon?" Charles asked once he pushed his empty plate Natasha had given him towards her along the marble countertop.
"Where're you going?" Micah asked quickly before Ray could even remember that they were going anywhere, until it hit him.
"Oh… Yeah, let me put on my shoes and do something with my hair." Ray stuttered, trying to avoid the questioning stares Micah and Natasha were giving him while he slipped out of the kitchen.
Once he was gone the two adults turned onto the other man sitting there sipping at his morning coffee contently, purposely avoiding their stares.
"We won't be gone long, and he will be safe with me." He informed them, setting his empty mug down on the counter. "Thank you for the breakfast Mrs. Ivanov." He thanked her as he stood, pushing the stool back under the lip of the counter and leaving them staring after him.
"I don't like this…" Natasha voiced quietly once her and Micah were alone.
"There's not a whole lot we can do." Micah supplied, touching her hand that was set over the top of the counter across from him.
"I know it's hard, but it's clear the boys have some type of plan."
"And that's what I don't like, they're going to try and get their hands in this mess when it's that man's mess to clean up." Natasha bit back though Micah knew it wasn't aimed at him.
"You can try and stop them, but I doubt it'll work." Micah tried to reassure her with a small smile, "If this is what they feel they need to do, then let them."
"And what… What if something worse happens?" Natasha asked as her shoulders began to shake, "What if we lose them?"
Micah gave her a sympathetic look, pulling himself away from the stool he had been occupying and went around the island to where he embraced his wife.
"We don't even know what they're doing, they could be going out and getting Thanksgiving dinner. They're smarter than to try and do anything reckless again, and Voltaire did promise that he would take care of it. They know this." He soothed, stroking her long red hair down her back as he cradled her to his chest.
Natasha nodded, fighting hard not to break down against him. The battle wearing out and winning, tears rolling down her face as she clutched to him tightly while all the worst scenarios played out in her head.
First Kai was gone without saying a word, Ray was now leaving with Charles without saying a word. She knew something was up, mother's intuition working overtime and whispering that something was wrong but she just didn't know what yet. Though none of what it was whispering was good, for any of them.
As much as she didn't want to believe that her boys would try to take matters into their own hands, by the looks of it, that's exactly what they were fixing to do and clearly without telling the other about it.
Micah was right, she could try to stop them but without physically sitting on them to keep them in her line of sight, there was really nothing she could do about it but hope and pray they weren't being as reckless as she thought them to be without going blue in the face trying to talk some sense into them.
Kissing the top of her hair Micah pulled away, his thumbs brushing the skin of her arms as he supplied her with a small loving smile.
"It's going to be okay."
She nodded though didn't feel it, "Should just clean up…" She sniffed, pulling away fully and going to the sink and counter with the dishes from the breakfast she had made.
Micah came up beside her to help, rubbing small circles on her lower back before the water began to run and they got to work.
Without so much as saying goodbye to anyone in the house, Ray was strapped in Charles' black car and down the road already several miles away. Fidgeting in the leather seat with a small sweat beginning to form on the back of his neck, the silence in the car not helping but at the moment he wasn't sure if there was anything he could really say to the man sitting beside him.
Almost an hour later, reaching the small city that sat miles away from the safe house, Charles pulled the black car up to a small concrete building out on the corner of the street; a gun range.
"Are you ready?"
Ray shook his head, breathing harder suddenly like Kai did when he was experiencing a panic attack. "Just… Give me a minute…"
Charles waited, sitting back as he cut the engine of the car and doing what he had been commanded until it seemed Ray had gathered himself up.
"First time holding a gun?"
Ray nodded quickly, "Have had one put to my head, but never touched one a day in my life." He informed.
Charles' thick brown eyebrows rose over the rims of his black sunglasses, "Masefield?"
Ray nodded quickly again, "Yup…"
"And you're sure you wish to go through with this?" Charles asked as he gestured at the concrete building sitting in front of them.
"How else am I supposed to protect everyone? Brooklyn is crazy, he set my parents' house on fire. I don't want to just be a sitting duck." Ray answered more heatedly than he had since they got into the car.
"If I don't do anything, then I become useless. Apparently Kai knows how to use a gun, has a gun already, and unless he's with me twenty-four-seven then it's useless to me but I also become useless to him. You said you'd teach me, get me a license and one for myself should I need it."
"I did, but only if you're still sure." Charles answered, "I admire your bravery and your commitment to protecting your partner and friends and family, but Voltaire will take care of Masefield."
"And what if he doesn't?!" Ray argued, his voice rising. "What if he can't stop him, what then?! We can't live in that house, hiding away for the rest of our lives because of Brooklyn. So what am I supposed to do?" He asked, his voice falling as his tense shoulders began to tremble.
Resting a firm hand over Ray's shoulder Charles gave the teen a light squeeze, "Okay." Was all he gave him; not sure what else he could give him in a moment like this.
"I'm sorry…" Ray apologized as he lowered his head to stare at his hands in his lap, "Just… Everything is fucked up I don't know what to do."
"It's understandable, not many people go through this and I understand why you want to be able to protect yourself."
Ray could only nod, though really at this point it wasn't about keeping himself safe anymore. It was everyone back at that house that was his priority, it was protecting Kai and making sure Brooklyn didn't get to any of them again.
"Alright… I think I'm ready…"
Voltaire sat back in his stiff chair, an amused look on his face while Brooklyn sat back into his own and seemed to process all that had been said until the young man's fair lips twitched into a deadly smirk.
"Say when and where and I can have it done."