CHAPTER 69

Everybody in the heated confrontation spun around to see Daniel and Johnny standing in the doorway, hurrying inside with alarmed looks on their faces as they saw what was unfolding.

"Woah, woah, woah, what the hell is going on in here?!" Daniel exclaimed as he ran over to them.

"Look at this, Mr. Larusso. Look what Miguel's been doing in his free time." Demetri said, handing his phone over to Daniel and Johnny and showing them the picture he had snapped the evening before. As Daniel and Johnny saw it, their eyes widened and Daniel looked up first, pure rage in his eyes as he turned to Miguel.

"Start talking. You have five seconds to explain yourself." Daniel growled to Miguel, his voice even more menacing than Miguel's. He couldn't believe that Miguel would associate himself with the girl who had tried to kill his daughter so many times.

"Look, it's honestly not what it looks like. I'm not betraying Miyagi-Do for Cobra Kai or anything. Tory's just helping me." Miguel murmured, trying desperately to not have to go into details as he really didn't want to use the excuse Tory had told him to use as he knew it would get him kicked out of Miyagi-Do. However, when it came to either finding Emily or getting kicked out of Miyagi-Do, it was an easy decision to make for him.

"Helping you? Helping you how?" Daniel snapped. Miguel shook his head, trying to sell his arguments with confidence so he didn't have to delve deeper into his reasoning.

"That's… that's none of your business." Miguel remarked. Daniel laughed in disbelief and raised an eyebrow.

"None of my business? You mean one of my students planning something with the girl who is actively trying to kill my daughter and my other students is none of my business?" Daniel snapped. Miguel shook his head.

"Look, Tory and I aren't planning anything. When we spend time together, we don't even spend much time talking at all." Miguel said. That technically wasn't a lie. They didn't spend that much time talking. Most of their time together was spent hunched over either their billboard or their computer as they tracked Silver's location. But of course, Miguel's words were intentionally meant to be twisted as an innuendo, and it was Johnny who understood what Miguel meant first. His eyes widened.

"Oh, God! Seriously?! Tory?! Out of anyone in the Valley, you choose to hook up with Tory?!" Johnny exclaimed. Miguel shrugged.

"Not that it's any of your business, but yeah Tory. And this is DEFINITELY none of your business, but if you're about to ask me why I'm doing so… I wanted something with absolutely 0 feelings involved. What we have is literally just sex. Really hot sex. But just sex. Nothing more."

As Miguel expected, everyone groaned and winced as they took in what Miguel was telling them. He was trying to get off the topic as soon as possible, and he realised that the way to do that would be just digging the hole deeper.

"Alright, that's enough! Get out of this dojo. NOW!" Daniel snapped, still in shock at the bombshell that had just been laid on him. Miguel nodded and stepped out of the dojo, leaving behind him only livid, disbelieving faces…

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

That afternoon, after Miguel was kicked out of Miyagi-Do training, he didn't go straight back home, or to Tory's house. Instead, he decided to go for a long bike ride. He had a list of potential locations that they had put down on their Emily list, so he decided to pedal by 3. All 3 turned out to be busts: the first was a market, the second was an MMA store and the third was a Starbucks. After he was done going past the three, he was thoroughly disheartened, so he decided to head home. However, as he pulled into the compound, he was greeted by two unwanted guests waiting for him: George and Johnny.

Miguel groaned as he got off his bike and the pair immediately walked over to him.

"What do you guys want?" Miguel murmured. The pair looked at each other and then looked at Miguel, unreadable expressions on their faces.

"Look, Miguel, it's just us now. You can cut the crap. We know you hooking up with Tory is a whole lot of BS. What's really going on?"

"I don't know what you guys are talking about." Miguel lied.

"Come on, Miguel? Are you serious?! You were literally just kicked out of Miyagi-Do! I can help you get reinstated if you just tell me what's going on!" Johnny exclaimed. Miguel shrugged.

"I honestly don't give a shit if Miyagi-Do want me or not." Miguel murmured.

"Look, Miguel, we know you better than anyone in Miyagi-Do so while they all think you're hooking up with Tory, we know that's not true. If you were looking for just sex, which I honestly don't think you are right now, your first call wouldn't be to your ex where things are insanely complicated. Whatever you and Tory are doing together, it has to be important enough for the two of you to put the past aside. And whatever it is, I'm sure we can help you, and if need be, we can keep it secret from the rest of Miyagi-Do." George said.

"Yeah, remember, we're not Miyagi-Do. We're still Eagle-Fang. We don't owe them shit." Johnny said. "If you're doing something that you don't want them knowing about, as long as it's not rejoining Cobra Kai, we have no obligation to tell them."

Miguel looked at them, torn. He knew that while him and Tory didn't want anyone knowing about what they were doing, there could be upsides to telling them. At this point in their plan, they were driving by all of the possible locations Emily could be at and eliminating them if they were shops or any other public buildings, so more hands helping out with that couldn't hurt. Miguel looked at the determined looks on George and Johnny's faces and knew they wouldn't be letting up. He sighed in defeat and nodded.

"Okay, fine. Let's go." Miguel said, taking Johnny's keys from his hands and walking over to the driver's seat of Johnny's car, not waiting for the two passengers. They hurried after him and got in the car, before Miguel sped out of the compound and down the street, hurrying for Tory's house…

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

They arrived 10 minutes later and Miguel then got out of the car.

"Stay here." Miguel murmured to Johnny and George, before walking up the driveway of Tory's small house. Miguel rang the doorbell and Tory opened it moments later.

"Hey, you're early." She remarked. Miguel then opened the door wider so Tory could see the car in the driveway, and when she saw who was still sitting there, her eyes widened in alarm.

"What the hell?! What are they doing here?" She snapped. Miguel sighed.

"Look, I'm sorry. Miyagi-Do found out that you and I have been meeting, and…"

"And you told them we were hooking up, right?" Tory asked, nervous. Miguel nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, of course. And they all believed me. Except those two. They knew something else was up."

"So?! Just tell them to fuck off!" Tory exclaimed.

"Look, Tory, I really think they can help us." Miguel murmured. "You have my word that they're not going to tell anybody what's going on, and they'll honestly be helpful in helping us scout all of the locations on our map."

Tory looked at Miguel, unsure.

"I don't know. I don't trust them." She said. Miguel nodded.

"Sure, but you trust me, right? And I trust them with my life. And hey, how about this? You're still feuding with Sam, right? If they turn around and tell anyone about what we're doing, I am so confident that if they do that, I will tie my hands behind my back and will let you beat the crap out of me until I'm no longer breathing."

Tory looked at Miguel, torn for a long while, before eventually nodding.

"Okay, fine. Bring them in."

Miguel smiled and then walked back to the car, bringing George and Johnny into Tory's house and over to Tory's small bedroom, where they had set up all of their work. When George and Johnny stepped inside, they both looked at each other, extremely confused. In the center of the room was a massive billboard. The background was distinctively a map of L.A, and red pins adorned various spots on it. Meanwhile, next to each pin was a picture of the location pinned and for most, a red cross going through them. It looked like something that belonged in a police station, not in Tory's room.

"What… what is this?" George asked, completely perplexed. Tory and Miguel looked at each other and silently nodded, before turning back to George and Johnny.

"Tory found out that Emily didn't die that night in the accident. Silver took her, and that's what we've been doing this past week: we're trying to find her…"

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Miguel and Tory then gave George and Johnny the rundown of everything that had happened since the night of the accident. Well, everything they knew anyways.

"Wow…" George murmured, his trembling hand running along the L.A map billboard. "So Emily's alive, huh? And she's somewhere in L.A?"

"That's what we think." Miguel murmured. George's eyes widened.

"Right, and while I appreciate a vigilante mission as much as the next guy, isn't the smartest thing to do in this scenario to call…"

"The cops?" Tory said. "No, we can't do that. They have no more information than we do, and all going to the cops will do is alert Silver, and cause him to go after all of us and our families."

"Which is why you CAN'T tell anyone about this, not anyone from Miyagi-Do, not even Sensei Larusso, do you understand?" Miguel demanded. "As you know, working story is that Tory and I are hooking up to help me forget about Emily. Let's keep it that way."

"Yes sir." George remarked. Johnny, who had been silent up to this point, turned to them and decided to speak.

"How can we help?" He asked.

"Excuse me?" Tory said. Johnny shrugged.

"Well if you've told us all of this, and we can't go to the cops, no way in hell you're not letting us help at least. So… what can we do?"