Chapter 25.

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I got out of the taxi and walked up to the front door feeling my heart sink. I held a case of beer in my hand hoping it would lighten them up just a little bit, I knew it wouldn't, but I was still hoping.

I tried to open the door but it was locked, I felt my spirit grow a little until I heard the door unlock. Crap, I'm not getting off here...

It swung open and I opened my mouth to greet Clyde but instead he grabbed my shirt over my chest and pulled me into the house before shoving the door shut behind me.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" he shouted at me letting me go.

I glanced to see Ben look at us from the couch where he was laying, his eyes dropped to the case drinks in my hand. I looked back at Clyde, he was frowning at me waiting for my reply.

"Clyde –" I tried.

I felt the beer pulled from my grip and looked to see Ben follow Cooper and Macen to the kitchen.

"You think this is a fucking joke?" I stepped back as Clyde shoved the note I had left against my chest.

I looked it; I would have laughed if he wasn't so angry. "No. Well, yeah, this is – it's supposed to be –" but no one around here has a sense of humour apparently, "but, Clyde I –"

"Are you this stupid, Alexander? Do you WANT to get killed? Has getting robbed taught you nothing –?"

"Shut up!" My shout cut him off, he seemed shocked. I didn't usually raise my voice so it was weird for me too, "I overheard some guys talking –"

"Oh? Great." He said rolling his eyes. I let out a frustrated breath.

"Let me finish." I hissed, "They're planning to blow Anne's up." I said.

He opened his mouth but stopped.

"What did he just say?" Ben called from the kitchen.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Clyde narrowed his eyes at me.

"I uh..." I bit my lip, "I went to get these – those drinks and I heard... well, one of my professor's say they were planning to blow Anne's and everything else up on Thursday." I said.

"Bull." Macen said from the kitchen.

Clyde frowned before he grabbed my arm and tugged me closer to him.

"What the hell are you talking about?" he hissed softly.

"I followed someone Steven said is part of the force, undercover... He met with some of his gang members, they're planning to kill me and God knows how many other dealers of yours and they're going to blow the warehouses up on Thursday." I whispered.

"I told you to stop searching for Declan, didn't I?" his voice was still hushed, but angry.

"It has nothing to do with him." I hissed. I hadn't even told him Kyle had anything to do with Declan, how did he know?

"It has fucking EVERYTHING to do with him or you wouldn't have followed the guy in the first place!" he hissed.

"Well that has nothing to do with you, but this does!" I hissed back.

"What's going on here?" Sergio's voice had us both turning to him. "And where the hell have you been, Alexander?" he glared at me.

"A friend's place." I shrugged before adding, "I got some drinks." Why was he so angry anyway? I felt a little dejected by his anger towards me.

"Go to your room." Clyde pointed to me, "Sergio, we need to talk."

"About what?" I asked. Is he going to tell him about my searching for Declan?

"Go to your room, Alexander." Clyde said sternly.

I frowned at being sent to my room like a child but decided not to argue. I had had enough go on today to just be done with everything.

I sighed as I pulled my packet off and threw it onto my desk before I grabbed my phone unlocking it and scrolled through the messages I had gotten while I was gone. I stopped at the most recent message from a number I didn't recognise. I opened it and temporarily tensed seeing Kyle's name typed at the end of it.

'What the hell do you think you're doing?'

I frowned. Who is this? My phone buzzed again a message had popped up beneath the last one.

'Kyle.'

How did he get my number? Well, I didn't owe him any explanation. He knew the basics anyway. Though, while we were texting, I guess I could ask. I held my breath as I looked at the screen.

'Do you know Declan?'

He knew who I was; I didn't have to tell him. I kicked my shoes off and sat down waiting for his reply as I listened to shoes shuffle past my room. My phone buzzed as my door opened.

I watched Clyde walk in before I looked at the screen and tapped the message open.

'Yes.'

I clenched my jaw. He lied. Wait... Steven said Kyle had no contact with Declan. He lied to the force too? Why...?

"Just came to check if you got what you wanted." He said leaning against my door as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Really? I doubt that. I think you're here to give me another lecture about letting Declan go." I was positive it was him now. He ran a gang, of course he killed them. They had money, they owned companies. I wasn't sure what role he had in my parents' lives but it had to be something that made him hate them...

"Right." He nodded before he walked over to me and sat down beside me. I looked at him confused and he let out a sigh. "I usually don't give a shit about dealers and what they get themselves into, but I... like you." He said.

"Woah, Clyde. You're cool but you're a little too old for me, you know? You could be my father – not that there's anything wrong with that, I just prefer to be with someone from around the same decade. Also, you're not my type." I joked even though his tone hadn't suggested that type of attraction.

We laughed and he gave my shoulder a shove.

"I'm serious, Alexander. What's more is that people I care about like you, they care about you and so given that –"

"Who?" I interrupted him raising my brows. He rolled his eyes and I smirked.

"Sasha, Kiera and... The point is, I take care of the people they love but you're just pretending to be Neo in a war. Eventually one of those bullets are going to hit you... I hope you've considered how everyone you care about so much would feel at your funeral." He said.

I stared at him as he got up ruffling my hair and I stiffened temporarily as a wave of nostalgia washed over me. My father always did that after we had talks...

"Goodnight." He said.

"'Night..." I mumbled after the door shut behind him. I looked back down at my phone before I clicked 'call' on Kyle's number.

It barely rang before he answered with a "Hello, Alex."

"You lied. You lied about knowing him."

"With good reason! What type of cop would I be if I set a kid up for suicide? Didn't I tell you to let that Declan thing go?"

"I can't let it go! Would you have?!" I hissed trying to keep my voice level despite my frustration because I wasn't sure who could hear me.

He was silent before he spoke. "If it meant saving my own life to protect the people I care about from going through the same thing I have, then yes. You have a sibling? Aunts or uncles? Do you really want to put them though that?"

"No, I don't. I had them, and they got killed." I felt my fist clench and I dug my nails into my palm to distract myself from thinking about what it felt like to lose the only family I had. "You lied to Steven too. He said you had no contact with Declan."

"I'm sorry, Alex. But they wouldn't want what happened to them to happen to you. You know that. By the way, watch out. There are always more people around than you think there are." He said completely ignoring what I said about Steven and hanging up.

I frowned letting my hand fall onto my lap. More people around than I think? Now that I think about it, there was a white Toyota that had parked down the street just before the other men showed up to talk to Kent, I hadn't payed much attention to it because it looked like a normal car but no one had ever climbed into it or got out of it.

Maybe they were waiting for someone.

Or maybe they were just on stand-by, waiting to see if anything happened or if another gang (I don't know, Sergio's maybe?) ambushed them.

He could just have been just trying to scare me. Make me worry about things that aren't there.

Was he actually going to let the bombings happen or was he just playing along but would cut it off before they could do it?

I decided I didn't like Kyle. Not at all. He was lying too much, to everyone. Hiding too much. What type of policeman keeps information like that from the force? He was way too into this; he even sounded more like a criminal than a cop.

I was certain he was one of them.

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