Chapter 36.

*****

"I'm bored." Jordan whined.

"Take a nap." I replied.

It had been four days since we went to the mall. When we weren't hanging out with his family or our friends, I was in my room running over some work for next semester, checking out some of my emails from my managers or trying to find Declan. The last one was proving to be an impossible task without Sergio's gang. I couldn't even contact Kyle because he was dead. I would have struck a deal with him if I needed to...

"I'm hom –!" Shiloh's shout came to an abrupt halt, "You're studying?! Seriously?" Shiloh glared at me as he walked into our living room.

"Can you believe it?" Jordan frowned my way.

"Uh-uh. No." Claire shook her head as Rita laughed. Rita was a friend of Claire's that we had hung out with a few times.

"What – hey! Claire –" I glared at her as she shoved my books shut and lifted them off the table before shoving them into a random cupboard, "I'm in the middle of that assignment, I'm on a roll, you can't just cut me off –"

"Oh, we can. And we have." Rita smiled.

I let out an annoyed breath as I dropped my pen onto the coffee table.

"I'm not going out." I said.

"You don't have a choice." Jordan patted my shoulder.

"You my friend, need to get over Diego." Claire said leaning over my shoulder. I looked at her.

My first answer would have been: I was never under Diego, but that would sound weird and also it would be a lie. "Who's Diego?"

"I know this really nice guy, his name's Co –"

"Cole? On the track team? Yeah, no." I shook my head.

"Okay, how about Henrick?" Claire asked.

"It really doesn't matter; just get him a date so we can get out of here. Anyone's better than that." Jordan pointed towards the cupboard my books had been shoved into.

"Guys, seriously. I'm not interested. I'll have drinks with you but I'm not hooking up with your friends... especially yours." I said giving Claire a pointed look.

"Fine. Die alone."

I frowned as everyone laughed while Claire glared at me.

"Let's –" Shiloh was cut off by my phone. Rita grabbed it from the carpet where it had been charging.

"Clyde?"

I opened my mouth to tell her to hang up but I stopped. Clyde got what I had said; he knew I didn't want to be part of what he did, so maybe he was calling for a reason. Besides... I actually missed him. I had not heard from them since I saw Sergio in the mall...

"Uh, okay." She handed me my phone and I answered it as I got up and walked outside.

"Hey, Kid."

"Clyde." I frowned and hear him chuckle, "How is Sasha?" I asked as I sat on our lawn and stared at the houses across the road.

"Great, and so is her father, thank you for asking." I gave a chuckle picturing him rolling his eyes, "How have you been?"

"Great," I replied. Save for the fact that I can't forget about your 'boss', I'm amazing. "What's up?"

"Oh, yeah... uh... Here's the thing: I sort of need your help." He said suddenly sounding off.

"With..." I waved at one of our neighbours and she gave me a weird look while waving back. I guess it looked sort of weird. A barefoot nineteen year old in his boxers and a shirt at one in the afternoon. It must have looked like I was playing on the grass by myself. "With what?" I asked slowly.

"Nothing illegal, I promise." I relaxed a little nodding.

"Then what?" I asked.

"Uh... It's... it's Sergio." I shut my eyes annoyed at the excitement I felt before my heart stopped.

"What? Is he okay? What happened?" I asked panicking at the thought of him being hurt. I have no idea why I was so shocked, his lifestyle made it almost impossible for something bad NOT to happen to him. But he was so good at it, he knew every trick, right? He had to be alright.

"Relax, he's not hurt."

"Oh..." Clyde gave a light chuckle and I was too relieved to care that Clyde now knew how much I cared about Sergio's safety. I guess I would have responded the same way if I thought Clyde was hurt.

"It's worse." he muttered.

"Clyde." I frowned feeling my chest tighten again, "Dave? Mrs Marquez? Kent? What is it? What the hell is going on?"

"No one got hurt, but we will if he doesn't get fixed." Clyde said.

"What?" I asked confused.

"Sergio. You broke him. He thinks he's hiding it but I can tell that he's a mess, and when he's a mess everyone else fucks up more. We can't afford that right now with Declan, Alex. We need him completely focused. I know you feel something for him. I need you to cheer him up. I need you to tell him you feel the same way he does." He said, "He never lets his emotions affect work, I wasn't sure he even had emotions. I don't know what you've done to him, he's just... depressed."

I smiled. "Depressed?" I asked.

"Do I need to spell this out for you? Take him back, please!" he said.

"I can't. We were never together." I was sure I heard him mutter something along the lines of 'you sure?' but I ignored it, "Sorry, Clyde. I can't see him." I said.

I heard him sigh. "Look... I just... I need you guys to be civil for Sasha." he said.

"Sasha? What's wrong? You said she was great." I asked.

"I... she acts like she is, she's trying to be a big girl but she... she got sick. Really sick, Alex, and you two are her favourite people. I need you to be able to be in the same room."

"Are you making this up?" I asked slowly.

"Would I lie about Sasha?" He asked sounding pained. "She's really down because she has had to skip school for a couple of days."

I looked down. "We will be civil around Sasha, we don't verbally need to agree on that." I said, "Where is she? I'll come see her." I said.

"Well, her mother's working and I've been pretty busy so I'm having someone take care of her at the loft. It's the safest place for one of us to take care of her but not bring trouble to our home since people have been following us."

"I'll be by in an hour."

"I won't be there, like I said, I'm working. There's a key to the loft at the diner down the road, just tell Vanessa I sent you, I'll call to confirm right now." he said.

"Alright." We hung up and I got up and made my way into my house.

"Who was that?" Claire asked as I walked in.

"A friend. He's daughter's sick so I'm going to visit her for a while." I said. She studied me before nodding. "Seriously? I don't need to get drinks with you guys?"

"You're telling the truth." I shook my head chuckling at Shiloh's answer before I made my way upstairs to get cleaned up.

-----

I unlocked the apartment and kicked it open with my knee. I might have over done the popcorn and milkshakes. Clyde doesn't have to know about it, I had no doubt it would brighten Sasha up.

"Sasha?" I called.

I expected her caretaker/bodyguard or whatever to come running at me but he didn't. No one made a sound. I walked over to the kitchen and put the popcorn on the table along with the milkshakes.

My hands were finally free enough to put my car keys back into my pocket as I made my way through the loft. I called for Sasha a couple of times but frowned when I found every single room empty, the beds and couches untouched like no one had used them recently.

I shook my head deciding to call Clyde once I was back in the kitchen but as I was about to dial his number I heard the front door open.

"Sasha? Evan?" I froze.

Sergio.

Wait... he set us up...

My jaw dropped. I didn't even know Clyde was capable of that!

I felt my heart accelerate as I heard his footsteps. Oh God. He's here. What do I do? What do I say? Do I hide? I'm going to kill Clyde for this!

"Sasha? Your Daddy says –" Sergio's words cut off as his eyes met mine. "You're... you're here... Clyde called you for Sasha too?"

"She's not here." I said.

He opened his mouth before he frowned. "Son of a bitch..." I chuckled as he muttered that. "He got me worried sick for nothing!" he said slipping the cardboard box he had in his hand onto the table along with some juice before he ran his fingers onto his temples.

I lifted the box's lid and found a stack of waffles with a small tub of chocolate sauce beside it.

"It's probably a good thing... we would have killed her." I frowned looking at my popcorn.

He realised that I had brought treats too and we began laughing.

"Uhm... I guess I'll see you –"

"Well, I haven't had lunch yet." He said grabbing one of my milkshakes and the box and taking a sip. I chuckled.

"Me neither." I said. "Hey, I want some waffles."

"Comes with a price." he said sipping some of the milkshake.

"That's not fair, I gave you a milkshake."

"Your point is?" He asked.

"I..." I frowned before I laughed. "Damn it, Sergio..." I mumbled.

He chuckled putting everything down and my laughter was cut off by him cupping my face and stepping forward to kiss me. I lifted my hands to shove him away from me but I decided against it. Who was I kidding? I missed this so fucking much. So instead I dropped my hands up to his waist and held onto his shirt pulling him closer to me.

When we broke apart we were both out of breath.

"Alexander... I... think I l..." he drifted, "Uhm... I-I missed you so much..." he mumbled looking down, like he was afraid of admitting it.

I smiled lifting his face so he was looking at me to give him another quick kiss.

"Yeah? I missed you too." I admitted.

He smiled and it made me so happy. I didn't get how him being happy could make me this happy. I studied his face for a few seconds going over all the details I had memorised before and I realised he looked a little worn.

"Have you been staying up yearning for me?" I joked.

"N-no. The waffles are getting cold." I laughed as he grabbed them and popped them into the microwave.

When the waffles were heated we ate lunch – or at least we tried to, it just took really long with all the 'talking' we were doing.

"You done?" I asked when I was done. I was seated on the counter with Sergio beside me. He shook his head and I raised my brows at him. He had a piece of waffle left, it had been the same size for the past fifteen minutes. "You're not going to finish, are you?" I asked.

"No, if I pretend to still be eating you won't leave." he replied seriously.

"Babe." His eyes widened before I kissed his jaw, "I can't leave, we haven't even began plotting Clyde's death yet." He laughed and I kissed him again.

"Mmm, why don't we plot that later? I have a feeling the beds here aren't used enough." He smirked hopping off the counter.

"Poor beds must not even feel like beds." I said.

"We have to help them!" I laughed as Sergio stood between my legs and kissed my neck. I bit my lip.

"Bed?" I asked.

"Maybe... we can help the beds later?" he asked huskily, his breath brushing my neck. He sounded so damn sexy.

I chuckled nodding as I tilted his face so I could kiss him.

*****

One of my absolute favourite chapters to write.

I've published The Lord's Favourite Dealer (Author: Amethyst Slade) in paperback and ebook available on Amazon and Smashwords. It has been edited and contains more on chapters 12 and 36 (18+) so maybe consider buying it if you're interested in that :D. 

Thank you for reading :D Please tell me what you think, vote and share.