He's Back

45 - Goodnight

I squirmed around in my bed, unable to sleep. The things that were said between Aiden and Bryan earlier left me unable to sleep. The possibility that Aiden had taken a life, made shivers run down my spine. Not giving it a second thought, I got up, making sure Jason was still sleeping, and walked out the door. The sight of blood on the floor made me want to throw up on the spot.

I reached Aiden's front door and knocked on the door once, hoping he was awake. It's been fifteen minutes since you saw him, he's awake. Seconds later the door opened and I came face to face with a very shirtless Aiden, a bloody shirt in his hand. 

He looked clearly caught off guard, a frown on his face. Before I could comprehend what I was doing, I hugged his bare torso, hiding my face in his chest. He locked his hands around me, one of them going to my hair, rubbing it soothingly. "What's wrong, baby?" he asked and the use of that nickname instantly made my heart flutter. 

"I want to talk to you, but first I wanted to make sure you were okay" I shyly said, making him sigh. "I'm alright, we can have that talk if you want to. Let me just grab a shirt" he said and went to his room. When he came back I looked at him, questioningly when he shut his front door after walking out. "Jason" he said and I hid my face in my hands. I can't believe I forgot about my own brother. He noticed and reassured me immediately. "It was a long day, don't blame yourself" he gave me a small smile which I didn't reciprocate. 

We walked into my house, going to my room. I closed the door behind us, sitting on the edge of my bed. He sat on the floor, his back resting against my nightstand, and I was sure he sensed my discomfort. The only light source in the room was a small lamp, making his bruises more evident. 

Realizing we had no idea how to approach what happened, we agreed I'd ask anything I wanted to know and he'd answer. You know kind of like twenty questions only more depressing. 

"Why did you call Bryan Axel?" I started off easy. "Cause that's his name. Axel Wright" he replied, not satisfying me. "And why did he introduce himself as Bryan to me?" 

"He was in deep shit in New York, so when he fled he changed his name to be safe" he said. Ah, so they met in Brooklyn. "We used to be really close at some point" "he explained before I asked. 

"What made you get to...this point" I asked, referring to what I witnessed earlier. "That's a long story" he said. "I've got time" I responded and he nodded. "Axel had- has a brother. I used to be friends with him and we were all kind of living under the same circumstances if you get what I'm saying" he paused to collect his thoughts and I nodded. 

"At some point, he messed up a job he had to take care of, something that made the boss quite mad. And since it wasn't the first time he had messed up, he knew he was in deep shit." I frowned, urging him to go on. I felt like I was reading some sort of mystery novel, only this time it was real. 

"One night he heard the boss talking on the phone with someone and telling him that he was going to kick one of us out. Me or Elijah. I knew he wouldn't dare touch me, he loved the cash  I was getting him.  So that's when he came up with the plan to fake his death" he said and I was left fried. 

"Wait, but if he was getting kicked out, he basically had the solution right in front of him. Why fake his death?" I asked, not able to connect the dots in my head. "They don't just let you leave after you've seen how things work in there. If they're done with you, you're dead." he explained and a shiver ran from the back of my neck to the bottom of my spine. I clenched the sheet in my hand, the thought of Aiden getting killed was running in circles through my head, tormenting me. 

"Don't start clenching the sheets now, love, I haven't even given you a reason to, yet." he winked at me, making me look down at my legs to hide my blushing. "You were saying..." I changed the subject.