Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

  “Britney?” Ana asked when I picked up the phone the morning after the wedding.

  “Yeah,” I confirmed, still half asleep and wondering why on earth Ana was calling me the morning after her wedding at 6a.m.

  “I’m afraid I’ve got some very bad news to tell you, are you sitting down?” I nodded my head, realizing a split second later that she couldn’t see me sitting up in my bed, sleepily stroking my persistent black cat and nodding.

  “Yeah, what’s up?” I questioned, smothering a yawn.

  “Brit, it’s Brian. The hospital called me early this morning, even though I’m technically not one of their doctors anymore. After a neighbor called in to report gunfire in the apartment building, they found Brian, shot three times, in his apartment. They brought him to the hospital and he apparently revived briefly and whispered ‘Matthews’. They called me right away, assuming he meant me, and I went,” she explained. “Although, I think he might have meant Jonas, given the circumstances.”

  “Oh Ana! I’m so sorry! On your wedding night? Is Brian ok? Do you know what happened?” I asked, one question followed quickly by another, now feeling completely awake.

  “It’s alright, this was important,” she assured me. “Unfortunately, my news regarding Brian isn’t good. I did everything I could for him, but I don’t know if he’s going to pull through, he’s lost an awful lot of blood. We don’t know what happened, but Jonas says he thinks he knows and that you might want to come to the hospital.”

  “Of course!” I responded, jumping up from the bed. “I’ll be there as soon as I can,” I promised before hanging up. I quickly dressed and rushed over to the hospital. When I got there, I asked for directions to Brian Webb’s room, and hurried off in the correct direction. In the hallway, I was met by the sight of Mac and Jonas seated in chairs outside of what I assumed to be Brian’s room. Upon seeing me, Jonas stood up and walked towards me, wrapping his arms around me as soon as we were within reach of one another.

  “It was Hayden, wasn’t it?” I inquired hoarsely, demanding the truth from him as I looked into his own saddened eyes.

  “I believe so. I think he found out that Brian lied to him, and this was his payback,” answered Jonas.

  “This is my fault then,” I realized, burying my face in Jonas’ shoulder as tears began filling my eyes.

  “No, Britney, this isn’t your fault. This is Hayden’s doing, not yours,” Jonas said soothingly, stroking my loose hair, which in my haste I hadn’t bothered to do anything with. He led me over to a chair, which we waited in with Mac as Ana and other doctors and nurses went in and out of Brian’s room. For the next several hours, friends took turns bringing coffee and food for us and stopping by to see how Brian was doing. Eventually, we heard that Brian’s parents were on their way, but that it would still be awhile until they made it. While Steve and Paige were taking their turns stopping by, Ana came to join us with a disheartened look after there had been a sudden commotion in Brian’s room.

  “We did everything that we could, but we couldn’t save him. We lost him,” she informed the group quietly.

  I shook my head viciously from side to side, refusing the truth. “No,” I whimpered. Soon Jonas was holding me tightly once again, trying to sooth me and calm me down as I listened to Ana continue speaking to the others.

  “He’d just lost too much blood,” she was saying. “We gave him a transfusion, but it just wasn’t enough, he was already too far gone I think. It’s a miracle he lasted as long as he did. For a while, I truly thought he’d pull through. They were merciless shots. I think they were meant to kill him, but slowly, so he suffered first.”

  “This is my fault, all my fault, poor Brian,” I whispered over and over, as Jonas held me, trying to tell me otherwise.

  When I had calmed down we all went to Ana’s old office, which was yet to have been reoccupied by Tanner, who had agreed to take her place. When we were all inside and seated with the door only a crack open, Jonas spoke.

  “Britney’s going back to San Francisco with you, Paige, Kate, and Tanner,” he told Steve gravely. “She can’t stay here. “This was a message from Hayden to me, showing that he’s serious, and will do whatever he deems necessary to get Britt back. I don’t think he’d purposely harm her, but I don’t want to risk her getting hurt in the scuffle.”

    “I’m not leaving LA, Jonas. I’m the least likely of anyone to get hurt,” I argued.

  “Why do you want to stay so bad? You’d be safer away from here,” shot back Jonas.

  “Because you’re here, and I won’t leave you behind to face Hayden alone because of me,” I answered.

  “Well you can’t stay at the loft on your own, not now. If Hayden were to get you back, then Brian would have died in vain,” pointed out Steve from his seat nearby.

  “And I can’t stay with you there without them finding you,” Jonas tossed in.

  “I’ll stay with her,” said a voice from the doorway suddenly. I vaguely recognized the voice, but when we all turned to see our intruder, I knew exactly who it was.

  “Caleb?” I asked with both astonishment and confusion. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’ve been following you,” he stated simply. “You, Ana, and Mac that is.”
  “Why?” Jonas demanded, immediately alert and filled with suspicion of the intruder. “And who are you?”
  “Because I needed to find out something,” he replied. “And my name is Caleb Matthews.”

  “What did you need to find out from following us?” pressed Mac, sounding almost as fierce and protective as Jonas. Caleb glanced briefly at Mac, and then returned his attention to Jonas, seeming to drink in the sight of him despite Jonas’ obvious hostility.

  “I needed to be sure that Ana was who I thought she was,” he explained to us all, turning away from Jonas.

  Ana gasped. “Are you…are you apart of our uncle’s family that got lost in Australia?” she asked with wide eyes.

  “You don’t even remember do you?” he asked, gazing at Ana with apparent sadness. “Well, I suppose you were still a baby mostly, so I guess I can understand. I’m not your cousin, Ana,” he turned to Jonas once again. “I’m your brother.”

  “Our brother?” Ana exclaimed, clearly taken aback by his words.

  “Yes. I was with our aunt and uncle while you, still being very young, were with our parents on a trip when our family was suspected as having been involved in a murder. Our aunt and uncle took me with them into hiding, but when it was safe enough to return home, they couldn’t find our parent’s again. They stayed in Australia as long as they could trying to find them, and you, but eventually had to leave, and brought me with them to America, where we settled in Seattle,” Caleb related to us.

  “Our parent’s never mentioned that we had a brother, and I don’t remember you,” said Ana with suspicion clearly evident in her voice. “What proof do you have that you’re telling the truth?”

  “Our parent’s names were Amanda Marie and Alec McKay Matthews. Our uncle was Jeremy Matthews, Alec’s older brother, and his wife’s name was Beth. They had no children, and raised me as their heir. Ana was four years old when we were separated, and Jonas hadn’t even been born yet,” Caleb said.

  “Just because you know some names and ages, doesn’t mean that you’re our brother,” argued Jonas vehemently. “And why did you all of a sudden decide to come looking for us in the first place?”

  “I had tried to find the family, several times in fact. However, everything ended in Britain. I couldn’t trace you any further, and I figured you’d gone underground again. Especially after I read about the death of our mother,” he added with a note of mixed sorrow and regret. “Then I met Britney and Ana on the plane a couple weeks ago, and I knew it was too coincidental that there would be another Ana Matthews from Australia that looked to be about the same age my sister would be.” Jonas continued to look as if he still didn’t believe Caleb, and I took a hard look at Caleb.

  “Jonas, the two of you are so similar,” I finally noticed. “You have the same high cheekbones, same skin tone, almost the same general build, and he has the Matthews’ eyes,” I pointed out. “Not to mention his hair is the exact same black as Ana’s, and though it’s short, it has a slight curl-wave to it too, just like yours.”

  Everyone scrutinized Caleb carefully, taking note of everything I pointed out. It was hard to tell about his hair, but it had grown out a bit from the short cut it had been when Ana and I had last seen him. Soon, they saw the same things I did, and knew I was right.

  “Well, if you’re looking to claim any money, you can forget it,” Jonas informed Caleb, still remaining unconvinced of their brotherhood.

  Caleb laughed. “Please Jonas, our uncle was just as good a cleaner as our father was,” he assured him. “Money was hardly my motive for seeking you out.”

  My mind spun at Caleb’s casual words, and I saw Jonas hastily glance my way to gage my reaction.

  “Jonas? What’s he talking about?” I whispered. Jonas’ eyes gained a tortured look as he began to explain.

“I planned to tell you Britney. I never expected I would have to tell you like this though,” he sighed. “Before my family moved here, my father practiced the family trade that was passed down to him from his father and had been practiced by my family for at least two or three generations before him, as far as I know. It’s the same trade that your father and Hayden’s practices still. He trained me to take his place and taught me everything he knew, just as the Matthews men have been doing for years.”

  “Which is why you’re an even better shot than my father,” I realized, my lower lip beginning to quiver.

 “Yes,” Jonas confirmed with a grim nod. “A couple of months before we left America, the men who my father was working for at the time, came to him and demanded he do a job that was sure to be repaid with quick retribution. They wanted him to kill their greatest rival in hopes that they could form an alliance with the son who was to take over after his father’s death. My father refused, knowing the risk he would be taking if he agreed to their demands.

  “But they wouldn’t take no for an answer,” Jonas told me, his eyes hardening. “They gave him barely veiled threats about things that might accidentally happen if he continued to refuse them. Threats involving his family. So finally, my father agreed, making plans to leave Britain right afterwards in hopes to flee the otherwise inevitable vengeance that would befall him if he stayed.

  “He finished the job with perfection and we were preparing to leave; but my mother insisted on visiting some very close friends before we did, since it would likely be a very long time until it would be safe for us to contact them again. They were on their way back home when a sniper shot into the car, my father being the intended target. However, with a terrible twist of fate, my father had bent over in order to pick something from off the floor just before the bullet sailed through the glass and struck my mother in the head, killing her instantly.

   Jonas’ eyes filled with unabashed hatred and obvious pain as he continued on and my heart broke for him. “We found out that the men, who’d practically forced my father to kill their enemy, had offered up my father’s name to the hit’s son in order to show their supposed loyalty. Of course, they conveniently managed to leave out that he was only working under their direction.

  “My father made it known that he would be at his wife’s funeral and then at the last minute, snuck Ana and me out of the country with him, hoping that whoever was sent to kill him would be waiting at the funeral and wouldn’t know what had happened until it was too late.

  “Once in the USA, we changed our names and he began working for DeRuise in the same way that I always have. He never told DeRuise of his true previous profession, and made me swear to never take up our family’s old occupation. I promised him that I never would.

  “Everything went fine until I turned eighteen. We had thought we were safe, so Ana, who my father never mentioned to DeRuise in order to keep her protected, began using her real name again. One night, while my father and I were home alone, a man came in and shot my father at point blank. I thought he was going to shoot me as well, so I drew my own gun, prepared to shoot, but the man knocked it from my hand and shook his head before leaving as quickly as he had appeared,” Jonas concluded.

  “So your father was just like mine is then?” I queried slowly. “Jonas, why didn’t you tell me before now?”

  “Ana and I agreed never to talk about it or tell anyone,” he explained. “And besides that, I didn’t really want you to know that I’d been trained to do the very thing you hated your father for doing.”

  “Have you ever, killed anyone?” I inquired, afraid of the answer as I remembered his amazing shooting at the abandoned building we practiced at.

  “Never,” he assured me quickly. “I only shoot to cause as little damage as possible in order to stop someone, and only when absolutely necessary.”

  “So, your dad’s a hit man then?” Caleb asked me, sounding both stunned and mildly impressed.

  “Yes, LA’s best,” I informed him unenthusiastically.

  “Well, I happen to be Seattle’s best,” he told me with a laugh. “So that makes us about even I think.”

  “What do you want?” Jonas demanded from Caleb suddenly, appearing annoyed with him.

  “I want to help you,” replied Caleb quietly, somberly.

  “Well you’re not welcome to,” Jonas snapped.

  “Jonas!” Ana scolded him.

  “What? We have only his word that he’s our brother, nothing else. That’s not good enough for me.”

  “Ten seconds, ten targets,” Caleb told Jonas, “standing for the ten most important things to master: agility, strength, reflexes, control, balance, aim, speed, silence, perception, and honor.”

  “What’s that, some sort of code or something?” asked Mac with confusion.

  “In a matter of speaking,” answered Caleb with a shrug.

  “Ten shots in ten seconds is what we’re taught to strive towards in training. Each shot is used to remind us of an important skill we need. It was our way of identifying one of our own,” explained Jonas with uncertainty.

  “Than he really is your brother?” Steve inquired, looking from Jonas to Caleb and back again.

  “Yes, he is,” Jonas confirmed, staring at Caleb.

  “Then you’ll accept my help?” Caleb asked him.

  “Yes, but you’re not staying with Britney alone over at the loft,” he told his brother firmly.

  Caleb actually laughed. “I had no intention of doing so, trust me.  My girlfriend, Kara, is in town with me. She’ll be more than happy to stay there with Britney and me, providing there are enough rooms for everyone to have there own that is?”

  “There are,” I assured him.

  Jonas looked doubtfully at his newfound brother, and I could tell that although he now grudgingly accepted Caleb as his brother, he didn’t fully trust him yet.

  “When would you like us to move in?” he inquired from me.

  “As soon as possible would be best,” I told him with relief that I wouldn’t be alone there now.

 “I think you should still go with Steve and the others,” stated Jonas, returning to our previous argument.

  “Look Jonas, I don’t know what all is going on here, but I do know this: if you’re up against a hit man-“

  “Two actually,” Mac interjected.

  “Two hit men, and you want Britney protected because you can’t be with her yourself, then I’m the next best person to look out for her,” continued Caleb. “And you know it. I can help you end this thing.”

  “Yeah, if I want you shooting people. This is Britney’s father we’re talking about, Caleb,” Jonas reminded him sharply.

  “Oh, before I forget, Caleb was just a cover name,” he informed us with a touch of embarrassment at apparently having forgotten to tell us before now. “My name’s actually Alaric McKay Matthews,” he admitted. “And if you’re not planning on killing anyone, exactly how are you planning on ending this?”

  “I don’t know yet,” Jonas confessed. “I just know I don’t want to have to go in there guns blazing and killing all of them.”

  “Well, I guess we need to work on a plan then, now don’t we?” observed Alaric optimistically, taking everything in stride and pulling up a chair. “What, if anything, do we have going for us exactly?”

  “Not much,” admitted Steve grimly. “I used to work for Britney’s dad and could get inside information, but not anymore. Mac and Paige both work with the law, but we don’t really want to draw any undue attention to Jonas’ connections with DeRuise, his old boss.”

   “We really don’t have any assets if we’re being honest,” Paige chimed in for the first time.

  “I have a personal arsenal downtown,” Jonas offered. “There’s plenty of weapons and ammunition there if we need it.”

  “Right, guns you don’t intend to kill anyone with,” Alaric surmised with a sarcastic smile. He looked around at our small gathering before continuing. “So basically, what you all are saying is, we’ve got a whole lot of nothing, and we’re going against not one, but two trained killers who, by the way, we don’t actually want to kill. I’ll admit it; this could be a bit difficult.”

  “No one’s making you help,” growled Jonas.

  Alaric smiled widely. “What, and miss this? Please, I haven’t had a chance at this much of a challenge or excitement in…too long. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

 

 

Reviews

[Zachary_James]

i give this book, 5 stars.