Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

  “So do you have any idea what we’re going to get him?” I asked Alaric as we drove out of the downtown area, deciding it would be best not to shop there given recent events. Not to mention, Alaric figured that chances were they were looking for Jonas now too. Most half-dead guys don’t just disappear without a trace. Not on their own anyways.

  “Actually, I was hoping you’d have some ideas,” admitted Alaric. “I mean, it’s not like I really know him. Even though he’s my brother, you know him far better than I do. So, what do you think we should get him?”

  “I don’t know to be honest. Jonas tends to have a rather simplistic approach to life for the most part,” I explained to Alaric.

  “I noticed. His apartment is rather bare bones. He has to be able to afford better than that, what does he do with all the money he and our dad made?” Alaric inquired, clearly perplexed by the matter.

  “Well, Ana inherited some of your dad’s money too,” I pointed out. “I think he paid at least part of her education. Then, of course, your dad bought the loft and left it to Ana and Jonas. I know that Ana gave most of her inheritance as a donation to the local hospital here. I don’t really know what Jonas did with all of his money, but this is his car,” I waved a hand around the interior of the Benz, “and he has his Maserati too. Other than that, I know he owns a building downtown for training and is paying for college, but otherwise, I have no clue what he’s doing with his money. We don’t really talk about that.”

  “With the kind of money he has to be making, he should be living in a much better place than that dingy little apartment he has, even if he doesn’t follow the traditional family trade,” Alaric commented, apparently less than impressed with how Jonas chose to live. It wouldn’t have surprised me if he’d said he owned a million dollar mansion or lived in some over-priced condo somewhere in Seattle.

  “Actually, Jonas doesn’t do that kind of work anymore at all,” I divulged, knowing that he would figure it out eventually, even if no one told him.

  “Well no, of course not right now,” Alaric, laughed, “but I’m sure he’ll get right back to it after all this is over with, he’d be foolish not to. Who knows, maybe the two of you could come to Seattle and Jonas and I could form a partnership together. Kara’s my partner right now, but I think she’d understand, and she’d still be more than welcome too.”

  “No, you don’t understand. Jonas isn’t going back to it, ever. He left for good. If he had stayed with DeRuise, then DeRuise probably wouldn’t have allowed my father and Hayden to beat him up. He’d likely still be fully protecting him, regardless of his keeping me away from my father,” I divulged.

  Alaric was quiet for a very uncomfortable length of time before finally shrugging his shoulders as if it didn’t matter to him at all.

  “I suppose it’s his choice, foolish though it is,” he eventually concluded.

  “He isn’t foolish for wanting to get out of criminal activities,” I shot back defensively. “It was a noble sacrifice to forfeit receiving such a comfortable living and giving up his family’s life work.”

  “Well, maybe he’ll change his mind about it,” Alaric said.

  “I hope not,” I whispered under my breath. I had to confess that I did get worried from time to time that he would miss his old life and return to it. I knew I wouldn’t have the strength to leave him, not again.

  “You’re the reason he stopped, aren’t you?” Alaric asked me, suddenly beginning to understand.

  “Both Ana and I wanted him to stop, but yes, ultimately, he stopped for me,” I admitted, wondering if the knowledge would cause him to resent me in any way. “I couldn’t justify leaving my father because of what he did for a living and then get into a relationship with a guy that worked for the very same man as my father. Jonas might not have been a killer, but he wasn’t exactly working within the law either.”

  “So, I suppose you don’t want Kara and me around then? We are assassins after all,” he remarked in a harsh, cutting tone. I turned away from him, looking out my side window and blinking back the tears that threatened to come at the unexpected, purposely hurtful remark.

  “Of course not,” I replied quietly. “With Jonas it was different. You and Kara are just my friends. Jonas wanted to be more than that,” I clarified.

  “But you admit that you don’t approve of what we do,” Alaric pressed.

  “Well, no, I don’t really,” I allowed. “However, that’s yours and Kara’s choice, not mine.”

  “But you thought you had the right to make Jonas choose between what he was born to do and having you,” he surmised. At his words, I turned away from the window and with determination, met his gaze from the corner of his eye head on.

  “He was asking me to begin to consider a serious relationship with him,” I informed Alaric. “Besides, Jonas understands now that a legacy ought to be worth passing on, not just passed on because someone passed it down to him.”

  “Britt, do you understand how many generations this goes back in the Matthews family?” Alaric demanded. “This goes back many more generations than just Jonas’ and my great-grandfather. It goes back hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. Back before our family was even sent to live in Australia after a Marcus Matthews was convicted of murder. It goes all the way back to Alexander Matthews in the 16^th century,” he informed me with unmistakable pride in his lineage.

  “But what are you really passing down from father to son?” I challenged. “The fathers train their sons to kill, to be a hired gun or whatever. I won’t deny that the training is amazing. I’ve seen Jonas do things I didn’t even realize was humanly possible,” I laughed a little, though it came out rather strained. “He’s even taught me quite a bit too. So I understand the value of the training that’s been passed down,” I accepted. “However, you could do something better with your skill and knowledge. You could use it to train other people in self-defense, or maybe, train law-enforcement officers or military. You could teach people who could put it to good use doing something more than just cold blooded killings.”

Alaric shook his head disparagingly. “I suppose it’s useless to even try to make you understand,” he decided aloud, “It’s so much more than just training to kill. It’s a beautiful art that has been preserved and passed down all these many years.” At that moment, he pulled the car into a parking space in the mall parking lot, halting the car and shutting it off.

  “You’re right,” I declared, “I don’t understand.” With that, I flung the door open, got out, and slammed it closed. Frustrated with how our conversation had gone, I released a deep, pent up breath and began heading towards the mall at a fast clip. I knew without looking back that Alaric would be right behind me despite our disagreement in the car because for some unexplainable reason, despite the fact that Jonas still didn’t have much �"if any- respect for him, Alaric remained loyal and extremely devoted to him. This of course meant that since Alaric basically saw me as Jonas’ official “property,” he wouldn’t take any chances by letting me out of his sight for even an instant while he was entrusted with my safety, no matter how upset we were with one another. 

  My assumption was soon proved correct when I made it to the doors into the mall, reached to pull the one directly in front of me open, and saw Alaric’s hand reach around me and open it before I could. I stopped briefly and he gently put his hand on my back, giving me a slight push to signal me to keep moving.

  “Alright,” began Alaric as he inconspicuously steered me towards the mall directory. “Where do we start?” he questioned as he studied the map in front of us. When he looked at me for a suggestion, I merely frowned a bit and shrugged, not any surer where to start than he was.

  Suddenly, a smile that I was all too familiar with, that usually took up residence on Jonas’ face when he was about to be mischievous, spread across Alaric’s face.

  “I’m sure he’d appreciate something from that store,” he told me, pointing at store number 305. I looked the number up off the list and blushed deep, deep red before slamming my fist as hard as I could manage to into Alaric’s arm.

  “Jonas’ and my relationship is not like that,” I informed him sharply.

  “Well then, what better gift to give him for his birthday?” he suggested with a wink.

  Instead of gratifying him with yet another blush or even an answer, I just stomped my foot once, turned on my heels, and began walking, not really caring in which direction.

   As I walked, I looked through store windows and hoped that I’d see something that either would be a perfect gift for Jonas or would give me an idea of something to get him.  From behind me, I heard Alaric laughing in amusement. Soon, he had caught up with me as he strolled leisurely along after me.

  I sighed faintly. For the past month or so that he and Kara had been “guarding” me, Alaric and I had managed to get along remarkably well. It had almost been like having Steve around all the time again, since they had about the same height and build, and similar sense of humor as each other. Now though, I could tell that regardless of the fact that he was acting like his usual teasing self again, he was still bothered by the fact that not only was Jonas not an assassin like him, but that I’d managed to convince him to quit his “golden retriever” work too. I just wished that I could make him see the same thing I helped Jonas to see: that there was nothing wonderful or beautiful about a legacy based solely around cold-blooded murder.

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  “So, seeing anything that screams ‘Jonas’ at you?” I asked without looking over at Alaric who was walking right next to me on my right. We’d agreed to each focus our attention to our own sides of the mall so that we wouldn’t miss anything. So far though, neither of us had seen anything that we both thought would interest Jonas.

  “As a matter of fact, I did,” he informed me, grabbing my arm to halt me mid-step. I turned to see what he was pointing out to me and then probably blushed about ten shades of red and pink at the sight.

  “Alaric!” I hissed, “I told you, we aren’t going into Victoria’s Secrets!”

  “Are you sure? I have a pretty strong feeling Jonas would love to see you in that. Besides, if you got that we wouldn’t need to get any other gifts because he wouldn’t care about anything else,” he indicated. I looked back at the soft, silky black corset-like lace up “blouse” in the window of the store. Alaric was right about one thing, I knew Jonas well enough to know that as long as I was wearing that, a nuclear warhead could be dropped on his head and he wouldn’t know it. I also knew him well enough to know that buying and wearing it would definitely not be a good idea, especially with his unpredictable romantic/frisky mood swings he’d been having lately.

  “I’m sure,” I told Alaric with a firm nod.

  He sighed. “Well, I guess I can tell him I tried, but that his girlfriend is far too stubborn,” Alaric said as we continued on once again. This time it was my turn to laugh.

  “Trust me, Jonas already knows that, it’d be old news to him,” I pointed out to him.

  “Well then, if we aren’t getting that, good luck trying to find something else,” he observed. “Because we don’t have too much longer to keep searching before we have to get back to the loft.”

  “Don’t worry,” I assured him, “we’ll find something, you’ll see.”

  “I already did find something, you just didn’t like it,” he mumbled.

  “Something decent,” I elaborated. “Even if I was fine with wearing that, your sister would have laid into me in a heartbeat as soon as she saw me wearing it.”

  “You’re probably right there,” Alaric agreed, laughing heartily at the thought.

  “Not probably, I am right,” I assured him.

 “I have an idea,” I said as we walked by an art shop. “I think I might know just what he needs. Plus, it’s something he can do while he’s still recovering.”

  Alaric looked up at the little shop I was walking towards and arched his eyebrows. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “No,” I replied, pulling him along by the arm and shaking my head. “Jonas paints and draws,” I told him.

  “As in simple apartment with plain white walls, Jonas? My brother?” he questioned, allowing me to pull him along only reluctantly, clearly unconvinced.

  It was my turn to laugh this time. “Yes, that Jonas. I haven’t actually seen any of his work, but Ana tells me he’s really good. This will give him a chance to prove himself.”

  “Alright, this I have to see,” commented Alaric, warming to the idea. “We’ll have to try to stop by his apartment though. So we can pick up some of his things that he’ll need.”

  “But what if they’re still watching his place?” I worried. Alaric appeared thoughtful for a couple minutes as we browsed through the paints and things. Finally, he spoke.

  “How about this,” he started off slowly, “I’ll head over to his place and grab his stuff by myself. I don’t think there’ll be anyone there, but you’re right, there’s still the possibility of it. You can stay here, right here in this store, until I get back. I doubt you’ll have to worry about being seen here, but stay to the back of the store just in case, alright?” he asked me with a serious expression as he held my gaze to be sure I understood.

  “I’ll be right here when you get,” I promised him. He nodded. Apparently, that was enough for him because he looked at his watch and told me he’d be back in half an hour at the latest. I told him where I thought Jonas’ painting stuff would be if he had anything at his apartment, and he left with one last wave.

  A small smile tilted up my lips as I watched him leave and thought about how my promise would never have been good enough for Ana. As for Jonas, he would never have taken anything less than a full promise to stay in the very back of the store, completely out of sight from the front window the entire time he was gone. Even then, he probably would have also bribed the guy watching the store to keep an eye on me for good measure.

  I browsed through the store for a while until I was sure that Alaric had to be long gone. After about five minutes, I stepped out of the store carefully and gave a casual glance in either direction before heading to the store next door. It happened to be one of my favorite stores for accessories, and though I wasn’t interested in any jewelry or anything, I knew that they had a good selection of different bags too. Remembering my talk with Mac a few months ago about how I should get a messenger bag of some sort, I decided to see if I could find something.

  I walked in and soon found the bags easily. One of the girls working there came up and asked if I needed help, but I quickly assured her I didn’t. It took about ten minutes, but I was able to pick out a lightweight, black canvas messenger bag. It looked big enough to hold my laptop if I wanted it to, but also small enough to carry around for shopping as well. I took it up to the cash register and paid for it quickly, in a hurry to get back next door so that Alaric wouldn’t catch me gone. Of course, I realized belatedly with a laugh at myself as I re-entered the art shop, once he saw the new bag, he would know I’d left.

  “Oh well,” I sighed to myself as I began to pick out some canvas and paint to give to Jonas. “It was only next door after all.”

  “Well, that’s a relief I guess,” said a voice from behind me. I jumped, and then turned to see Alaric grinning from behind me. He shook his head in disapproval at me. “You shouldn’t have left the store though. You promised to stay here.”

  “Actually, I promised to be here when you got back,” I pointed out. “You just assumed that that meant I would stay right here,” I added.

  “You’re a pain Britt,” he informed me as he looked at what I had already selected for Jonas.

  “I found all his brushes, a pad of drawing paper, and some pencils. However, he had next to no paint and zero canvas,” he informed me. “So we should probably get him at least the basic colors in order to mix up his own different colors.”

  We had soon enlisted the help of the guy working at the store to pick out some good paints and canvas for Jonas, and within another half an hour, we were headed back for the car, bags in hand.

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  “We’re back,” Alaric called as we walked through the loft’s door carrying our finds from our shopping trip. Ana and Kara came over from the kitchen area towards us.

  “What did you get?” Ana asked, eying our bags.

  “Art stuff,” I whispered. “He’s not down here, is he?”

  “Living room,” Kara replied. “He managed to sneak down here while we were working on the cake.”

  “I don’t really know if sneak is the right word for it,” Ana remarked wryly. “We were just too busy to stop him before he’d gotten down here, and we didn’t figure there was any harm in him coming down.”

  “Alright, then I’ll take this stuff up and wrap it up in my room,” I decided, preparing to gather up the bags and go upstairs. Ana stopped me however, before I could grab the rest of the bags from Alaric.

  “Why don’t you let Alaric and Kara take care of those while you go and sit with Jonas?” she suggested in a low voice so that Jonas couldn’t hear us from the living room area. “You can keep him busy while we finish things up here.”

  “Is that ok with you two?” I inquired, turning to Alaric and Kara.

  Kara beamed a bright smile at me. “Of course!” she took the bag I was holding. “You go sit with him and we’ll take care of this stuff.”

  “Alright then,” I agreed. “There should be some wrapping paper in the closet of your room,” I let Kara know. Together, Kara and Alaric hurried off up the stairs to take care of their task. I turned to watch Ana, who was working on whipping up a frosting to put on a cake that she’d made.

  “Are you sure you don’t want any help?” I questioned.

  “I’m sure,” she replied. “Trust me, keeping Jonas busy will be the best thing you could possibly do.”

  I hesitated to watch her only another moment longer before going to the living room area where there was soft music playing and the lights were dimmed to only about half their normal brightness. I walked around Jonas’ and my sofa and was rewarded with the sight of him lounging across it with his eyes wide open and fixed intently on me.

  “Hey, you made it down on your own I hear, that’s great!” I encouraged him enthusiastically. I looked at him carefully. He looked significantly better than that first day, his face especially, but he was still a long ways from being completely better again.

  “Small success,” Jonas grunted in disgust.

  “Where’s your little friend?” I asked him, referring to Cinder. I was surprised to see that she wasn’t with him at all, given their bonding of late. They were rarely separated anymore.

  “Don’t know,” Jonas responded with a shrug. “Sit with me?” He scooted over on the sofa as much as possible in order to make some room beside him length-wise on the sofa, staying in his laying down position for the most part.

  “That depends, are you going to pull the same thing you did earlier?” I demanded with mock sternness.

  Jonas gave me one of his beautiful half-smiles, which I’d been hoping for. “I won’t,” he vowed.  I smiled back at him and then gingerly perched on the edge of the sofa next to him. As soon as I sat down, his arm went around my waist and pulled me closer.

  “Jonas!” I complained, pulling away. “Can you sit up?” I asked him.

  “Ana told me to lie down,” Jonas notified me. I sighed, but gave in, lying down next to him with my back to his chest. He wrapped his arm around my waist and let me rest my head on his shoulder.

  “Are you sure this doesn’t hurt?” I inquired, not wanting to cause him any pain, though I was comfortable and content right where I was.

  “You’re fine, love,” he assured me, kissing my honey-colored hair gently and then sighing, completely content.

  I giggled a little, happily.

  “What?” Jonas demanded, confused by my reaction.

  “It’s nothing, just that I don’t think you’ve ever called me that before, or even used that expression, for that matter. It was very...Australian of you,” I explained. This time when I laughed, he joined in as well, though he didn’t laugh quite as hard as he normally would have because he was being careful of his cracked ribs.

  “I see. You’re right, I don’t usually use it,” he agreed. “Do you like it, or would you prefer I not call you that?” he asked me. I smiled, even though he couldn’t really see my face, and snuggled closer to him, being careful not to hurt his ribs.

  “No, I like it. You can call me that,” I replied readily, loving the idea of it.

  “Good, because I was going to use it whether you wanted me to or not,” he teased.

  “What’re you two up to?” Alaric asked as he and Kara came down the stairs together carrying the now wrapped gifts for Jonas.

  I jumped slightly and tried to pull away from Jonas, but he managed to tighten his arm around me enough to stop me from doing so.

  “What does it look like?” Jonas retorted, clearly annoyed by the interruption.

  “It looks like you’re holding your girlfriend hostage,” observed Alaric, coming around the sofa with Kara right beside him and looking down at us. “Do you want to get up Britt?” queried Alaric with a playful twinkle in his eyes.

  “I do need to get up, Jonas,” I said. Reluctantly, he released me and I got up. “I’ll be back,” I reassured him before going up to my room to take care of some things that I needed to.

 

 

Reviews

[Zachary_James]

Jonas paints and draws, i did not know that. I always thought he was in to shooting, targets? Amazing