*honorable mention songs for this chapter:Â Burn the House Down, AJR; Killing Boys, Halsey*
Previously on Real Gangsters of Melkin...
"Bethie," Annabeth's dad called.
Scully stood in the middle of the alley and I suspected he entered it from the other end. He had his arms out wide like he expected Annabeth to rush into them and hug him. His clothes were dirty, his shirt ripped at the end. His hair was greasy and he had a smudge of something dark on his face.
"Alright, that's fair." he nodded once and lowered his arms. His eyes flickered to me and a smirk appeared on his face. "Always a pleasure seeing you, honey."
Annabeth took one solid step into the alley and I stuck to her side. There was a loud pop in the distance like a gunshot, echoing through the air but I couldn't deal with that. It was possible it was just the Dacostas from earlier causing trouble.
"Are you ready to talk, Bethie?" Scully taunted. "I've been looking for you."
"I asked you a question," Scully repeated when Annabeth didn't say anything.
She squared her shoulders and her entire body tensed, but she didn't look away from him. I reached out and my fingertips brushed her elbow to get her attention. She moved her arm away from me.
Scully's fingers fidgeted by his sides, like he was working to control himself and that's when I realized that one of his wrists was covered in a bandage, likely from when he escaped the handcuffs in the Casey house.
I grabbed one of my knives from under my sleeve, which Scully watched like a hawk.
"Do you remember what we do to little rats, Bethie?" Scully asked Annabeth even though his eyes were still on my knife. "I know I raised you better. You have disgraced the Casey name. You and your cousin have ruined the gang."
There was nothing I wanted in life more than to reach up to my earpiece and press the talk button, letting everyone know that we found him. No, there was one thing I wanted more right now and that was to pull Scully's spine out of his nose for all of the damage he did but I wasn't sure how Annabeth would react to that. And I didn't trust Scully. He looked like a rabid dog right now, itching for a fight and it made me hesitant to make any sudden movements or sounds. My eyes kept getting drawn back to his bandaged wrist, the clean white of the wrapping standing out against his dirtied clothing.
"Me?" Annabeth practically seethed through gritted teeth. At least I knew she wasn't frozen like time. "I tried to fix things! I tried to fix everything you destroyed."
I had no idea what they were talking about for sure but I knew enough from talking to them that the Caseys back in Scully's time operated in a different manner than the ones in the gang right now. Travis had told me Cameron got rid of most of them. Scully even admitted when we were interrogating him that half of the cells in the jail were full of Caseys. I suspected he didn't take kindly to all his friends being forced into early retirement.
Scully tsked. "We set everything up for you, we had three in line. Three! There's power in three but you and Cameron have spat all over it."
"Back on your Irish obsession," I muttered. Annabeth didn't say anything and I shifted from one foot to the other to keep from tensing up.
"Me, Callum, Lucky. One, two, three," he even wiggled three of his crooked fingers in the air, ignoring my comment. "You, Cameron, Alexander. Hell, we even set up Jay to take over for you when you didn't want to do the dirty work. Cammie, Alex, Jay. One. Two. Three."
My skin prickled at the mention of Lucky's name. I didn't know he'd been so high up in the Casey gang before Cameron took over. He was cocky when we met and now it made sense, he was used to being one of the best and was still alive and free to prove he was.
"We didn't want that," Annabeth said.
"And then you met that Finnigan fella. Easy enough, replace Jay with him. Still three. But no, how many people do you have in charge? Huh?" Scully practically screamed the question out and I fought against the urge to flinch.
His anger turned to laughter. "You, Cammie, Finnigan, Jay, that dog of Cammie's. This wannabe cop might as well lead the gang." This time, he pointed at me. "Too many in charge. The balance is off. Everything is off. All of our best people are locked up or gone. Your uncle is likely rolling in his grave."
I bit my lip, with my eyes glued to Scully.
"Come," he beckoned. "Help me find your cousin so I can take care of him and maybe I can find a different arrangement for you. Maybe I can fix what you ruined."
A chill went through me.
"You're not killing Cameron," I stated because it wasn't so long ago that everyone said Scully would want Annabeth's head on a platter. It wasn't hard to imagine what he wanted to do to the two of them.
"Annabeth," Scully said with acid in his voice, "Come with me now or I'll handle you and find Cameron on my own. Rats need to be exterminated."
He narrowed his eyes at Annabeth and the threat had me clenching my jaw. Would he really kill his own daughter?
Yes.
I absolutely believed he would. I went to grab Annabeth's arm but she was already striding forward with determination. No, no, no.
"Annabeth," I rushed out, eyes on his wrist again. "Don't."
This was a bad idea because his wrist was properly bandaged and there were only two ways Scully could get his hands on medical tape as an escaped prisoner hiding from the cops. Either he stole it from a convenience store which I wouldn't put past him, or someone helped him. The fact that he was still alive and kicking had my gut telling me it was the second one and standing there in the alley way in the middle of Melkin, I felt entirely exposed. I just wasn't sure who would help him.
We needed to leave. We needed to tell the others we found him and wait for backup.
Annabeth continued on while Scully stood in place, a smile on his face that screamed this wasn't going to end well. I flipped the knife around in my hand, drew my arm back and flung it in the air. It landed in Scully's upper thigh.
He glanced down, hands on either side of the knife in surprise and Annabeth took advantage of the distraction. She reached down as she walked and in one swoop, grabbed a small piece of plywood that had fallen off of something.
My hand went to my ear as she gripped the wood with both hands and closed the distance between her and Scully, who was grabbing at the medical tape on his wrist while looking at his leg.
"We found him," I breathed out with my finger on the talk button at the same time Annabeth swung the board forward.
Wood connected with the side of Scully's head and the board splintered.
Scully yelled.
"What was that?" Finn's voice came through the earpiece. I still had my hand on the button that allowed me to talk, as I watched Annabeth.
Scully leaned to the side and Annabeth raised one leg to his chest and kicked.
He staggered back.
"Where are you?" Cameron asked.
Blood splattered the ground as Scully spit.
"You going to make me do this? Fine. We'll do this." He looked up at Annabeth and raised his fists, ready to fight. "I'll give you a tip, you're better off getting your gun out and shooting me because I'm not going to go easy."
"I don't need a gun to kill you," Annabeth said.
Oh god.
"By the wall," I told the guys and let go of the ear piece button to grab another one of my knives plus the one in my pocket from the Dacosta.
Finn started screaming questions in my ear that I couldn't focus on. Cameron was asking which alley but I couldn't remember street names or stores we were by right now. None of that seemed important as I zeroed in on Scully and Annabeth.
He took a swing with one of his fists and she blocked the first one but the second punch connected with her stomach.
I couldn't hear what was going on with them because the noise in my ear was too chaotic.
They were shouting about Dacostas for whatever reason and someone was shooting a gun in my ear and someone else kept yelling "Which one?" on repeat. I didn't know what was going on where they all were but I couldn't worry about that.
"The one to get to Joy's," I said quickly and focused on Scully. "A few blocks away from that one."
I don't know what the rest of the guys said because I was working to tune them out. If Travis was listening, he'd know where that alley was and they could find us from there. I hoped he'd know at least. I hadn't actually heard his voice since we left the house. For all I knew, he may have thrown his ear piece out but I had to trust he was okay.
It was hard to watch Annabeth and Scully fight because they were moving so fast. I would have aim on Scully with my knives one second and the next, Annabeth would be right there. They dodged and ducked around each other with skill. For everyone of Annabeth's hits or kicks that connected with Scully, he landed one that looked even harder but she didn't back away.
Scully grabbed her arm, which looked too frail in his massive hand and pulled her towards him. He wrapped his forearm around her throat and started choking her. I ran forward and threw a knife before I could think about what I was doing.
It missed. I threw again and this time the knife stolen from the Dacosta landed right in the back of Scully's shoulder. I jumped on his back and grabbed at his head.
He still had a hold on Annabeth and she raised one leg, pushing off the dumpster near us. Scully started to lose balance and I pulled back, trying to get him to fall over but he recovered, never letting go of Annabeth.
Cars appeared in my peripheral vision but I didn't care. I grabbed the knife that was in Scully's shoulder and pushed it deeper.
He yelled in pain and loosened his grip on Annabeth enough for her to wiggle out from under his arm. I grabbed the handle of the knife again, this time intending to pull it out. Scully paid me no attention and grabbed Annabeth's hair as she got away from him and in the blink of an eye, he pulled her back to him and smashed her head on a crate that was left out here.
Annabeth crumbled to the ground. Her hand moved to cradle her head so I knew she was still conscious and breathing which was good.
"Weak," Scully said. "Always a disappointment."
He seemed to realize I was on his back finally because he tried to grab my arms. I pulled out the knife right as his head flew back, hitting my own. I dropped off him, feeling slightly off as the world moved around me. Scully's head was made of bricks.
I heard the voices in my ear again as the world tilted.
"How much do you have left?" Cameron asked. "Can you do it now?"
Annabeth stood up and charged Scully, her hands jumping between scratching his throat and his face. I grabbed onto the side of the dumpster next to me to try to steady the world.
Ben's voice came through, "I don't know. We were supposed to be working on this for a week."
Finn nearly screamed, "I can make it happen. I can do it. I'm dumping it all. Give us twenty seconds to get clear."
They went silent as Scully punched Annabeth in the face. Blood was dripping down her nose and I reached to my legs to grab the knives there and started running towards Scully.
"Ready!" Finn and Ben yelled.
"Blow it," Cameron said.
A large boom moved through the area, halting my steps. I could hear it in real life and through the ear piece. A tint of orange was in the distance and then thick, black smoke.
"Blow me," Travis whispered in awe before he let out a long whistle.
"You want to see how much we can ruin something?" Annabeth stepped away from Scully suddenly and pointed toward the fire in the distance. "There's your precious Casey house."
"What did you do?!" Scully hands when out in front of him in the direction of the fire and made a pained cry as if he was personally burned.
The Casey house on fire seemed to flip a switch in Scully and he went crazy. He lunged for his daughter but she jumped out of the way and scooped up one of the knives on the ground. Her eyes connected with mine for a split second but it was enough to see the worry there.
I threw a knife and got Scully in the back but he didn't seem to feel it so I ran at him and kicked as high as I could at him. He swung blindly but hit my head with his fist and I felt my head hit something but couldn't focus on what it was. The voices in my ear disappeared but that was good - I could focus better.
Scully latched onto Annabeth's hair, looping it around his hand, and pulled her towards him. I ran but he was faster, and slammed her into the wall.
I pummeled into Scully as hard as I could, latching onto him and the knife in my hand disappeared in his throat.
Scully immediately released Annabeth and dropped to his knees, taking me with him. Annabeth fell on the ground next to us as Scully dropped to his back lifeless, half on top of my body.
With a frustrated grunt, Annabeth pulled the knife out and slid it across his throat.
I untangled myself and stared at him.
At the body that was Scully.
Dead.
He was dead.
My hands were covered in blood and trembling.
My body felt numb.
Annabeth was covered in blood. Hers and her father's.
I used my forearm to brush my hair out of my face and when I lowered my arm again, my jacket sleeve was covered in blood. Was I bleeding?
"What the fuck!" someone yelled.
"We need help," Annabeth said, grabbing her ear as she stood.
Oh, she was talking into her ear piece but I couldn't hear that. I reached to my ear and nothing was there.
"I lost my ear piece," I stated.
"You killed Scully?" another voice that I couldn't place yelled. "Oh, fuck. This wasn't supposed to go down like this."
Right. Because we needed Scully to get Lucky off our backs. But now he was dead. I was going to puke.
Hands gripped my arms and hauled me up.
My hearing went in and out as I stared at Scully. Dots swam in my vision.
Someone was screaming. A voice was talking to me.
"Lacey...are under....Sullivan...behind your back."
Cold metal clasped around my wrists, bringing me back down to Earth and for the first time, I looked away from all of the blood.
"Huh?" I asked as the noise returned to me. I could smell the house in the distance burning, feel the blood that was trickling down my cheek, and hear Annabeth screaming. Behind me, there was a Melkin police officer securing the handcuffs around my wrists.
The Dacostas from earlier were in the alley, some others in casual clothes with guns pointed at us, and four cops. The dumb yellow car and a police car were blocking one exit from the alley. More cars and another police car were on the other side.
"What's going on?" I asked.
The nearest cop, the one who had a hand on my arm spoke, "You're under arrest for the murder of Sullivan Taylor."
I frowned. "You're welcome."
"No," one of the Dacostas, the one Annabeth attacked earlier said. "He was just supposed to lure you here."
"Why would he help you?" I asked as two cops manhandled me and two took Annabeth, forcing us down the alleyway.
"We came to an arrangement of sorts," another said. "We found ourselves in need of a leader and one just happened to escape jail. One with knowledge of how to take the Caseys down."
"And you fucking killed him," the first one yelled, stepping in our path and getting in my face. "I'm going to make sure you rot in jail."
At first, I was going to ask how he could do that but then I remembered the Dacostas had the cops in their back pocket.
And Scully, apparently. Or...they had him, at least. Until about a minute ago.
That explained the clean bandage.
I vaguely remembered cars pulling up earlier. I wondered if the cops got to the alley first because the Dacostas suddenly seemed like they were the only ones who would mourn Scully. Surely they would've stopped Annabeth and I if they needed their oh-so-great leader alive.
I was forced into the backseat of the police car and Annabeth into the other side. Two cops got in up front and then we were off. Just like that.
The Dacostas were in need of a leader. That was the whole reason Dylan and Owen and our team was sent down to Melkin in the first place - to try to take out the Dacostas before they found a replacement. Scully wouldn't have even been out of prison if Dylan hadn't gotten in over his head. He unintentionally started up the one thing he was sent down here to do. I laughed.
Annabeth glanced at me but didn't say anything. She was bruised, bloody, and just helped me kill her father but there was venom in her eyes as she glanced back at the cops. I didn't blame her.
My head spun suddenly. Did I kill him or did Annabeth? Did it matter?
There was noise in the distance but I couldn't tell where it was coming from. Maybe it was my heartbeat.
Nausea threatened me again as we turned the corner and the brakes were stomped on hard enough to send me forward, the seat belt cutting into my neck.
People were fighting all around us outside. There was a car on fire. The Casey house burned brighter in the distance, sending ash and smoke through the air.
"What's going on?" one of the police said into their walkie talkie. "We were told this was just going to be a pickup."
A voice came through the radio, "Our guys said it isn't them. They don't know what's happening. Think it's an ambush."
"Dammit," one of the cops in our car hissed.
"What guys? The Dacostas?" I asked because if it wasn't the Dacostas initiating this attack then maybe it was the Caseys.
I looked to Annabeth. "What are they saying?" I whispered because I could still see her ear piece in.
"Lucky and the suppliers," she said under her breath.
Did they know we took care of Scully? Maybe they were mad we killed him? Or maybe they didn't care either way as long as he was out of the way. They told us they would help us with the Dacostas. Was this their help? A shot fired at the car and a large, spiderweb crack filled the windshield.
Annabeth and I ducked down. One of the cops jumped out of the car and started firing his own gun. The other was trying to radio some help to get out of the area and a safe path through. A fly bullet caused him to slump in his seat.
Dead.
"We need to leave." Annabeth moved her hands from behind her back to in front of her and kicked at her door.
"Yeah, duh." Did she think I wanted to waste away in the back of a police car for the rest of my life? I shimmied around to undo the seat belt and pull my hands in front of me instead of behind my back.
More gunfire hit our car but seemed to follow the cop that had gotten out as he ran.
"No," she said, kicking "We need to leave Melkin."
"What?"
"Cameron told everyone," she paused to connect hard with the window but it remained unscathed, "That when he burns down the house, to get the hell out if you're leaving. It was the signal."
"Why didn't anyone tell me?"
"I'm telling you now," she stated and then her hands went up to her ear piece, "We're in a police car," she said.
She paused but I started kicking my own window.
"We're fine," Annabeth said. "She's fine. She lost her ear piece. Just come get us."
After maybe a minute, my knees were starting to hurt from kicking a window that wouldn't give. Another bullet hit the car. This time in the back windshield so I turned backwards in the seat and directed my kicks there. Annabeth followed me and eventually the windshield fell in pieces around us.
"One of the cops is bound to have the key on them," she explained as we climbed out and onto the trunk. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," I assured her. Are you?"
"Enough."
I jumped off of the car and tried to focus on searching the cop in the driver's seat that had gotten shot. The other cop was nowhere to be seen, at least not at a quick glance. Annabeth searched the console.
"Got it!" she yelled and held the key up for a second before she ducked out the car and started undoing her handcuffs.
I started to run towards her but someone rammed into me with their shoulder. It was a girl I'd never seen before and she grabbed the metal that connected my two handcuffs and started pulling me into the scuffle. I fought against her, looking back to the car but Annabeth was missing. Had she gotten snatched or free?
"Let go of me," I screamed and tried to dig my heels into the concrete, confused.
I didn't know who she was or what she wanted but she wasn't exactly welcoming me with open arms so I fought against her.
People ran around us, no one stopping to help me. Everyone was yelling. Gunshots were going off. And I had no idea where my friends were.
The girl tugging me was suddenly shot, I don't know where but she let go and I ran. I turned around in a circle, trying to find the direction we came. I was on the sidewalk so I ducked into a building's entryway to stay out of the way and look for any of my friends.
I tried to wiggle my hands out of the cuffs but they were too tight. My heart was racing. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't hear my friends. Panic started to set in and my heart thumped loudly in my ears.
Someone moved and I had a small glimpse of a police car. I didn't know if it was the one I was separated from Annabeth in, but it was worth a shot. I ran out of my makeshift cover and tried to duck around people and stay out of sight. Someone tripped me. I don't know if it was intentional and I didn't know if I was hurt or not but I kept moving forward. My leg stung slightly but I tried to ignore it.
There were way more people out here than any of the other Casey v. Dacosta altercations and in the back of my mind, I wondered how many people from the supplier's team were here. It was claustrophobic.
Another guy started to advance on me but he dropped to the ground. I didn't stop to ask him what happened.
I was so close.
There was another person in the way but his back was to me. I didn't know who he was and at this point I didn't care. But he dropped, just like the other.
Another to my left clutched his leg. I ran harder until I got to the police car.
"Annabeth?!"
I couldn't see her but yelled her name a second time. A guy was running by me but he flew back, clutching his now bloody arm. I studied him and the other bodies I encountered on my run here. A stray bullet hit the car tire on the side opposite me but I paid it no mind as I looked up.
Smoke was thick in the air but maybe..maybe Travis was around?
Was that crazy?
I looked at the guy again as he stumbled away and then looked at the sky behind and in front of me. I tried to figure out the angle the guy got hit from. Most of the people who got shot on my run to the car had wandered off elsewhere but it would've been hard for someone to hit all of them from the left of me, too many obstacles. That left three other directions. Behind me also seemed hard because there was a cop car in the way.
I looked up at the sky again but didn't see anyone.
Was Travis watching me?
A group of guys came near me, too many of them for me to stick around here. I recognized one of the members as a Casey but couldn't place his name. I wanted to help but I couldn't do much handcuffed.
There was another car a few feet away so I ran away from them and towards the other car. One person in my path fell, clutching their leg before I even got to them. I tried to figure out which way they'd gotten shot from and figured they weren't exactly in the mood to tell me if I asked.
I ducked beside the new car and took a deep breath. There was a very good chance this was a coincidence, with how many people were running around. People could just have bad aim and are missing the person they're actually aiming for and just so happen to be hitting people near me.
Which meant I could be hit on accident. But I was used to no shot being an accident. Travis had spoiled me, perhaps, with every shot hitting its mark.
I could do this. Easy peasy.
This was a terrible idea.
I climbed onto the hood of the car, leaving bloody hand prints and stood on the roof. With my hands high above my head, I pulled against the handcuffs to keep the metal chain between them tight and steady. I sucked in a breath. And then I waited.
One second. Nothing.
Two. Nothing.
I was going to die.
At three seconds, I moved slightly to my right, changing the angle.
I closed my eyes and counted to three. Took another deep breath and changed the angle again.
"You've got my back, you've got my back," I repeated out loud, eyes squeezed shut.
If a Dacosta or cop was going to shoot me, I didn't want to see it coming. I knew what I was doing was stupid and didn't need a reminder.
My shoes squeaked on the roof as I changed the angle again, now about 45 degrees off from how I started.
"Find me, come on, find me," I pleaded.
There was a crack. My hands separated instantly from the force I was using to hold the handcuffs tight. I opened my eyes and waved my separated hands back and forth. The chain connecting the handcuffs was shot right through the middle.
My heart soared.
I was free.
I was on a car in the middle of a gunfight.
I was going to die again.
Jumping down, I looked in the direction the hit had come from but still couldn't see Travis. But he was here. He was alive. He knew where I was and that was enough. There was no way that was anyone but him. I could stay here until he found me or another Casey did. He had an ear piece, he could tell the others where I was. Or they could tell Travis to meet me somewhere.
I felt like a fish out of water right now with no connection to them but Travis knew where I was and that was enough.
I hope you liked it!!! I've been SO excited to get this and the next one up so I'll probably be working on that asap. I'm going to Houston for a few days on vacation though and I'm not bringing my laptop which means I'll probably be writing in my notebook and on my phone. I'm hoping that when I get back home, I'll have most of the next chapter done and written and I'll just have to piece it all together so fingers crossed.
It changes all the time based on how the chapter is going or if I get a random idea, but right now, I have two more chapters planned and then there will be a third book afterwards. (: (: (:
Let me know what you thought of it!! I love you all and I hope you have a great weekend <33