Chapter 192

Dom: I overheard one of the guys telling Jax that the package will arrive tonight.
I stole a glimpse at him over my phone. He was slouching in his seat that was across mine, his finger tapping his phone impatiently. His eyes left his phone and caught mine.
I looked down at the text and typed up a response.
Me: You know where?
Dom: I've got an address.
Me: Okay, we'll meet at your house.
"What are you doing?" Casey asked, peeking at my phone over my shoulder as she leaned closer to me.
I quickly turned off the screen and angled it away from her, smiling teasingly. "Nothing."
Casey narrowed her eyes, "You're acting suspicious."
I looked around, "What? Me? Suspicious?"
Casey shook her head, laughing as she waved her finger between Dom and I. "It was obvious that you guys were texting each other, Bry. But if I didn't know any better, I would've thought you were cheating on Maddy with the way you hid your phone."
I saw Dom whip his head around to look at Casey at the exact same time I did. Was it that obvious?
Casey laughed at us, "You guys would make terrible spies."
"They'd be the lamest spies," Maddy agreed as she plopped down on the seat on my other side.
"Hi, babe." I greeted her with a smile.
Her smile was a breath of fresh air. I've missed it.
"Lucky that there won't be a need for them to be spies, right?" Maddy asked Casey as they laughed together.
I turned to Dom, raising my eyebrows at him like 'Well, we're officially fucked.'
Dom shrugged his shoulders in a 'Well, what can you do about it?' gesture.
We were sitting in the cafeteria, I had ditched the boys to have lunch with the girls and Dom today. It wasn't everyday that I do this but I've been on edge lately, ever since dangerous threats have appeared in our lives.
I physically needed these people to be within my sights as much as possible.
Casey and Maddy chatted with each other for the rest of our lunch break, making me the awkward barrier in the middle of them. When the bell rang, we all parted to get to our respective classes but not before I sent a look at Dom that I hope he understood as "I'll see you later".
He nodded and walked away so I assumed he got the meaning behind the look.
Classes drew on for the rest of the day. Nothing out of the ordinary happened except for some of the occasional pranks the boys pulled. I do feel bad for the teachers but some of them did kind of deserve it and the laugh we get out of it is honestly my guilty pleasure.
When the day finally came to an end, I waited by the car for Casey to come out of her class. My last class had ended early because someone pulled a prank on the teacher, decorating the back of his pants with dripping blood red paint. It was also one of those rare days that I didn't have practice because Coach called in sick.
I knew that I won't always get this lucky and that I'll have to start figuring out how to juggle my life and this Mafia thing I've got going.
Call me selfish but I didn't want to give up on my studies and dreams and football just because of the shit going on in my life.
I will come out of this situation unscathed, without having to sacrifice anything.
I can do this.
Whilst I was giving myself the mini pep-talk, Casey had bounded up to the car and was waiting for me to notice her presence.
"What are you thinking about?" She asked curiously.
I jumped at the sound of her voice. "Holy- Jeez, Case, did you really have to do that?" I had my hand over my heart, trying to get it to slow down from the small scare my sister gave me.
Casey shrugged as she walked towards the shotgun seat. "Not my fault that you were so out of it."
I swiveled around and walked to the driver's side, clicking the unlock button to let Casey open the door and get in.
As we were pulling out of school, Casey turned to me and gave me her best puppy eyes.
I rolled my eyes, knowing what's coming next. "What do you want?"
She smiled sheepishly. "Remember Shay?" She asked.
"One of your friends?" I asked distractedly, looking at my side mirrors before making a turn.
Casey nodded vigorously.
I laughed at her, "Woah, careful."
"Your head might fall off." I joked.
Casey glared at me briefly before regaining her composure and pulled out her puppy eyes once more.
"Well, we were thinking of having a girls' night tonight.." Casey drawled.
"And?" I baited, knowing that she wasn't done yet.
"And you know she's kind of awkward with guys so can you maybe stay over at a friend's place tonight?" She winced, getting ready for a backlash that she wasn't going to get.
I nodded, shrugging. "Yeah, sure. I was gonna hang out with Dom until late tonight anyways. I'll just crash at his place."
Casey loosened up her tense shoulders and looked at me in awe and wonder.
"Really?" She asked.
I nodded.
"That's it?" She whispered to herself in disbelief, as if she couldn't believe she made all that fuss over nothing.
I smiled at her reaction. I'm possibly happier than she was at how things turned out. I can't believe my luck. I didn't even have to bring it up first. Everything just worked itself out.
We dropped by the store because Casey insisted she get some snacks and sodas for the sleepover. As we walked up and down the aisles of shelves that had many different snacks on them, I checked my phone and texted Dom.
B: I'll be at your place in an hour.
I slipped my phone back in after I got his reply and waited for Casey to finish throwing things into the basket.
I tried to keep an eye out to make sure we didn't have anyone tailing us.
It was a sense of paranoia that I can't seem to shake off ever since our encounter with the loan sharks. You can never be too careful, you know.
I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing but all I know is it never hurts to be too careful.
When we checked out, we ended up buying 2 plastic bags of snacks and drinks.
I carried them all and placed them in the backseat before getting behind the wheel.
"Do you think that's enough?" Casey fretted.
I rolled my eyes as I clicked my seatbelt on. "Sis, you bought enough to feed five people. I'm pretty sure it's enough."
"But what if we'll still be hungry?" Casey bit her lip and made the look she has when she's thinking of something I'd disapprove of.
"Maybe we should buy some ingredients so we can try baking or making our own dinner." She suggested, snapping her fingers.
I snapped her fingers and quickly pulled out of our parking space before she could put her idea into action. "Maybe not." I shut her down effectively.
Casey pouted, causing me to give her a deadpan look. "Not in this lifetime, sister." I wasn't going to let her die a stupid death by letting her try something like cooking.
Nope, not going to happen.
Not when I've done this much to keep her safe and alive.
"You're such an ass. I'm not that much of a failure when it comes to cooking." She stuck her tongue out at me.
"Uh, yeah, you are." I pointed out.
She crossed her arms across her chest and turned her body to stare at the road in front of us instead, huffing in annoyance. "Whatever."
"Just order take out, Case." I waved off, "It's much safer and it is guaranteed to be edible."
Casey cracked a smile and punched my arm weakly. "Asshole."
I chuckled with her.
She turned on some music after that and we spent the rest of the trip home singing off-key to whatever song came on.
When Casey's friend, Shay, arrived at our place and rang the doorbell, I shouted that I'll get the door since I was about to step out anyways.
"Hey, Shay. Come in. Casey's just in the lounge." I greeted her, flashing her a smile. I let her in before stepping out the door.
"Are you going out?" She asked as she watched me put on my shoes with wide eyes.
"Uh, yeah. I'm staying over my friend's place tonight so you girls will have the house to yourselves." I told her as I shifted my fanny pack to my back to allow myself to bend over and tie my shoelaces in a double knot.
"I hope it's not because of me.." she trailed off meekly.
I chuckled, shaking my head, as I straightened up. I gave her another smile to reassure her before answering, "Nah, I had plans before Casey even told me about your sleepover. So, don't worry about it. You girls just have fun."
"Alright," she said, waving at me goodbye.
I smiled, waving at her back and reminding her to lock the door after me as I stepped off the porch.
I turned around and walked to my bike. I wore my helmet and mounted it, starting the engine. I basked in the majestic roar of the engine as it came to life and pulled out of the drive way.
When I reached Dom's house, he was already waiting by his front gate, leaning on his bike.
He waved me over when he caught sight of my headlight.
"Hey," I greeted, taking off my helmet and running my fingers through my hair out of habit.
Dom nodded in greeting. "You ready?"
"Ready as I'll ever be," I shrugged.
Dom got on his bike and put on his helmet, with me following suit.
We got on the road and I tried my best not to lose Dom since I didn't really know where the meet up point was.
A second after Dom took his third left, I realized that we were heading towards the docklands.
As we were nearing the waters, I could see the boats that floated on the small waves that rocked them against the docks they were anchored to.
We stopped a distance away and parked our bikes by a tree.
Dom took a glimpse at his watch, "We're cutting it close. I hope we didn't miss them."
I looked around. The lamps along the dock made it easy for us to notice anyone that was walking around even as the clouds blocked the moonlight from illuminating the night.
"There!" Dom semi-yelled in a hushed voice to get me attention.
I turned to him and followed the direction he was looking at.
It was too far for us to see but I was pretty sure that the guy who was walking towards the boats was Jax.
"Come on, we gotta get closer." I laid my hand on Dom's shoulder as I took a step past him to stay on Jax's tail.
I heard dried leaves that had fallen off the looming trees by the sidewalk crunch underneath mine and Dom's shoes as we treaded as carefully as we could in the darkness.
I guess we were too far away to see him before but I soon realized that there was a man standing by the boats, looking like he was anxiously waiting for someone as he glanced at his watch more than once in the span of 2 minutes. He had a medium-sized box laid by his feet. It didn't have a label on it, just a bare cardboard box.
When Jax appeared behind him, he jumped slightly and whirled around to face him.
We stopped when we got near enough to see what was happening clearly but far enough to be able to hide ourselves among the of boats by the dock around us.
Dom and I had split up so that we could take videos at different angles to make sure we catch everything on tape.
I whipped out my phone from my pack and started recording the exchange.
"You're late." The guy snapped irritably.
Jax waved him off as he looked at the box. "Is this it?"
The man I didn't recognize picked up the medium-sized box from the ground and shoved it against Jax as if he didn't want anything to do with it.
"The money," The man demanded as he gave his empty hand palms up to Jax impatiently.
Jax tutted at the man. "Gotta check the package first, Finnie, you know the process."
"Just hurry up," 'Finnie' grumbled. He didn't bother retrieving his outstretched hand.
Jax was already taking out a pocket knife and slicing the taped box open.
He took out a plastic full of a white powder substance and brought it to his nose.
He closed his eyes and took a deep whiff of it, a sinister looking smile gracing his lips.
It was the first time I've ever thought of Jax as someone I should be scared of. It was the moment I realized he wasn't like any other high schooler. This kid brought a knife everywhere he went and played with guns. He took a whiff of whatever that powdery stuff was without even hesitating.
Jax placed the plastic back into the box that was probably full of them and took out an envelope from his pocket.
'Finnie' didn't need Jax to say anything, he just snatched it from Jax's hands and was gone within seconds.
I looked at Dom who looked back at me as Jax stood on the docks like a nutjob, staring at the box in his hands like it was his most prized possession.
We caught the entire thing on tape and everything was going well.. or so we thought.
Before I knew what was happening, hands clamped down on my shoulders and arms.
Dom's eyes widened and he shot to his feet, about to rush to me to help but was caught by other guys who held him back.
"Did you really think I wouldn't anticipate this, Johnson?" Jax chuckled as he walked nearer to us.
As he locked eyes with me, the smile disappeared from his face and his entire expression went dark.
"I told you that I'll be watching you."