Stories I Never Finished

Drugged Money

****  

With a sway the front door swung open, black boots thudding through the open gap as quick hands pulled the strings of a black apron dusted in white like flour and tied them properly behind the wearer's back.

"Adeline!" Michael stepped down the porch, ankle boots hitting the perfectly cut grass of his front yard as he jogged lightly to catch up with the small girl in a pretty pink dress.

"Off the road, sweetie!"

The family across the road were already sitting outside within the beautiful spring morning, two sons play fighting with crappily made cardboard swords while their adoptive mothers sat together in a swinging chair on the porch.

"She's alright!" One of the mother's called out, looking up from the laptop rested on their lap. "We're watching!"

Michael gave them a short lived wave and smile, focused on reaching his daughter who had taken to bouncing her soccer ball on the road.

"Addie, what have I told you about playing on the road?" Michael gently scolded, scooping the girl up into his arms and seamlessly lifting her from the ground.

"But the ball bounces better." The brunette clutched her pink ball in her small hands, waiting for Michael to set her back down.

"Again, Ads?" Michael's partner was already standing in the doorway by the time the ten year old was set back on the ground.

Calum's arms were crossed over his chest, the sleeves of his light blue button-up shirt already rolled neatly to his elbows with the shirt tucked into the waistband of his business pants. A business comparison to Michael's floral blouse and light blue skinny jeans.

"You can't keep playing on the road." Calum said, ruffling the girl's short hair as she sauntered last him into the house.

Michael dusted his hands over his apron, green eyes meeting the brown of his husband's as he stood one step lower. With a quiet mutter, he awkwardly said, "the Marson's still watching?"

Calum flickered his gaze up toward the mothers sitting across the road before returning to Michael. "Yep."

"They're staring right at us aren't they?"

"It's like they've frozen in place." Calum humoured, reaching a hand out and wrapping his arm around Michael's shoulders; guiding the thirty-five-year-old into the house.

"I'll give you your morning kiss once we're inside." Michael whispered, turning around to close the front door.

Not without flashing a pearly white smile toward the onlookers and offering another wave as he shut the door. As soon as the front door clicked shut, he let out a breath of relief and turned toward his amused husband with a shake of his head.

"They're so obsessed." Calum commented.

"Right?" Michael agreed, he let out a sigh. "I'm gonna head back down, finish what I was doing."
He leaned up, pecking a soft kiss on his husband's lips before pulling back with a grin, "you good for breakfast?"

"Just gotta sit in front of the computer for a while." Calum returned the kiss with one pressed to Michael's cheek, lips grazing soft skin as he muttered quietly, "I reckon the Horans are getting suspect."

"Of course they would." Michael's eyes rolled. "They lost all their dope customers when we showed up."

"Anyway," Michael pat his hand against Calum's chest, gently pulling away and heading through the large house, "keep an eye on the girl, will you?"

"She'll probably go play cars, she'll be fine." Calum exchanged one last smile before both partners moved through separate parts of the house.

Michael disappeared into the basement below and Calum slipped into his study office and sat at his computer in front of an opened window. The street wasn't as neighbourly as they seemed, and appearances among the wealthy looking homes was beyond important.

###############

"You know what I love?"

Michael's expression pulled into a disinterested frown, dark eyes watching his buyer nonchalantly sit down on a utensil-cluttered bench; the pair of them standing within the basement.

"Other than drugs of course." Ashton added with a smirk, fingers fiddling mindlessly with the wrapper of the pink bubblegum he was chewing.

He crossed one leg over the other, black PVC jeans tight to his body and loose black button-up half undone. Black heels were wrapped around his feet, thin straps and precarious balance.

"What do you love?" Michael stood on the opposite side of the dimly lit drug 'kitchen', arms crossed over his chest as he watched Ashton with wary eyes.

"I love this house." Ashton said.

##############

Tearing his apron off, Michael snatched hold of his husband's shotgun and cocked it ready to shoot; boots slamming against the ground as he braced his body and aimed directly at the shattered window and shot the intruder. One of many.

"Get the girl outta here!" He turned and smashed the butt of his gun into another man's face, knocking him backward and giving Calum enough time to sprint through the home.

Calum threw Adeline's door wide open, rushing over and dragging the frightened girl from her bed; her arms wrapped around a small cat plush toy.

"C'mon, we gotta go-" He scooped her into his arms, turning quickly to head back out.

"Dad, what's happening?!" She panicked, huddling close into the man.

"Just a couple assholes, hold onto me."

With a scream, she buried her face into his chest and clutched tightly to his shirt; terrified as he kicked the door into the face of a woman, letting her stumble before he booted his shoe into her gut and knocked her backwards enough to pass through.

"Fuck these bastards." He muttered, lifting the child to cling onto his hip so he could snatch the handgun waiting for him in the hallway's stand-drawer; accidentally bumping a vase to smash as he did so.

"Don't break my shit!" Michael shouted from the kitchen, shortly followed by the sound of an oven door being ripped off its hinges and smashed across someone's head.

"Hypocrite." Calum snorted, lifting his gun and shooting another intruder in the head when they tried to approach.

He hurried out the front door, two more bullets killing two other men before he could get to the family car and unlock it; shoving the child into the backseat and shutting the door with a thud. "Stay here." He demanded, knocking his hand on the window to keep her attention. "Hide under the seat."

She fumbled to do as she were told, disappearing into the darkness of the car while Calum ran back into the house; moving through to the kitchen where Michael had been left to fight off most of their latest enemy gang.

Calum stopped in the doorway, stunned momentarily as he watched Michael repeatedly bash someone's skull with the refrigerator door; splitting it open and letting the body drop before he whipped around and stabbed a large knife into the neck of the final woman trying to attack.

"You get the girl?" Michael panted, shoving the dead woman onto the floor and stepping over another body.

"In the car." Calum reached out, grabbing Michael's hand and pulling the man along with him. "You drive, I'll call Ashton."