𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐏𝐋𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐊𝐈𝐃𝐒 - jj maybank

- 𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗸𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 stayed true to their promise, especially the boys, who refused to leave Kaci alone for more than two minutes without having to literally be dragged away, which made it almost impossible for her to keep the secret. Fortunately, the huge sleepover only lasted two nights. Unfortunately, that meant her parents were making their comeback.

ʼHe's going to kill me — Lʼ

The carved out note had been a clear image stuck in Kaciʼs mind since she saw it. She knew for a fact that the only people who had access to the key of the storage unit was her family — her parents. Kaci knew it; she knew there was something off about their reactions to his disappearance. And ʼheʼ? Who else could've Luis meant but their dad? The whole situation felt wrong. It made Kaci sick to think of the kind of horrors that could've gone on inside the walls of her own home. To think about her father that way. To think that she could be next.

Over the two nights, her friends gave her plenty of distractions — like repeating the story of John B stealing from The Druthers, how he got fired, Sarah and Topper arguing about it, or Rafe and Kelce coming up with various plans on how to get back at JJ Maybank.

But the thought of the blonde pouge only made Kaci feel worse.

The bump was increasing in size hourly. The baby was coming soon. And she still needed to grow the balls to tell him. She was going to do it, she decided. She was going to do it soon. But she needed the time to be right.

However, she couldn't even think about her pregnancy much anymore. She was so close to telling everyone everything; she felt so ready to do it only days ago. Then she saw Luisʼs note — or, at least, what she thought was a note from him. Then the men in her house. Something was going on. Right in front of her, there was something happening and it involved her family. Her baby was her family. She had to make sure it was a safe place for them to be.

"Jordan?" Kaci said suddenly, voice strangely soft as she rested in the thick sheets of her bed.

The younger boy looked up from the screen of his sisterʼs TV, after having spent the last seven hours in a huge online battle with GTA players and annoying oppressers. Sarah Cameron sat beside him, the PS4 controller feeling like fire after all the time they spent on without at break.

"Yeah?" he asked, greedily stuffing a piece of cold boxed pizza into his mouth, causing Sarah to shove him with a look of disgust.

"What do you think happened to Luis?"

The question caught everybody in the room completely off-guard. Topper and Kelce snapped their heads up from their phones for the first time all morning, Sarahʼs eyes went down to the ground and Jordan just stared at his older sister, mouth still stuffed with pizza — Rafe was out buying snacks, which was code for ʼI'm out of cocaine and on my way to scam a dealer ʼ.

Jordan swallowed down the food left in his mouth and shrugged. "I don't know." The question made his usually hyperactive mood drop to the lowest it could be. Speaking made him sound exhausted. The topic of their older brother wasn't a topic the family dwelled on; business before family was the Flores way.

Kaci looked down, chewing lightly on the inside of her cheeks. "Did you notice anything weird going on before he went missing?" she questioned further. "Like, did you ever see him arguing with Dad?"

The youngest Flores sibling furrowed his brows. Sarah held back her breath. The boys in the corner didn't dare make eye contact. Whatever Kaci was thinking — it wasn't good. She never got like this. She never looked more into enything. She never cared enough to make theories or jump to conclusions. Not even when it was about her boyfriend. Not even when it was about her family. Until now, apparently.