Butterfly Marked

Call Me Every Day

The house was in shock as they watched Phayu walk through the door behind Rain. Only minutes ago they were worried about Rain having left on his own, and then the very person they'd been planning to rescue shows up on his own.

Saifah hugged his brother hard, and everybody in the house visibly relaxed. Phayu was fairly happy to see everybody, but stiffened slightly when his eyes landed on Sig. He had barely seen the man, but he couldn't forget the face of Rain's Ex.

'What the fuck was he doing here?'

Again he looked to Rain, and his lover stepped closer to the table and they all stood around it as he was filled in on what happened while he was gone. It was a little childish of him, but he felt immensely better when he was introduced to Sig's fiancee. Only to become wary of him again when he was told of Sigs relation to Cake and  Chatri.

As they all stood around they discussed what they would do now. In essence they had only gotten together to find a way to rescue Phayu, but with him home that was no longer needed.  All their efforts felt slightly useless, and none of them were quite okay with finishing up empty handed.

Phayu pulled out a chair  and sat in it staring hard at the stack of papers, and preparations that the others had done. Picking up one of the stray pages he looked at it, and opened his mouth.

" I don't want to hand this over to anyone else... I want to catch him myself and  hand him over to P'Pakin."

The others protested, but he raised his hand to cut them all off.

" I have four reasons for not  just washing my hands of this, and tossing it to the police for them to figure out. 1...we have no guarantees that Chatri doesn't have people paid off in the police. 2... Aaron needs to go to jail for so much more than kidnapping and drugs, but also for his surveillance of Rain. 3... As much as I want Cake to pay for what she's done I think she needs more help than Jail, and for helping me I want to give her a chance. Finally 4... I want to know once and for all where P'Pakin's  loyalties lie if I hand this over to him."

Phayu ticked down his reason's on his fingers, and looked around the table to see if the others would agree with him. Most everyone was nodding, and so between them they decided to  change their plans.

They knew that who they were dealing with was dangerous, and so for added protection they called Pakin. After all even if this was about him as much as it was about Chatri, they still needed his help if they were going to get through this safely. As they planned everything they kept it a secret from Rain's mother, and as they approached the time for the deal they found themselves all at a non de script warehouse with Chai and his men.

The older man approached their group and asked them again.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

Chai aimed the question at Phayu, and he nodded fully aware that everyone was nodding with him.

"Fine...You want to come with you follow my rules. If I say jump you jump, if I say hide you hide, and If I say leave you leave."

Chai's voice brooked no argument as his eyes drilled holes into each and every one of them. He was taking a big risk bringing rookies with him, much less civilians. It was like bringing a  knife to a gun fight, which it didn't help that they couldn't handle guns so they literally had knives.  He walked to a box and pulled out a square vest and thrust it into the  chest's of all of Phayu's group.

" This is a  bulletproof vest...YOU WILL WEAR IT PERIOD. Don't make me regret bringing you with me. If you spot our targets beforehand you will tell me, don't decide to be a hero and remember the vest only protects your chest. You can still be shot other places. Now before we lose more time...mount up!"

 Sig and James got in the car with Chai, but the rest of them got on their respective bikes. Rain and Sky piggybacking with their lovers, and Saifah on his own. Rain slightly shivered as he remembered seeing Chai's team holster real guns in place under their suit jackets. He'd been completely sure of this until he'd been faced by the real thing.

Now the bulky vest against his skin made him itch, and a spike of fear pierced him. What if something happened to Phayu?! He pushed the thought out of mind, and they were off. It was too late to go back now, so all he could do was get through it. The sooner they caught  Chatri and the others the sooner this would be over.

Bikes, Cars, and all made their way to the location that Pakin pinned down to be the final sale site. Although fear was riding them all there was also excitement, and something else that threaded through the air as they all bore down on the end of this nightmare.

They all arrived at the site, and  picked their assigned entrances. Two people from Phayu's groups were with two people from Chai's group. They handled the walkies, and Chai's men handled the hardware. Silently they made their way through the dark building, and Rain couldn't help wondering if they were even the right spot.

Pakin had already gotten to Chatri's buyers, and prevented them from showing up. Rain didn't know what he'd done to guarantee that, but somehow he didn't think it was something he wanted to know. In the end it all boiled down to what they did now.

He knew the others were like them making their way to the middle, but he couldn't help but wish he had them around. Just as he was thinking they should turn around Phayu stopped in front of him, and tensed.

~                    ~                     ~                   ~

A voice shouted somewhere in front of them.

" The fuck is going on here Mr. Thakorn?!"

Aaron was getting angrier and angrier the more he waited  for the buyer. 'Nothing had gone right since Phayu had reported them', he bitterly thought. The Mr. Perfect that had waltzed into  Rain's life one night, and destroyed all his hard work practically overnight. His chances with Rain, his side hustle, and all his other plans as a consequence.

He also couldn't help getting angry with the other man who stood behind him. His boss at the moment, but a man who commanded no respect when you looked at him. He was like a lazy half-assed version of his younger brother Pakin. Although  Chatri was thought of as a power house like his brother those around him knew the truth.

He relied on his subordinates to do all the thinking, all the planning, and all the work. The only thing that he had to  his name was the substantial Thakorn holdings that he had access to. They had barely gotten into the drug business  years ago, but even now people hesitated to work with them because of Pakin's influence.

This deal was supposed to be the deal that finally set them up to actually be somebody, but now it looked like the buyers might turn tail. They were looking down on them too much!  Aaron wanted to say something, but knew his earlier outburst was all he'd be allowed. After all he was skating on thin ice.

Already he was in trouble for the report incident, unauthorized action against Phayu, and the final straw was Chatri finding out about  Cake's drug addiction. He'd somehow  kept the stuff about Rain out of the conversation, but if Cake opened her mouth he was toast so he had to make this work.

After this he was planning to make an escape. He had his money and bag all ready to go, and while he knew Chatri wasn't Pakin he was no illusion that the man hated him for what happened to Cake. He had no future in this organization, and he knew the other men knew it. He looked around him covertly, and looked at the rag tag patched together team  of "experts" that worked for Chatri.

Most of them were glorified gangsters, and only one person was truly worth their rank and that was Dem, but he didn't like Aaron and Aaron didn't like him. They had made a silent pact to neither approach nor encroach on each others territory. He reached down to the back pocket of his pants, and touched the cold metal of the gun. As long as he had this he'd always feel safe.

Movement in the dark caught his attention, and he vaguely saw someone walking forward.

"Well well...you took your sweet time finally you're here."

The words died off as Phayu and 3 others walked forward into the light.

Phayu smirked at the pitiful band of wannabe mafia, and wiggled his fingers in a wave at them as he spoke in a dark tone.

" Yeah...I'm here...Aaron"