Far Too Young To Die

Chapter Fourteen

Once they arrived in the hotel room, Victor and Alex sat on their bed which was still a mess from the previous night, and Jack took a chair that stood across from it. A moment of silence ensued as both Victor and Jack drank in the fact that they were here. Alex, on the other hand, snuggled down next to Victor. He was exhausted.

"What are you doing back here? How do you know about Alex? How did you know where I was?" Victor said suddenly, snapping out of his daze.
"Hey, calm down. I'm...I've been travelling. I know about Alex because I kept tabs on you-no wait, I checked in on you—" Jack started, but the younger was quick to cut him off. He did what?
"You...watched me? And you didn't think to, y'know, interact with me?" He asked, frowning as he tried to make sense of this.

"It wasn't that simple. I couldn't be seen with you, I couldn't interact with you..." Jack said, sounding somewhat uneasy as he did. Almost as if he was hiding something from him...
"Why? What's stopping you? I'm not. In fact, all I wanted was for you to come back! Do you know how hard it was for me to step up and suddenly be a leader? I wasn't ready!" Victor snapped, suddenly enraged.
"I did it for Olivia's sake!" The eldest suddenly shouted, giving a loud sigh as he did. That wasn't how he wanted it to happen.
"Look, I had to leave...I had to go and do what they wanted to get her back."

For some reason, the fact that Jack had said 'get her back' didn't occur to Victor. The only thing he heard was Jack admitting to doing what others wanted. Since when did he do that? While it wasn't significant to others, Jack would do the opposite of what anyone wanted if they tried to tell him to do something. Whether it be taking the trash, or a person out, he would find a way to fuck it up just out of spite. No one told Jack what to do. There had to be a good reason for it, but combined with the anger Victor had at Jack for up and leaving without warning, and for 'keeping tabs on him' without Victor knowing, he exploded.

"What the hell, Jack? What happened to you being independent? What happened to you being the strong leader I knew? Where is he?" Victor snarled, standing from his place on the bed and approaching the chair where the eldest sat. Alex moved quickly to stop himself from falling over as the younger got up, looking up at him with an expression of both fear and confusion. Fear, because Victor was terrifying when he was angry, and confusion because he didn't know why he was so angry.
"I'm still the same, I'm not any different. Vic, listen—" he started, but Victor wasn't listening.
"No! I won't fucking listen! I won't listen to you, because you're not the one I knew! You're some shitty imitation!" Victor carried on, approaching him slowly before Jack suddenly stood and pushed Victor against the closest wall to control him. No one gets in his face like that. Alex gasped, too scared to intervene.

"Laing, you better listen, and you better listen real fucking good. You hear me? You prepared to sit down like a civil fucking human being?" He hissed in the younger's ear, only receiving a nod in response. Once he got that, he released Victor and went to sit back down.
"I'm listening to you now. Tell me what's going on." Victor said, considerably calmer and wanting to listen.

"Look, I...don't freak out, okay? I found Liv. Olivia. Your sister. But if I wanted to get her back here safe, let her live under a new identity...I had to made some sacrifices. I had to leave the gang. Leave you, not have any contact with you..." Jack said slowly, allowing Victor to process the information.

Olivia was alive...living under a pseudonym, seemingly in the city. In plain sight. And he didn't know? How did he not know? How did he never see her? Well, he guessed he was never specifically looking since he guessed she was dead or something...but still!

"You found...my sister? Liv? How long ago? Where is she? What's her name now? I need to see her! Jack, I need to! She...she's alive! Tell me everything!" Victor stuttered, head spinning and complexion practically translucent as his heart hammered in his chest.
"About a year ago...wait, you wanna know how I found her? God, it's kind of grim, are you sure you wanna know? I mean, I really shouldn't—" Jack started, attempting to warn Victor to seem more convincing. He needed him to believe that this could get them into real trouble, that it was dangerous. It was al part of the plan. None of it phased Victor, the build up only causing him to quickly shout 'yes!' like an impatient child.

It took all of Jack's self control to stop the smirk that desperately wanted to make its way onto his face. This was all going perfectly.

***

19th of May, 2016

Wow. This place was just as disgusting as he had imagined.

Jack stood in front of the building that seemed to be falling apart at the seams, the lit sign barely holding together with some of the letters missing due to blown bulbs. The door swinging open due to the slight breeze because it was that loose on its hinges. And the stench...yep, this is exactly what he imagined, but none of the details mattered. What mattered is that what he wanted was in there.

The man told him that last he heard, she was in South America, seeing as that's what the guy that bought her told him. Him as in Michael. He was surprised. That guy really was sick...anyway, he told him that she was probably working in a brothel or something similar. So what did Jack do? He went to any brothel he could find and looked at what girls were there. So far, he'd had no luck. But he had a good feeling about this one.

Approaching the loose door, he held his hand out to keep it open for himself as he walked to the front desk, putting a couple of notes down as his entrance fee. The man behind the counter looked it over, then gave him the nod to go on in and pick out what he wanted. He never had sex with anyone there, but it's not like that was a huge deal. He paid his fee so whether he got laid or not didn't matter. They had his money.

He went in and out of each room down that dingy corridor, but none of the girls looked promising. Some, he couldn't even see because they were already underneath people. Despite the fact that he was losing hope as he began to run out of rooms to check, he still kept going. Man, was he glad he did.

There, on a double bed with dirty sheets, laid Olivia. Her hair was frizzy and looked like a rat's nest, her skin was pale with an oily sheen, and her complexion was sallow which caused the dark circles under her green eyes to stand out more than ever. She also looked pretty underweight, but from what he could see, that was her. That had to be her, in fact. She matched the pictures he had seen despite her current situation. She beckoned to him with a small smirk, trying to act like she wasn't in need of a long nap and a bath.

"Olivia...Olivia Laing. That's you, right?" He asked softly, approaching her and kneeling beside the bed. Briefly, she looked confused like she'd never heard that name before. But then, she gave a small nod.
"That's...That's me...how do you know...?" She breathed, as though her voice was hoarse and it was too painful for her to talk.
"I know your brother. We've been looking for you for years. I'm gonna get you out of here." He promised, and with that, moved to help her sit up and turned so his back was to her while she dressed in something halfway decent.

"Why should I trust you? How do I know you aren't lying?" She rasped from her spot on the bed, causing Jack to smirk slightly despite the fact that she couldn't see it.
"Your brother is called Victor and he's three years younger than you. You lived in New York for your whole life, but then you mixed with Michael and his people and then he sold you and now you're here. Would a random stranger know that? Know your story?" He asked, arms folded across his chest as he listened to her pad across the worn carpet and over to him.

"No. They wouldn't. Let's get out of here...? You haven't told me your name..." she murmured softly as she held onto him for balance, being weak from the nature of her condition.
"I'm Jack. And you're right, we should go." He said, grabbing her hand and leading her slowly out of the room. She was overall malnourished and looked pretty woozy as it was, so he didn't want to move too fast.

It wasn't uncommon for people to buy girls that were in the brothels, so Jack did just that. He handed over his money and lead Olivia out. He was now in the process of saving her and giving her her life back.

A/N: didn't specify a country because I didn't want to offend anyone and I also realise that people probably don't buy girls from brothels but for the sake of this story they do lol bye