Taken

Chris (Chapter 26)

"Morning guys," Dad said pulling the curtains back to let the sun in. I think he believed he was waking John and I up, little did he know that we had both been up for the past hour. 

I had heard John sneak in and looked at the clock to see that it had been five a.m.; the little devil hadn't come back from telling Zoey about the plans for the day. I was going to talk to him until I had heard Dad's voice and John's excuse. I decided, since I was a nice younger brother, to wait to ask questions.

"I'm up," I said as I hopped out of bed and ran to the bathroom so I wouldn't have to wait.

"Chris, hurry up! I need in there!" John pounded on the door ten minutes after I had gotten in. I was enjoying the hot water and had no intention of getting out so soon: we had plenty of time before we had to meet the Allen's.

"You snooze, you loose big brother!" I called back to him. But about five minutes I heard Dad's voice. "Chris, I want in now." I wasn't going t argue with him.

I hurried up and allowed Dad and John bathroom time. "You would think you're a girl the amount of time you spend in there," I heard John mumble. Whatever.

About 20 minutes later we were all ready to go. "I'll go get Zoey," John volunteered.

"Damn right you will," I grinned under my breath. An angry expression came over John's face.

"What was that boys?" Dad called from the kitchen. He had gone to get a glass of water before we left.

By that time John's hands were already around my throat. "Nothing Dad!" he called back as I tried to pry his hands off but with no success. He wouldn't actually hurt me- at least I hoped not. Heck, I hadn't even said anything related to what might have happened last night. I began to wonder what he would do when I brought that up...

"Now you got me worried," Dad said with a little laugh as he entered the room. John quickly removed his death grip around me neck before Dad could see and went to get Zoey.
Dad and I went down to the lobby and waited for them there. Part of me wanted to tell Dad then and there about my suspicions about John and Zoey as revenge for him trying to strangle me, but I decided to wait. I figured if it turned out to be true I could possibly use it against him at some point.

"Hey," Zoey said with half a wave as she and John entered the lobby. She wasn't letting anything on, but I could tell John had said something to her about my comment: she looked just about as unhappy as he did at me.

"Let's go get breakfast then we'll meet the Allen's. They said they wanted to meet at a little street market just a few blocks from here at around 10:30, so we've got time." Dad said. I looked at my clock and realized we could have slept in much longer; we had three hours before we had to meet them!

I sighed. Why was sleep so hard to come by these days?

Dad led the way out and I followed him with John and Zoey following behind me. I so badly wanted to say something to the two of them, but I refrained. I didn't want John to be any more upset with me so he would actually tell me what happened and I also didn't want Zoey to be around when I did.

When we were getting closer to the cars, I fell back in step with John and whispered; "Something came up about the case last night and I need to talk to you alone. Tell Zoey she has to ride with Dad". He gave me a funny look, but I didn't give him a chance to ask questions because I ran ahead to our car and jumped in the passenger seat. It didn't take long for John to join me, but of course in the driver's seat. If he had sat on my lap I would have probably died.

"What the hell happened last night? Are the Allen's still OK? Are we even meeting them?" John asked full of concern as he pulled out of the parking space and started following Dad.