Flowers

50

"I never shop, girly, especially uptown," Maggie laughed lightly.

Rob had driven us away from the mall, going in a direction away from my area to one in which I'd never been before. My heart was racing, feeling utterly frightened. On some level I knew that they wouldn't hurt me though, but still had trouble trusting it.

Maggie had taken my phone from me rather early on, before we had left, and I had no way of calling for help.

"People will start wondering where I am any minute now," I informed the two, who then laughed and made me feel even more helpless.

"We know that, doll," Rob replied, focused on the road ahead.

We were entering a much more secluded part of our city, once which weird people liked to camp out and investigate the deep and dark forest.

The second the road turned gravelly I began fearing for the worst.

"Are you going to kill me?" I had to ask Maggie, feeling a lump in my throat and tears gathering in my eyes.

She gave me a confused look before chuckling and shaking her head, "no, Cammie. You're no use to us dead. All we need is for Mike to come back, and you're the only thing he'll come back for."

"That's not nice at all," I frowned, "how did he piss off you two?"

"Not me," she shook her head before nodding over at Rob, who pulled up to a small gravelly field, meant for parking but was now completely empty, "he pissed off Rob."

My brows furrowed, no longer feeling as frightened as before even as the sun was setting and darkness was surrounding us, along with the dense forest, but more confused and angry that they wouldn't let him leave his past life behind.

"If it's money that you need, I'll gladly pay off any debt he has, and—" I began with determination to the man in the driver's seat, who was unbuckling his seatbelt.

"Fucker doesn't owe me shit," he snickered, "he can't walk out of a family business."

My eyes widened as I fully comprehended what Rob had said. It made sense but at the same time didn't. I had believed that Michael was an only child, that he didn't have any family left besides his grandmother. The moment I had met Rob I had been taken aback by his resemblance to Michael, but had blamed it on me just missing him since it was during our separation.

"You're not his brother, are you?" I hesitated, eyes narrowing at the back of his head before he shifted on his seat and turned back to face Maggie and me.

"I'm not surprised the kid hasn't told you about me," he shrugged carelessly, before directing his attention to Maggie, "keep her quiet."

It did surprise me that Michael had a brother, one he had never mentioned. I was positive that there was a good explanation, but it would be left for later as my mind focused on what a high position he must have had in the crime syndicate for this to be happening, especially since his brother had called it a 'family business'.

In complete silence I watched as two things happened. Rob took out his phone and dialled a number while Maggie placed her hand on the seat between us, a small and sharp knife held in it and pointed at me.

"Don't make a peep unless he tells you to, girly," she sent me a small smile as my frown deepened.

"My mother will hear about this," I muttered, folding my arms over my chest. I felt angry at them that they would put Michael in a position like this, especially since Rob seemed to be his brother and Maggie was his friend.

I didn't blame Maggie for how she was acting now. I understood that she wouldn't be doing this for fun, it was just the fact that she was involved with bad people and was almost forced to do it.

"Shut it," Rob grunted at me, before he began calling the number on speaker, his side facing us now. Maggie relaxed back against her seat, while along with everything else the state of this car had began to bother me.

I sure that he was now calling Michael. It frustrated me beyond words to be used as a pawn in whatever their little chess game was now about, and was more than willing to pay anything for Michael to be let go fully, enabling him a good and free life here with me, not God know's where on the run.

After a few rings the call was answered, and Rob was the first to speak as both Maggie and I listened closely.

"Evening, Mike," he spoke, grinning to himself with disgusting pride, "feel like talking to me yet?"

"No," Michael muttered, clearly about to hang up the call before Rob quickly added.

"Camille's real sweet."

Silence fell over us as we awaited for Michael's reply. He hadn't hung up, which meant that the mention of my name was something that he'd feared and hadn't expected.

"Don't care," he finally spoke nonchalantly, surprising me completely, "haven't seen her in months, we're over."

"Really?" Rob's brows raised and he sent a mischievous look back at me, only making my glare at him increase, "I've heard something different."

Again Michael was quiet, strategically planning out what he was going to say.

"Yeah? Someone's lying to you."

I pinched the bridge of my nose and shook my head to myself with a sigh, feeling terrible for the position they were putting him in and how I had no idea how to help him out of it.

These were the types of people parents never even spoke about to kids, as they were too messed up to explain, as were the things they did to wreak havoc. The media portrayed them as the biggest threat in our community, which is how most of us came to know about them. I had never in my wildest dreams imagined myself falling in love with someone who had been apart of this group of people from downtown, or now being in a situation like this because of it.

"I don't know, man," Rob shrugged, taunting him now, "Camille didn't sound like she was lying, did she, Maggie?"

"Nope," the woman beside me piped in, before mouthing an 'I'm sorry' to me. I just rolled my eyes and huffed, redirecting my gaze back to the phone in Rob's hand.

It had to come as a shock to Michael that Maggie was here with Rob, supporting him. He had to be a boss of some kind to have this power over both of them.

As he didn't continue, Rob did, "I'll quit playin'. We got her with us. If you want her pretty little face to stay in one piece, you'll get here now and we'll talk."

My eyes widened and lips parted in shock, disgusted by his crude insinuation and manipulation toward Michael.

"Michael, I'm fine—" I began to tell him that I was and would be fine, that there was no way they would actually hurt me, but Maggie cut me off by quickly raising the knife in front of my face, not touching me but sending me a very loud threat.

"You wanna drag someone who's buddies with the damn president into this?" I could just imagine Michael shaking his head now, berating Rob's plan, "good going, they'll have the business shut down by morning."

"The bitch likes to talk," Rob fired back, while I grew further angry at him, not appreciating the way he had referred to me with such a crude word, "doubt she can after I'm done with her."

"Don't care what you do with her," Michael muttered, sounding very annoyed and frustrated at this point, almost to the point of raising his voice yet I could tell he was trying hard to seem cool and casual, as well as very unbothered by all this.

"Heard you love her," Rob continued, tone very taunting and smug as he knew he had Michael in the palm of his hand, "you sure you don't care?"

"Positive. Had to tell her something to keep her fucking me, didn't I?" The venom in his voice made me shiver, unable to imagine him ever speaking to me in such a way. Rob seemed surprisingly unfazed, knowing he had the upper hand and I was to blame.

I should have kept my mouth shut with Maggie, even though there was no way I could have known that she'd turn on us like this.

"Too bad I don't believe you, little brother. You want her back in one piece you better start heading back."