VICIOUS

A little talk (21.)

Rose sits on the bed, Thomas stills leans against the wall, I stand in front of her. She stares at the ground, not saying a word. 

''Have you told anyone about us kidnapping you?'' I ask her for the second time. She didn't answer me the first time. 

''No,'' she finally says. ''I haven't said anything about that subject yet. Not until now.'' 

I let out a sigh of relief. We're not screwed. Not yet. 

''Why are you here?'' She asks. She looks at us. 

''Business,'' I say. She doesn't have to know everything. I sit down next to her. The pain in my leg is killing me. Normally, I can handle it. But this time I think the knife went a little too deep. I hate it. If we ever need to escape, I'm in trouble. I can barely walk, let alone run. ''How was your stay at Vicious?'' 

''It was okay,'' Rose sighs. ''Drew told me they didn't need me anymore, since you guys were already taking care of it. I didn't know what 'it' meant, but I just went along with everything. And it was nice seeing my bro-'' 

Suddenly, she stops talking, slapping her hands in front of her mouth. 

''Nice seeing your what?'' Thomas asks. He takes a step closer to us. 

''You wanted to say 'brother', didn't you?'' I ask. ''Who is it?'' 

Rose looks at the floor again and doesn't answer our questions. I stand up and groan. Fucking hell, I hate my life. Thomas sees it and comes closer. 

''Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital?'' Thomas asks. ''I don't want you to be in pain.'' 

I shake my head at his advice. He's trying to be sweet, I know. But I hate the hospital. It's a nasty place where even nastier things happen. I walk to the window and breathe in the fresh air. Thomas opened it a few minutes ago. Fresh air helps me clear my mind. 

''Rose, you have to answer me,'' I say in a calm voice, but deep down I want to punch the living shit out of her. Child abuse, yes, but we need answers and she doesn't give us any. ''We know you wanted to say brother. Tell us who it is.'' 

''Do we know him?'' Thomas asks her. 

She nods and my eyes widen. ''Is he part of Rank 2?''

Again, she nods. 

Suddenly, I know who she's talking about. The moment I dropped her off at Drew's apartment, they had a weird interaction with each other. As if they knew each other. 

''It's Drew, isn't it?'' I ask. 

Thomas gives me a surprised look. And I don't blame him, I would've been surprised too. I am, but since I'm the one who figured it out, it doesn't hit me that hard.  

Rose nods and sighs. ''Yep, it's Drew,'' she confirms. ''My mom had him when she was 18. She had me when she was 26. One of the differences between me and Drew is, is that I was planned and he wasn't. I can remember that she told him when he was 16. I was 8, but heard them talking. That night he left us, but I can't remember much from that night.''

''Why did he join Vicious?'' I ask and I cross my arms. Rose's parents are the creators of Oblivion, meaning that the son of our enemy is in our gang. 

''I don't know why,'' She shrugs. ''The moment my father heard that he joined a gang, he and my mother got upset. That's why they created Oblivion. To destroy Vicious and take their son back.'' 

I need to process this information. It never was Oblivion's plan to take over the country, their plan was to take back their family. This changes things. We finally got to know their actual reason on why they want us gone so bad. 

''Call Drew,'' I say to Thomas and I walk over to him. ''I'll bring Rose back to Brandon. But we have to talk to Drew. Ask him if it's true. Say that we will meet him in the cafe that we passed on our way here. They're called 'Starshine's Coffee'. We need to talk to him tonight.'' 

He nods and takes out his phone. I walk to the door and Rose follows me. 

It takes a lot of effort, but we finally reach Brandon's office. We walk in and I see that Sylvia, Rose's mother, is sitting in of the chairs. It seems like Rose's father isn't here. 

''Oh, honey,'' She rushes to Rose and hugs her. ''I'm glad you're back.''

I look at them and turn to Brandon. 

''We got more than enough information,'' I tell him. ''Thomas is currently tricking one of our old colleagues in meeting us tonight.'' 

He nods approvingly and seems satisfied with this information. 

''Tell me what time you're going and I will tell the man that guards the gate to let you go through,'' He says. 

................................................................................................................................................................

We walk to my car 20 minutes later. Drew didn't say anything, he just agreed on meeting each other. Thomas told him that Rose revealed a secret about him. Drew has to know what Thomas was talking about. 

''Can you drive?'' I ask Thomas. ''I don't think I'll be able to.''

I throw the keys to him and he catches them. 

''Sure,'' He nods. He unlocks the car and we get in. Without saying a word, he starts the car and we drive away. 

We drive to the cafe in silence. I stare out of the window for the most of the time. After 30 minutes, we finally arrive. There's another car parked in the small parking lot and I recognize the brand. It's one of the cars from Vicious. Through the window of the cafe I can see Drew sitting at a table, cup in his hand and phone on the table. The screen lights up his face.

 I take a deep breath and begin to walk towards the entrance.

On our way to hopefully more answers.