I'm Not Broken - TH

•17•

I don't know what comes over me, but my hand rises, slapping Haz across the face before his lips touch mine. My hand then flies over my mouth in shock. I can't believe I just slapped Harrison. Haz's eyes widen at me, his hand pressing over the part of his face that I slapped.
"You hit me." He says.
"You were trying to kiss me!" I defend my actions.
"You were flirting with me!" He exclaims and I laugh loudly.
"I was not! I called you hot because you practically forced it out of me. That doesn't mean I wanted you to kiss me!" I laugh at this stupid conversation.
"Well damn I just embarrassed myself for the next few weeks." He nods, laying back on the grass.
"Mmm, more so a few months." I joke.
"A few months of making fun of me? Does that mean you're not leaving?"
My thoughts are brought back to what happened earlier. Finding out who Tom and Haz really are, learning about the things that they do, awful things. I don't want to be around that, but honestly, I don't want to leave either. I love them.. even if they are these awful mafia men. Like Tom said, it's only one side of them. The side I've gotten to know and love over these past few years still exist. They are still my best friends, and they have done everything in their power to protect me.
"I don't know." I sigh.
He lets out a small laugh, and I sit up slightly to look at him.
"What's so funny?" I ask.
"Why do we always end up in a field in the middle of the night?" He mumbles.
"I guess it's our thing now." I smile.
•Toms pov•
I stand in the basement, watching as the guy slowly starts to regain consciousness. Rubin stands in the corner of the room, preparing any tools I may need to get information out of him.
His eyes open slightly, and I wait for him to fully become aware of where he is and what is going on. Suddenly panic appears on his face as his head whips around, looking around the room before settling on me.
"W-what happened?!" He asks worriedly. He sounds young.. really young.
"Who are you?" I question.
"I'm Aaron." He says. "Please, don't hurt me. They made me do it! Told me they would kill me if I didn't!"
My brow rises, looking over to Rubin who has an unreadable expression on his face.
"Who made you do it?" I ask.
"I was walking home from school and some guys grabbed me, and then everything went black.." he shakes his head.
Oh my god.. this wasn't a mob.. this was something much much worse. A group of minors being controlled by a mob.
"How old are you?" I ask.
"I'm sixteen."
My eyes widen.. someone's kidnapping these guys and forcing them into this. This is disgusting. How could anyone be okay with doing this shit?
"Untie him." I say plainly.
"But sir he shot you-" Rubin argues.
"I said untie him. Now."
Rubin is quick to walk over to the boy, cutting the ties that bound him to the chair. I can just hear Chloes voice in my head, telling me to help him. It's the right thing to do. He didn't choose this, and I know damn well he didn't want to hurt me.
"Thank you.." Aaron sighs, standing to his feet.
"Are there more coming?" I question.
"I don't think so." He shakes his head. "These guys were not very put together, they were also kind of drunk off their ass."
Wait.. that doesn't sound like a mob at all. Could this have possibly been just some normal guys who are sick in the head? But why would they target me and my place? How did they even know we were here...
and the thought crosses my mind.
Could this have something to do with Chloe?
___
Now out of the dark basement, and in the light of my office, I can truly see just how young and innocent this kid is. What kind of sick person does that to a sixteen year old?
"Alright, the only way to be safe is if you trust me, okay?" I say to him, and he nods nervously.
"Okay." He says.
"When did they take you?" I question.
"I- I think it was Tuesday." He answers.
A whole fucking week.. they had these kids that long.. and we fucking killed them all. I can't believe I killed kids. Innocent kids. Fuck.
There's definitely a missing persons report out for him, and everyone else involved. We need to dispose of the bodies so no one will ever find them. And most important, Aaron can never go back. He would tell everyone what he saw.. I can't risk that.
"Those people are dangerous, you can't leave. At least for a while." I slightly bend the truth of why I'm keeping him here.
"My mum is probably freaking out I have to call her-"
"You can't." I state quickly. "No one can know you're here. It's for your safety."
Wow.. I really am a piece of shit.
"Are all the other guys... dead?"
I simply nod, avoiding eye contact. There's never a nice way to tell a kid that their friends- or hostage mates are dead. Not that I've really had to do that before.
"So these guys.. where did they take you?" I ask.
"They had me in the back of the van so I didn't see but it was definitely not far." He says.
I want to try something.. I pull out my file on Chloes dad, showing it to the boy.
"You recognize this guy?" I ask.
He takes the photo into his hands, looking at it closely.
"No.. never seen him in my life."
Well, I guess that means this has nothing to do with Chloe. It's just some sick guys taking advantage of children. I'm gonna find them, and I'm going to fucking kill them.