Four or Dead by G O A

Four or Dead

Asher...Present...

As soon as we arrived home my phone rang out echoing in the silence of the small hallway that led from the front door to the living room. I glanced down to see the word 'dad' flash on the screen. My steps fell short and my whole body stiffened. Emma glanced back and met my eyes. She saw everything when it came to us, any mood we were in she somehow sensed it. I offered her a forced smile and nod and she seemed to understand that I needed a minute alone. "Pl be right back," I say to the others before heading up the stairs to my room.

The guys grumbled a few words of acknowledgment before disappearing into the main part of the house. I took the stairs two at a time until I reached my room. I groaned as my phone rang again and again. When I finally closed the door I answered with a growl of annoyance.

"What is it, dad?" I all but yelled into the phone.

"Son, it's nice of you to pick up this time." My father said as soon as I answered his call.

"Twas at school, and I wasn't going to answer a call in the middle of class." I retorted.

"Since when do you care about your schoolwork? If I recall you were barely passing them a couple of months ago." He reminded me. (*

He wasn't wrong, but things had changed. Before I didn't care one bit about doing well in school since I didn't plan to go to college. I did the bare minimum to graduate and that was all. I still didn't know what I wanted for my future, but one thing I knew for sure was I wanted Emma. I wanted her so bad that I wanted to try harder in things. Even though she didn't expect or ask us to change, I wanted to be worthy of her.

"What do you want dad?" I ask my voice not the least bit amused. I didn't want to do this back and forth with him much anymore.

"Well, we have ourselves a bit of a situation. Someone hit one of our warehouses and we lost a large amount of product and at least a dozen of our crew." He continued to list off all the things lost in what he explained was a strategic attack. I followed but didn't care one bit about anything he was saying. Just like school, I did the bare minimum of following and involving myself in the crew business lately. The four of us had been done with this life for a while now, and it almost felt like fate that Emma came to us just when those plans started to fall into place. We didn't want her anywhere near my father's business and the sooner we could get out, the sooner we could take her far away from it all.

We were in the final part of our plan now and soon this would all be behind us. We would all have new identities and live in a cozy house

maybe in another country. In truth, we planned on letting Emma decide where she wanted to go because we would follow her anywhere. She didn't know about these plans yet, we wanted to surprise her. But those were thoughts for another time.

"What do you want me to do about it dad?" I ask cutting him off.

He let out a huff of frustration but moved on to the real reason why he was calling.

"We need to let our competitors know that this little stunt won't hurt us in the least. So I want to hit a target from each of our known opposing crews." I could almost hear the self-righteous smirk on his face.

He thought he was untouchable, but he didn't know how many times I could have killed him and gotten away with it. He was dumb enough to think our loyalty to him went so far that we would never attempt such a thing, but my attachment to him died when my mother did. When he

turned from a loving father to the cold-hearted monster he was now.)

"That is might be too much to take on with our numbers spread so thin." I remind him.

"[ am well aware of our numbers boy, but that is not what I had in mind. I want the four of you to handle it. However you wish to, but I want it done by the end of the week." I ran a hand over my face and groaned. (*

What he was asking was a job only a full crew could pull off, but this wasn't the first time he sent me and my guys on a mission that could easily fail, It was as if he was constantly testing our loyalty and wouldn't lose a bit of sleep if we all died in the process. As I said, he was a cold-hearted bastard.

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"You know how hard it will be for the four of us to hit that many marks?" I ask knowing full well he understood the risks. ')

"Oh don't tell me that girl has made you weak boy. You used to agree to. these kinds of things without question, and now you are whining about the dangers. Look son let me just tell you, that girl will run far away when she sees what kind of beast you are. When she knows the number of people you have killed...a sweet girl like that would never be able to look at you the same." He taunted.

I clenched my teeth. "Leave her out of this. You don't know anything

about her."

He laughed at my reply. Not a nice laugh, one that almost sounded like a threat. )

"Wow, she really has gotten under your skin. I don't blame you though, when I saw her I imagined all the things I could do to her. Even when she tried to be brave I could see the innocence in her eyes. Mmmm...1 can just imagine the sounds she would make." He laughed again and I wanted to curse him and threaten him but I didn't.)

I didn't want him to hear just how much Emma want to me because he

would want her. He would want to take her just because I had her. He would be just like those men who had hurt her all those years. Worse even, because he would happily pass her around to other members of the crew. I could never let that happen.

"We'll get the job done. Is there anything else?" I said instead.

"Not now, but next time you come to see me why don't you bring that girl of yours. I think I would like to get to know her a little better." I hung up on him before he could say anything more. (*)

My anger burst out of me the moment the call ends and I send my phone smashing into the nearest wall as a result. My chest rises and falls as my emotions lash out all around me. I would never let him near our girl ever again! We needed to get out of this town soon. I wouldn't be able to keep her out of my father's reach for much longer. He was mentioning her more and more and the more we tried to keep her away

was making him more obsessed.) Before I could rage again, I heard a soft knock at my door.

"asher?" Emma's soft voice hits me like a bullet and I lose my breath again. "Are you ok?"

At that moment I knew I needed her. She was an anchor for my temper and my anger, nothing calmed me like her. So I stock over to the door and take one last deep breath before opening it. My girl stands in front of me and seeing her uncurls some of the anger that had coiled tight inside me almost instantly. I)

"Hey." Is all I can seem to get out.This belongs to NôvelDrama.Org - ©.

"Hi. [heard a bang, are you ok? You didn't punch a wall or something did you? You know that's a one-way flight." She smirks at me and I can't help but snort out a small laugh.

Her smile grows wider when she sees her little joke made me smile. I step toward her and wrap her in my arms and she grunts when I hold her a little too tight. I take a step back and her grip on her crutches loosens sending them crashing to the ground. I don't care and decided to just leave them where they fell. She didn't need them when she was in my arms, and I wasn't about to let her go yet.

"I still need to breath.' She says teasingly but I still don't go easy on her. 2)

I don't put her down until we are on my bed and I position her to sit on my lap. It's still dark in my room thanks to my blackout curtains and I don't bother to turn a light on. I don't want to see anything, I just want to feel. She wraps her arms around my neck and I rest my head against her chest listening to her heartbeat melodically. Her heart spoke to mine and mine began to relax and beat in rhythm to her's as if it was answering her call. Poetic right? That's what she did to me. Everything about her was a poetic experience.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asks softly.

I sigh but I don't move away from her. Instead, I man up and say those three little words that would have tasted like poison on my tongue.

Saying them to Emma though would only further cement my feelings for her, and things would never be the same again. Cause I was in...all in. "Love you," I say into the darkness. "I love you."