Hornet's Nest Ch. 07

I... didn't know what to do. Driscoll had my parents, and now I'd given him my boyfriend. What did I have left?

Why did I think Tyler deserved this? Darren.

Amelia and Zack. Their son.

What was Idoing?

My shell was breaking. I couldn't do this. I didn'twantto. I had to think. My legs were already carrying me. Think,think.

I couldn't go to Darren. How could I explain? I didn't even know exactly where his house was, or how to get there. If I had known this whole plan might've been less messy.

I knew where David's house was. Even if I didn't have the roads perfectly mapped in my head, I'd find it. I had to.

Zack. He had to understand. He had to help.

Run, run. It was all about getting from one place to another, as fast as possible. I didn't know how much time I had before Driscoll was calling me. My feet pounded the concrete while I tried to stay on top of my breathing.

This road, yes, no? No, don't turn off here. Further down. Does this alley come out where I think it does?

It felt like I was running for an hour. When I finally reached that driveway I couldn't breathe, my whole body was trembling. I staggered up to the front door and pounded it with my fist. Pounded again. And again. Come on, fuck. I tried to swallow over my dry throat, still getting air into my lungs, and pushed the letterbox open. I shouted that it was me, to please open the door.

A light came on, the door opened. A scowling, tired, and very hairy Zack stood there, in nothing but boxers and a bathrobe draped over his shoulders.

"What are you doing?" he growled.

I pushed past him, still taking deep but slowed pants, going straight for the lounge.

"Violet."

He knew something was wrong, didn't he? He was reading it on me straight away.

I didn't even know what to say. Where to start.

For a moment we just stood there, staring. There was no logical pattern in my thoughts and words started coming out.

"Driscoll," I said.

His bemused expression got worse.

"Driscoll," I repeated. "Do you know the name?"

"Why would I know it?"

"Because you used to be in a fucking drug gang."

And there it was. The dark glare.

"Do youknowit?" I said. There wasn't time for this.

"If I do?"

"For fuck sake, Zack, I've done something bad. I've done something really bad."

"Where is David?" he growled. "He left about an hour ago. I figured it was something to do with you."

I stood in an awkward silence, swallowing.

"What's going on?" Amelia's voice asked. She came up beside Zack, wrapped in a fluffy bathrobe, eyes squinting against the light with tiredness.

All the rush of emotion I'd had before, and now I was going numb again. "Driscoll," I said again.

"Are we thinking the same 'Driscoll'?" Zack asked.

"The family that runs a branch of the market?"

I wondered if Zack felt the numbness I did, when his eyes went empty like that. Where he was looking 'through' me, like his mind was too busy to concentrate.

"He's got my parents, he's ransoming them. I ended up meeting with him because I needed to do something to help. He's got some sort of fuckin' family feud with Darren?"

Zack's eyes widened, so did Amelia's.

"We made a deal. I get my parents out if I draw Darren out for him."

"What?" I'm not sure what I'd been expecting. That Zack would just calmly take the news in his stride? No, he was reacting. He was bristling. There was an explosion of energy filling the room. "What've you done?"

"I... I called up Tyler and asked him to pick me up at the station."

"And that's where David went?"

"Yes."

Amelia's face disappeared behind her hands. Zack just kept staring at me, waiting for more information.

I swallowed and gave a slight nod, like I was confirming his worst fears. "They've got them."

He... I saw him coming and couldn't will myself to react. His hand closed around my throat, my whole body slammed into the wall. My head knocked.

"Zack!" Amelia barked.

The hand wasn't squeezing. It was a threat, but he wasn't that far gone yet. I clutched at his massive forearm, spring and tension building up in the lower half of my body. I didn't know what I'd do if I had to fight him, but I'd do something.

"Why do they have your parents? Who are they to them?"

"They're in a drug gang."

We stared.

"Zack," Amelia said again, in a surprisingly low tone. "Let hergo."

He released me, but stayed where he stood. He wanted to snap my neck, he wanted to break me in half. Everything about his posture said it.

"Driscoll's going to call me," I said. "Probably soon. I... I don't know what's going to happen."

His silence was more unnerving than any words he could say.

"I'm sorry, I... I don't know why... I did this. I came to you because, you might be able to fix this. We have to do something-"

"We?"

That did it. Okay, this was happening, he was going for me. Pure reflexes moved me and I staggered away while he swept after me.

"What have you led here?" Zack boomed. "Who's about to knock on the door, huh?"

"No, no-" He lunged and I dodged again. "I haven't, I'm not-"

"Zack!"

It probably looked ridiculous, but when is anger ever rational? He knocked over an armchair to get at me, I was practically running across the room to get away from him. It wasn't going to be funny if he got a hold of me.

Steps were thundering down the stairs. When I was cornered Amelia intercepted. She bumped into Zack's whole front, and he stopped. She stood there, forehead against his chest, hands against his stomach, but I didn't trust it. I didn't trust that he wouldn't hit her. He was so riled up.

Wesley burst through the door in a similar state of undress, eyes darting to take in the situation. The state of Zack, Amelia's dangerous position, me trapped where I was.

"What's going on... Dad, stop. Stop."

Zack wouldn't take his eyes off me.

Wesley briefly met my gaze, so many things flickering across his expression.

"Dad, you've got to stop."

He had to get his shit together. We didn't have time for this. The knowledge that Driscoll was going to call was a nagging urgency inside me, building up into frustration. I wasn't the enemy. Zack, for fuck sake.

"You know what?" I surged forward, fucking shoved Amelia out of the way, and took her place. "Hit me."

She staggered and her breath hitched.

"You're angry, yeah? Fucking hit me."

Wesley's hands clasped at his head, as if he was about to watch a trainwreck.

I put my hands on Zack's stomach and shoved, like I'd done to David more than enough times. I managed to make him take a step back.

"Vi-" Wes started.

"Oh my God-"

"Fucking kill me and then what?"

Zack's hand grasped the side of my head. He gave a push that almost threw me to the floor, but spun and swung his fist at the wall, a thud to make the whole house shake. It left a hole in the plaster.

"He's gonna fucking call!" I continued as I staggered. "If he calls, and I have to go... If I don't, if he suspects something's up, if he thinks... He's gonna kill Tyler, he's gonna kill David, he'll kill my parents, he'll kill everyone!"

Zack's only response was a cry of anger.

"We have to do something, have to figure something out before-"

"Mum!" Hanna's shrill voice shrieked from elsewhere in the house. "Are they fighting?Mum!"

Amelia made to bolt for the door but Wesley beat her to it.

Zack just stood there, staring at me in agony, like I was proof of everything wrong with the world. It wasn't just the anger, there was so much hurt in his expression. Like he stared down a nightmare.

I was it. I was his nightmare. The destructive thing that had slipped in beneath his nose. I could tear everything apart, destroy everything he cared for, ruin everything he had ever worked for. He didn't know what to do, with me, with what I had done.

"He's gonna call." I just kept saying that, not even realising how panicked I was. And I couldn't fucking believe it when I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. I winced, it was like a jolt through my body.

Time's up.

"Please, oh God... Don't say anything. Stay silent. Please. Don't fuck this up."

They both watched me as I pulled the phone out, and answered it. I put it on loud speaker. If Wesley came bursting back in right now...

"Lass, where are you?"

I swallowed. "Where do you want me to be?"

He chuckled."Good answer. Now, I understand Alex just left you there. Not his smoothest, he'll be back for you. You'll be answering to him for the rest of the night, so this is the last you'll be hearing from me until further notice. I just wanted to personally congratulate you on a job well done."

"Yes. Thank you."

"You sound like you're finding this difficult? I understand my men picked up an extra."

"Yes."

"Is it your boyfriend?"

"Yes."

"Ouch. Need I remind you how important your co-operation is?"

Amelia clasped a hand over her mouth. Zack's expression didn't change.

"Yes, sir," I replied. "We're not done yet."

"No. You need to be on call. No nodding off somewhere. Alex'll be calling you soon. I'll be busy. Take care, Mum and Dad are holding on for you."

He hung up and my whole posture sagged. We still had more time. I took a few deep breaths while looking at the floor, then moved my gaze up to Zack and Amelia.

"You need to start from the beginning," Amelia said, in that low tone. "You need to explain everything that's gotten to this point."

Despite how upset she was, there was intelligence in her eyes. She, Zack - and I was certain Tyler, too - they all knew what this shady stuff with Darren was.

---

David

I have no idea what woke me up. With the unbearable, splitting pain in my skull, I'd rather not have done. Staying out cold would've been fine.

The floor was hard, wherever I was. My cheek was against something softer, sorta rough... jeans? I stirred and felt a hand on my head, brushing my hair back.

"Kid."

I gripped Tyler's thigh to push myself up. Everything hurt. My head was throbbing. My vision swam. Being touched was the last thing I wanted, but Tyler cupped my cheek and I winced. He frowned, looking me over, and I was able to focus my eyes on holding his gaze.

I wasn't fully with it.

There was a loud slamming sound. I felt like it might not have been the first. Maybe what woke me up? I didn't know where we were. Indoors somewhere. What was it, some giant garage? There was a stink of oil.

Voices. Men coming over. I couldn't tell how many, there just seemed to be so many footsteps.

"Well done, lads," one said. "You got a Sörensen. It's the wrong fucking one!"

Laughter rang out. A man crouched down infront of us while the others stood around. He had a massive, cheerful grin on his face, making lines around his eyes. He looked like he hadn't shaved in a few days, in a white shirt and black trousers, like he'd just dressed down from a suit.

"The boy's awake, that's nice. Constitution of an ox, lad. Good job."

I just blinked and frowned at him. He gave my shoulder a pat, then his eyes shifted away from me.

"Now, Tyler." He waved a phone out. Tyler's phone. "Would you do us a favour, and unlock this? Can't figure it out from your grease prints. We need to make a call to the mister."

Tyler gave him a blank and empty stare.

"Tyler. I don't want to be more persuasive. Unlock it, please."

I didn't know how to feel as I watched Tyler take it and move his fingers across the screen.

The man grinned again, flicking through its contacts. "Thank you." He stood straight and gave a gesture for Tyler to get to his feet, but he didn't comply. Another grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up. I flinched, legs suddenly very close to knocking into me.

"What's a normal morning like, Tyler? When do you get up? Seven?" He was copying what I assumed to be Darren's number into his own phone before making any sort of call. "Poor husband, went to bed with no idea that you never came home, eh?"

Tyler still wasn't talking. I felt like I was going to vomit, but held it down.

The man held the phone to his ear, smirking. It rang out to voicemail. He patiently cancelled it and called again.

Darren's voice was audible when he finally picked up. Probably still half asleep."Ty?"

"Mister Sörensen. I'm terribly sorry to be calling at this ungodly hour, but you might notice that the other half of the bed is quite empty right now. That's because Tyler's here with us."

There was a long pause."What?"

The man kept smirking and didn't offer a response.

"What's going on? Who is this?"

"I think you know exactly who this is. It's been a while."

"No, I don't know you. What do you want?"

"Calm down. First, I wanted to let you know that Tyler is quite all right. He's here. Would you like to talk to him?"

Darren said nothing. The man held the phone out and Tyler said nothing.

"Come on, Tyler. Let the hubby know you're all right."

He glared at him, and didnt speak.

"Tyler, I don't think your tantrumming silence is doing much to make Darren feel better."

Still nothing.

"All right." His foot flashed out and kicked Tyler in the balls.

Shit. The following scoff and wheeze of pain was unmistakably Tyler. He almost doubled over, but the guy with his fists in his clothing stopped him, holding him up.

"Don't touch him,"Darren's voice snapped.

"I'll be touching him a lot more if you give us trouble, Darren."

"What do you want?"

"You just hold tight and be patient. I'll be in contact again soon. Oh yes, please don't get up to any funny business. We seem to have your nephew here, also."

"What?"

Tyler finally spoke, still strained from the kick. "It's me and the kid, Darren."

There was silence from the phone again.

"All right," the shirt-guy declared. "We'll speak again soon. I just wanted to make sure you were aware of the situation." He hung up and waved the phone at Tyler again, but not to hand it over. "I hope there's nothing on this you'll miss. We'll have to have it destroyed. Tracking and that."

Tyler just gave him another one of those looks. He was shoved back to the floor by the man holding him.

"I don't understand you people," the man in the shirt continued. "If you weren't so hyper aggressive, this," he gestured between Tyler and I, "could all be avoided."

"What?" Tyler asked. "I started this?" He pointed to one of the men, the one who'd ripped him out of the seat, the one who'd had the gun. "This dickhead."

There were chuckles. Someone else crouched in front of me, offering what looked nothing more than a bottle of water. I didn't trust it, I scowled. His brow rose and he offered it again. His face... it was a guy I'd been fighting, at the car. I didn't understand, but I took the bottle, fumbled with the lid, and downed half its contents. My throat was sore.

Tyler's voice was still bouncing with the man in the shirt, who was studying him with interest. He crouched down again, clasping his hands together.

"You're the man who killed Bartkowiak."

Whatever Tyler was about to say next, he didn't. The man grinned, drawing a finger across his throat with an added sound effect.

"Yeah-"

"Kowiak was a good man."

"I beg to differ," Tyler replied.

They laughed again.

"Boss. I told you 'bout this guy."

I studied the side of Tyler's face, the perpetual snarl he seemed to wear. I was still trying to make sense of what had happened, I couldn't process anything else. There'd been a fight. Which we'd lost. We'd been abducted? What in the fuck. This was potentially a life or death situation, and Tyler was... being Tyler. Mouthing off to our captors.

I was gonna die.

My head was hurting so fucking much. The water wasn't sitting well in my stomach.

"Get up," the boss said, cutting through the mirth of Tyler's audacious quipping and the men's laughter. "We're moving. Boy, can you stand?"

Oh God, I didn't know. Tyler hooked an arm around me and helped me up. The world spun. Anything I focused my eyes on went blurry. We were walking, I could do that. A car door opened and Tyler guided me inside. I scooted over and he joined me, then another got in with pistol in his hand.

"Tyler," the boss said, leaning through the door. "No funny business. We can be civilised, all right?"

"Right."

I knew I wasn't supposed to sleep with a concussion, but I'm pretty sure I blacked out again. I don't remember anything of the drive.

---

Violet

I was trapped on the sofa. Trapped, because through all of the talking, Zack hadn't calmed down in the slightest. He paced, and bristled, and growled. If I moved, he'd attack.

Wesley was terrified of him. Hanna had been up but ordered back to bed.

It wasn't really going well.

I had an awkward minute or so alone with Wesley and Amelia while Zack disappeared to get dressed. We didn't say anything. Amelia looked at me with a strange expression, like she wanted to feel sorry for me, but couldn't. Wesley stared at his hands.

When Zack returned his demeanour had changed ever so slightly. He was starting to decide on things, plan on some course of action. It was either a good or a bad thing when very shortly after, somewhere around 5am, Darren called.

"Darren," Zack started into his panicked blathering. "Darren... I know... Darren."

"You know? What the fuck is going on?"

"You're not gonna like this. We've got a mole."

"No!" I barked. I wasn't 'working' for Driscoll. I thought we'd made that clear.

"What? Zack, where are you?"

"At home, with Violet. She did this."

"What? ... I'm coming there."

"No, you need to call the police."

"What, so they can take me in again?"

"Darren, for fuck sake."

"I'm coming there."

"No, stay there."

"I'm not staying in this house another fucking second."

He hung up on Zack, who tried to call again, but it went to voicemail. Darren cut it off on the second attempt. Zack threw his phone onto a chair, glaring at me with renewed anger.

A lot of things were my fault that night, but Darren's stubborn nature was not.

He must've sped the whole way, because he arrived fast, letting himself in through the door. He looked paler than usual, tense and stressed.

We had to go through everything, all over again. I was already getting sick of it, yet I knew there was nothing to do until I received my next orders from Alex.

Darren's icy stare was as piercing as ever, but he couldn't seem to muster any anger behind it. He looked like I'd ripped his heart out and stamped on it. A choked "Why?" was all he asked.

Zack had a way of triggering me and making me defensive, but the agony in Darren's stance made me ashamed. I couldn't look at him. "I do things," I quietly replied. "And I don't think first."

Amongst everything happening in that moment, Zack and Darren's energies were clashing. They weren't arguing yet, but it was close.

"They're going to kill Tyler," Darren said. The blunt defeat in his voice riled up Zack. He growled, but Darren cut him off before he said anything. "What? Am I wrong? Dad, Andy, Marcus, Vince." He didn't blink, but his hand waved. "Why in God's name are they going to leave my husband alive?"

"Then they're also going to kill my son," Zack snapped.

"Oh God," Amelia whispered.

Wesley was sitting with elbows on knees, head in his hands. His voice was quiet, but it cut into the silence. "Can somebody please explain what the fuck is going on?"

They looked between each other.

"Wes," Amelia finally started. "We can't. Not right now."

"Why?"

"It's just... it's not safe." She shook her head and rubbed her eyes. "Wes. I need you to take Hanna, and go to your grandparents'."