Hated (18 page)

Chapter 25

Antonio Caine

Boston 2:37
pm Friday July 13
th
2029

I’ve been locked in my room ever since the incident at Stephanie’s house. And every time I do go out I’ve got like six or seven different guards with me. I fucking can’t even go to the bathroom on my own. God, I’d like some kind of privacy please. I mean there are even cameras in my room and guards outside my door. What do they seriously think is going to happen?

I can’t get out of the room anyway because they put hardcore locks on the door. I nearly broke my hand when I got pissed off and punched one of the locks.
I feel like a caged animal and I absolutely hate that feeling.

I got up off my bed and paced the room.
Man, I was starting to act like a caged animal too. This was starting to get out of hand really fast. But I am a man of my word, and if the Mafia kept their word then I would keep mine as best as I could. I guess I could always use the ace up my sleeve if I absolutely need to.

I sighed and continued pacing.
But after another couple of minutes I got bored of that and went to the bookshelf in the corner of my room. I searched the titles for something interesting to read but I’d read pretty much all of them. Well all except for one but it seemed like a really girly book and it looked rather old. I hesitated before I grabbed the book. What could it hurt? Besides I was very bored of just sitting and doing nothing but stare at the walls for hours on end.

The book was called Romeo and Juliet.
Just the title alone turned me off but I was desperate for something to do. So I opened the book and started to read it. It didn’t really make much sense at first but I kind of got the hang of it. It was actually a fairly interesting book, and it sounded kind of familiar. Our families weren’t necessarily feuding but they did hate each other.

I read the book all the way to the end. When I got to the end of the book I
was really confused…and I thought that Romeo was an idiot. I mean would you really kill yourself over someone you hardly knew. And Juliet wasn’t even dead to begin with so why didn’t he check when something seemed out of place at her grave. Then she kills herself when she sees him dead on the ground…ok that’s kind of understandable. I mean women can be very emotional I get that. But then again I think her killing herself was a bit of overkill.

I looked over to my clock on my dresser. It was a l
ittle after five o’clock and it was almost time for dinner. I don’t eat with the family at the table anymore. I get a meal sent to my room instead. Usually Devon or the chef brings it in, but occasionally Hayley or David would bring in my food. I was cautious whenever Hayley or David dropped off my food because I didn’t trust them at all.

However nothing has happened to me yet. I still take precautions though, like sniffing the food before I
eat it and as soon as I taste something funny I spit it out. I haven’t really had to do the second part very often. I knew that something was going to happen because disobeying orders to the extent that I have has a very high price. Well usually it does but it’s been a while since I got back, and I’ve almost gave up on something bad happening to me.

There was some noise outside the door and then a knock on the door. The door opened and Darcy’s head popped around the corner. This was a surprise. She never comes to visit me. Now I was wary, very wary. I glared at Darcy as she shut the door and walked over to me with a bowl of soup.
I could smell it from where I sat, it was chicken noodle soup.

My stomach growled because I hadn’t really eaten anything since lunch.
And there wasn’t much on my plate for lunch. Hmm, they might be trying to starve me but that isn’t really like Mafia tactics or punishments.

Darcy smiled as she approached me. That smile made me feel sick, very sick.
She put the soup on my dresser before she came over to stand in front of me. I’ve never liked Darcy, from the very beginning she made my skin crawl. And right now the look she was giving me was freaking me out. I kept a calm face but it was difficult.

“What do you want, Darcy?” I asked biting each word out.
I found it difficult to hold back my displeasure for her so I didn’t bother to.

“I’m here to make you a deal,” Darcy said. I noticed that she had her back to the camera so they couldn’t tell what she was saying.
I carefully looked her over. This was so unlike her, she must be very desperate to come to me to make a deal.

“What kind of a deal?” I asked carefully watching her every move.
Darcy’s smile widened and turned devilish. I suddenly did not like where this was going.

“I will make sure that your girlfriend and her family never go hungry again,” Darcy replied. I stared at her face and tried to figure out if she was serious or not. She seemed serious but there had to be a catch to this deal.
I glared at her before I asked, “What’s the catch?”

“You’d have to kill David and sleep with me,” Darcy replied her smirk mocking me.
I looked her over again. Was she serious? What kind of a deal was this? I’ve heard bad deals before but this was just pathetic.

I must’ve showed something on my face because Darcy continued on. “Look I know that you like me and just act mean because of David. But once he’s out of the way and Hayley is sent home to be punished by her father for something, it will be just you and me.”

I was so stunned by her proposal that I burst out laughing. Darcy stumbled backwards, probably startled by my outburst. She tripped over her own feet and fell on to the floor. I stood up and smiled down at Darcy on the floor. She had backed up so that she was leaning against my dresser. I sneered down at her and she gulped.

“You make such a ridiculous proposal and expect me to just roll over and play your
little game,” I snapped sneering down at Darcy. I could see Darcy start to shake and then try to regain her composure. She got up slowly and carefully, watching me. I grabbed her by the arm as soon as she was standing and walked her to the door. She had just put me in a very bad mood and I didn’t care at the moment if I hurt her.

I pulled open the door and thrust her out of my room. Darcy almost tripped again but she caught herself this time. I closed the do
or before she could turn around and say anything. I walked back over to my bed and collapsed on to it. With my face in the pillow I had time to think. Should I have taken the offer Darcy proposed, even if it was ridiculous? No, Stephanie would hate me for that. Heck, I would hate myself for that.

I turned my head and looked toward my dresser.
My stomach growled again and I groaned. I didn’t want to eat anything that Darcy brought in but I was really hungry. I got up and walked over to my dresser to grab my soup. I sat down on my bed and sniffed it. It smelled just like chicken noodle soup. I took a tentative sip. It tasted really good. I took another sip but bigger this time. I was about to take a big gulp of the soup when I heard a bang coming from right above me.

I put my soup down on my side table and got up to look around. Nothing was out of place but I had this weird feeling that someone or something was watching me, and it wasn’t the camera.
The room was silent. Maybe I had just imagined the noise I could be finally going crazy. I was about to go back to eating my soup when I heard another noise this one seemed closer and louder.

I jerk my head up and looked around. Where the hell was the noise coming from? I looked to the ceiling and heard the noise again.
Was it coming from the vent? I squinted at the vent and I swear I saw eyes looking back at me. I stumbled back a couple of steps. Then I heard tiny pings as the screws dropped to the floor from the vent. Someone was trying to get into my room.

Next the vent cover dropped and hit the ground with a clang. I saw a pair of feet pop out of the vent, and then a person dropped down. He was dressed in all black and had a ski mask over his face so I could only see his eyes
. Another pair of feet popped out of the vent and another guy dropped down wearing the same thing the other person was wearing.

Both were armed I could tell that much. But I assumed that they were both guys, since I couldn’t tell from what they were wearing.
I got into a better position and prepared for a fight. As I watched the two figures approach me I noticed that one had a necklace on. I looked closer. It was like the necklace that I had given to Stephanie.

I remembered what Stephanie had said the night the Mafia came to get me. “Only if I
can come visit,” that’s what she had said. Was this what she had meant when she said that? I relaxed my stance and cocked my head to the side, confused.

“Stephanie?” I asked squinting. I still didn’t know if it was
her because it didn’t look a thing like her. The person with the necklace on in front of me bowed, but didn’t take off the mask. She did however pull a gun out and put a silencer on it. Stephanie moved so quickly that it took me a second to process what she did. But when I saw sparks I knew what she had done. I looked to wall where the camera had been and there was pretty much nothing left of it.

Stephanie didn’t holster her gun like I thought that she would but instead motioned for me to go up the vent shaft. She held her gun up and had it pointed at the door, waiting. I went over to the other
masked guy, who I think was Kevin, and he gave me a boost up to the vent. I heard Stephanie mutter something to Kevin but it was in a different language. I looked down and Kevin reached his arm up as an indication for me to give him a hand up into the vent.

I grabbed his arm with both hands and pulled him up into the vent.
We both looked down the vent and watched Stephanie slowly back up to the vent. She turned her back to the door and reached up at the same time that Kevin reached down. But a second later the door burst open and bullets went flying every where. I reached down and helped Kevin hoist Stephanie up into the vent.

As soon as Stephanie was up we scurried down the vent shaft until we could no longer hear the gunfire.
Then we all laid down in the vent to catch our breath. I chuckled under my breath. I have never had this much of an adrenaline rush in a long time. I heard someone wince and I turned to see who it was but it was difficult to do in a confined space.

Kevin was holding his arm, and when Stephanie moved his hand it was covered with blood. I ground my teeth together in frustration. Kevin had been shot.
It didn’t look like it was life threatening but it looked painful. Stephanie did a quick stitch up job on his wound and I ripped off part of my sleeve to use as a bandage. With Kevin’s wound under control we continued on through the vent with Stephanie leading the way. I felt kind of dizzy but I shook it off and followed.

It felt like a long time going through the vents and we had to stop every time we heard a voice or a noise of any kind.
Eventually we found the vent that led to the outside. Stephanie quickly and quietly took the cover off of the vent. Now I felt kind of sick and I had a pounding headache. Shit, I think that soup was too good to be true. I groaned and held my head as the headache got worse.

Stephanie looked back to me but I was focusing on trying to stay awake. Everything was really blurry and spots were starting to form in front of my eyes. Shit, the bitch poisoned the soup. I don’t really remember what happened but when I woke up I was facing a roof with holes in
it and the sun was peaking in through those holes.

Chapter 26

Stephanie Wilson

Boston 5:57 am Tuesday
July 17
th
2029

I awoke to Antonio moving and groaning at my side. I looked around at the abandoned factory that we had made our new home. Everybody else was still asleep in their makeshift beds, made out of whatever we could find that was comfortable and supportive. I turned to Antonio after me eyes adjusted to the dim light. He looked confused and dazed.

“
Hey, are you okay?” I asked. What the heck? That is the stupidest question in the world. Of course he wasn’t okay, he had just recovered from been poisoned. Antonio started to nod off but then he lifted his head back up to look at me. I could tell he was trying to focus on me but he was having difficulty. I sat up and looked him over quickly and carefully making sure I didn’t miss anything.

It hadn’t been easy getting Antonio to the first abandoned warehouse, which wasn’t too far from his house. Then we had to move at
night fall to the second warehouse, which wasn’t fun because we kept tripping over stuff and we couldn’t see a lot at times. So Antonio got banged around a bit while we were moving him. And…umm… he woke up while we were trying to hide and…we kind of had a mini make out session right in front of my brother. But I doubt that he remembers that because of his fever was so high.

I
hadn’t missed anything. All of his wounds were healing nicely and his fever had gone down a lot. He didn’t look like he was going to die anymore. I watched his eyes start to refocus. Then his body relaxed a bit as he looked me over. Antonio reached out and gently brushed some hair that had fallen into my face, back behind my ear. He rested his hand on my face and smiled his small crooked smile. I swear my heart skipped a beat but I didn’t mind it so much anymore.

“Where are we?”
Antonio asked his voice cracked as he spoke. Antonio rubbed his throat like it hurt to talk. His throat was probably sore from all of the coughing he did while he was poisoned. Well he sounded a bit better now, that was for sure.

“We are in an abandoned war
ehouse just outside of downtown Boston,” I told Antonio and looked around. I didn’t really get a good look at the place when we first came here because it was dark out so I could only see shadows of figures. The place was actually fairly big with boxes and crates everywhere. There were a couple of conveyer belts and forklifts but not much else.

“How long have I been out for?” Antonio asked closing his eyes. I think he was trying to remember something but I wasn’t sure.
I counted backwards to the day we got him but that day didn’t really count since he didn’t go out until around six or seven.

“A little more than three days I think,” I commented trying to figure out exactly how long he was out for. But it was no use and I was
starting to get very frustrated. Antonio groaned and rubbed his hands over his face in frustration. Yeah, I hear ya buddy.

“Shit
, what did she put in my soup?” I don’t think that Antonio was talking to me but I answered anyway just to be safe, “Sedative Hypnotic drugs or date rape drugs as some people call them.”

Antonio just looked at me with a stunned expression on his face.
Then he sighed and started to rub his hands over his face again. But he clenched his hands into fists just above his face and I could see him grind his teeth by the movement of his jaw. I didn’t have to be a mind reader to tell that he was really pissed off.

“She did it again,” Antonio spat out. Now I was confused. Who did what again?
Antonio caught me looking at him funny and relaxed a little.

“When I was younger Darcy had tried to kill me at her own wedding to David,” Antonio explained
. “I had barely made it out alive.”

I could tell he was
trying to keep his anger under control by the clenching of his fists at his sides. I reached out and grabbed Antonio’s hand to try to help him relax, and to bring him back to the present. Antonio relaxed his fist and his hand opened up a little. I slid my hand into his and gave him a little reassuring squeeze. Antonio squeezed back and smiled a little. Hey it was a start.

“So what are we going to do now?”
Antonio asked as he tried to sit up. I thought about that. Now that we were all safe, well for the mean time anyway, I got to thinking that I hadn’t really thought about what would happen after we got Antonio out.

“W
e are going to need to expose them some how,” replied a garbled voice. Both Antonio and I snapped our heads towards the voice. Kevin was sitting up in his makeshift bed stretching out his back and arms, and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

“Yeah, but how?” I asked. Everyone fell silent stuck in
their own thoughts and ideas, I suppose. Minutes went by and the silence started to become heavy and depressing. Someone was going to have to say something soon. Antonio’s head jerked up and he started to smile a little. Kevin and I watched Antonio carefully and hopefully. Could he have an idea of how to expose them?

“
What if we expose Darcy in front of David?” Antonio asked but I could see that he was still thinking.

“That’s not a bad idea,” Kevin commented then frowned, “But how can we do that? He is blinded by her ‘beauty’.”

“I caught Darcy with one of my father’s business consultants having fun in the weight room,” Antonio replied smiling but it was void of any emotions. “A couple weeks later it turns out that she’s pregnant, but I found out that it’s not David’s kid that she’s pregnant with.”

“Ooh, Darcy did the dirty deed with a second-hand business man,” I commented smiling in spite of myself.
I hadn’t really meant to rhyme but it had just kind of came to me. Both Kevin and Antonio chuckled at my comment before we returned our sights to the problem. Antonio explained to us the situation surrounding Darcy’s mysterious pregnancy.

David had suspected something was up with Darcy for a while cause she was acting
strange, apparently she had told him that she was pregnant with his child. David was happy but he was also suspicious. He had wanted Darcy to take a DNA test to see if he was the father. But when Darcy had gone for the test she had made the doctor say that it was his baby and not who the actual father was. Even now David still keeps a watch on Darcy because he knows how she acts around other guys, especially younger guys.

So all we have to do is go get the footage and pictures from a hidden safe in Antonio’s house. Antonio had said that he knows where it is, but we still have to get past all of the guards and security cam
eras. This wasn’t going to be as easy of a job as I had first thought. They had brought in more security and put out more cameras since the last time. We had one day to plan the whole thing too. This was going to be interesting, especially to see how it all turns out in the end.

For the rest of the day we planned out how we were going to get the evidence, and how we were going to get David to believe us enough to watch the footage.
Also we planned for anything that could possibly go wrong with the plan, like getting caught, or shot, or…killed. I absolutely hated thinking about the last one but a possibility is a possibility. But there are some things you can’t prepare for. We are all going to have to be watchful and careful while we are at the house.

We walked around the warehouse to try to find any kind of supplies that we could use to get into the house.
The twins were on look out at the Mafia house in case something changed and we would have to move up our plan or get the hell out of there. Betty and Jean helped us out as best as they could with finding supplies and planning our escape route.

Before we knew it, it was time for us to leave. Kevin, Antonio and I all dressed in black clothing and hid our faces with ski masks.
I reloaded my pistol and screwed the silencer on. Kevin sheathed his knife in his boots and strapped a gun to his hip. Antonio strapped two guns to his hips, one on either side. Then threw what looked like a wallet into his back pocket.

I looked to Antonio questioningly.
I wasn’t sure what he’d need a wallet for if we were going to break into a house.

“Lock pick
s kit, in case we need to get into any locked rooms,” Antonio replied patting his pocket and smiling. I nodded in realization and approval. That wasn’t a bad idea. We might actually need them, but I was curious as to why he would have a lock picking kit. What would he need to break into?

I thought about saying something but then reconsidered.
Antonio probably had his reasons for carrying a lock picking kit and I didn’t really want to know right now. I might ask after this is all over, but for right now we need to focus on the task at hand.

Once we had all of our supplies and went over the plans one mo
re time we headed for the door of the warehouse. As we were about to shove off Betty, Andrew, Jean and Anthony all came up and gave us hugs, and wished us well on our mission. We left full of pride for the mission that lay ahead of us. But deep down I was really scared that I would never see my family again, or that I might lose one of the boys in the process of completing the mission.

I have no idea why I keep calling
it a mission, but it just sounds cool. I smiled to myself as we snuck down another alleyway. I felt kind of like a kid again, just a little bit. When my brothers and I were younger we used to play tag in the cornfield and in the alley right then it kind of felt like that. Ok it was a stretch I’ll admit that, but that’s the way I felt and it helped me to block out the fear and the doubt. If I thought of it like a game I think I could actually go through with this plan, even if it seemed really crazy.

We came to the end of another alley and Kevin was about to st
ep out when I saw something move on the roof of the Mafia house. I pulled Kevin back and pinned him against the wall of the alley. Antonio looked to where I had and ducked behind a garbage can when he had seen what I had. There was a sniper on the roof?!? What the hell were they doing here? Antonio cursed under his breath and looked up carefully from where he was crouching.

“What’s wrong?” Kevin asked quietly when I let him up. I kept my eyes on the sniper but responded to my brother’s question. “There is a sniper on the roof.”

Kevin’s eyes widened but he didn’t say a thing. I bit my lower lip thinking about how we were going to get past him. This was going to get tricky and most likely a little messy. I really didn’t want to kill anyone tonight but I would if I had to. I started to go for my pistol but out of the corner of my eye I saw Antonio shake his head. I looked at him confused. He pointed back up to the roof and I watched the guy leave his position. I looked back to Antonio and he smiled then led the way to the door. I chuckled under my breath and went out after him. I kept my gun out just in case someone came up to us while we were breaking in.

Kevin came last with his gun out and ready to shoot in case we need
ed to. Kevin pointed his gun towards the door and waited for Antonio to pick the lock. I kept my back to the door but my gun up, watching the alleys and shadows for any sign of movement. But all I could hear was the clicking of Antonio as he tried to pick the lock. Suddenly there was a loud click and the door popped silently opened.

Antonio sat th
ere triumphantly and smiled up at us. He dusted himself off, threw his lock picking kit back into his pocket and motioned for us to go in. Kevin went in first followed by me than Antonio taking up the rear. We quickly and quietly made it up the first hallway, watching every doorway. So far so good, but we weren’t there yet. Just as we were nearing the end of the hallway I felt like we were being watched.

I looked around but I couldn’t see anything. I looked closer and found a camera just slightly ahead of us, hidden in the corner
of the hall by shadows. I cursed under my breath and pressed myself against the wall. I just hope it isn’t a thermal camera. The boys looked confused so I tried to motion to the camera in the corner but they just looked more confused.

“There is a camera
on the wall,” I said through clenched teeth. The boys looked back up to the corner of the room and then quickly went against the wall. They both looked surprised and a little sheepish. We slid down the wall keeping eyes out for other cameras or for anyone that happened to be walking the halls or doors that were cracked open.

Antonio led the way to the living room. I didn’t understand why we were going there but I followed him, hoping he knew what he was doing.
We avoided cameras and a couple of the security guys that were patrolling the hallways. It took us a little while but we finally made it to the living room.

Antonio walked over to a bookcase and started to push on it, but it didn’t move.
He grunted as he put all of his strength into his pushing but it still wouldn’t move. I motioned for Kevin to keep watch then went to help Antonio with the bookcase. I came up beside him and started to push too.

Miraculously the bookcase started to move. Slowly but surely we pushed it until it revealed a small safe tucked securely behind the bookcase
and imbedded in the wall. Antonio and I pushed and pushed until the safe was out in the open.

Antonio and I looked at each other and I
nodded to him. As Antonio went to work on the safe I kept a look out. Kevin was supposed to be on look out with me but I couldn’t find him. I was starting to worry when someone grabbed me roughly from behind. I screamed, I couldn’t help it, and fought with all of my might to get away from the person that had grabbed me.