Читать книгу Red Shadows - Gaby Crumb - Страница 6

«Are you listening to me?»

«Eh?»

I looked at Cameron. It was my best friend since forever. I remember that after the death of his parents, he and Asher had spent a week at my house. We had talked about his brother, deciding together how he should deal with the eleven year brother that followed him like a shadow.

Their parents had been murdered in front of their house, before the eyes of frightened neighbors, who tried however to help as best as they could. A month later my parents were murdered too, and Cameron had never left me alone. That bloodshed was continued with Connor and Axel’s parents and Colin’s father and Robert's mother because they did not want to surrender to the Black Devils, let their children join that band.

Me, Cam, Axel, Colin, Connor and Robert were all friends since we’re children. Blinded by the hate for the Devils and hungry for revenge, we made up a team, learning to defend ourselves and to defend our neighborhood. We had become the Red Shadows, shadows with a red blood soul, like the one of our fathers and our mothers. They died to give us a chance to live a different life. They don’t want us to become a street gang, selling drugs and with an itchy trigger finger.

In the end we had become, however, a band. Overwhelmed by hate until we had lost one of us, Robert. That loss still hurt everyone. After losing him, we had calmed down and we were dedicated to protect our neighborhood without creating too much troubles. But now the Devils were trying again to enter our territory.

«Sean, come on, man, what the fuck? You're not even listening to me.»

I stared at him.

«Are we making the right choice, Cam?», I asked thoughtful.

«We're doing the only possible one, Sean. Why suddenly do you have doubts? You've convinced us to do this thing and now, what? You don’t want to do that?»

«No, I am good. I was just thinking. Will you tell Ash?», I asked him without looking him in the eyes.

«No, I will not do it. I want him out of this, Sean, I want him out of this life. I want that he studies, he is smart and deserves a better life than the one we lived after the death of our parents. I do not want he spend his time angry. I want him to find someone and built a life out of this shit.»

I nodded. I agreed. I also wanted the same things for Ash. Even if I wanted him in every way and I wanted him for myself, that does not change the fact that he should have had a different life from the one he could find staying in the neighborhood.

«Today he turns eighteen. He told me he is gay, you know it?»

«It seems to me that he did not hide it from you.»

«He said that he had doubts, then last week he told me that his doubts were over. That little shit ... I asked him how could he be sure and do you know what he answered? That when you k off thinking only about a man there was not much room for doubt.»

We both laughed. Cam was absolutely straight and he knew about my bisexuality. It was the first one to whom I had said it and he didn’t care. When I told the others, I discovered not to be the only one to be attracted to men. That day we had all taken a colossal hangover, some of us were celebrating having had the courage to come out and toasted the others because there would be more women for them, because when you said to be bisexual you ended up to ninety percent fall in love with a man. Cameron was absolutely convinced of that.

«You know that, when he’ll suffer for a guy I will send him straight to you. I do not know what to tell him and would end up shooting at that dick who will mess up with my brother. You're usually more friendly.»

I almost choked with the beer I was drinking and I decided it was time to change the subject because the memory of the day before with Ash, naked in my bed, did not want to leave me alone.

«Come on, that's enough talk. Tell me about the delivery. Was he there?»

«Yes, he was with us all the time. The trip was also fun. He and Connor get caught all the time. We delivered the goods and everything went well. Ryan took the money. We throw the bait, Sean.»

«Now we wait for him to take a bite. While you were away, Axel had a little problem with The Bulldog. The bastards shot him and hit Colin, I used an entire bottle of whiskey to convince him not to go into their territory and try to take them all out. I think those bastards are allying with the Devils. We are outnumbered Cam, we must be careful.»

«Do you want to take new recruits?»

«No, only Ryan will become part of the gang. We need him.»

«How do you want to proceed?»

«As we have always done, Cam. They have the numbers, we have the brain and now Ryan. We will not stop until even just one of those sons of bitches will be on the streets.»

«Do you never ask yourself what our parents would say if they could see us now? A gun on that we are no longer afraid to use. Sometimes I wonder how it would be if they were still alive.»

«They all died, Cam. Imagining how it would be cannot bring them back to life.»

«Go and do the hard dick-head with someone else, Sean. I know you miss your parents like me and Ash miss ours. The fact that you do not allow yourself to think about them does not make it less real than the fact that you miss them.»

I looked askance at him.

«Have you finished, Dr. Freud?

Cameron laughed.

«I wonder how you've become our boss, you're such a dick sometimes.»

«I became the chief because I am always a dick and because I am the most intelligent of you all.»

Cameron stood up and smiled at me.

«Sure, boss, believe it. We can meet at the King tonight, we take a beer and catch up with the others.»

I looked at Cam going away and for a second I was tempted to stop him and tell him that I wanted his brother. Then I shook my head. Shit, that boy would make me crazy. I had to have more sex, maybe that was why I could not stop thinking about him. If I had had sex with another man, one with whom I could be without paranoia, I would have vented a bit and I would have not thought about Ash. Being with him was not possible and moreover it was ridiculous that I was so obsessed. And then, I had much else to think about.

I grabbed the phone and called the number I had recorded only a few days before. Ryan answered at the second ring.

«Hello!»

«Ryan, it's Sean. I have just spoken with Cameron, and he told me that everything is ok.»

«Yes everything is ok. We delivered the goods as agreed. Now we just wait for our friends to even notice that they were screwed. Are you ready?»

«We will be.»

«Well, just because the Devils will know that you have fucked up the goods and have delivered it on their behalf, will break a big mess.»

«We had to take risks if we want to come out of the closet. Up to now they have sent on the street only the last recruits, if we want to take the big boys then we have to stand tall and create a little casino.»

«I know, I was there when we came up with this brilliant plan, remember?»

«I do not think I will ever forget the day when me and your boss shook hands.»

Ryan laughed again.

«What's it like being on the other side of the fence?»

«In the end we were always on the same side, only with different methods», I answered to him.

«Yeah, and that's the only reason why we are now working together. I have to go now. Do not get shot, Sean. Connor will never forgive it to you.»

«Did I miss something between you and one of my Shadows?»

«Not your fucking business, my friend. I'll be in contact.»

I greeted him and put away the phone. I hated to wait.

I was going to go home to work a little in the workshop when I saw Ash. He was with some friends, they were entering the B & B, a fast food restaurant frequented by teenagers. I swallowed as I watched him. As it annoyed me to admit it, he was still a teenager and for no reason would have to return to my bed even though every fiber of my being was screaming that it was there that he had to be. In my bed, with me next to him. Trying to dismiss the thought I stood up. I did not need to torture me again and I had more important things to think about. Too bad that my cock does not think the same way.

On Friday evening the King was filled with boys and girls from sixteen to thirty years. All they wanted was to socialize and have fun to start in a better way the weekend. The next day there would be no school, many would not have worked, and everyone could go home later. It was a safe place and it was our lair. We had helped the owner when, a few years before, had been blackmailed by a gang from another neighborhood and to thank us he kept us always the best table in a corner of the room where we had a compete view of the entire room. It was on a mezzanine floor over the other tables and a small dance floor and you could see anyone who entered. When I arrived that evening, the others were already all there.

I stood watching them for a minute before reaching them, they were engaged in a conversation and they were all laughing. If you watched them you could just see some guys a bit dark, amusing themselves all together, but I did not escape the details of each of them. Axel, as always was next to Colin. He watched him as if he was always saving him from an impending tragedy. I was amused to note how he gravitated around him attracted like a magnet without being able to admit that there was something more than friendship between them. Colin loved him but it was not a secret to anyone, no one except Axel. Colin probably would have already left the city if it was not that he could not abandon him. Often Cam and I were wondering what it would take for them to realize they love each other, but Axel told everyone he was straight, went with women, and every time it happened, Colin became silent and absent.

Connor was instead the most cheerful of them all. He was our eyes and our ears. He was the one who put me in contact with Ryan. I had the secret belief that many of the leaks that we had in the last few months were just the work of Ryan. Connor was secretive about his private life, and never introduced anyone because he knew that we knew him so well that we had only to look once to see if his companion was just a fuck of an evening or something more.

Then there was Cameron. My best friend, my right arm and more than once my consciousness. He was resting on the sofa with the new conquest. Thinking about it, it was already some weeks that Cam took her to the King. I liked Elise. She was tiny and with a skin so clear to make it seems like a porcelain doll, but she could put in place anyone who bothered her. Cameron had sweated seven shirts to be able to have a date with her, it had become a matter of principle for him and when he had gained it, we all thought that, as usual, he left her soon after fucking her. But apparently, Elise was damn smart and Cam seemed to be increasingly fascinated by her.

Finally I was there. Taciturn and always a little pissed off at the world, I would have liked to get out and make a completely different life, but when my parents were killed, every dream for the future had been buried and replaced by a desire of revenge.

The bastards would pay for all they had done to our neighborhood and to our families. We had been in a hurry to take revenge and totally disorganized we had lost one of ours. They even paid for it!

When reached the others we greeted everyone with only a nod. I sat next to Connor who wasted no time to update me.

«The cargo was delivered, Sean, everything went as planned. The Devils should meet the buyers in two days, and when they do it they will have a nice little surprise.»

«Are we sure that they do not notice before that we fucked up the goods?»

«No, but they should control the whole thing to notice right away and it will not be so because it is already packed.»

«It will not be enough, Connor. This delivery will take out only small fish. I want Lucas. I want that bastard rot in hell.»

«And I want the same thing. We need to be patient.»

«I know. It's just that we have waited so long and I'm tired I have to wait more.»

«We have to do things right Sean, or it will backfire us.»

I nodded and watched him with a half smile.

«With Ryan is everything right?»

«All right.»

My smile widened further.

«Do you have to say something, Connor?»

«No, but if you want I can tell you to mind your fucking business,» he answered me.

I laughed while Connor got up flipping the bird. I exchanged a few words with the others. Every Shadow was ready to face the mess the Devils would have discovered when they found that they have been fooled, but we still had two days before the outbreak of the confusion, and that night we all don’t want to think too much and enjoy the evening.

At King you could find everything. Women interested in men or in other women, men interested in other men or women, so I began to look around. I wanted someone to fuck for driving Ash out of my mind, anyone would be fine that night, but apparently my karma wanted to play some more, because the only person that caught my attention was Ash.