Hated (20 page)

“We were going to a big operat
ion down at a port in Boston,” I explained holding on to Angie’s shoulder to comfort her. “We were taking pictures and the flash went off from one of our cameras.”

“From my camera,” Angie cut in. I kind of wanted to
hit her for being so down about this. It was an accident there is nothing for her to feel bad about. I squeezed Angie’s shoulder to let her know I was still with her.

“We were caught, beaten and left to die in an abandoned warehouse,” I continued on pretending I didn’t hear Angie.
“But they set the building on fire and we barely escaped. Angie went out the front door after some pushing from me. I jumped out the back window and landed in the water on the other side. We both got some nasty burns that day didn’t we?”

Angie half smiled and nodded
in reluctant agreement.

“Serves you right for spying,” this came from Burt. Ok now I wanted to kill him and I don’t normally want to kill a lot of people.
I was about to teach them a lesson, when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to see Antonio holding on to my shoulder but he wasn’t looking at me. He was giving Burt and Margaret his really scary death stare. When I turned back to look at the two of them they looked utterly terrified. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Angie being hugged by Markus. I guess he was trying to calm her down too.

“Leave us,” Antonio said in voice that made me shiver because it sounded so menacing. Burt and Margaret both swallowed hard and then
left as quickly as they could, almost tripping over each other in their hurry to get away. Once they were gone Antonio let go of me and Markus let go of Angie.

“So that’s why you don’t like to wear bikinis,” Markus said looking down at Angie. She just nodded not saying a word.
When Markus went to hug Angie again I saw something on his left hand. Was that an engagement ring?

“How long have you two been engaged?” I asked
, I wanted to know whether or not I had to yell at Angie for not being honest with Markus.

“A year I think,” Markus replied looking thoughtful. “I’m not really sure how long we’ve been engaged for.”

Angie looked at me sheepishly and I glared at her. Then shook my head in exasperation, I can’t believe she didn’t tell him. I was about to lecture her when I noticed something else. Angie looked a bit big around the middle and I highly doubted it was fat. The girl exercises like crazy there was probably very little fat on her. Angie noticed me looking but she tried not to show her uncertainty.

“Angie would you like to come with me for a second?” I asked her. Now Angie looked worried but once she saw that the guys were looking at her she did her best to hid
e her fear. She smiled and nodded. We left the boys in the living room and went to find a bathroom. It took a couple tries but eventually we found one.

Angie who had been quiet the entire time finally spoke up. “I don’t think I’m pregnant.”

“Yeah well let’s just be safe,” I replied and searched through my satchel until I found a pregnancy test. I handed it to her and left the bathroom to give her some privacy. After a couple of minutes I heard her call to me in a detached voice. I quickly walked in and found her sitting on the lid of the toilet with the test in her hand. She was just staring at it, stunned.

I walked over to her and looked over her shoulder at the test.
It was a positive. Oh shit…how were we going to tell Markus?

Chapter 27

Antonio Caine

Boston
1:05 am Wednesday July 18
th
2029

“They’ve been gone for quite some time,” Markus commented I could see that he was starting to get anxious. I couldn’t blame him I was getting pretty anxious too. Just as I was about to suggest we go look for them when Stephanie’s head popped around the doorway behind Markus. She looked a little pale but she was smiling. Behind her she dragged Angelina who looked way worse than Stephanie did.

“Uh, what’s going on?”
Markus asked confused, and I was right with him. I had no idea what they had done or what they were planning to do. Stephanie nudged Angelina towards Markus before she came over and stood beside me.

“Stephanie what’s going on?” I whispered to her.  She just smiled and gestured to Markus and Angelina. Markus looked stunned and then
suddenly he had this huge smile of his face. He lifted Angelina off the ground and twirled her around before he set her back down.

“So you’re sure about this?” Markus asked and Angelina nodded looking over Markus’s face. I guess she was trying to figure out if he was serious or not.
Markus gently reached out and touched her lower abdomen. That’s when I finally put all of the pieces together. Angelina was pregnant with Markus’s child…Man, I’m slow.

“Wow, I can’t believe I’m actually going to be a father,”
Markus commented in awe. But he also looked kind of scared, and what guy wouldn’t be. Finding out that your going to be a father is a big deal for a guy, kind of like how a first kiss is for a girl. Markus kissed Angelina on the lips before he bent down and kissed her stomach. As I watched, Angelina flushed a bright scarlet.

I felt a tug on my arm and turned to see Stephanie motioning for us to giv
e them some private time. Stephanie gave Angelina a piece of paper before we went to where Kevin was sitting on the floor by the fireplace, with a young boy sitting next to him. The young boy looked familiar but I couldn’t think of his name. The boy had dark brown hair and he was wearing a plain white t-shirt and a pair of khaki shorts. He was leaning on to Kevin with his arms crossed and his eyes closed.

While Kevin had
his head on his bent knee and his arms were wrapped around the same leg. It looked like he was sleeping but as soon as we got closer Kevin lifted his head and looked up at us. Kevin looked really tired and a bruise was starting to form around his left eye. The boy moved too and looked up at us and then to Kevin. I could see Kevin reach down and give the boy’s hand a little squeeze. Ok, now I’m confused again.

But Stephanie seemed to understand, because she smiled and sat down.
Not knowing what to do I sat down beside her. Kevin and the boy looked at each other before Stephanie started talking in a low hushed voice. “We’re going to need to vanish soon, preferably before things get a little too crazy.”

Kevin groaned and the boy sighed.
They both looked very upset about this. But I was still in the dark.

“Ok wait a second what’s going on?” I asked feeling slightly panicked and confused.
Stephanie looked very apologetic, so she explained everything. “We are going to an old safe house that was converted into a home, years ago by my parents and your parents. It’s hidden in the woods so no one will find us unless we give them a map. We will vanish from this world. No one will ever see us or hear from us without special permission. My father is going to meet us there, oh and the boy’s name is Ken, and he is coming with us?”

She put it as a question and looked to Kevin and Ken. Ken and Kevin
both nodded. I nodded as I let this entire thing sink in. Then I froze, wait they were going to vanish?! So I wasn’t going to see Stephanie anymore?

“Wait, w
hat about me?” I asked trying desperately to keep the emotion out of my voice. But Stephanie must’ve heard something in my voice because she turned to look at me. She smiled mischievously and held my hand.

“Would you like to come with us?” she asked trying to keep the teasing out of her voice but I could still hear it.
She had purposely left me out of the equation just to see my reaction. That was cruel but I had to admit it was a good test. I smiled and nodded. Stephanie giggled which was so unlike her but it was super cute.

“O
k let’s get going,” Stephanie said going back to her hushed voice again. We all got up and left the house, no one tried to stop us or shoot at us which seemed kind of odd. But I guess its cause things are a bit out of balance. Kevin and Ken led the way while Stephanie and I stayed at the back. We were all walking hand in hand in the dark wee hours of the morning. I was starting to put it together that Ken was someone very important to Kevin.

I caught Stephanie’s eye and motioned to Kevin and Ken. She smiled apologetically before she replied, “Kevin and Ken have been secretly seeing each other for about a year now
, but even I didn’t know about it until recently.” I nodded taking in what she had told me. So Kevin and Ken were a couple, this could take some getting used to. I hadn’t known that Kevin was gay so this made a couple of things a little awkward for me. I shook the thought from my head, he was a good guy and he deserved to be happy with whoever he chose.

As we were crossing a bridge cars were going past us super fast. No one acted like they really cared that there were kids walking on the edge of the bridge.
Another car was coming up behind us but it was still pretty far away. Stephanie turned her head to look at it, like she wasn’t sure of something.

Stephanie froze, and then asked me in a detached voice what kind of cars the Mafia
had, actually she asked what cars David had. We started walking again but faster this time. I listed off a couple and Stephanie kept turning to look back at the car. Suddenly I heard the loud rev of a large vehicle speeding up. I turned to look this time and the car was speeding down the bridge. It was aimed directly at us. Someone was trying to run us over?!

Then the vehicle swung wide and went into the oncoming traffic lane.
It was catching up with us!

“RUN!” Stephanie screamed and everyone bolted. But the car was still gaining ground. As I turned to look at the car I could see someone in the driver seat.
It was a woman I think. Oh…shit! Darcy was trying to run us over with a black van. Just then she swung toward us and pulled back at the last second. But she was too late. Darcy crashed into the metal guard railing and it buckled. She drove right off of the bridge.

I stopped running and tried to get my breathing under control. I was about to tell Stephanie that we were ok but I couldn’t find her anywhere. I started to panic. Kevin had
stopped a little further up with Ken but they came back after the car went over the bridge. They helped me look but there weren’t very many places to look. But there was one that I’d hoped we wouldn’t have to try.

“Stephanie!” I called and looked over the railing on the bridge.
I didn’t expect to hear anything but a small voice called back to me. “Antonio! Help!”

I looked further over the railing and found Stephanie clinging to the edge of the bent railing.
Her left pant leg was torn and blood was soaking into her pants. How was I supposed to reach her? The metal might bend back if all three of us pulled out it but that would still take a long time to do. That was the only thing I could think of right then though. So it would have to do. I explained my plan to Kevin and Ken, who both nodded and set to work. We pulled and pulled trying desperately to bend the metal back. Slowly it moved but not by much. If we could just get it over a little more I could reach out and grab her. We moved it a little more but it still wasn’t close enough.

“Stephanie, I need you to try to climb towards us,” I called to her and she nodded. Stephanie looked absolutely terrified as she scrambled up the metal
guard rail. I could almost reach her now. She moved a little closer and reached out her hand. I grabbed her just as the metal railing broke and fell away. But I was being pulled down too. I felt someone grab my waist and yank me back. I looked behind me and that saw Kevin and Ken had grabbed a hold my waist.

Together we pulled Stephanie back on to the bridge. Then we all just sat there panting. Stephanie still looked utterly terrified so
I went over and hugged her close. She just started to cry as soon as I held her. We stayed where we were for a couple of minutes before we continued on to the warehouse. We had ripped part of our shirts off to form a bandage big enough for the gash on Stephanie’s leg, which is why it took so long for us to get moving.

We were supposed to meet everybody there and then head out to the airport.
Well everybody except Stephanie’s father who was going to meet us at the house in a couple of weeks. But there was still something I had to do before we left. I was planning on a way to ask her for a while, however I didn’t know how. I guess there is no time like the present. I waited until we were back at the abandoned warehouse before I did the one thing that would change my life forever.

“Stephanie,” I called to her. I was sweating like crazy and my nerves were starting to get to me. But I wasn’t going to stop this time I had to go through with it.
I was shifting my weight from foot to foot when Stephanie turned to me.

“Yes?” Stephanie asked turning around to look at me. She had limped all the way to the warehouse, even after I offered to carry her. But the limp wasn’t as bad now as it had used to be. Crap, I’m off track. It happens a lot when I’m nervous.
I fumbled around in my back pocket for the ring box. I grabbed it and pulled it out.

I got down on one knee and opened the lid of the box. “Will you marry me?”

Stephanie stood there stunned and at first I thought she was going to say no. Then she smiled and hugged me with tears running down her face. “Yes, yes! I will marry you!”

I was so stunned it took me a second to register what she said.
Then I smiled, picked Stephanie up and swung her around. I put her back down and kissed her on the mouth, passionately. Stephanie returned the kiss with equal maybe more passion. We stayed like that until I heard someone clear their throat. Then I pulled away and looked up to see Kevin, Ken, Anthony, Andrew, Betty and Jean staring at us, but they were all smiling.

Then they all ran up and hugged us in a huge group hug.
We were all laughing and smiling. After we let go of each other I put the ring on Stephanie’s left hand ring finger. Things were finally starting to look up for us.