Tiny Tim

Chapter 10

I made my way to the kitchen and got breakfast started. When I saw Ava make her way to the front door, I had to keep myself from teasing her about the way she walked. But then a thought struck me, and my mood switched from being amused to being more than a little concerned.

“Want me to give you a ride?” I asked her.

Yes, it was a four-hour ride there and back, if there was no traffic whatsoever, and I didn’t like her enough to offer something like this under normal circumstances. But I had absolutely no desire for her to die in a car crash because she couldn’t concentrate on the road! She blinked in surprise for a moment, but then gave me a big smile as she answered.

“No, but thank you! John will drive me back, he has to get there too.”

“John came back too?”

“He’s home.” she informed me in a casual tone. But when she saw my eyes narrow and my eyebrow rise, she quickly elaborated. “He had to clear something for work first.”

When she left the house, I didn’t hear a car door slam. I went outside to look for her and saw her walking in the direction of John’s house. How did she even get here without a car? It also wouldn’t make sense for her to drive to John’s, spend the night at his place, then walk over here at six in the morning to take a shower, and then walk back to hitch a ride to the hotel. What the hell was she up to!?

When I still couldn’t make sense of the situation after a minute, I simply decided that I didn’t care anymore. I was taking the day off from worrying about my family’s antics and trying to figure out their schemes.

The sex with Ava had me thoroughly relaxed and content with life, especially since there was no pain in my stomach despite how long and intense we went at it. I simply didn’t want to deal with anything at that moment. Who would have thought that, after drinking eased my anxiety only marginally, sex would work wonders on it.

Honoring my new resolve, I decided to simply eat my leftover pizza as breakfast. But when I made my way into the living room to drop on the sofa, someone had cleaned up my leftovers from last night. I checked the fridge but couldn’t find it in there either. Thinking Ava had already gone back to her old ways, I checked the trusty old trash can for my food, but only found the carton.

When I went up to my room, I noticed that someone had also cleaned up my empty beer bottles. But most confusing of all, someone had swiped my damn painkillers! The ibuprofen was still there, but the Zydol was just as untraceably gone as my pizza. It must have been Ava, since she was the only one I knew was home.

I pulled out my phone to ask her, but noticed four more calls from Claire I had missed last evening. That made me remember that I wanted Golden Boy to let me know about his attempt to call his bookie, so I decided to call her back.

“Tim? You alright?” I heard Aaron answer, sounding like I just woke him up.

“Aaron? Didn’t I call your wife’s phone?”

My anxiety suddenly came back with a vengeance, as my mind made up one worst-case scenario after the other to explain why Claire wouldn’t be able to answer her phone. The fact that Aaron was still at least half asleep when I called, and therefore shouldn’t be in any distress, didn’t even register with me until much later. Aaron not answering right away only fueled that fear until, after a few moments he finally spoke up.

“My Wife, whom I’d prefer to hear you call ‘your mother’, is in the shower after her morning workout.” he answered in a nauseatingly preceptive tone, that wasn’t lessened in any way by his chuckle.

“Well,” I countered, mocking his tone and chuckle, “your son ‘Tiny’, whom I’d have preferred to hear you call ‘Tim’ for the last few years, doesn’t give a rat’s ass about what you want anymore.”

“Son, we... ”

“Your daughter stole my painkillers.”

“ ... What!?”

“At least I think it was her, since she was here this morning. What’s with that anyway? I thought we agreed on you guys hiding out for a few days, and then she shows up to get her damn homework!?”

“What homewo... ” he stopped mid-word and thought for a moment. “Oh, yeah ... Well ... Her grades are important, you know? Last year before college and all that.”

He wasn’t a great actor. Ava had lied about coming back for ‘school stuff’, as she had first put it, and he was trying to cover for his little princess. She probably made that up when she panicked after she took my painkillers. Thankfully I didn’t necessarily need them anymore.

“Sure it is. Anyway, I missed a call from Claire yesterday, ‘cause I collapsed into bed after I came back from getting my stitches out. I was expecting one from your Golden Boy, though. What happened?”

“Oh, Logan tried to call them a few times, but couldn’t get a hold of them. Claire said you mentioned that would be a good thing?”

“Yeah. It means they’re ... they’re probably out of business. Make sure he tries again today. If nobody tries to reach him by tomorrow, it should be safe for you all to move over to Granny’s for the rest of the week.”

“Are you still not gonna join us?”

“No.” I answered. He seemed to expect more of an answer, though, because the only thing I heard for the next few seconds was his breathing.

“Why not!?” he finally asked.

“If they come looking for you, I’d rather know as soon as possible, so I can deter their search. If they come looking for me personally instead, I don’t need you to be in the way.”

“Son, if it’s not safe for us to be home, it’s not safe for you either. Why can’t you just joi... ”

“Because after the shit I’ve been through the last two days, the last damn thing I need while worrying about those guys coming after me, is to listen to you all happily fuck each other! Is that so hard to understand, Aaron!? Be a parent for once in your life and keep your remaining children away from the damn house! If those guys show up, I can’t deal with them and worry about your asses being around!”

Throughout my tirade, I was unable to keep my voice from rising. By the time I hung up on him like I did on Claire the day before, I was sure he was holding his phone a good foot away while still being able to understand everything I said.

The next three days were basically routine. I spent the morning going through my online courses, rapidly working through all the assignments the school had made available to me, then went to work for the afternoon. At work, however, I sat around half the time staring at the safe, thinking about what I was supposed to do with all that money. It was a hopeless task. It was a lot of money, sure, but nowhere near ‘start a new life’ kind of money. Especially since I had no means to spend it on anything more than an expensive TV or another junker car.

I finally realized why Bill didn’t want any of it. I couldn’t put it in the bank without legitimizing it first, but I also couldn’t just write made up invoices and pay them in cash, since it would only take a single phone call for the IRS to know they were crap. I couldn’t open an offshore account to funnel the money through a shell company and make the invoices more believable either, since I wasn’t eighteen yet and lacked the contacts to get the cash into those offshore accounts in the first place. And even if I could find someone to launder the money for me, without word of it reaching the people I stole it from, they would take at least a sixty percent cut for laundering it before I’d have to pay income taxes on what was left. Maybe I should just use it for all the regular shopping over the years.

After work, I stopped by a grocery store to make good use of the newly discovered benefit of not being asked for an ID when shopping with a company credit card, went home to eat, and did some more research about what Bill had told me regarding those guys’ porn productions.

I was basically trying to ease my guilt with each video I found, telling myself that the women I saw could have been the women of my family. Especially after I had tracked a few of those women down and learned what had happened to them after their videos were sold and published. Then, I finally drank myself to sleep in the living room. Not that it took a lot for me, I would never be much of a drinker with the low tolerance I apparently have, but it was also around that time when I started shooting awake at night, driven by the urge to check every door and window in the house.

I had received word from Aaron that Logan did indeed reach someone on Thursday, albeit not the one he was expecting. The call was answered by someone Logan had never spoken to before, but who was quite interested in what he had to say, so I mentally prepared myself for visitors checking out his story.

They rang our doorbell on Saturday, Ava’s birthday, the day Logan had told them the family was supposed to be back.

“Yes?” I greeted the two men standing in front of me, after I had opened the door.

“Yeah, Hi. Logan around?” the taller one of the two asked.

I had scanned them the moment I opened the door, and knew there could be trouble when I noticed the same telling bumps underneath both of their shirts. Going by the size of those bumps, they were carrying guns instead of just knives or batons. The two in front of me looked nothing like the guys I had met in the parking lot, nor like the people I had seen on the bar’s surveillance. They were clearly not part of the Bookie’s crew, too young and dressed in pricey brands, so I suspected they belonged to the guys I stole from. Hopefully they were just going after the Bookie’s current affairs to try and get some of the money back, instead of looking for leads for where the money went.

“No, sorry. The rest of the family is out.” They shared a look when I told them that.

“You happen to know when he’s back gonna be back?”

I watched them for a moment in overplayed suspicion.

“What did the dipshit do this time?” I asked in an exasperated tone I hoped to be convincing, causing them to exchange another look.

“Come again?” The look on his face as he asked was a brilliant mix of confusion and suspicion.

“Let me take a wild guess. You’re going to UT Austin with Logan and he owes you money?” I asked, giving them a knowing look. “He has a habit of bailing on his bills.”

“Huh. That makes this a lot easier. Who’re you and how did you guess?”

“I’m Logan’s brother, and growing tired of fixing his shit. That’s how I guessed. So ... how much is it this time?” I was reaching for my wallet as I asked, playing my act.

I tried not to let them notice how my body tensed when me reaching for my wallet caused their hands to move part of the way to their guns. Any indication I gave that I was expecting more than just regular college mates of Logan’s, would give them cause to see through my already poor acting. They would know that I knew, making the family’s absence look like what it actually was: Protective hiding. I was just pulling through by overplaying my displeasure about Logan’s character, but I was surprised at how calm I really was. For some reason, the thought of this going bad for me wasn’t nearly as unnerving as it should have been.

“I’m afraid it’s more than you carry around.”

That caused me to look up in surprise. I was expecting them to just take the money I offered, and then tell me it wouldn’t be enough, keeping my money as extra. These two were a lot more professional than I had seen from the bookie’s crew. Which didn’t bode well for me! Luckily, I was able to play it off as surprise about the level of Logan’s newest debt.

“Wait ... how much does he owe you?”

“‘Bout ten grand.” he said, matter of fact, watching my reaction.

I blinked at him for a moment, as my hands holding my wallet slowly dropped back to my sides. Did they increase his debt or did fucking Logan fucking lie about the amount, even as we were preparing to fucking fix it for him!?

“Did he take you out for drinks and you woke up the next morning in a bathtub full of ice cubes, missing a damn kidney?”

“He gambled. And made us cover his debt.” he informed me, still watching me curiously. When I put up a pensive act instead of responding, he asked. “What?”

“I’m thinking if I shouldn’t just let you guys bust his kneecaps instead of keep paying for his shit.” I answered in an aloof tone, causing the taller one to actually chuckle.

“Well, we wouldn’t go this far. But we’d really like to set this straight. He said he’ll be back by today.”

“Yeah, that was the plan because the Princess’ birthday is today. But something went wrong with Granny’s hip surgery.”

“Oh, sorry to hear that. Why are you not with them?”

“Some of us have to work.” I explained.

“Any way you could reach him? Maybe call him?” I could hear his voice become slightly displeased.

There was no way I could call Logan now, he’d fuck this up. But if they didn’t get an answer immediately, they would simply keep looking for him. And I feared, if I couldn’t pay them off now, they’d probably go to the hospital Granny wasn’t actually in, to put pressure on the rest of the family and thereby expose our legend. If this call played out well, however, it could further deter their suspicions, give whomever I called the opportunity to warn me if they were close by the house, and tell me if anything happened on their end.

“Sure ... let me try calling them real quick.” I said as I pulled out my phone, thinking about which one of them I should call.

Logan was out of the question, he’d panic, screw up, and my still broken rib was protesting when I just thought about fighting two guys. Aaron’s acting skills had just been proven to be non-existent a few days ago, when he tried to cover for his princess. I didn’t know if John had already joined them or was still dealing with his work stuff. I dialed Claire’s phone and she answered surprisingly quickly. I didn’t put the call on speaker, but Claire was one of those people who all but screamed into their mobile phones, so the two guys could probably hear her side of the call anyway.

“Baby?! Everything alright? Did something happen?” I heard her greet me. Me calling her obviously made her believe something was wrong, because her voice sounded like she was preparing herself for the worst.

“Wow, Mom, thanks for the vote of confidence. I haven’t burned the house down. Yet. No, I’m calling ‘cause two of Logan’s friends are here asking for him. He’s not around, is he?” I laughed while turning my back to the guys, so they wouldn’t see my face when I faked the laugh, and hoped Claire would pick up on me uncharacteristically calling her ‘Mom’ in a chipper tone. I also hoped she would notice that I really didn’t want her to go find Logan. It seemed to work, because after only a few seconds she had caught herself and played along.

“Oh ... No, Honey. He’s ... having his shift in the hospital with Mom right now!”

“Damn ... well, is Dad around?”

“Somewhere ... in the garage? Why, what do you need?” she asked, the question at the end sounded a little different from the rest. Was she asking if I needed help? Or was she simply asking for a hint about what she should say?

“Well, could you check if the others are around? Ask if Logan told either of you anything about having debt? Maybe something about gambling?”

“Gambling!?” I heard fake gasp in mock shock, causing me to involuntarily smirk. “Let me go find your father and the others!”

“Whoops. Sorry, Logan.” I said under my breath, but still loud enough for the two guys to hear. While I appreciated her acting, I was worried about Claire actually running around, telling the others that something was going on, causing unnecessary turmoil. I just wanted her to make sure that all of them were accounted for. After a minute or so, Claire came back.

“Well, I asked everyone.” She said, but then didn’t continue. I thought she wasn’t sure what I wanted to hear, so I tried to guide her again.

“None of you knew?” I said, making sure the guys at the door heard that nobody even knew about the debt, so they weren’t likely to steal from them.

“No.”

“Apparently his debt is ten grand! I take it, with Granny in the hospital, you won’t have that lying around?” I said.

With this, I mainly wanted to make sure those guys heard that there wouldn’t be anything more to get from this family. But I also wanted to point out the real amount of Logan’s debt. Yes, it was petty. So what!? If, in an hour or so, I found myself moribund, I wanted the rest of the family to at least know that the numbers Logan had given us didn’t add up in any way. Even after everyone was doing everything to help him!

“ ... No. Probably not.” Claire sighed after a second of hesitation.

“Alright. Thanks, Mom, I’ll deal with it.” I told her in a resigned tone. “Give Granny a kiss from me. Love you. Goodbye.”

After I had hung up the phone, I looked at the two guys. Throughout the call they had exchanged glances and gestures, showing me they were indeed able to hear both sides of the conversation, and they didn’t seem happy about what they had heard. Maybe that was the reason I had ended the call the way I did, despite not intending to.

“Alright. I don’t have that much cash in the house. I don’t wanna pry ... but ... I suspect wiring you the money isn’t an option?” The prospect of receiving that money, even though Claire had claimed not to have it, caused them to relax somewhat. They grinned and shook their heads, so I nodded. “I have enough cash in my office. Wanna come along and get your money right away?”

I was still hoping I could discourage them from trying anything reckless if they learned I was working in a big security firm.

“You gonna steal money from your workplace to pay for Logan’s debt?” The smaller one of the two spoke for the first time.

“Hell, No! That’s my money.” I answered, while getting my keys and leaving the house to get to my Jeep. “Not that it’s any of your concern, but I stashed it there so dipshit won’t get his hands on it again.”

That seemed to amuse them. Bill had encouraged me to paint Logan as unreliable as possible if I got the chance, so they’d know there was nothing to get from him after I paid them off, and so they would be reluctant to do any business with him again.

“No offense ... but you drive around in that thing while having ten grand in cash lying around?” The smaller one pointed at my Jeep.

He was annoyingly perceptive. I mentally kicked myself for not thinking of that and taking at least some of the money home. I just held on to my original notion of not making them think we were lucrative targets, completely forgetting about other scenarios.

“What’d you think that money was for?” I grumbled, not liking him dissing my beloved car.

After we arrived at the office building, he continued asking questions.

“Security? What do you do here? I thought you were some kind of computer whiz?” he smiled.

So they had already heard about the story Logan told when they had him in the bar, meaning they also knew about Logan telling them that I was the one who collected the evidence. However, in the same situation, Logan also told them that he had used my money to pay for his debt, which at least somewhat confirmed my acting so far. I prayed for them to buy it and brush Logan’s story off as just some guy claiming whatever to get away.

“Computer whiz ... for someone like Logan maybe.” I chuckled, trying to downplay my knowledge. “I do IT-support. I’m the one replacing all the keyboards that were drenched in slipped drinks, and ordering ink for the printers. And, every once in a while, when the internet fails, I pull the power cord from the router and act like I did something amazing after I plug it back in.”

“Huh. But you also do programming, right?”

Shit. That was all I could think of. Logan had only phrased it as “computer stuff”, so either this guy was fishing, or they had looked into me.

“I design websites and can make Apps. But that was mainly before I found this job. Why, you need one?”

“No ... just asking.”

As I led them to my office, I could see them tense up. Normally I enjoyed the cooler air down there, but knowing what I claimed not to know, I understood why they would be uncomfortable being brought into a basement. As I opened my office door, I silently thanked Bill for making me display all the garbage hardware that had accumulated in those shelves. The stack of keyboards and boxes full of cables supported my claim of doing merely IT-support.

I asked them to wait in front of the door, so I could open the safe without them seeing how much money was actually inside, and grabbed ten-thousand dollars in fifty and hundred dollar bills. I also stuffed another five-thousand dollars into my own pocket, just in case. When the safe was closed again, I called them in, placed the money on my desk, and encouraged them to count it before we made our way back to the parking lot.

“Alright. Do yourself a favor and...”

I never learned what the smaller one wanted to suggest, because he stopped when four of the armored SUVs rolled up next to us. His eyes grew big when Bill, followed by Paul and six of my other colleagues, stepped out of the cars. All of them looked quite impressive wearing ballistic vests, their batons and Walter PPQs on their sides, and even holding MP5s.

All of them greeted me cheerfully, asking about my plans for the evening and whatnot, but as each of them noted the suspicious bulges in the strange guys’ shirts, the cheerfulness vanished from their faces and they started eyeing the two with distrust. When Bill spoke up, he was eyeing those guy’s guns very obviously.

“Hey Kid. What’re you doing here on a saturday?”

“Oh, two of Logan’s friends from college came around, looking for something he forgot to give them.”

“What did the idiot do this time?” Bill asked, smirking.

“What he’s best at. Being refreshingly useless. We figured it out, though.”

As I said those words, the two strangers started nodding. They were visibly uncomfortable with the implications this situation was presenting them, which filled me with satisfaction. At least one part of my plan had finally checked out. Bill and the guys went to great lengths to showcase how close we were, and just how much trouble they could cause if anyone tried to mess with us. The two seemed to reach a conclusion and quickly injected themselves into the conversation to dismiss themselves.

“Well, we got what we needed. Thanks, Timothy.” he said, as he pulled out his phone. Hearing my unshortened name made me perk up, and I realized I never told him my name. They really had checked me out. “Tell Logan to stay out of our bar in the future.” he continued, and my body was flooded with such relief I almost fainted on the spot.

As he walked away, he had already started talking into his phone. Unlike Claire, whoever he was talking to didn’t speak loud enough for me to hear both sides of the conversation.

“We got it ... Nah, don’t think so ... Not worth it ... Let ‘im, nothing to do with us.”

That was all I could hear before they sat in their car and drove off. I was still watching the intersection their car had vanished into, when Bill’s voice pulled me back.

“You Okay, Kid?”

“I think that went well?” I asked, eager for someone with more experience to confirm my hopes.

“Well, they certainly didn’t know we were the ones who visited their bar. They wouldn’t ‘ve acted the way they did otherwise. And that last bit sounded like you’re officially not worth their effort!” he confirmed.

“Yay! I’m worthless!” I shouted, raising both arms to the sky, causing them all to smirk. At that moment, I finally realized how tense I was the last few days. “But why are all of you here on a Saturday?”

“Oh, we were on an exercise when John called me an hour ago. Looks like your mother was flipping her shit after you called, so we cut it short to check up on you.” he explained with a happy smile.

“Thank you!” I said into the round, mulling over Claire calling for help, not sure if I should value that as a sign of genuine concern or the bare minimum of parental obligation. “I’m SO gonna pay for the drinks next time we go out.”

“Why wait? It’s Saturday and late enough!” Paul offered.

“Still gotta go shopping first. House is completely eaten empty.”

“Fine with us. We can’t go anywhere looking like this, man.” He pointed at their attire. “Trust me, we tried. You go shopping. I’ll pick you up after we get the gear locked away.”

I was elated after Bill had confirmed my hope of this probably being over, and just wanted to bask in that knowledge and relax. So, I agreed to Paul’s proposal, got into my Jeep, and went shopping.

When I arrived at the house and was just getting my shopping bags out of the car, though, I suddenly remembered the third thing Logan had told those guys. That I was the one who met their guys in that Walmart parking lot. If I had remembered that earlier, I might have recognized the last bit I heard from smaller-guy’s phone call, and been prepared for what happened next. Sadly, I was cluelessly fumbling with my shopping bags when someone came up from behind me and grabbed a fist full of my hair.

My head was slammed into the Jeep’s roll hoop twice before I could react in any way. The first time slammed my just mended eyebrow directly into the damn thing, opening it up again and causing it to bleed just as strongly as it did the first day. The second push smashed my nose against my Jeep’s roof. The strong impact of the first blow had disoriented me enough to be momentarily but completely out of it, and the pain in my nose caused my eyes to fill with tears immediately, so I still couldn’t see who had grabbed me when my head was roughly pulled back and I fell to the ground.

As soon as I felt the impact on my back, I also felt heavy impacts land on my right side. Someone was kicking me mercilessly right in my kidney and liver. Still unable to see, and now even more disoriented than before, I just rolled onto my side and went into a fetal position. The next few impacts hit my forearms that I used to shield my face, but the barrage suddenly stopped and I heard a grunting noise, followed by the sounds of struggling. When I lowered my arms, blinked the tears out of my eyes, and finally looked around, I saw Paul pinning someone to the ground. It was the guy who had stabbed me! Apparently, he was out of jail and wanted revenge. Thank god he didn’t bring a gun!

Paul was anything but gentle with the guy, even after he had stopped making noises all together. I honestly didn’t care. I didn’t even care where the hell Paul had come from, since I hadn’t seen his car when I parked. I was just thankful he showed up when he did. When he himself noticed that the guy was reliably out of commission, he checked me over.

“Wow. Dude. Just when I thought your face had already hit rock bottom, you pull a stunt like this and prove me wrong.” he grinned, though I could see concern in his eyes. I must’ve looked bad.

“Thanks. You always say the sweetest things.” I replied, feeling pain in my upper lip, and noticing my voice sounding like I was at the pinnacle of a massive cold.

I had just started to assess the damage on my body when I heard a patrol car’s siren approach. Explaining to the officers what had happened took longer than at the Walmart parking lot, since, this time, there were no cameras filming the whole thing, and I was still somewhat hazy on how it even started.

Truth was, the thought of installing a surveillance system in that house never even occurred to me, despite planning and installing surveillance systems being a big part of my job. My mind was constantly occupied by getting out of that house, so why would I concern myself with securing it?

I recounted my story to the officer and listened to Paul’s additions until the ambulances arrived and whisked me away. In the ER, the doctor took a look at my face. Though my nose was bleeding, most of the blood he found had come out of my split eyebrow and a cut in my lip. He announced I would get a nice shiner under both of my eyes for a few days, but the nasal bone itself was intact. Then came the bruises along my right side, where he had kicked me repeatedly in the liver and kidney.

The Doc made me move around in specific ways and, when he noticed the pain in my face, ordered an ultrasound that thankfully came back unremarkable, though he warned me to keep an eye on it and come back in should my urine look red-ish, brown-ish, or too dark. He also took a quick look at my chest to make sure the old wounds hadn’t opened up again. Roughly an hour later, an officer came in to take my statement again, since the on-scene officer had to allow the ambulance to take me away prematurely.

“So, Mr. Brown, you told the officer on scene you already know that man?”

“Not by name, but he stabbed me the week before Thanksgiving. You guys took him in. I had no idea he was out already.”

“It seems he made bail yesterday.”

“And none of you thought it would be appropriate to warn me!?”

“He was already in county jail. They should’ve informed the coordinator, who should’ve informed you. If the release happened outside the coordinator’s business hours, you will get that notification when their office opens on Monday again.”

The officer explained this in a deadpan voice, like this wasn’t the most hilarious thing I had ever heard.

“Well, good to know. I’ll thank them for their diligent work when that happens.” I said, as he took photos of my injuries.

Another hour later, I was on my way back from the hospital to enjoy being done with Logan’s shit. I was physically and mentally exhausted, but when my taxi finally pulled up in front of the house, I noticed my groceries being ruined. I dropped my shopping bags when the guy grabbed me, causing the contents to be first trampled in the struggle, then by the police, and finally by the paramedics. So, I didn’t even get out of the car and just told the driver to get me to the nearest ‘Walmart or something’. I also informed Paul that I was okay, though I wouldn’t get any drinks that day.

For some reason, every person in the store gave me strange looks, but I was too out of it to care. I did, however, come across a mini instant-print camera, which made me think of Ava’s newest hobby to plaster her walls with printed photos of her friends. That, in turn, made me remember that today was Ava’s birthday, so I dropped the camera into my cart. I also picked up a little aluminum box labeled “Development Aid”, that I was supposed to put money in, and a gift-bag.

Somehow, this started me on a spending spree. After years of saving my money, and never buying anything I didn’t absolutely need or at least knew I would definitely make good use of, I left the store carrying some of the most useless shit imaginable. In addition to a week’s worth of groceries for a family of five, I bought an emoji pancake pan, a heated hairbrush, a bedside essentials pocket, and a starbucks-themed airpod case. I didn’t even have airpods! I was an Android Guy! The taxi driver had no problem helping me put it all into the cap. Since it was Ava’s eighteenth birthday, and I was now loaded as fuck, I put ten $100 bills into the little aluminum box before placing it together with the camera in the gift bag.

I entered the house carrying my two large Walmart shopping bags, still in enough of a daze to not think about the cars parked in the driveway, and immediately started for the kitchen to put the groceries away. I only made it to the living room, though.

“TIM!” I heard a female scream, before I was almost tackled to the ground by a sobbing Claire.

Suddenly the entire family rushed into the living room from all around the house, talking wildly over each other with shocked faces upon seeing mine. I just stood there confused as hell about why they were even home, while trying not to wince from Claire’s arms digging into my bruised side. I hadn’t had a chance to tell them that it was safe to come back, so I wasn’t expecting anyone before tomorrow evening.

“Why are you here?” I asked, dropping my shopping bags.

“Well, after you ended that call with your mother by saying ‘Goodbye’, she was panicking. So we had John call Bill to check in with you.” Aaron started.

“About an hour later, he gave us the Okay to come back. He said everything was settled.” John supplied. “When we arrived here, it didn’t exactly look that way, though.”

I looked at him questioningly, as Claire’s grip on my body tightened significantly, making me almost lose the battle for control as I silently winced.

“We saw your car out front, but then we saw the blood on it. And the door was open, with your stuff lying around like you just threw it there. We couldn’t find you anywhere and our calls went directly to voicemail!” Danielle explained, sounding a lot like she had a hard time controlling her voice, until John put his arm around her. “It scared the hell out of all of us.”

I scowled at that. Or, at least I tried as best as I could, with a freshly taped up eyebrow. I pushed my hand into my right pants pocket and pulled out my phone ... in multiple parts and with a cracked screen.

“Fucking great! He must’ve broken it when he kicked me. And are you telling me the cops didn’t even bother closing my damn car door!?” I couldn’t believe this. First they failed to inform me that the guy who tried to kill me was out and about, and then I almost got my car stolen because of them.

“Cops! What happened to your face, Son?” Aaron asked, while all of them eyed me critically.

That comment made me perk up again. How could they not know about the police being there? I mean, let me visualize what they just told me: They come home, find my open car with blood on it, the strewn about groceries in the lawn being another sign of a struggle, they realize I’m missing and can’t be reached by phone ... And then they DON’T proceed to call the cops themselves!?

Though, maybe they came home just a few minutes ago, and simply did not have a chance to call anyone after unsuccessfully trying to call me. I tried to stay calm instead of exploding again, and started rubbing my eyes with a frustrated groan. That drew their attention to my already darkening forearms, and made them take an even closer look at my appearance.

“Pumpkin, what...?! I saw the shiners, but your shirt is also covered in blood!” Granny gasped, and I saw everyone’s eyes widen a little more.

The entire time, Claire had not said a single word. She just clung to me like she was scared I would vanish, her face buried in my chest and, judging by the wet feeling, silently crying into my shirt. Her body had mostly hidden the red on my clothes, so they couldn’t notice earlier. But when Granny said those words, Claire quickly pulled away and looked at me. So did I.

“Huh.” I remarked, “So that’s why I got those weird looks when I was shopping.”

“Bill said you’re OKAY!!!” Claire suddenly shouted in an accusing tone.

“I am Okay. Only most of the blood is actually mine.” I joked. They didn’t share my sense of humor, apparently.

“What happened!?” she sounded frantic. I seriously didn’t understand why she was overreacting so much.

“Well, I paid those guys off and, like Bill told you, we’re probably fine now. As long as Logan stays out of the bar, he should be safe to go back to college as well. But, apparently, the guy who stabbed me is out on bail and nobody thought it would be necessary to warn me.” I explained, trying to get some distance between me and Claire, but she absolutely refused to let go of me. And now Granny was searching my body for injuries while Claire held me in place. “I’m fine!”

Hearing that, Claire moved in to hug me close again. But while her arms went around my chest before, irritating my still annoyingly broken rib, now her arms wrapped around my stomach, pressing directly into my fresh bruises and causing me to hiss loudly. As soon as they heard that, they basically ripped my shirt off my body and inspected my slowly darkening side and forearms.

“I’m so sorry, Baby! How bad is it really?” Claire asked, her voice quivering again.

“It’s really not as bad as it looks. The side’s just bruised. The nose bled like hell, but nothing’s broken. Well ... more broken. It’ll all fix itself in a few days.”

They all looked at me with concern, but I used the opportunity to move freely to pick up the shopping bags, and walked into the kitchen to unload them onto the counter. Claire quickly stepped close behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist this time. Why was she so clingy? I didn’t get it! Even after I was stabbed, she was not as pushy as now. Ava and Maggie quickly came into the kitchen as well, helping me to put the groceries away.

“Okay, next question. How are you here?” I inquired.

“What do you mean?” Maggie asked.

“I mean, I paid them off, like ... Little less than three hours ago. So, how did you pack, make the drive back from Granny’s that takes at least three hours at this time of day, and arrive here before me?” I asked, too tired to even suspect anything.

Instead of giving me an answer, Maggie turned her eyes away from me while Ava avoided my gaze as well.

“Well... “ Aaron started, but seemed like he didn’t want to finish, looking from face to face.

“We never actually made the drive to Beaumont.” Grandpa said with a firm voice. “Sorry, Kiddo. I accepted that you were the best suited to handle this whole dang mess, but there was no way we would just run and hide while my Grandson takes on those kinds of people by himself!”

As he talked, Granny stood beside him and displayed a firm, approving nod. What exactly did they achieve, other than putting themselves in danger? And for what? But then I understood the weird situation with Ava from a few days ago.

“You were camping out at John’s!?” I asked incredulously.

“Yes.” I heard a cheery chorus of voices, released from a multitude of smiling faces, confirm.

“Okay...” I was a little irritated by their cheerfulness, because I was feeling anything but. “What else did you do?”

“What else ... Did we do?” Grandma asked, while a concerned look spread on her face. I think Aaron or Claire had told her of my accusation of them using the opportunity to have some more orgies, while I put myself on the line for them.

“You said you wouldn’t run and hide, while I take on those people. So, apart from running, hiding at John’s, and letting me take these people on by myself ... What did you do? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not blaming you in any way here! I was the one who asked you all to leave and stay out of the way. And I meant it! I just don’t get your point.”

“Tim, we just wanted you to know that we didn’t simply abandon you! We were worried sick while waiting for an update from you!” Danielle explained in a desperate voice.

“Funny, I heard something similar from Claire. Right after you, her and Ava were so worried about me, you had a spontaneous foursome with Logan.” I commented dismissively.

“Tim ... we ... It wasn’t...” she nervously started to explain, but she seemed to have trouble finding an explanation.

“At least now I know why you didn’t need a ride to the hotel last Wednesday.” I said, looking at Ava, causing her to look and move uncomfortable for some reason. It made me remember her present, so I fished for the gift bag and held it out to her.

She hesitantly took it, pulled out the camera and looked at it in disbelief.

“Happy Birthday. It’s one of those new instant-print cameras. Kind of like those polaroids from the 80s, but in way better quality. I thought you could use it to keep decorating that wall in your room.” I explained in an indifferent tone, causing her to just stare at me for a minute. Then, for some fucked up reason, the hand holding the camera started shaking, her lips started quivering, tears filled her eyes, and she rushed out of the room.

“I’m on it.” Maggie quickly announced, already running after her.

“Thanks, Honey. I’ll be there in a moment.” Danielle called after her daughter.

“The fuck’s wrong now?” I asked into the room, earning me uncomfortable looks from all sides. Except from my back, where Claire was still standing. Her hold on my waist increased in strength, as she rubbed her face on my naked back. Her behavior was starting to get me seriously unnerved.

“Uh ... Claire ... your daughter seems to be distressed somehow. Don’t you think you should go look if she needs anything?”

I had hoped to get her off my back with this. Literally. But instead she surprised me.

“I know why she’s crying. I’ll talk to her about it. But right now, I need to hold my Baby.” she countered, sounding like she was close to tears again, before adding in a whisper “I almost lost you again!”

“Wow. All it took to finally get a hug out of my mother was me almost dying twice, huh?” I commented.

Yeah, I was an asshole to most of them for the past fifteen minutes, but that was only after they tried to sell me their bullshit lines I simply wouldn’t buy. Claire had only shown affection, which was not as bad as I would like to claim. So, I really had not intended to be mean or to hurt her. It just ... slipped out. I was tired, exhausted, hurting, confused, angry with the others, and just wanted some damn pancakes before I crawl into bed and sleep through the next two days.

I know it sounds like I’m just making excuses, but I really wasn’t. I had fully expected them to say whatever, just to make themselves look less like the shit family they had been for so long. And most of them played right into that expectation. But I wasn’t prepared to suddenly be confronted with a twilight zone version of my mother that actually gave a shit about me! Someone should have warned me!

“You might not believe it, Tim. But the last few days weren’t easy for us either. Please, just let her hold you for a while. Please! She needs this right now.” Danielle said in a forlorn voice, before leaving after her Daughter and Niece, quickly followed by Granny.

I didn’t know what else to do, so I lightly patted Claire’s hands she had intertwined in front of my belt buckle, while looking at the remaining people, silently asking for help. Aside from Claire, there were only the men of the family left, and not a single one of us seemed to be particularly adept in the emotional care department. When Claire still refused to let go of me after a minute, I decided to just move around anyway.

“What do you think you’re doing!?” Grandpa asked louder than necessary, causing me to look up and see all the guys regard me with skeptic looks, as I opened the whisky bottle and filled a fifth of my glass with it.

“Feel free to make yourself one too.” I answered indifferently, as I filled the rest of the glass with cold Coke.

I grabbed the glass and walked, as best as I could with Claire clinging to my waist, past them to the sofa. When I sat down, she simply moved around me and plopped herself onto my lap, wrapped her arms around me again, and buried her face back into my chest. The men were eyeing my drink, looking alarmed for some reason.

“You think this is a good idea, Tim?” John inquired carefully.

“The hospital wouldn’t give me any painkillers. I was supposed to still have some. Any idea where those ended up, by the way?” I asked with a pointed look at Aaron, who had covered for Ava. It was bullshit, of course, since the hospital had only given me three Zydol pills in a little paper pouch after I was stabbed, and recommended ibuprofen for my rib. But I wanted them to stop bothering me. I continued after raising my glass to them. “So, this is the next best thing.”

I had to smirk when I saw Grampa’s expression change from alarmed to surprised, before tilting his head to the side like he was thinking it over. Then he slowly pulled the corners of his mouth down and shrugged his shoulders. He was old-school enough to see the truth in my statement. I actually chuckled when he simply turned to make his own drink, causing Aaron and John to weakly protest, but we still ended up sitting around the coffee table with a drink in everyone’s hands.

“So ... you really stole from them?” Logan asked, after the alcohol had seemingly given him enough courage to talk to me.

“Yes.” I admitted, noting that my suspicion about Claire and Aaron listening in on me and Bill just got confirmed. But I saw the need to make sure he understood my new place in the pecking order. He would no longer get away with crap. “And let me tell you right now, Logan. You tell anyone about this, you try to get your hands on that money, you pull ANY crap on me again, I will break you.”

“Timothy! What the hell!?” Aaron warned, but I wouldn’t let any of them interfere, so I simply continued.

“You have no fucking clue what the last two weeks alone did to me. When I stepped in front of those three guys in the parking lot, it was to shield your mother and sister, who were about to be used as payment for your debt. When I went after their shop, it was to keep myself from going into the foster system after your videos would’ve put them into prison, and you still tried to sell me out, risking everyone’s safety, freedom, and future. It was your shit that almost got me killed twice!”

I paused, looking for any more protest, but they stayed silent. When I continued speaking, my voice surprised even myself a little. It carried the weight of the hatred I felt for Logan over the years, and the others could clearly hear the danger Logan was in at that moment.

“The others seem to have a problem making this clear to you, so I will. I already told you, two years ago, that I was done taking your shit. You should’ve listened and taken the opportunity to fix your attitude. The first day you sat in front of the school, and smiled while watching your friends beat the living daylight out of me, was the day we stopped being brothers. Screw me over again, and I will deal with you like I would with any stranger who comes after me. Do you understand me, Logan?”

“Yes.” he replied in a feeble voice, while Grandpa looked at him in disappointment over what he just heard. “For what it’s worth, Tim ... I am sorry. And just for the record ... the others made it very clear over the last week.”

His words resounded in my head for a few seconds. I would have to see how true they were. Though, at that moment, I was pretty sure it was just more of the same. He didn’t apologize because he was sorry. He apologized because he, too, noticed the way Grandpa was looking at him, and, in his usual calculating ways, determined this would be the best thing to say in order to appease Grandpa.

“Now, my drink is empty and I’m starting to feel it. So, Aaron, if you would please take your wife back, I need to lay down for a bit.”

Hearing me say that I needed to lay down caused Claire to jump up on her own, but, instead of going away, she insisted on helping me up from the sofa and leading me to the door. I stopped when I felt my stomach rumble and knew I would have to put something in there, regardless of having lost my appetite during our little confrontation just now.

“Do me a favor? Order some pizzas. With cheese in the crust!” I said, as I just grabbed whatever cash I had in my pocket and dropped it on the table. I didn’t realize that I had just casually thrown them four-thousand dollars, until I heard a quiet “Holy...” from Grampa when he counted it off.

“Kiddo ... How much did you take from those guys?” Gramps asked, still counting the money.

“Little under two million dollars.” I wearily answered as Claire continued to lead me out of the living room and up the stairs, not missing a step herself while Logan spat his beer all over the table and Aaron dropped his drink.