Succumbing To His Fear (20 page)

Come on Fear. Don’t show this fucker he’s getting to you. Don’t give him a fucking inch.
Unders was scowling angrily. My lack of response to his vitriol was starting to frustrate him. I was enjoying the growing rage on his ugly face. Taking time to study him, I tried to find some of myself in him. I couldn’t, thank god.

“You people make me sick. Spreading your diseases to anyone weak minded enough to let you. No, No, NO. There is no way I am going to allow this to continue. It’s my duty to stop it now,” Unders shouted, each word growing in volume. He was working himself up and I wasn’t going to do anything to stop him. 

“Your duty?” I asked. Who the fuck did he think he was?

“Yes, my duty. I would never allow an abomination like you to share my… my… my family. The line has to be eradicated. You and your boy are the last,” he said, like it was all completely reasonable.

“So you killed Tula for what, because she gave birth to me?”

“Tula was a fucking junkie waste of space. She got arrested for drugs and tried to use me to get her scum self out of the fire.” He laughed to himself at some private joke before continuing. “Bitch thought I didn’t know. I knew everything. I always know everything. Comes to me trying to tell me that you were mine. That she would go public with that shit. She knew me, knew my feelings on certain things. Having a secret fag kid would not be tolerated by my family.”

“Spit it out Unders,” I said in a low, angry voice. I was holding onto my anger by a quickly fraying thread and was tired of all his riddles and talking in circles. 

“I knew you weren’t mine because I can’t have kids. So that left two options. Phil or Dane. I can see just by looking at you that Phil did not pull the trigger.” He laughed out loud again after that comment. “I, however, did.” What? He pulled the trigger.
Fuck,
I thought as his sick joke hit home.

“It was Phil. The man that everyone thought was you. You shot Phil and tried to frame Alfie, letting everyone believe it was you who’d been murdered,” I guessed.

Unders smiled. “No great loss in the scheme of things. I needed a throw away and who better than the man who, had he been a real man, none of this would be happening. All he had to do was keep Tula in line instead of out sleeping around and you would be obsolete.” I didn’t know how to feel about the man I always assumed was my father being dead. I thought of Hayley and what it would do to her. Fuck

“Who’s Dane?” I asked. I needed to focus on what was happening and not letting my mind wander to the what ifs. Plenty of time for that later.

“Dane was my brother.”

“Was?”

“Was. My family banished him over a decade ago. He didn’t meet the standards that we set for being an Unders.” I hoped that meant that he wasn’t a homophobic bigot, but at this point, who knew.

Keeping my eyes on Unders, I could see Littleton and several armed men approaching slowly. There weren’t many people around this far up the pier, but there were enough that drawing attention would put them in danger. I couldn’t see a gun but I doubted that the psycho detective had come unarmed.

All I had to do was keep him talking and hope Littleton knew what he was doing. Yes, I would’ve loved to put a bullet in the sick fuck’s brain, but the thought of him spending the rest of his life in prison gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling that I could live with. 

“You killed Tula and Phil. Tried to frame both Alfie and me with those murders. Hired two people to shank me while in police custody. Kidnapped and beat Alfie and plan to kill me all because I’m your brother’s gay kid. A kid I’m assuming he knows nothing about. And a brother who you yourself said you cast out of your family and have no ties to. Do I have that right?”

“You get no part of Dane. He’s mine.” Say what now?

“But I do have a part of him. I came from him,” I replied with a smirk. All I had to do was get the piece of shit to lose his cool and expose his weapon. I needed it to end and since I could see Littleton and his men were in place, it was time to take this show on the road.

Just as predicted, Unders reacted by pulling his gun from his pocket and pointing it at my head.

“Freeze… Harris Unders, drop your weapon. And put your hands up. You’re surrounded,” Littleton shouted.

Unders didn’t move the gun that was still pointed at my head. The only indication that he heard the shouts coming from behind him was the tightening of his mouth and the squinting of his eyes.

“You loved him didn’t you? What, he didn’t love you back?” I knew that antagonizing him was probably not the smartest move, but fuck it.

“Shut up, faggot,” Unders spat venomously.

“Ha, this is so funny. You’re a manic closet case. This is all because you’re jealous that I have a connection to a man who wanted nothing to do with you,” I mocked. “I didn’t even know anything about him. He knows nothing about me, yet you couldn’t deal with the fact that he never wanted you. You pathetic fuck.”

I could tell that not only had I hit the nail on the head, but I had pushed him too far. The hand gripping the gun tightened and his finger twitched on the trigger. I knew my time was up, so I stared straight into his eyes. I was not going to allow him to think that I feared him. He would never have the upper hand again. I’d stolen it and I would never give it back.

A gunshot rang out, and blood exploded from Unders’s hand. He fell to the ground. The smile that crept over my face was unstoppable. Seeing that sorry excuse of a man writhing in pain on the ground beneath me was so completely satisfying.

“What the fuck?” Littleton shouted, running to us and taking Unders’s gun away. He crouched down to check the pulse of the now quiet man. “Who fired?” he shouted.

With my smile still firmly in place, I shrugged. I knew exactly who had fired. John was one hell of sniper and no doubt already long gone. I was confident that nobody would ever know who fired that shot.

Alfie

My first thought when I opened my eyes was,
Ouch
. The second was,
Where the hell am I?
The third was,
Ouch,
again. My entire body ached and I was in that weird space between pain and numb. I looked around the room. Machines were bleeping and there were countless drips and tubes all connected in one way or another to me.

A noise from the corner of the room drew my attention and when I turned, I couldn’t help but tear up. I was going to blame my turning into a pre-teen girl on the many drugs that were being forced into my bloodstream. Fear was squished into a small wooden hospital chair. It didn’t look comfortable at all. How he was able to sleep like that was a miracle.

I didn’t want to wake him. He was obviously exhausted. If he could sleep in what looked like a medieval torture device, then he had to be on his last legs. I was content to watch Fear sleep, knowing that he was close and safe. That I could see him was enough. It wasn’t long before I was pulled back into a heavily medicated sleep.

The second time I awoke I was a little less fuzzy but in no less pain. I didn’t open my eyes because they still felt heavy, but I could hear whispered voices and I was nosey enough to want know what they were saying.

“Any change?” I heard Ben ask.

“Still sleeping, the doctor came in this morning and said that it wouldn’t be long now.” That was Fear. I would know that low rumble anywhere.

“Sheridan and the Nuggets are going to be here tomorrow. I kept them away and in the dark as long as I could but it’s time they came home. John went up to bring them back himself.” Hearing that Mum, the kids and Hayley were coming home could only mean that Unders had been caught, right?

Everything was quiet for a while until Ben spoke again. “How are you doing with everything?” That question had me listening intently.

“I’ll be better when he is,” Fear replied. I didn’t hear anything after that because I fell back to sleep but I did it feeling a little lighter.

Quiet sniffles brought me back to consciousness. A small voice at my ear made my heart break.

“Wake up Alfie. You promised you wouldn’t leave.” I could hear the pain in my little brother’s voice and I wanted nothing more than to jump up and grab him into my arms. I couldn’t seem to swim through the fog in order to fully get my body to cooperate.

“He won’t leave us will he, Griffin? I don’t want him to go,” Lily asked, her voice full of emotion. If the Nuggets were there, so was my mum.

Using all the strength I had, I broke through the last layers of medication and whispered, “Not going anywhere Nuggets.” I wasn’t sure if they heard me until Lily shouted.

“Gamma, Alfie talked to us. Gamma… Gamma.” At Lily’s words, there was a commotion of noise coming into the room.

“Alfie...? Baby?” Fear’s voice was so close.

“Hey there honey bunny. Give Griffin and Lily a hug for me will you? I think they were crying,” I said. I hated hearing how upset they were.

“Your mom and Ben are hugging them right now. Can you open your eyes for me, baby? I need to see those pretty eyes of yours,” he spoke, sounding is as if he was begging.

Slowly blinking my eyes open, I focused on the most beautiful man I had ever seen. I tried to smile and hoped I managed to pull it off. Staring straight up into those blue eyes made all the pain fade away.

I spent the rest of the morning being hugged by the guys, the Nuggets, Mum, and Ben or prodded and poked by doctors and nurses. The afternoon was spent sleeping on and off. The evening was spent much the same. I hadn’t had a chance to ask the question and I didn’t think I was mentally ready or able to comprehend everything I needed to. All I knew for sure was that Fear never left my side and at every opportunity, he was touching me as if to somehow reassure himself that I was really there and okay.

The next morning when I woke, I felt a lot more myself. The pain was still there, and according to the doctors, it would stick around for a while. That was something to look forward too.

Detective Littleton showed up at the same time my breakfast did. “It’s good to see you awake. How’re you feeling?” he asked.

“Getting better. What brings you by?”

“Just wanted to share the latest. Unders was charged and held without bail. But sometime during the night he was attacked in his holding cell and was dead before anyone got to him.” I looked straight to Fear. That hit a little too close to home. The irony that he was killed in the manner in which he tried to kill Fear did not escape my attention or Fear’s.

“No shit?” Fear asked.

Littleton replied, “No shit. There’s more.”
Of course there is
. “Due to the news coverage, a man named Dane Parker came into the station this morning. He was apprised of the latest developments. Some of the things that he shared were quite enlightening. According to Mr. Parker, he went to live with the Unders family when he was ten years old, after his mother died. She had been somehow distantly related to Unders’s mother. He reported that the whole family was strange, with Harris being the strangest of the lot. Around the age of 19, Unders started acting differently. He said that it was almost as if Unders was mimicking him. If he liked a girl, so did Harris. If he slept with a girl, so did Harris. You get the point. It all culminated with Unders trying to force Parker to take their relationship from a brotherly one to a sexual one and when he refused, Unders accused him of trying to rape him and he was kicked out. Once free of the Underses, he never looked back.”

Before I could catch up to my own thoughts Fear asked, “Does he know the rest of it?” I had no idea what “the rest of it” meant, but as soon as Littleton left I was going to fucking find out. I hated being in the dark.

“He was told and has asked that his personal information be passed on to you,” Littleton said and passed Fear a card. “With Unders’s death, the investigation has now been closed. I know your lawyer will be in contact about the charges against both of you being dropped. I just wanted to come tell you in person given everything that you’ve been through.”

“Thanks,” Fear said and shook Littleton’s hand. The moment Littleton walked out of the room; I turned to Fear and smiled.

“Explain all of that, please.”

“Basically it was all Unders. He killed Tula, tried to pin it on me. When the evidence wasn’t going to stick, he tried to take me out. It was also him who tried to frame you. He got your prints from the cup you left at the morgue the day we went to identify Tula.”

“Do you know why?”

“He was jealous of that man Dane Parker that Littleton was talking about. He might be my biological father, although that hasn’t been confirmed. And if I’m being honest, I’m not sure it really matters at this point.”

“Holy closet case Batman,” I said. Completely shocked and mind reeling. “How did you find me?”

“Shutter. The house that you were taken to was the house that Tula, he and Dane would mess around in as kids.” I’d learned that Shutter was Tula’s little brother yesterday.

“You going to call him?” I asked. I was so tired of thinking about Unders and I was going to firmly close that door. Upwards and onwards as Mum would say. Fear looked at the card in his hand and shrugged. “At least you’ll know one way or another.”

“Yeah I guess, we’ll see.” He’d call. I knew he would, because I was going to bloody make him.