"What's with that look?" Dennis asked after walking into the living room to see Sam and I on opposite sides of the couch, both of us pretending to be interested in our phones.

"What look?" Sam muttered, clear disdain in his voice. He wasn't even trying to hide the scowl on his face.

I, on the other hand, kept a nonchalant look on mine, lazily looking up at the guys. Brian had his hands comfortably tucked into his pockets, Caden was watching everything happen with a curious look on his face, and Dennis had a brow raised at Sam.

"Nothing." Sam said more firmly, his patience running thin. Who would have thought that Sam could get so irritated because he couldn't hold me anymore. It left a weird sense of pride in the pit of my stomach, one that I forced deep down into a dark place that I could proceed to ignore.

I watched as Dennis and Sam argued over whether or not he was in a pissy mood.

Caden stood in front of me with a smile glued to his youthful face. He was entirely soft features, full cheeks and gentle eyes. His stretched lips were nearly the same color as the rest of him, slightly tan but not quite enough to be anything out of the ordinary. "Hello!"

I quirked a brow, tilting my head. "Um, hi?"

"What are looking at on your phone?" He asked, obviously just hoping to be included. I panicked, knowing that I wasn't really looking at much of anything.

Caden didn't give me anytime to try and find something, and I only got as far as opening Instagram up before he made his move. "Oh, isn't that your friend?" He asked after snatching the phone out of my grip. His blue eyes skimmed over whatever it was that had caught his attention.

I paused, not even sure what he was looking at until he spun the phone around for me to see a new post of Millie's. She was laying down on her couch with the Some Kind Of Wonderful DVD in her hands. The caption read:

Watching it alone isn't quite the same. I'll never take movie nights for granted again 🙃 miss you ❤️

My heart panged at the words. I missed her too. It hadn't felt quite so frustrating until right then.

"Who does she miss?" He asked when I never answered him. I hardly even noticed Brian nudging Caden in the side, I was too focused on Millie's face. She looked so sad, her glossed lips dipping into a faint frown.

"Give him the phone back, Cade." Brian's deep voice sounded, resulting in the phone falling back into my palms. That was the first time that I had heard Brian talk in a long time, finding myself almost startled by the suddenness of his words.

So much for my happy mood.

"Fine!" I heard Dennis huff from his half of the room, and Sam had a newfound accomplished look on his face. It seemed as though he won their argument. "It's time to go anyway."

Sam stood up, nodding softly to his friends. I only stared, not wanting to leave the comfort of Sam's luxurious house. This was going to go horribly and we all knew it.

"You going to get up?" Dennis said, motioning for me to follow.

I frowned. "Why should I? Can't I just stay here?"

He rolled his eyes, but Caden started to jump up a bit. "I'll stay with him. We can have fun and watch movies and eat popcorn and-"

"Cade." Brian interrupted, attempting to bring Caden out of his fantasies.

He pouted. "know, I was just kidding. Even though those guys are big and scary..." He trailed off. Something in his expression was foreign to me. It faintly resembled some sort of knowing, as though he had been in a similar situation. I seriously doubted that.

Brian pat the top of the blonde haired boy's head before motioning towards the door. As if Caden had read his mind, they both started walking out. I assumed they were going to their car.

They truly did seem to have a special sort of friendship.

"Come on." Sam said this time, looking down at me. My eyes met his hazel ones and I knew that my time for procrastination was up.

Sighing one last time, I stood and nodded, joining them as we exited the house. After a little bit of negotiating, Sam and I ended up in his car even though Dennis wanted to join us. He said something along the lines of don't leave me alone with Brian and Cade, I almost feel like I'm intruding, which made me very curious. What was their relationship? I thought that they were just close friends, but now I wasn't so sure.

Once we were both situated, I felt my body start to relax again. Even though we were willingly heading to the gallows, I felt calm in Sam's presence. Well, if I ignored the incessant beating of my heart, then I was calm.

I couldn't stop thinking about what they did to us last time. I could feel the air quickly depleting my system, and those large hands grasping my hair so tight that I later found blood droplets dried to my scalp. The way a switch clicked within, screaming at me to get him away. Because I knew that I was going to die.

Then there was Sam's face. He was covered with bruises and blood by the end of their last 'meeting'. It was all sick and twisted. Everything was illegal, meaning that there was no right or wrong. We were all going to end up getting killed in a game of cat and mouse.

"How are you feeling?" Sam asked, his eyes glancing my way as he began to pull out of the driveway.

I scrunched my nose disapprovingly, conveying all of the necessary emotions. "Swell."

He laughed, letting the smile drop into a plain face. "Me too. But in all seriousness, we need to talk about how we are going to keep you safe."

I rolled my eyes. "I hate being a fucking damsel in distress all the time."

"I know." He sighed, his shoulders drooping. "But we both know what happened last time. I can't stand to see that repeated. I like to think that they have at least an ounce of compassion, but if I'm being real, they don't. I just need to make sure you don't get hurt."

"Why didn't I just stay at your house or something? Then at least you won't have to worry about my being in the way." I inquired, trying to make sense of it all.

"They've broken in before, okay? Who's to say that won't happen again?" He explained, his hands gripping the wheel a little bit tighter.

"Why would they do something like that when it's only a halfway point?" I furrowed my brow. "Wouldn't that be a bit dramatic at this point?"

"I don't know!" He yelled. I flinched at his anger, quickly quieting down. I wasn't trying to piss him off, I was just scared. He let out a long breath, forcing himself to loosing his grip. "I don't know."

He was much quieter the second time, making me feel a little bit better.

"Sawyer." He looked at me. "I just want to make sure you're safe. The best way for me to do that right now, is to make sure you're in my line of sight."

My eyes widened at the sudden worry. When I could see him searching my face for some sort of answer to the all of the dark questions in the world, I nodded slowly.

"Just please, don't leave my sight." He whispered after returning his eyes to the road.

He was probably expecting for me to simply nod again or not say anything at all, but I wanted to express that I wouldn't. So I grabbed hold of his hand, forcing his eyes to look back at me for a brief moment.

I did everything in my power to show the determination on my face. There was no point in allowing the fear to consume me, it would only end up making things worse. I just had to entrust my life in Sam's hands, because there wasn't anything else I could do about it.

After a moment spent gazing at one another, he finally nodded just as I had only moments before. Then he looked back to the road yet again.

How we didn't crash, I would never know.

Soon the car was approaching a parking lot illuminated in neon teal. It was empty, just as it always seemed to be nowadays, and there didn't seem to be much - if any - activity going on inside of the restaurant.

When the car came to a complete stop, Sam quickly turned to me and whispered. "Don't leave my sight." As though I hadn't already heard him the other two times.

I didn't even get to respond before he was already out and standing on the old pavement. I climbed out of my side as well, taking notice of the fact that they weren't there yet. The only other cars were Brian's and what I assumed to be Ezra's. The cooks usually parked out back.

"How much longer till they show?" Dennis asked from where he was leaning against Brian's car.

"About ten-ish minutes." Sam replied after glancing at his phone.

I stood awkwardly between Sam and Dennis, trying to think of a way to fit in. I never would. They all hated me and were only being somewhat nice because they knew that we were all tied together via the same man's noose. And if one of us were to trip, it would tighten the rope around all of our throats.

"Hey Sawyer?" Caden smiled from his place next to Brian.

I looked over, wondering why he always tried to include me. Caden seemed different than the rest of them, though for a reason that was invisible to my eyes. "What?"

"We've decided to keep you in between Brian and I, so that way you'll be centered and out of possible attack range." He elaborated, speaking without the worry that those words should have held.

"Why do you guys think they want me so badly anyway?" I finally asked the question that had been bothering me all day.

Sam's hazel eyes met mine. "I hate to say it, Sawyer, but you're vulnerable. You're smaller than the rest of us and more unfit. That makes you an easy target. Especially if you add the fact that you sit at home unsupervised most of the time. Then there is also the fact that they've already personally made you a target. Meaning that they've already seen what havoc it can cause, so they might want to continuously recreate that."

I pointed at Caden. "He's a lot shorter than I am! Why isn't he an easy target? He's even one of your best friends, doesn't that make him perfect?"

Caden stuck his tongue out at me. "I'll have you know that I'm 5'6" and I have a great body guard." He tugged on Brian's sleeve.

I laughed humorlessly. "This is so fucked."

"As if we didn't already know that." Dennis muttered, at the same time in which two cars turned into the parking lot.

Instantly, everyones shoulders raised, and their faces went blank. I did my best to follow their moves, waking towards the center of the lot, and standing between Caden and Brian just like I was told to.

The moment in which people started to exit was when the intensity of the situation multiplied rapidly. My heart quickly started to rap against my ribs.

The one at the front was Drake, which shocked absolutely no one. He seemed to be the go-to bad guy throughout all of it.

"I see that you've brought extra baggage." Drake spoke, looking lazily in my direction.

Brian quickly stood even closer, boring no emotion on his face. It felt bizarre to have people who never cared about me before suddenly start to protect me

"Chill." He laughed, facing Sam instead. I watched intently as the real interaction began. "Where is it?"

Sam jerked his head towards Dennis, who was holding a brown paper bag that I had seen him pull out from the trunk of Sam's car. It wasn't massive in size, but it was large enough to raise that same question. Where was Sam getting the money?

"Is it what I asked for?" Drake continued. I couldn't tell if he was just saying that to fill his role, or because he truly didn't believe Sam.

"I keep my word." Sam answered. Not only was he maintaining his word, but he was also standing his ground. He hadn't wavered once throughout the whole thing, his eyes focused on Drake's every move, and his feet planted firmly in their place.

"We'll see about that." He murmured, grabbing the bag from Dennis and peering inside. Was it enough? How the hell was he even getting it? Last time we were in that same position, Sam said that he didn't have any. So how had that changed so suddenly? It was possible that he had it all along, it just wasn't with him nor quite enough.

In silence, we all watched as Drake began to shuffle through its contents, seemingly counting each and every dollar that had been stuffed inside. If that was only a small portion, how much was he expecting to get by the end of all of this?

Would it ever be enough?

"Frogface!" He yelled without taking an eye off of the bag.

"Yes." I shuddered when I spotted who it was that spoke. It was the man with the Who You Looking At? tattoo. His grin was crazed. I could vividly remember his hands wrapped tightly around me.

"What do we do when we've reached a deadline?" Drake asked, pacing a little bit, still without looking up.

"You mark it up." His smile broadened, showing off his crooked and yellow teeth.

A satisfied smile of his own drifted onto Drake's face. His eyes met Sam's, and he quietly responded. "You mark it up."

"I keep my word." Sam repeated, his body going rigid. The teal light lit up the scene eerily, creating deeper shadows around each shape of every crack in the pavement. It seemed that there was more malice in the way peoples faces held light.

"And your word would mean nothing in court." Drake mused, stopping directly in front of Sam, his eyes studying him closely.

"Court?" Sam chuckled without a drop of humor. "We both know what would happen in court."

Drake raised a dark brow. "And what is that? I do believe that you're just as guilty as the rest of us. Am I wrong, delivery boy?"

Sam didn't respond this time, instead simply allowing for the man to talk. I knew he was right, court was out of the option. This conversation didn't even make any sense. There would be no police involvement, and there sure as hell would be no court.

"Ah." He hummed, picking up the pacing again. "I must have struck a line."

No one dared to speak, everyone seemingly waiting for the man to just take the money and get the hell on with it.

"Aw, you guys are no fun. Should I bring the kitten boy into this again?" I watched as Sam's posture tensed. Oh, God. Drake bellowed out laughing. "You remember how much fun that was?"

When he began to bask in Sam's pissed off expression by getting closer, Dennis and Brian took a step forward. But Drake didn't do anything just yet, instead simply wallowing in the torment he was causing.

"You want to know what it felt like, feeling the life leave his body?" He hissed through his teeth, a dead serious look capturing his face. "Feeling him scratch at my hands and beg for his life with whimpers?"

I could see the fast rise and fall of Sam's shoulders as he forced himself to stay rooted in place. He was seething, and for a moment, I thought he might actually strike.

But he didn't. He held it together, just like he always seemed to.

"The money." He breathed, his voice rough and cold. I shivered from where I stood.

Drake let the smile reform, and took a step back. "How much do you have on you?"

"Everything is in the fucking bag." Sam growled, his patience starting to run thin.

Drake held up his hands. "No need to get hostile, I always thought that you would be smarter than that."

He paced yet again, coming to a stop once he was centered. "Now I've got a question for you Samson Warner-" he shook the money bag "-what do we do when we've reached a money deadline?"

Hissing out through gritted teeth, Sam growled. "You mark it up."

"You mark it up!" Drake laughed madly. "Do you understand that from now on?"

"You mark it up." Sam snarled, practically foaming from the mouth. I couldn't believe the self-control he was displaying.

"Good, delivery boy, you learn fast." Drake approached Sam in the blink of an eye, placing a hand on his shoulder. Dennis stood less than an inch away, getting ready to punch the hell out of him.

"What are you going to do next time?"

"Mark it up."

Drake smiled approvingly. "Good."

And that was all he said before walking off. Everyone who came with him seemed to know exactly what to do, following after him and driving off.

The parking lot was only refuge to us, though it felt more akin to a snare.

"Fuck!" Sam screamed out, kicking a large pebble across the pavement.

Fuck indeed.

•O•O•