Fearless

Chapter 20

"Now, it's nothing to worry about, but we felt that we had to let you know that there's been a recent threat aimed toward us." Mom said apprehensively.

"Threat? What kind of threat?" Carter asked as Jamie finally lifted his head away from his phone in concern.

"There's seriously no need to worry guys, we will have it sorted in no time, we just wanted to make sure that you're all being careful and that you're aware of the situation." Dad explained.

"And we'd prefer it if you all go straight home after school, or just come here. No more parties or anything else for a while." Ivy explained, cuddling into her husband's arm.

Suddenly Carter, Jamie and Ryan erupted, which was as to be expected.

"No parties?"

"But I have plans, I can't just bail."

"That's so unfair, we'll be fine!"

"Boys!" Mom yelled to shut them up. "This is only until we sort everything out and know more about the situation. Then you can go back to normal, we're doing this to keep you all safe."

"We're just taking precautions in case they come closer to the area. They haven't threatened any of you thank god, they're just looking for money and dru-" Dad said before being cut off by my Mom's elbow in his ribs.

"Money. They just want money." she said, finishing his sentence as we looked at them confusingly.

"I understand that, but Carter and I are technically adults. We should have the freedom to do whatever we want, we can protect ourselves if anything happens." Jamie argued, suddenly angering his father, Blade, and causing a scene in front of the boys, who were sat on the sofa.

"Now you listen to me. You're the ones who fought to be involved in this and now that you are, we won't be having any arguments. With this job comes huge responsibility, and you always follow orders from your superiors, whether you agree with what they say or not. If you can't do that, then you can excuse yourself from training and quit right now. You may think that you're mature, but you have a lot of growing up to do boys and the mafia is not something that you mess with. I've been in your situation and I wish that there was someone who'd given me this talk, because Reed and I both had to learn this the hard way. This is not some kind of game or big joke, this is serious shit and we're doing this to keep you safe. You think you can protect yourself? Well what happens when it's 30 against 1, what are you going to do then, eh? I don't care if you're 19 or 35, you are our children and we will not be having you put into dangerous situations where you could end up fighting for your life just because of some crappy high school party, do you understand me?" Blade said angrily, pointing his finger at Jamie as he explained.

I'd never seen Blade so serious...or angry in my life and it almost scared me. I think that was the very moment that I truly realised what our families are involved in...

"Okay, fine." Jamie said, suddenly a lot less vocal after his father's outburst.

"Thank you Blade." Mom sighed. "We might sound harsh but this is for your own good guys. Usually we wouldn't even tell you about these threats but this one could potentially be quite dangerous if we didn't let you know."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, normally, if someone threatens us it's over something small and it's sorted quickly. However, the one big issue here is that the threat was anonymous." Dad explained.

"So you don't know who's threatening us?" Hailey asked.

"Not yet." Tris answered.

"But, the best way to keep you safe, is by keeping you near us and keeping you as hidden as possible." Mom added.

"We've kept you hidden for a long time, and if these people find out about you then we could find ourselves in some bad situations where they try to use you against us, okay? So until we know who we're dealing with, you're all going to school and coming home. That's it unless you're with one of us." Dad continued.

"What do you mean use us?" I asked.

"You don't need to worry about that for now, honey. Nothing is going to happen, I promise." Mom said, walking over to wrap an arm around my shoulder and kiss my head softly.

"What are we meant to tell our friends?" Jamie asked.

"What do you mean?" Kayla asked.

"Well all of your friends are in this room." Lucas said. "Ours aren't. We can't exactly tell them that we're cancelling our plans with them because our parents are trying to protect us from being kidnapped by an anonymous source in the mafia."

"Well we could." Ryan laughed.

"Lucas is right." Ivy said looking at my Mom.

"Just make up an excuse or something. It shouldn't be for too long." Dad said, brushing it off.

"People are going to start asking questions when none of us are available because of completely different reasons Dad. We all have mutual friends." I said.

"Just tell them it's a family emergency or something." Tris shrugged, leaning against the wall with one foot pressed up against it and her arms crossed. "A family friend is dying in the hospital and you have to visit her after school for the next couple of weeks. It's not that hard."

"That's a bit morbid." Will said.

"Yeah and Hope won't believe that. She knows all of you, she'll want to know who it is and I don't want to lie to her." Jamie said.

"Dude, nobody cares about your relationship right now." Ryan said to his older brother in an annoyed tone. "You're a part of this so you're going to have to lie to her. It's not a choice."

"Ryan's right Jamie." Blade said. "I'm sorry but you can't tell her any of this, you know that. Not only will it put all of us in danger, but her too."

"Then what am I supposed to tell her?" he asked slightly defensively.

"Why are you all stressing so much? Oh my god, it's not that big of a deal. In case you hadn't noticed, teenagers are the most antisocial, self centred people out there...especially your friends." Leanne huffed, referring to the boys' social group. "If they ask why you can't hang out just tell them you have plans. They literally will not care why and you don't have to tell them anything. As for Hope, just say that you're grounded or some shi- thing." she explained, saving herself from being scolded at the end of her sentence.

"I mean, she's right. If anything, she can always just come back home with us, right?" Hailey shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess that'd work." Jamie finally agreed.

"It still sucks that we can't go to parties." Carter said under his breath.

"Speak for yourself." Lucas scoffed.

"Well I'm glad that that's all sorted, but don't worry it won't be for long." Dad reassured us before my friends and I moved back to the den.

Although they all assured us that everything would be fine, I couldn't help but worry slightly at the small possibility that something could go wrong. I knew that I would now be on edge when I turn up to school. I'd barely done any training sessions and if I was put into a position where I had to defend myself again then I'm not sure how effective it'd be.

I certainly felt a lot safer with people around, particularly my parents and my brother. I suppose that's to be expected though. Families are meant to make you feel safe.