I grabbed a chair next to him, “What’s happening, boy?”. “You tell me” He said, “What do you mean?” I asked, acting oblivious to the whole situation. “Are you guys fucking again” he asked – I felt a lump on my throat as I tried to swallow my saliva and gasp for air, “What? Hell no!”. He looked straight into my eyes without blinking, looking straight into the windows of my soul, all he saw was pure white lies – he could see me lying through my teeth, he could tell I was being dishonest. “You better not be” he replied, stood up and just walked away. I was left alone in the cold downstairs; I knew that my life would follow the same route if I continued with my shenanigans.

I knew what was at stake, I knew that this could ruin things for all of us, but at the end of the day I’m only human, I make mistakes – I do not have complete control over my emotions and I should not always be held responsible for how certain situations pan out, shit happens.

At the moment my mind is still stuck on Faith, but I cannot stop thinking about Hailey either. Savage is the least of my worries because I trust him, but I cannot begin to imagine what the outcome will be if he ever said anything to the other guys. I know I would be judged, isolated and frowned upon. Hailey is like a sister to me, what I am doing sounds a lot more like incest – but I am not alone in this, she is too blame too and frankly she is the one taking advantage of me.

Hailey is a big girl, I’m not quite sure on how she’ll handle this situation but I’m hoping she’s mature about it, I really do not have the time to be dealing with any childish behaviors. Deep down I know this whole thing will hang over my head for the longest time, or worse – blow up on my face, she will use it against me if needs be. I must be careful and try to minimize the damage and make sure the situation is contained for now. I cannot tell what will happen in the future though, especially if Faith comes back – I just dug a hole for myself, I might as well just start building my own coffin and writing my own obituary because I am dead! 

Babushka was awake and came downstairs, he greeted me then summoned everybody into the dining room. Savage & Jake came downstairs, leaving their girlfriends behind. We all sat down, but Hailey was missing – “Where the fuck is Hailey” he asked, everybody was mute. He screamed out her name “Hailey! Hailey! Haileyyyyyy! “, no response still. “Daemon go check on Hailey” he said, “Why me?” as I lifted up my head, “It’s your fault she in there”. my heart started racing, what is he talking about? Did he see what just happened in the morning? Did Savage say something or worse did she decide to come clean; I had a thousand questions. I just decided to stand up and went upstairs, got to her room and knocked – “Hailey, please open” no response, knocked again and still no response. At this point I was getting annoyed, regrets started pouring in – she’s acting already, within hours of doing the deed.

After countless attempts at knocking and no response I just decided to open the door, luckily it was unlocked. To my surprise she was not there! I started panicking, her room was still the same and all of her belongings were still intact, nothing was moved and there was no sign of her planning to leave. I went through her things quick, checked the bathroom, searching for any signs or answers on where she might be or what she might be up to, I kind of felt like it was my fault. I started questioning myself and my actions, what have I done? Why did she leave? What did she do or where did she go? Shit. Hailey was not the kind to just leave the house without informing anybody.

I was taking too long so the boys decided to come upstairs, I decided to head out and there they were as I closed the door. “Where the fuck is Hailey” Jake asked, Babushka was heading towards me and his veins were popping out on his face, I knew it meant trouble and he was clearly running out of patience. “She’s not in her room” I replied, “What do you mean she’s not in her fucking room, Daemon” said Babushka. He pushed me to the side and burst through her bedroom door, went straight into the bathroom without knocking, came back and scanned through her wardrobe. He looked at us, “Search the whole house and quick, boys” he said, we all ran in different directions - searched our bedrooms, the bathroom, study, living room, kitchen, garage, poolside, garden and even the drive through – still no sign of her, all the cars were still parked outside and there was no sign of foul play.

We decided to regroup in the living room, and this time Babushka ordered everyone to be present in this meeting, including the female counterparts. Babushka was pacing up and down, demanding a cigarette while one is already lit in his mouth – He has switched on, “I need fucking answers” he said, while starring at everyone closely. He was good at reading people, one mistake or one flinch or any wrong facial expression and he would come for your head and eat you alive. Everyone sat down, he was the only one standing and made it clear that he will be the only speaking. 

“Before we start I need everyone to lift their hand, and repeat after me” he said, we all lifted up our hands, the following statement was made, “I will speak the truth and nothing else but the truth”, we all followed all at once, “I will speak the truth and nothing else but the truth”. “Fucking good”, he said. We were all a bit intimidated by the whole ordeal, it felt like we were being treated like children but we understood that this was for a greater course and for the good of the whole operation. At this point everybody’s loyalty is in question, and we’re all at risk here.

“When last did you guys see Hailey? Or interacted with her?” nobody answered for like a good 10 seconds, I looked at Savage with the corner of my eye and he was starring at me. “I saw her today” I said, If I didn’t say anything in the next 10 seconds Savage might’ve said something, or even revealed confidential information that would put me in jeopardy. This situation was better off if I handled it myself, used my own narrative to prevent any mistakes from happening and closing all the loopholes. I’m glad Savage didn’t utter a word, I don’t trust him when he’s under pressure – he might fold, then fuck up this whole thing.

“When?” they asked, Jake & Babushka. “She was in my room in the early hours of the morning” I said. “The fuck was she doing in your room?” Jake asked – I felt like Tupac, All eyes were on me. Everybody was perplexed because we all knew she’d never set foot inside my room, especially if Faith was around, that would never happen, that’s something that we won’t get to see in this lifetime. I hate the fact that Jake is always too quick to ask questions whenever Hailey is involved, we all knew that he wanted her, he never shied away from it – it was so deep that he could barely even hide it from us or even his baby mama, how embarrassing. I wasn’t happy with his tone either, so I had to retaliate in my defense.

“The fuck you mean what the fuck was she doing in my room? What kind of question is that Jake?” I said, “A question that needs an answer, fucking simple Daemon, no math and no calculator needed” he replied. I felt a bit disrespected by the tone and the question itself, I just had to keep it cool and not raise any suspicions. If anything, I don’t think they are aware that I slept with her but they are probably thinking that we’ve been plotting something, which is a lot worse. I am going through a lot, aren’t I? surely having a quick fuck is the last thing on my mind, especially with Hailey. Well ha-ha, they thought wrong! Don’t ever lie to yourself and think you know somebody no matter how close you guys are.

“First of all, she came to check on me and that’s something you were unable to do, secondly, is she restricted from entering my room? Thirdly, she said she could help with finding Faith, she has a few strings that she could pull in order to get me all the relevant information I need on her whereabouts – including her exact location, which is something you can’t fucking do either!” I responded, I cooked up that half-baked lie within seconds, it wasn’t a complete lie I just added a few extras to maximize the taste and make it sound more believable. “Oh interesting, sounds like a good plan, but did she mention where she was going?” asked Babushka. “No, she didn’t, last time I checked she was heading to her room, I honestly thought she was in the house all this time” I said. They seemed convinced, Jake finally pulled back and I could tell that I was out of the woods – I safely returned onto land without getting eaten alive.

Our main concern now was Savage, he was too silent and distant – he looked like someone that knew something. “You okay, brother?” Babushka asked, “Who me? Totally” he said. Babushka let it slide, but he could tell something was weighing heavy on his shoulders and something was stuck on his chest. Savage was a different character and hard to deal with most of the time, he had his loud and quiet days, you could never confirm him. I was a bit scared that he might slip something out, but I know that he’s loyalty will always lie with me no matter the circumstances, he will always ride for me as much as I ride for him – he would kill for me as much as I would kill for him, we’re tied together for life.

Babushka didn’t have any reason to question or interrogate anybody any further, we had to move onto the next step and that’s figuring out what the hell is going on. We tried reaching out to her by calling but her cell was off, straight to voicemail. We checked out her social media platforms and all her last seen’s indicated the previous day, a whole 24 hours ago. We were all worried, we started doing our own little investigations around the house to see if we won’t find any leads and still nothing valuable or tangible was found.

“What if she was abducted” Jake said, we all turned back our heads. “What?” we all said, at the same time. that’s a theory that we did not consider before, but it wasn’t too far off reach, the main question was by whom, and for what. “Don’t you think she would’ve screamed or something? Who would dare to kidnap Hailey inside of our own house, nobody has the guts,” said Babushka. “But what if she was taken from the outside” I said, Babushka really wasn’t having any of it, the more that we explored or entertained the idea the angrier he got. “NO FUCKING WAYS THAT WOULD HAPPEN, NEVER! NOT ON MY WATCH” he screamed. 

Babushka was in-denial when it came to that theory, and it’s quite possible if you look at it from multiple angles – we have way too many enemies and the police are currently having their feet up our necks. Whoever is responsible for this knows us very well, they understand just how important Hailey is, without her this whole operation will quickly turn into shambles, nobody amongst us possessed her expertise and she’d be the first piece to take away if you wanted to shut us down.

We had other theories too, what if she decided to leave on her own? What if she was offered a deal by the police and she took it? What if her and Faith both knew about this and it was a plan from both of them to escape us? I had a lot of questions. The fact that we had just slept together on the same day confused my mind even further and it wasn’t making things any easier. What if it was our last fuck and I will never see her again? Damn.

Time went by, it was noon – my mind was racing and I had a lot of weight on my shoulders, I had finally reached the conclusion that Hailey used me or just wanted to give me a last fuck before she left. After hours of doing some self-introspection and talking to myself, I decided to summon all my boys in the kitchen – I decided to come clean. They all came in, one-by-one, everybody sat down and got comfortable. “I have something to tell you guys” I said. Just as they were paying attention and listening, before I uttered the final words – The kitchen door opened, “I’m back! Please come help lift these things for me” a voice said, a sweet one for that matter. We were all looking straight at the door, all we could see was a shadow and a few grocery plastics on the ground – we all stood up and walked towards the door, then suddenly there she was.. .