Chay and Macau watched Vegas and Pete's interaction from inside the car. They couldn't hear what they were saying but from where they were sitting it looked like Vegas had no intention of hurting Pete. He clearly had a gun in his waistband, but his hands were raised as he spoke. After a while, Pete slowly turned back to look at the car with the boys in it. He just stood there looking like he was having an internal battle before he dropped the gun to his side and walked back to the car.
Chay watched as Vegas walked away and then the door to the driver's seat opened. Pete was quiet for a while as he sat staring straight ahead, "Phi what's going on?" Macau asked leaning forward to get a clear view of Pete's face.
"We're taking a detour. Your brother wants to see you before you leave."
"No shot," Chay said pulling Macau closer to him like it would do something to protect the boy were Pete to try to take him away using force.
"Porchay," Pete began in a low, cold voice, "Do you really believe that Vegas would hurt Macau or you at that? Do you really believe that?"
Chay went quiet. He knew that there wasn't a single universe out there where Vegas would do anything to hurt his brother. It had been an internal debate he'd been having with himself since Macau woke up. He knew Vegas wouldn't have deliberately set his brother up to die but with everything he'd been told, there was no other explanation for what was happening. Vegas had to have known what would happen. There was no way he didn't but at the same time, there was no way that he would have let it happen had he known.
"It's settled then," Pete said opening the door to the passenger seat and pushing the guard next to him out.
One of two things was going to happen now that Pete had decided to go against his orders. The major family would let him do what he was planning to do only to kill him once everything settled if he didn't get killed in the crossfire or, they would kill him on the spot. There was still a hand full of cars with major family guards behind him, most of whom were Korn and Kinn's detail. He took a breath to steady himself before starting up the engine. They drove for a while taking the planned route until they went through a tunnel. That's where Vegas said he'd lose the rest of the security detail. They drove passed a convoy of cars only to have those cars block the path behind them. A little further down the road Pete stopped and got out of the driver's seat and moved into the passenger seat before Vegas climbed in behind the wheel.
He looked at the two boys in the back through the rear-view mirror but didn't say anything. He just drove onto a dirt road that seemed to lead back into the city, "Why does it feel like I'm being kidnapped?" Chay grumbled finally having had enough of the silence.
"You could say that," Vegas replied.
He didn't sound like the Vegas Chay had come to know. He sounded tired and defeated. If anything it felt like he would rather be elsewhere doing anything other than driving with his boyfriend, little brother and little brother's boyfriend to what was about to be the messiest confrontation he's ever been in.
Chay decided to remain silent for the remainder of the ride. Something about the way Vegas spoke made him think it would be better if he just kept quiet and didn't try to be a smart ass. He looked at Macau who was still leaning against him fighting sleep. The boy looked up at him. They held eye contact for a while. That was all they could do after all. Two helpless kids caught up in the middle of some weird gang war within a family. They looked into each other's eyes hoping to find a sense of calm but what they both found in each other was a calm silent panic. The kind when you know that panicking outward won't do anything to help the situation so you try to contain it as much as you can.
Macau took Chay's hand into him almost flinching at how cold his hand was. He rubbed circles on the back of Chay's hand with his thumb while keeping his eyes on their hands, "Your hands are warm," Chay said lightly resting his head on the side of Macau's which was on his shoulder.
"One of us has to stay warm to heat the other up. No?"
Chay smiled at Macau's words, but I didn't reach his eyes. If anything it made him want to cry but, he held his tears back and shook his head looking away.
They arrived at the minor family house which looked nothing like the house Macau had grown up calling his home. It was littered with people holding guns looking like they were ready for war. It didn't have the relaxed familiar ambience it had before. Vegas led them into the house into a meeting room. Macau paused at the door to the room when he saw Att sitting in one of the chairs around the big table in the room sucking on a lollipop. The boy beamed when he saw Vegas, slipping out of the chair to attach himself to the man's side.
The boys felt Pete tense up as he watched the scene before him but he diverted his attention to the other people in the room. Hanzo Yagami was sitting on a couch in the corner of the room playing with a switchblade while Nam and the man who had roughed Macau up sat snickering at the three standing at the door. Vegas looked back at them before rolling his eyes, "Well sit down, you're making the room feel crowded."
"Hi, Macau," Nam crooned as the boy made his way across the room to the couches where Hanzo was sitting.
Yagami was crazy, yes, but he was the kind of crazy that Macau felt safe being around. He was predictable while Nam was a fearless fool. The man did what he wanted when he wanted, and he didn't care who he pissed off along the way. Chay glared at Yagami watching the light dance on his blade and he swung it around. He suddenly stopped and looked at Chay through his thick lashes, "Wasn't expecting to see you here today."
"Took the words right out my mouth," Chay replied holding the man's eyes.
"You've gotten fearless," Hanzo crooned, "First time we met you looked like you were about to piss your pants but look at you now."
Chay narrowed his eyes and looked back to the room where Pete was talking to Vegas while Att stared at Pete like he'd jump on him if he did something he didn't like, "I like you better like this."
Chay snapped his headback to find Hanzo standing from the couch while smirking at Macau. The boyknew he was too weak to do anything. Hanzo knew this too. What both of themdidn't know was how Vegas would react if a fight did break out between the twoso Hanzo was trying to provoke the boy, despite there being some truth to hiswords. He walked out of the room without so much as a word to Vegas or anyone else in the room.
The boys sat in silence for a while until the doors opened and someone who should have been dead walked in. Macau shot up to his feat when Gelato, Don's right hand walked in. The last he heard Don and Gelato along with their men were killed by Vegas and Porsche long before Khan died. The man whispered something to Vegas before looking past him at Macau and smirking. Vegas looked over his shoulder for a second. He said something to Gelato and the man nodded before taking a seat at the table next to Att.
Between having to run in the middle of the night and being taken by Vegas to seeing Nam, Chay had become positively feral. He was basically vibrating where he sat, and he hadn't spoken in a long time. When Macau sat back down the boy grabbed his hand and squeezed, "Are you in pain?" he asked.
"A little," Macau replied trying to decipher the crazy look his boyfriend had in his eyes.
"Okay."
With that Chay slowly rose to his seat and walked up to the table to where Vegas was still talking to Pete, "Do you need something?" Pete asked when the boy was standing in front of him.
"Not exactly I just have two questions," he waited for a second and when neither Vegas nor Pete spoke, he took it as a go-ahead, "One, you can't hurt me until Porsche gets here, correct?"
Vegas narrowed his eyes but still nodded, "And two...can someone bring me my bag and something for Macau to eat, he needs to take his meds."
Vegas called the big man sitting next to Nam and told him to go get the bag in the car they came in. Once he was out of the room Chay walked up to Nam and smiled at him, "I hear you almost killed my boyfriend," he said like he was asking about the weather.
If the room was quiet before, and eery din fell over the room, "Wherever did you hear that?" the man asked smiling.
Still smiling Chay took the crystal glass that still had Nam's drink in it from the table and swung as hard as he could at his head. He kept swinging until he felt something warm covering his hand and the glass had broken. He dropped the glass and looked at his hand taking in the bloodied mess it had become. He pulled a face at the sight and clicked his tongue before walking closer to Nam and using his shirt to wipe the blood off. Once he was satisfied that he had cleaned enough blood off the looked across the table at Nam who looked shocked out of his wits. The boy then looked at Pete and Vegas who both looked shocked but didn't move or say anything before he looked back at Att with a near-devilish smile on his face.
He knew what was happening. He knew what he was doing. He just didn't feel like he was the one doing the things that he was doing and while that should have scared him it made him feel a little indestructible. He made his way around the table until he was standing in front of Att. The boy tried to get out of the chair, but Chay pushed him back down and that was when he heard movement behind him. He looked over his shoulder where Vegas had moved from where he was standing before but Pete was holding his arm stopping him from going any further. Chay looked back at Att who now had beads of sweat formed along his hairline, "You look scared. Are you scared?" Chay crooned.
He didn't recognise his voice. It carried the kind of poison he heard in Kinn's voice when he was very angry about something. It was calm and smooth, almost as if lulling you into a false state of calm all while holding a certain level of crazy and hostility. He leaned in until he was next to Att's ear before whispering, "You should have been sacred the second you thought of opening your legs up for a taken man you little whore."
He brought an open hand to Att's cheek as he finished talking leaving a harsh red mark to form almost immediately. His hand stung a little, but he didn't care he just turned to look at Vegas, "If I had a gun, you'd have a bullet in your throat right now. But I don't have a gun and you're Macau's brother so I wouldn't hurt you because I'd be hurting him more."
The look he saw on Macau's face when he turned back around to make his way back to his boyfriend was unlike anything Chay had ever seen on the boy's face. It was switching between awe, fear and shock which made sense given what he had just seen. Chay waddled back to the couch and slumped onto the couch clinging onto Macau like he hadn't just bashed someone's head in, slapped someone and threatened his brother. Macau let out a scoff and wrapped his arms around the little boy at his side while looking over to where his brother stood. Pete looked like he wanted to laugh while Vegas couldn't seem to decide what he was feeling.
They called someone in to take Nam out of the room because he was bleeding all over the floor. When the big man that had been with Nam walked into the room he froze at the door as he took in the sight before him. The boys were huddled together in the back of the room while Att was crying with his hand on his cheek while Vegas and Pete talked like there was nothing going on in the room. Gelato too looked indifferent to the situation. He walked to the couch to hand Chay the bag before going back out to find Macau something to eat, "I'm going to need a first aid kit too," Chay said looking at up the man, "And if you don't want to end up like your boy Nam, I suggest you don't try anything funny in the future, near or otherwise," he added smiling.
Immunity. Porchay had a level of immunity he wouldn't have had if his brother wasn't dating the heir of the main family. He knew that nobody in that building could hurt him despite the tense situation between the two sides. There was honour among murderers after all. The Teerapanyakul family, Yakuza and Italians were after all mafia and not some little back-alley gang. Along with his immunity, Chay had a newfound confidence and for a second, just for a second, he thought it would have been better to embrace the mafia life rather than resist. That thought was however evaporated when he heard gunshots coming from outside.