Page 6 of My Pucking Family

I take two steps towards the source of the spray when it stops. My anger slowly dissipates as I find Matilda standing beside the sink, placing the nozzle back onto the kitchen faucet. She sets her hands on her hips and steps towards me slowly.

“Come here, dear,” she commands in her no-nonsense voice, but I’m frozen in place, other than shaking my head.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. What a mess you've made.” She shakes her head as she scans the area. Likely thinking of how long it will take her to clean this up. She's also probably taking a mental inventory of everything I destroyed so she can replace it.

Shame seeps into my bones at my outburst as I lower my head and begin picking things up, when a small wrinkled hand crosses my line of vision and takes my hand in hers.

“Roman, dear, look at me,” she tries again.

I slowly lift my head, afraid that she can see straight into my soul and see how worthless I really am.

“The boys caught me up on what's going on,” she continues as she slowly tugs me towards a barstool beside Benny. “Losing your cool won't help that poor girl or yourself. Get your shit together, young man.”

“Miss Tilly!” Benny shrieks in shocked laughter. “You never say bad words.”

“Well, maybe you boys are finally rubbing off on me. Either way, you boys need to find our girl.”

I've never been so motivated by such few words, but I let them soak into my skin as I look around the room, and it seems to have hit all my men the same way.

“You're right. I'm sorry for the mess. I'll clean it up, and you can use my card to replace everything with whatever you like.” Turning towards my men, I ask, “What are we going to do about the away game coming up?” I ask no one in particular.

Slate is the first to respond, “Well, I have a plan to have the game cancelled with your approval.”

My only response is the lift of my eyebrow and nod for him to continue.

He begins typing on his ever-present laptop before turning it to me. “I checked their system to be sure I could pull it off before I offered, but if I hack the other team's rink systems, I can shut down the coolant system and melt the ice, so they’ll have no choice but to reschedule the game.”

“Do it,” I answer without a second thought. “I'm in no headspace to play a game. If you all want to go play without me, you’re more than wel—”

“Not fucking happening, Boss,” Benny pipes up immediately. “Where you go, we go.”

The twins cross their arms over their chests and nod.

Andrei, the poor kid, looks as fucked up about all this as I feel.

“Alright, Eris, Dolos, do you have anything on our least favorite people?”

“Nah, most of them don't even hold a grudge anymore,” Eris speaks first, sounding disappointed that more people weren't out to get us.

“Thanks to Slate’s hacking skills, I was able to check on Khaos, and it looks like he is throwing a charity event for his team tonight,” Dolos provides.

I look to Andrei again, but he just shakes his head and walks away again.

Slate's head is still buried in his laptop when I ask, “What can I do?” I loathe how desperate I sound.

“Give me some time. I'll find something. I swear.”

With that, I leave the room and climb the steps to the roof.

6

Ilearned my lesson last time I started to capture my consciousness. Don't start with limbs that can give me away. This time, I'm starting with my face. I need to get my eyes to open. I need to see where I am. I need to see who has taken me. I need to see ANYTHING so I can try to find a way out of here.

Of course it can't be as simple as willing my eyelids to open and cooperate just because I want them to. I will never take the simple neurological reactions of my body for granted ever again.

Since my eyelids are still on hiatus, I focus on my eyeballs. With my eyes closed, I pour all of my will into simply moving my eyes back and forth beneath the lids.

I don't know how much time has passed, but I will not diehere. Wherever the hell here is.

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