Hunted

“Keep driving.”

That girl meant business. Ramesh had just started to go pick up Jyotis – left him to spy on the five foreigners – and out of the backseat popped everyone's favourite school girl. She immediately put a blade to his neck again and pulled down on his seatbelt to tighten it to an uncomfortable extent. He obeyed her demand without a problem. They were due for a talk anyway, and he was beginning to figure out that this was her way of chatting. Not much in the way of social skills.

The Mancini girl glared at him through the rear view mirror. “Well, big guy, any news for me? Now don't start making things up, because I've spoken to a few people too. If you lie, I'll know about it!”

He nodded obediently even though he knew there weren't many sources she could go to when trying to keep a low profile. Not that he heard of anyone able to track down someone who made an anonymous tip from a pay phone. Mentioning that would be a mistake, so he pretended he was feeling self-conscious about that. “I've been hearing about a group that's been making problems for some people and it's going around that they had some beef with your brothers.”

“What kind of beef?”

“I'm not sure. I just know one of them used to be in love with Carlos.” He glanced briefly over his shoulder, but she shifted out of range. Only thing he could see through the mirror was her brown eyes. “It's Leandor Vilmiss. I'm sure you've heard of him. Well he's working with quite a few people that my brother is watching at the moment. I'm sure we'll learn more about them soon."

She let go of the seatbelt but kept the knife firmly against his throat. Her free hand drifted down from his chest to his abdomen and lower. As soon as her fingers slipped beneath his pants, she whispered, “Good boy. Don't worry, I know where that flamer lives. Drop me off outside his apartment. I have some work to do.”

Ramesh looked down at the hand in his pants, more than slightly distracted from the road. He cleared his throat, trying to regain his focus. Couldn't get too worked up. It was just a little girl and he wasn't into the whole Lolita trend. “I don't want to leave my brother alone any longer than necessary.”

“Oh, it's not far, you big baby.” She laughed cruelly. “Get going.”

~~~~~

News didn't get much worse than that. The Mancinis had been busted, and most of them would certainly be facing multiple life sentences for their crimes. Poor cute Carlos... It would be terrible to see such a beautiful boy hardened by years in prison. Leandor had seen many cuties change drastically in the joint, and many more that hadn't survived it. If he had the resources, he wondered if he would have the nerve to try and bust the family out. Though he knew he wouldn't. One of the most valuable survival lessons he had learned on the street was 'don't get involved'. As much as he cared about Carlos, his priority had to be his own skin.

Leandor stepped into his apartment, dropping his coat on a table by the door. There were animals all over the place. The kittens had found a roll of toilet paper and it was shredded all over the living room floor - one of them was even napping in a pile of it. The new dog - what did Nele name it again? Rex? - was at his feet, whining. It kept wandering away a little and then coming back to whimper and lick his leg. He cringed and nudged it away with his boot as he made his way across the room to a recliner. Dog drool was hardly something he wanted all over his good pants.

Before he could sit down, he spotted a window open. "Christ, that hobbit is always forgetting things. It's a wonder we haven't been robbed yet! Smart animals would have taken that chance to escape, you little demons." He chuckled to himself while pushing it closed and locking it into place. "How considerate of you; staying so that I can still have that fur coat I've been anticipating."

The loud responding whine made him cringe. It was like nails on a chalkboard when it started getting desperate. He glanced over to the bowl of food and water in the corner. Perfectly full, so what did that little runt want from him? Could certainly use a bath. He ignored the little thing and went to the bookcase by the TV to grab his favourite medical thriller. The dog went away for awhile and he was able to concentrate on getting comfortable until he noticed what it went to do. It was scratching at something around the corner and whining again. What the hell?

"What's that, Lassie? Timmy fell down the well?" Leandor groaned with annoyance as he dropped the book on his recliner and headed over to the hallway. The animal was at the linen closet door, going nuts with its panicking. He pushed it away and opened the closet. Might as well show it there's nothing but towels and sheets. He yawned as he watched the animal sniff around a basket full of clothes he hadn't gotten around to ironing.

A sharp bark startled him into jumping. Another followed. The dog started barking incessantly at the basket and then pushed at it with its snout. Staring at it in confusion, Leandor eventually noticed the clothing was askew. Sure he had just tossed everything in there, but he liked to keep silk, satin, cotton and velvet divided a bit. There everything was mixed with each other as if someone who didn't know how to differentiate between quality fabrics had just kicked everything up. There was no way Nele would touch the laundry, and with that window having been open... He frowned and crouched down to pull up some of the clothes and there it was. A grey box with wires sticking out of the top and connected to a dimly lit timer. 2 minutes and counting down.

There was no time to think. He had seen similar things in the past. Without waiting to find out if it was the real thing, he ran and gathered the kittens, putting them all in a deep basket and then he ran out the door, scooping up Rex along the way. With his arms full of animals, he kicked doors of his neighbours along the way and shouted at them. "Get out now! Get outside! Drop everything and go, there's a fucking bomb!" Some doors were opening behind and ahead of him, people peeking out to see what was going on. "Run! There's no time to grab anything, just get far away from this place before it blows!"

When he burst out of the building and kept running across the street, he put as much distance as he could between him and the building. He was relieved to hear the pounding of footsteps behind him. Not everyone would make it out. He didn't have time to go through every floor and hold everyone's hand to get them to safety, but maybe they'd be lucky. It could be a dud.

Leandor only made it a block away when the sky lit up from behind. He could feel the pressure and the sudden loud noise nearly blew his ears right off his head. Rex leapt out of his arms and ran off to hide in a nearby lawn. He stopped and turned around as the car alarms started sounding off. It hadn't been that big of an explosion. There were flames behind the dust and smoke clouding the windows and all the glass was blown out. Hopefully the people who hadn't got out were alright.

Not knowing what to do, he just stood there for awhile with his other neighbours. The kittens were mewling but he barely noticed them. It wasn't until Rex came back to lick his pant leg that he remembered what his next step should be. He pulled his cellphone out while he started a slow walk back to find his car. He pressed the speed dial and listened to the tone.

"What do you want, Pervert?" The charming voice picked up. It was nice to hear it through the ringing in his ear.

"Nele... Don't come home."

~~~~~

This is a collab, written together with Chlover. You can find her author profile here: http://original.adult-fanfiction.org/authors.php?no=26260