Hornet's Nest Ch. 10

The way Ellie's mouth dropped open was genuine. "Why?"

"Because... stuff." There was a look between them that said many silent words. "David found me and I tried to run, and he caught me, and I got mad and punched him in the mouth."

"And he smacked you back a good one?"

"Yeah."

Dad pinched the bridge of his nose, evidently ashamed of me. Ellie chuckled at it.

"Mister Keane, I wouldn't worry. You've got a name, haven't you? All this formality seems silly."

"Zack," Vi said, without waiting for my dad's consent. He didn't react, so I guessed it was okay.

"Zack," Ellie repeated, taking a step back for a slightly better view. "You're a fuckin' big one. Is your wife short? Seem to have robbed your son some inches." She grinned at me. "You're not growing any more, are you?"

"Mum," Vi started.

"I'm the short guy in the family," I replied. Comparing me to my dad was perhaps one of the most average things she could've done.

"That's a tall family, then." She looked back to Dad. "So, I hear you've paid our bail?"

"My wife has, officially," he replied.

"It's such a basic idea it's crazy, I admit. But we're game for it. I just don't understand why you'd let all that money go t' waste. Then again, I guess it's barely a dent in your savings, isn't it?"

There wasn't any spite in her voice. Her words were what they were, with nothing beneath.

"If we couldn't manage the costs we wouldn't be paying it," he said.

"What's the catch?" she asked.

"You give Violet all the space she needs to start a new life."

Her eyes shifted to her daughter, then back to Dad. "And you're going to provide that new life, are you?" Again, there was no spite. I kept expecting it to seep into her tone.

"Violet has to build it herself."

"Right."

"You accept that?"

Ellie contorted her lips in a twisted sort of pout, nodding and looking over her shoulder at her husb- well, no. They weren't actually married. At John. "We like t' think of ourselves as pragmatic."

"That's why you're trafficking?"

Ouch, Dad. Ellie just grinned, tilted her head slightly in a very similar fashion to Violet, and slipped her hands into the pockets of her jacket. "The trafficking jobs are the easy ones."

"Holy shit," a male voice cut in. John was finally speaking. Vi and Ellie's heads turned to him in a mild surprise.

"What?" Ellie asked, but he kept staring at Dad like he'd had an epiphany.

"Amir."

Dad's posture tensed.

"What?" Ellie repeated.

"Fuckin' Amir."

"Excuse me?" Dad said.

"Och," John scoffed. "It is you. Fuckin' is."

Violet's gaze snapped to me with wide eyes. My heartrate had already picked up the moment Dad reacted. I didn't need her making it worse.

They stared at each other, but Dad didn't seem to be recognising John in return. He just looked irritated. "As I said."

"Fuck sake." John looked at Violet and gestured at Dad. "This guy gave me one o' the worst cleanup jobs I ever 'ad."

Violet swallowed, looking between Dad, then Ellie, then me.

"So you're 'that' John," Dad finally said.

"Aye, I'm 'that' John. Och. Not surprised. Ones like you wasn't supposed to know me anyways. You made the bodies, I cleaned up, ain't that right?"

Dad gave John another appraising look, head to toe.

John looked at Violet again, like he had to explain himself to her. "He made a fuckin' pig's ear of a run, then pretty much disappeared." Or wanted her to explain herself to him. "How th'fuck you go finding someone like this? Of all the people in the world?" His gaze snapped to me. "No wonder your picture gave me the creeps. Spittin' fuckin' image."

"Now, now," Ellie started, but John's outburst wasn't done yet.

"I can't believe this. Did you name change and everythin'?"

Dad shook his head again, hooking his thumbs in his pockets. "My name was never Amir."

"Well, shit. You're doin' well for y'self these days, aren't ya? Didn't you always have that guy with you? The skinny one? He doin' as good?"

"Yeah, he goes by Sörensen these days."

Ellie let out a short burst of laughter, at John's face. He was scowling and confused, like he really needed a moment to think about that. Then he looked at Violet. "Vi. How th'fuck?"

"I just went for the hot guy in my physics class," she replied through a smirk. "I didn't know who he was."

I felt as though I'd been holding in a breath for at least a minute. I finally let it out with a light chuckle.

"Can we meet this Darren Sörensen we apparently have connections with?" John asked Dad. "Police been askin' so much shit."

"No. I'm all you're meeting."

"Fuckin' hell, this is so much bullshit."

"John," Ellie said. "Are you done?"

"Fuck me."

"Dad," Vi ventured. "You can take this a bit like an apology. He's spending two grand so you don't go behind bars."

"Och." He gave Dad another look. "Is that right? I guess me cleanin' up that body might've kept you outta prison too, eh?"

Dad just gave him a look back.

Violet gave one more helpless glance around our parents. "Zack, is it okay, if like..." She made a vague parting gesture.

Tension drained from Dad with a deep sigh. "Go ahead. We'll be at the car."

She gave me a quick and distracted kiss, then grabbed Ellie's arm to pull her down the path. John followed. I wanted to go, too, if only to listen, but she needed that time alone. Ellie tossed one more smirk over her shoulder, getting a last look at me.

Dad headed for the carpark and I lagged behind, raking fingers through my hair. "Erm," I started.

"No, I wasn't expecting that," Dad gruffly replied.

"Well, neither was I."

"Small world."

"Are you okay?"

He paused for a moment, letting me catch up. "I'm fine."

"Seriously?"

"I came prepared for more hostility than that."

"You thought they were gonna be kicking up a fuss?"

"I had no idea what they'd be like or how they'd react."

We both fell silent as we approached, then passed, two teenage girls on the path, who likewise went silent from whatever conversation they were having.

"Can you please tell me everything?" I asked a few feet later.

"About what?"

"That night that holds so many bad memories?"

He smirked. "Vi's dad will be telling her how dangerous I am and how she should run a mile."

"Fuck sake, is that what you want?"

"She can either go off with them now, or come back to us. It's her choice."

He wasn't helping me feel any better. He unlocked the car and we covered the distance, but I hesitated by the passenger door while he got behind the wheel. "Dad, please."

"What?"

"Can we talk?"

"I'm not driving off without her yet."

"No. About the fact that you fucking shot someone."

He gestured for me to get in, so I did. There was a thoughtful silence, where I think he was trying to figure out what he had and hadn't told me already.

"Tyler told you about the runs?"

"He vaguely mentioned something."

"He accompanied me when we were in uni. Drug runs. Go there, pick up that, take it to here. Cash in hand."

"Okay."

"I was already trying to distance myself from it all by then, but I kept taking the jobs."

"Why?"

"Because I needed money."

"That badly?"

"David, I needed to eat." He gave me an earnest look. "I had nothing. I was living off a student loan. Sometimes a run was barely worth the cost in petrol, but I took it. I accepted too much charity from Tyler's family over the years, too many free dinners, and they weren't even that well off."

I'm ashamed at how hard it was for me to truly grasp it. My stupid fucking cushy life. "Why didn't you just get a proper job?"

"I had a record."

"A police record."

"Yeah."

"So what happened that night?"

"We were being tracked."

"By police?"

"No, a rival gang. The time of night we were driving, someone just doesn't follow you for that many miles and take every same turn. They kept their distance, but didn't even try to make it subtle. I barely tried to shake them off, I just got angry instead. The fucking prick never turned down the headlights, you know. Blinding me in the rearview mirror. It really pissed me off. So I pulled over."

"And they did too?"

"Yup."

"What, and you went over to them?"

"Yeah. Me and Ty got out and headed over to deal with it."

"So you just fucking walked over with a gun?"

"No, I never had a gun on me. They did. They waited 'til we got close, then the pair of them got out and the driver instantly shot at Ty. He missed, God knows why. Bad aim, maybe Tyler moved. He's always had stupid fucking reflexes."

"And you lost your shit."

"Yeah. I got the gun off him and shot him four times in the face." He stared out the windscreen with his arms crossed as he talked.

"And then what?"

"The other guy shat himself, Tyler and I ran back to the car. He drove while I made a call about the whole situation."

"And got the body cleaned up."

"Yeah. We never finished that run, I dumped the package off on someone else later that night. I was done with it all. I was at university, I was trying to make a life for myself, I couldn't be fucking up like that. I didn't want to be in those situations any more. Tyler nearly died, and that was too much for me."

I sighed. "Wow. So was that the only time?"

"What?"

"That you killed someone."

"As far as I'm aware. I beat someone up pretty bad a few years before that, heard down the grapevine that his injuries killed him. Never found out if it was true or not. It was a good story, though. The branch of the gang I was in, they were quite happy if I was a known killer. More than half of that world works through reputation."

I digested the new information while I stared across the carpark at the path, hoping Violet would come back down it.

"David," he started. "Everything I have ever fucked up has been because I got angry."

"Yeah, I know."

"You never hit her again."

"What?"

"Violet. Never hit her again."

"Dad, it-"

"I don't care what you have to say. I don't care if she hits you, I don't care how many fucking times she might punch you in the mouth. You never hit her. You control it. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"You never hit anyone in this family. Not even Tyler."

"You know I'm sorry about that."

He smirked. "You learnt your lesson."

There was an awkward pause. I still felt bad about the 'kitchen incident'. I felt terrible about every time I'd shoved Wesley around. The short spat with Dad that ended with me thudding down the stairs still bothered me, and I'd never feel okay about the burst of anger I'd had towards my own girlfriend.

"Dad, I know you don't think that highly of her, but I really love Violet."

"I know you do. And she loves you, too." He nodded towards the path, where she was already walking down.

"I... I thought she'd take longer."

He grunted. "She has a few weeks for phonecalls before they go to ground."

She was hurrying towards the car, posture small and face troubled. I instinctively reached for the door and got out. She looked close to tears, rushing to cover the gap.

I gripped her shoulder. "Is everything okay?"

"Yes, it's just... it's hard. They get it, they understand. It's just... I don't... can we just go?"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, I just want to go." Her eyes watered. "Please, it's just, it's so fucking hard."

I held her for a few seconds in an attempt to calm her down. She buried her face into my chest, sniffed a few times, then pulled back and clambered through the car door for the backseat. I got in after her. Dad leant around, but took one look at her teary face and decided to leave it. So perhaps he was surprised when she spoke to him first.

"Zack, my dad wanted me to tell you that he's sorry for acting like that. He really is grateful, and stuff." She sniffed again and pulled her hoodie's sleeve over her hand, dabbing at her eyes.

"It's okay."

"And my mum hopes me and David will be happy."

He looked around again. "Slow down. It doesn't all happen at once."

"I'm fine."

"You're overloading yourself."

"No, I can't stay and talk to them, or it makes me doubt myself. I just need to go. Can we go?"

"Violet."

"Dad," I said. He could overload her, too. He started the car, reversed out, and turned onto the road. There was another long silence of everyone staring out their respective windows. Violet waited until her eyes were dry, her breathing was steady, and her voice was normal, before speaking again.

"You know, I get it," she said.

"Get what," Dad said from the front before I could.

"It's their fault. It's their fault all this shit happened, because they exist and live their lives, and I'll forever be getting caught up in it, unless I distance myself. I just hate it. Because, you know, I've realised I can't help them."

Listening to her ramble and rant had become a strangely comforting thing. If she was talking out loud, she was letting everyone else in on her thoughts.

"They've made their choice," Dad said.

"I know. And I'm making mine. They're holding me back, they always will. It just sucks. I wish things could be different."

She kept going for a bit longer until I touched her head and stroked her hair. "Brain's working hard, huh?"

She gave me a little smile. "This thinking stuff is new for me."

*

We got everybody together the day after that. Minus Hanna. Her two weeks of a holiday from hell weren't over yet. Mum wouldn't have her home until she was certain she wouldn't be 'traumatized'.

Getting everyone together simply meant making everyone talk.

If it started slow, the lounge gradually filled with voices trying to cut over each other. Mostly Tyler, who Mum scolded into silence. He sat looking like a dejected little child, and she couldn't keep a straight face. As soon as she cracked a smile, mirth picked up all over the place. Even Violet smiled.

For perhaps the first time, Wesley and I were being spoken to like fully-fledged adults, not 'the kids'. With things out in the open about Dad, Tyler was unleashed, like he'd had tape ripped off his mouth. In less than five minutes he and Dad were bantering away over their university life, this time with new stories we hadn't heard before.

"I fucking told him not to pull over," Tyler said. "For fuck sake."

"You were just as pissy as I was," Dad replied.

"Yeah, but I still told you not to pull over. And why did he shoot at me, anyways? I've never got that. You were the scary one, why go for me?"

"'Cause you looked like a little prick, Ty. You always have."

"Fuck you. Always the same shit. I mean this," he got up from his seat and gestured at the hole in the wall, "what the fuck happened here?"

"An accident moving furniture."

Tyler's expression flickered, holding in a laugh he couldn't let out yet. "Looks a lot like the shape of your fist, Zack."

"Yeah, well."

"You got mad. You always get mad."

"Fuck off."

He yelped. "Who were you swinging at? Violet? Did you miss, or was this aimed?"

"He missed," Wes declared. "He's getting old."

Dad shot him a glare and I chuckled over Tyler. Violet sheepishly grinned at the floor, then briefly made eye contact with me. She was worried it would all end up about her. Hardly.

When we were done talking about Dad and Tyler's criminal past, we talked about Mum and Darren. The conversation mostly focused on Darren's father and what he did or didn't do, but gradually moved on to his deceased cousins and uncle. Then we started getting into the whole Driscoll ordeal in haphazard chunks.

Tyler was all over that, too. "Welcome to the club," he said to Darren.

"I was already in it," he flatly replied. "I killed Jamie."

Tyler paused, then his eyebrows rose. "You know what, that is very true. But that was an accident."

"Driscoll was an accident?" Darren offered.

"You're full of shit. Shot him in the fucking face, just like Zack."

Mum spluttered and clasped a hand over her mouth, like she was shocked at herself for laughing at such a thing.

"Lia," Tyler said. "When's your turn?"

"Goodness me." She looked at Dad. "You've lost your gun now."

"Yeah," he replied, and looked at Violet. "You lost my gun."

"Sorry," she said.

Dad shrugged. "I think I'm glad to be rid of it."

"You say that," Wes started, "but you'll be sorry when a zombie apocalypse happens. You'll wish you had it back."

"Kid," Tyler sighed. "You and your fucking apocalypses."

"A gun is shit for zombies," Dad said. "Nah, you need an axe."

Wesley grinned. "Like the one in the shed?"

"Yeah," Tyler said, before Dad could. "And an oversized fucking four-by-four."

Mum buried her face into her hands as chuckles erupted. Some jokes just never got old.

"Nobody gives a shit about parking in the apocalypse," Dad retorted.

"Fucking hell," Darren groaned.

So much for serious conversation. Things were almost back to normal.

We had to talk about Hanna at some point, though. Mum had only given her basic details over time - something happened where Tyler and I were in trouble, then we were okay but in hospital, then we were out, but there was stuff with the police. She wasn't old enough for anyone to feel comfortable about giving proper details.

"You have to tell her," Wesley said. I think he surprised everyone with his adamant stance on the matter. "She already knows some crazy shit's been up. It's not fair on her."

"She's so young," Mum said. "It's going to change things for her forever."

"Well, they've already changed. She's nearly twelve. I knew things, and had to deal with things when I was younger than that. Mum, it's so important. You've got to talk with her about this."

Mum steepled her hands over her nose and mouth, staring at the floor.

"Maybe we can talk to her," I said, gesturing between myself and Wesley. "She might take it better that way."

Mum still didn't look convinced.

"What exactly are you thinking of telling?" Darren asked her. "She only needs to know about my family. She doesn't need to know about... well, this."

"Have a second conversation with her when she's eighteen," Tyler said.

I scoffed. "Yeah, because I really got told when I was eighteen, didn't I?"

"Kid, stop being a bitch. We had to wait until you were old enough, maybe you still fucking aren't. How do you think you would've taken this if you found out back when you were sixteen? Absolute shitstorm."

I had an impulse to reply that maybe, knowing when I was younger might've led to me being more careful about who I got involved with in the future. But I looked at Violet, and the words never came out. I wasn't sorry for how things happened. She needed this. It was probably good for me, too. In a weird way, I think it was good for everyone.

*

It was hard to know if Hanna took it well. She was upset when she first got home, but that was for a mixture of things. The questions quickly started and wouldn't stop. She needed to know if I was okay, if Tyler was okay. She needed to know why Dad and Violet had shouted at each other.

We told her, slowly but surely. Me, Wesley, Mum, and Dad. She got her explanation, even if certain details were strategically left out.

She had to learn about Darren's family for everything else to make sense. They'd been murdered, by bad people, because Darren's father did something bad. Violet's parents got in trouble with those bad people, too, then Tyler and I got caught up in it because we were trying to help her, then Dad and Darren, and... yeah. Then the police got involved and everything ended up okay. Because, you know, police.

She was surprisingly calm about Darren's family. I suppose she'd never formed any attachments or known them for it to have an impact. But it wasn't really that. It was how she simply accepted that bad people had attacked Darren. Like that was normal.

"Like the protesters?" was all she asked.