Delgado

Chapter 1

A/N - for the first time...enjoy the chapter❤️

~~~

Isabella

"The toast is fucking burning!", shit, shit, shit. Bolting it down the stairs and sliding into the kitchen I popped up the toaster and groaned as I stared at my charred breakfast, the bitter smell filling the air in seconds, "it stinks Bella".

"Well why didn't you do anything?", I pinched it out and dropped it onto the counter with a huff; Xander only scoffed and dabbed his hair with the towel that was around his neck, another was wrapped around his waist and I was praying on everything that it didn't fall.

"It's not my toast", he deadpanned and I turned on my heel, as stupid as ever.

"You're useless!", I called over my shoulder and he snicker filled my ears.

"It's my best quality!", he yelled back and I scoffed, some things never change.

Instead of going to my room to get my bag as intended I knocked on my eldest brother's door at the top of the stairs; after a full five seconds I was told to come in. Zane was perched on the end of his bed, his wrist brace beside him while he slowly opened and closed a fist- as advised by his physiotherapist to do so every morning.

"Good morning", I sat next to him and groaned, "I hate Mondays". The movement in his right hand halted, his gaze lifted and his lips twitched into a small smile, we didn't see a lot of those nowadays.

"You make that clear on a weekly basis Isabella", he pressed a quick kiss to my temple and stood, "you're going to be late for school". Shit.

"Okay, I'm going", I took a few steps towards the doorway before pausing, "you seen Cay at all? I'm worried about him".

Today was February 17th, one day after the 5 year anniversary of the death of his best friend August; and while out of character behaviour was to be expected of Caleb around this date but I hadn't heard from him at all in two days.

"He's been staying at Theodore's", he put his brace back on and inspected his hand, "you'll see him later on, off you go".

"Okay, see you later", I saluted him and took off to my room to grab my bag, "later Gio, don't eat all that kale". I rubbed my tortoise's head with my thumb and turned around; I needed to hurry the fuck up.

~~

It had been six months since he-who-shall-not-be-named showed up on our doorstep on my 17th birthday, and I'd be lying if I said things had been okay since then.

I'd be majorly lying.

Pinocchio level.

I could still see what had happened in my head: Santiago pressing the gun against Zane's forehead, Xander diving for the gun as soon as it went off, him saving our eldest brother from having a bullet in his skull but still resulting in it going into his upper arm.

The blood...fucking hell the blood.

In that moment, not one of the six of us could give a shit about even looking at Santiago as we tended to Zane on the ground; the guy scurried away and we hadn't seen him since.

Well not him personally, but that didn't mean he wasn't keeping us on our toes: Caleb had been jumped just before his 22nd birthday by some guy who he thought was a new member at his boxing gym - after being battered beyond recognisability the guy uttered five words to my brother.

The calm before the storm.

The same five words that Santiago had said to me after he shot Zane - that wasn't a fucking coincidence.