House Empty Like My Heart

Chapter 5

"Who knows" he starts casually "I could have many reason. I may want to blackmail your family member, demand ransom, sell you or or your organs, hurt you simply because I find naive little girls attractive"

This was the moment when my power to wriggle came back only if I could open the door with the back of my hand and then just jump out.

Fuck.

My wrists hurt and the moment but visible pain showed on my face the captor sighted.

"Alright, lesson is over"

What? I looked at him with confusion. He stopped the car at the side of an empty road. What if he's going to kill me

"Help, help!" I started to yell desperately and pull away from him

"Relax, my name is Charles. Charles Flynn"

What?

He's what now?

That motherfucking psycho had the audacity to grin at me.

"Why would you do that to me!" I yelled angrily.

"No yelling" he pointed his finger at me but his voice wasn't serious or threatening "and I needed to teach you a lesson"

"A lesson?"

"Don't talk to strangers"

"You've got to be kidding me"

"Don't skip school and leave somewhere without telling anyone. That one is important too"

Wait...

"How the hell did you know where I am?"

"Your phone has a tracker baby"

"You're spying on me?"

He snorted as if I said something truly amusing "Let's call it parental monitoring if I was spying on you, you wouldn't know about it" he winked at me.

"It wasn't funny" I said seriously angry right now.

"You know what wouldn't be funny either? Real kidnapping" Charles warned, his voice was more serious now.

"So couldn't you just tell me to not talk to strangers?! This was so unnecessary. Now my wrists hurt!"

He pulled the pocket knife from his black leather jacket and cut the zip tie. I could see he glanced with concern at the red marks on my skin but he didn't say any apology.

"Alright let's get going then"

"Wait!"

He didn't wait, he already started the car. Well at least now my hands were free.

"What?"

"How do I know you are who you say you are?" I asked suspiciously.

He dropped a bulky wallet on my lap. I opened and checked ID. It said Charles John Flynn. He really is my oldest brother.

He didn't look like a diplomat more like a rich playboy type with leather jacket, ripped jeans, v neck white T-shirt and messy brown hair. According to the document he was 25 so nine years older than me.

I couldn't believe some as strict, stuck up and formal like Andrew would end up with a son who's blasting loudly AC/DC in red Lamborghini.
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Oh right. We stopped. I could see him entering the pharmacy he was gone for less then three minutes and when he came back he didn't came back at the driver'a seat right away instead he sat down next to me. 

"Show me your wrists" he commanded sternly and in this strict voice I could instantly recognise Andrew.

He looked at red marks angrily, the skin wasn't cut or anything. I could feel him anyway applying the cooling salve on almost gone red marks.

Seeing how gentle he is suddenly made me want to cry. I didn't hug anyone for a long time, nor did I feel like someone actually cares. Andrew was never home. Jacqueline was kind, so was Russel but they were just workers, professionals. Not family. But this crazy person was my family and he actually cared at least a little in the most fucked up way I could imagine.

So I started crying unaware that I was teaching him a lesson as well, right now.

"Listen, kid. I'm sorry. I was a little pissed off to see you falling in my trap so easily I just wanted to scare you a little" he said gently and he looked at me with a worried eyes. They were blue I was a little jealous that he inherited such a pretty color.

"Don't scare me like that again, please" I asked quietly.

"I don't want to scare you Ellie but don't you put yourself in danger again" he warned me gently.

Oh so he knew my name, I wonder how much father told him about me already.

Wait woah, I just noticed. He had a neck tattoo.  Was that a dragon? When he grabbed me it must have been a trained move, like someone who trained in combat fighting it was so quick and efficient I didn't even notice when it happened. He was definitely going on a gym regularly, he was really muscular.

To summarize even after meeting Charles, the diplomat he was still a sort of a mystery to me. The way he handled the situation was very... undiplomatic and rather violent way.

"At embassy we have a lot of cases of missing children reported. Our family has a lot of influence people will want to use you if they learn we have a sister, that's why you can't just come and go as you please. You need to be careful. Why did you run anyway?"

"I needed some time alone. I didn't want to make any trouble, I'm sorry"

When we arrived surprisingly Andrew was home. He was actually waiting for us at the porch with his arms crossed.

Shit.

"Are we being detained Mr. Prosecutor?" Charles asked jokingly and Andrew gave him a cold stare.

"What took you so long?" He asked sharply.

"What do you mean long We're back in a blink"

"20 minutes road took you almost two hours "

"Look here Ellie, father is so worried he's standing here with a watch"

Andrew ignored him, he got closer to me and touched my cheek gently than asked his brother darkly

"Why was she crying?" He asked and I looked at him surprised. Wait, did he really care about me?

"From happiness? You know she was happy to learn her brother is so cool and handsome"

Eww.

I could feel that Andrew would be rolling his eyes if he didn't was so set on keeping his stone cold expression in place.

"It's because I learned my brother is a clown"

"Hey! How are you rising this brat?!" Charles pointed at me accusingly and Andrew smirked. For a split second. The next thing he said was in completely serious voice. He was no longer smiling.

"Ellie, we will talk in my office"

I looked at Charles who disappeared in the house but not before winking at me.

I was screwed.

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Author's note:
How do you feel about Charles?