Reality

“Really? You think so?” Brandon asked of his friend, managing to speak after the initial shock of those words.
“I don’t think so,” he said shortly.
“I know it,” Brandon finished for him. “Yeah, all right… I’ve never known you to be so crazy.”
“I’ve never known you to be so ignorant,” James said under his breath, and Brandon chose to ignore it.
He realized he was latching onto James’s words, the idea that he might—no, scratch that—is in love with Andrea, the girl he so readily protected as a big brother. As he thought of her, he suddenly became aware that they were alone in the alley. Panic seized him.
“Where’d she go?”
“I suspect the limo Ryan had planned to take her to, parked just outside of this alleyway,” his butler answered matter-of-factly.
Brandon raced down the corridor, frantically searching for the limo James spoke of but it was nowhere in sight.
James had followed, now saying, “Correction. Was parked.”
He rounded on his butler and friend, accusation and anger welling. “You knew, didn’t you?”
“Knew what?”
“That they left!” he snapped, then stalked down the sidewalk.
The front of the hospital, the parking lot, was dark and the entrance closed. A couple of security guards remained outside, one of them sitting on a bench next to one side of the glass doors. He appeared awake, but his head was bowed and the blue cap on his head slid over his forehead. The other guard looked asleep.
Brandon stared at the one nearest him, the one on the bench, wondering what gave him a feeling of animosity toward him. As if aware of his gaze, but not totally sure where he might be or if another presence were there, the guard looked up and glanced around the parking lot.
Brandon looked away, seeing with his peripheral vision the man shrug and bow his head down again. He started forward, but a white gloved hand stopped him with a touch on his sleeve.
“Wait. He gives me a bad feeling. What are you doing?” James asked.
So James felt it, too. Did they know him in the past?
“Asking if he saw a limo,” he answered his question.
“No, you’re not. You will, however, get into that car,” James pointed at a small black Lexus car about a couple feet away. “And trust me,” he added.
“Trust you? You let them get away! And how’d you get a car here in the middle of the night?”
“I used your influence, of course.”
“Give my cell phone back.”
James responded by shoving him into the black car. Before he could do anything, James had locked it and driven away in less time than any ordinary person would take.
“God. I really am your captive. This is kidnap, you know,” Brandon said, crossing his arms over his chest and gazing out the window. How could those cops not hear this car driving by? “Where are we going anyway?”
“I don’t know. We’re following the limo.”
Startled, Brandon realized that his butler had just used Andrea as bait. A growing anger built and he stuttered for a second before exclaiming, higher-pitched in tone of voice than intended, “You used her as bait?!”
“Yes. That’s why we’re following her, aren’t we? You’d have never allowed it had I told you of my plan.”
Brandon cursed his butler in all the four languages he knew. He swore at his friend, and at Ryan.
“You’re taking your anger out on the wrong person. You might not like this plan, but in fact you’re taking your jealousy out using anger,” James infuriatingly said in the same calm manner.
“Jealous?” he repeated. “Jealous? Me? Don’t point out something so stupid! You just used Andrea as bait!”
“Aren’t you overreacting?”
He thought he might be overreacting, but it wasn’t overreaction on the part of his little sister—ex-sister—his best friend for the better part of his teenage years, his family, being used as bait. He wasn’t going to think about why she meant so much to him, not right that moment. Not, yet.
So instead, he kept silent.
“It’s not stupid. It’s the same point I was making. You are obviously in love with her. You’re just too stubborn to see it,” James said in exasperation.
That point seemed to be the only one that fed to his frustration, something other than that galling calm manner with which he spoke so far, and so Brandon was tempted to disagree some more. He resisted the urge, not liking the topic or the fact that it was about him.
There was suddenly an eerie tension building in the car.
James, as straightforward as ever, voiced the reason. “Brandon… Though I’m your butler, and you’re my master, and I’m loyal to you in every way, may I confess to you the truth? It’s about Andy.”
“Huh? Didn’t you already tell me?”
“That was a fact. This is a confession.”
“Well, what is it?”
He glanced at his butler, who appeared upset as he said, “Andy’s the type of girl I like…”
Brandon stared at him, utterly and completely speechless. His first reaction was to gape stupidly.