Ride or Die

With a gasp I wake and sit up, instantly regretting it as a sharp pain sears through my abdomen and causes me to cry out with a hoarse voice as tears flow from my eyes. I feel a hand on my shoulder, so I open my eyes to see a hand in front of me with two small pills resting in the palm. I gratefully take them and swallow them down. It takes me a moment to realize that the car is no longer moving, so I take a second to look around and find that we’re near an abandoned warehouse.

“Where are we?” I ask Carlos, my throat still raw.

He hands me a water bottle and looks around, “this is what you gave me for an address.”

I nod my head and take a few swallows off the bottle of water before putting it back in the cup holder, “suppose we just drive into that entrance over there,” I state, pointing to a garage door like opening.
Carlos nods his head and slowly pulls over to it, taking a look around again before driving in. I notice another car and a bike parked off to the side, so I motion to those and wait as he pulls up next to the car. I make a move to get out of the car, but Carlos stops me with a hand on my shoulder. He motions to Ricky, who gets out and moves to my door, opening and holding his hand out. I give him my arm as Carlos exits the car and follows Ricky’s example, both of them hoisting me out of the car at the same time and giving me a minute to get to my feet.

“Emilia?!”

I slowly turn to see Mia around the side of a large concrete wall, and when she sees me, she comes running, yelling out behind her to Dom and Brian. Ricky immediately straightens his posture and steps in front of me, leaving Carlos to bear most of my weight as I hunch over and wrap my arms around my throbbing abdomen. Mia stops short of us, her eyes on Ricky as he crosses his arms and takes a step backwards towards me.

“Carlos, tell him it’s okay,” I mumble.

He nods his head and mutters something in Portuguese to which Ricky responds with hesitation and a short reply back. Carlos nods his head and mutters something else before looking down at me, “he just doesn’t want them hurting you accidentally.”

I nod my head and Ricky moves to my side, taking my other arm and helping me walk towards Mia just as Dom and Brian are coming up behind her. I try to take deep breaths as Ricky and Carlos bring me away from the car and into the open area. Mia, Dom, and Brian looks confused and worried as I whimper when a pain shoots through my stomach. Carlos mutters something to Ricky before looking down at me, “Ricky is going to lift you into my arms.”

I nod my head and hold my breath as Ricky lifts me up; regardless of how hard I bite my lip, I still cry out until I’m fully settled in Carlos’ arms. Dom directs him to the area behind the wall where they had come from with Ricky directly behind us, and Mia and Brian to the side. Brian has his arms wrapped around Mia and I can tell that she’s crying.

Dom points to a couch, so Carlos moves over to it, gently settling me down and motioning for Ricky to come stand by the arm of the couch near my head. Carlos bends down, “I have some things in the car; I will go get them.”

I nod my head and close my eyes against the waves of pain that are slowly subsiding as Ricky stands rigidly next to the couch, his arms crossed and his eyes darting from one corner of the room to the next, and from one person to the next. It’s then that I realize that my brother and sister aren’t alone.

Everyone looks warily at Ricky, no one making the move to come near me except for Mia as Dom follows Carlos back to the car. The rest of the group make themselves scarce as Mia moves closer to me. Ricky notices and walks over to the table to grab a chair, bringing it over for her before standing back in his place by my head. Mia gives him a small smile as she sits in the chair and leans towards me, gently wrapping her arms around my shoulders.

“Vince is here,” she whispers against my hair.

“I don’t want to see him right now,” I mumble, swallowing as I try to think of how to tell her.

“What is it Em? What happened?”

“I lost her… I lost Isabella.” I whisper, my voice cracking as tears well up in my eyes.

I can hear Mia sniffling as she tries to gently squeeze me without hurting me, her face buried in my hair as we both silently cry together. I can hear someone approaching, so we look up, noticing Carlos holding up bandaging and looking at me apologetically. Mia takes a deep breath and backs off, smiling weakly down at me as she walks over to Brian who wraps his arms around her.

“We need to talk after this,” Dom tells me while motioning to Carlos and his medical supplies.

I nod my head and then close my eyes while Carlos works to change the bandages over the bullet wound and then to check the scar at my waist. I start to drift off as he pulls a blanket over me and can just make out him telling Dom to let me rest.

More blood; more screaming; screeching of tires; the crunch of metal; the sound of a gunshot;

I wake up in a sweat, tears streaming down my face and my head pounding along with a searing pain in my abdomen.

“Carlos!” I cry out for him, trying not to move as the tears flow more freely.

As I’m about to call his name again, I notice Vince jogging over to me. I shake my head as he approaches me, but he doesn’t listen, “Carlos went to get more supplies, and everyone else is… doing a job.”

“Where’s Mia?” I whine pathetically.

“She went to the market.”

“Ricky?”

“Did you all of a sudden learn to speak Portuguese?” He asks me, cracking a smile.

I flip him off and look up to see Ricky staring down at me, a cross between sympathy and slight confusion on his face. I sigh and look back at Vince, “tell Ricky I need my medicine and I want Carlos.”

“I can get your meds, I doubt your James Bond bodyguard over here is going to walk away from you and leave you here alone with me.”

I narrow my eyes and shake my head, “tell him I want Carlos.”

He raises an eyebrow at me so I shake my head and look up at Ricky again, tugging on his sleeve to get his attention. He looks down at me, slightly amused and raises an eyebrow. I give him a weak smile, “Carlos?”

He nods his head in understand and pulls his phone out. After a few seconds he speaks quickly in Portuguese for a fraction of a minute and then hands the phone to me. I put the phone to my ear, “Carlos?”

“What’s up Em?”

“Come back? You all left me with Vince,” I mumble, tears starting to form in my eyes again.

“Where’s Mia?”

“She went to the market,” I mutter miserably.

“I’m on my way.”

I breathe a sigh of relief before hanging up the phone and passing it back to Ricky. I pull the blankets up over my shoulder again and close my eyes, trying to force myself into sleep as Vince leans forward and presses his lips against my head, “I’m sorry Emilia.”

3 Weeks Later:

“Emilia, for the hundredth time, I am FINE!” Mia snaps at me, walking out of the house and down to the beach.

I take a deep breath and hang my head, feeling guilty for being so overbearing towards my sister. Brian looks over at my apologetically, but I wave him off, watching as he chases her down the beach. Carlos walks over to me and puts his arm around my shoulder, “you know, if you weren’t such a mother when you come to visit, she probably would not mind your visits.”
I chuckle and nod my head, “I know.”

“I’ve got an idea, let’s take them to dinner.”

“That is an excellent idea. I promise I won’t mother her if you can convince Brian to convince her,” I tell him, a smile on my face.

“I’ll do my best.”

I watch as Carlos walks out of the house and follows in the direction they had gone down the beach. Instead of following him, I walk over to the front door, chuckling when I see Ricky sitting in my car, windows down, and his phone to his ear. He notices me and waves, so I wave back before going back into the house.

“I’m not going if she’s going to have her little body guards following us around!”

I feel my cheeks heat up as Mia storms into the house, followed by Brian and then by Carlos. Mia stops short when she notices me and her cheeks turn pink as well, “I’m sorry Em.”

“Don’t worry about it, Carlos and I have to head out anyways. I’ve got some work to catch up on. Nice seeing you guys,” I tell her, turning around and heading out the door.

I can hear Mia and Brian arguing until the door swings shut behind me. Ricky notices me coming and shuts his phone as I get into the car. It doesn’t take long for Carlos to catch up and hop in the back, and I don’t wait around to see if my sister changes her mind as I pull out of their drive and take off at a not quite safe speed.

“What kind of work do you have to catch up on?” Carlos asks me, smirking.

I flip him off and drive through the streets, not paying much attention to where I’m going as my mind wanders. After a while, Carlos mutters something about being hungry and Ricky looks like he agrees, so I pull off at a small café and let them out.

“Aren’t you coming?” Carlos asks as he gets out.

I shake my head, “nah, I’m not hungry.”

“Em, you haven’t eaten anything in three days, get in here.”

“Don’t worry about it Carlos.”

Carlos waves Ricky on before getting back in the car, sitting in the front and looking over at me, “look, I’ve been paying Ricky to stay, but I’m staying of my own accord.”

I look over at him, shocked, “what?”

“We were only supposed to get you to where you were going and leave you there. I told Mr. Ricardo that you wanted to hire us on full time.”

“Why would you do that?” I ask him, confused.

He shrugs and gets out of the car, “come on, let’s eat.”

I sigh and get out of the car, following him into the café and sitting at the table Ricky has chosen. After sitting down and ordering, Carlos looks at me strangely so I move my hand to my face, “do I have something on my face?”

“No, but you certainly do have something on your mind.”

I chuckle and shake my head, “been thinking about travelling.”

“Where to?”

I look away when our food is served to us and thank the barista before taking a bite of my sandwich. After taking a few bites, I look back to Carlos, “all over the place. Maybe go to Australia, travel through Europe.”

“You trying to kindly tell us it’s time to move on?” Carlos asks me, looking up from his own sandwich.

“No, you’re more than welcome to come along, but it has to be of your own accord. I’m not interested in a body guard.”

“What are you interested in?”

I hang my head and shrug before looking back up at Carlos, “I’ll be in the car when you’re done.”

When I get back to the car, I recline my seat and pull my phone out, scrolling through the contacts, skipping over my brother’s, my sister’s, and some of their friends before landing on Jesse’s old number. A pang of guilt slips through, so I shake it off, continuing on through some other contact’s until landing on Vince’s. My finger plays over the call button for a few moments before pressing the button and bringing the phone to my ear.

After a few tense seconds of the phone ringing, I hear the click of someone answering it, “hello?”

“Vince,” I reply, almost breathlessly.

“Who is this?”

“Vince, it’s Emilia.”

“Em?”

“Hi,” I state lamely.

He chuckles and replies with an equally lame, “hi.”

“Uh, so, what’s up?” I ask, trying to find a reason to continue talking to him.

“Em, is there a reason you called?”

“I’m not sleeping, I ate something today for the first time in three days, and I’m pretty sure if I keep driving like this, I’m going to end up killing my passengers,” I blurt out.

Vince doesn’t say anything for a while, but I can hear noises in the background, so I mumble out an apology and then start to tell him that I’d talk to him later, but he stops me with, “Em you need help.”

I laugh sarcastically, “yes, because I can just go find a therapist wherever I want and get some happy pills. It doesn’t work like that Vince!”

“Where are you?”

“None of your damn business,” I snap.

“Look, you called me. What do you want from me Em?”

“I don’t know Vince, I’m sorry I called.”

Before he can argue with me, I hang up the phone and shut it off, startled when Carlos gets into the car, and Ricky slips into the backseat. Carlos looks at me, his eyebrow raised, “have a nice conversation?”

“Bite me,” I mutter, turning the car on and fixing my seat before driving off.