I Knew You Were Trouble

Oli’s POV

I sat in the dark of my old living room, my eyes already adjusted to the darkness of the room. I was currently smoking my cigarette as I waited patiently for the others to return home and boy that was going to a surprise welcome for them.

I turned up here over an hour ago looking for my gang, parking the kids car I stole in front of the house to only find the house empty and unsecured as I found one of the back windows had been left open, granting me access to the house. What a grave mistake they left right here for me to find, were they purposely trying to get our placed robbed or to piss me off to some extreme?

I hear a sound of a car pull up outside along with the sound of non stop bickering and I’m left shaking my head at every crucial mistake they chose to make and ignore as they make their way into the house, what have they been doing for the last year and half? The living room light soon flickers on and reveals me sitting in my usual spot in the arm chair what’s placed in the centre of the room.
They freeze when they see me, faces falling and all eyes growing wide with shock and fear. Now that’s the reaction I was hoping for, pure fear.

“Getting reckless are we lads?” I say, blowing out the smoke from my mouth and stumping out the last of my cigarette in the ashtray beside me.
“O-Oli, when did you get out?” Matt speaks up, being the only one brave enough to ask.
“Two days ago. I was kind of hoping for a welcome home party from my dear old friends but of course, you need to know a date to be able to plan a party. A date none of you had any idea about.” I say calmly, sitting back in my chair watching them all squirm under pressure and fear. They knew they did wrong by keeping me in the dark and I was going to enjoy making them pay for it.
“Oli I can explain.” Matt says quickly.
“Oh please do.” I encourage him as I crack my knuckles loudly in front of them causing them all to cringe at the sound.

I get up from my chair and slowly approach them, the colour draining from their faces as well as losing their voices to speak so suddenly. I notice there was only three out of the four member’s presence, the fourth one being the most important to me but I’ll question about his absence later, right now I wanted answers.

“W-we knew the second we set foot on prison grounds the feds would be all over us. You know they would automatically assume something suspicious going on if we visited or even trace us back to base, we thought it was safer to keep our distance.”
I chuckled at Matt’s poor excuse to convince me why they chose to ignore my orders. More like they were scared shitless what would happen to them if the feds found anything on them. They were cowards and I was growing impatient of they’re lousy excuses and lack of devotion to me. This wasn’t the gang I left behind eighteen months ago and I wanted to know why they thought it was okay to fuck me over.

“I set certain rules and I expect those rules to be obeyed.” I say sternly as I began circling them, neither of them brave enough to answer me now.

“An unfamiliar car parked outside the house, a left open window, the smell of a freshly lit cigarette drifting its way throughout the house. Come on, I thought I taught you all better than that.” I mock, all of them avoiding eye contact with me.

I may have been acting calm and not bothered but I was angry. I was more than angry, I was bloody furious and they all knew it. They knew they failed me and they knew I wasn’t going to let them off so lightly either. We have been a gang for many years and they lived to serve me and to follow my orders without a say or a second thought. I know I come down hard on them but I have good reasons too, I’m harsh, intimidating, serious, and ruthless, but most of all I’m unbreakable.

We are where we are today because of me, I made sure we took no shit, no second chances, no sympathy, no regrets. We were always about the guts and the glory and people who were foolish enough to screw us over had to be punished and people had to know we were dead serious and unstoppable.

My whole life I have suffered so much and battled to get my way to the top. So tt’s totally unacceptable to have my so call gang members get cocky the minute I’m out of the picture and take everything I’ve worked so hard for into a laughingstock. And that’s when I snap and lash out at the nearest person to me. I grabbed hold of Matt’s shirt and slammed his back hard against the living room wall.

“What excuse do you have for running my gang into the ground?!” I growled. As I pressed my forearm arm tight across his chest so he was pinned to the wall and couldn’t escape my grasp.

“Oli-“
“Shut the fuck up!” I screamed back at Lee who tries to intervenes but he knew better than that. I had reached boiling point and I wouldn’t hesitate beating anyone who got in my way, friend or not.

“O-okay, maybe I did run things a little less up tight than you did. But we still made process and money-“
“That’s not good enough! You know how I run things and you deliberately disobeyed me. I thought I could trust you putting you in charge and taking care of things while I was gone but I was obviously wrong. That’s a mistake I will never make again I assure you.” I say and I see the hurt spread across his face. He was wounded by my words but I didn’t care, sympathy is one emotion I don’t react too, he had it coming.

“And where the fuck is Tom?” I now decide to question of his absence, returning home and finding my brother gone isn’t exactly what I ever want to find again.
“He’s out… on a job.” He whispers looking away from me.
“What the fuck did I tell you about keeping an eye on my brother?!” I scream slamming his back against the wall a second time and more harshly too.

He tried to push me off him but failed, unlike him my time in prison I didn’t become lazy or cocky like they all have. I trained my body to ultimate limits and got stronger everyday.
“He was adamant about doing this one job in particular so I let him do it. He’s become really good at it Oli, you should see the kid in action.”
“I told you to never leave him on his own, let alone do a job! I swear to God Nicholls, you better pray he’s alright and home within the next hour or I will have your head on a stick and roasted before the night is over, do you understand me?!”

“Oliver?”
I whip my head around to the familiar voice and see my little brother standing in the door way of the living room. Relieved to see him home and safe I never let the anger die away, he also broke my rules and he had to be taught a lesson as well as the rest of them.

“What did I tell you about doing jobs on your own?!” I hiss, letting go of Nicholls and turning to face Tom who made his way towards me, his face falling when he realised I wasn’t softening up and welcoming him with open arms. I was pissed at them all, especially when my own family decides to go against my orders.

“It went fine Oliver, none of them knew who I was. I kept a low profile and made sure it was with a lower gang.” He says trying to assure me but I wasn’t buying it.
“I don’t care! I told you no and I expect my orders to be obeyed, especially from you. No more jobs for you, not ever!” I snap.
“But-“
“No buts! I will not risk a job going wrong and having you mixed up in it all. My decision is final and I never want to hear you going on a job again. Do I make myself clear?!”
“I’m twenty one years old, I’m not a child anymore!” he shouts with his dumb mouth and it only angers me more, he should no better than to answer me back.
“Don’t you use that tone of voice with me you ungrateful little shit, as long as you live under my roof and my supervision, you obey my rules!” I yell shoving his chest and he stumbles backwards over the rug slightly.

Nicholls grabs my shoulder and pulls me back from Tom but I spin around instantly and punch him straight in the face which causes him to fall to the floor. Now he wants to fucking protect my brother, funny he’s protecting him from the wrong thing!
Lee and Matt step forward but I send them a death glare which stops them in their tracks, they knew it would be a very bad idea if they turned on me, it would be a death sentence for them all.
“But Oliver if you would just listen to-“
“Not another word about it or I swear I will make sure you never leave this house again!” I yell facing him again.

He opens his mouth to argue back but instead he just huffs loudly and frowns, folding his arms across his chest as he begins to sulk because he knew he lost the fight. The lads stand close by staring at us, just incase I completely lose it and lash out at Tom. As if they actually believe I would hurt my only brother when I’ve gone out of my way to protect him from everything in this world my whole life.

“Fine.” Tom sobs, his bottom lip trembling as he holds back his tears, the anger quickly disappearing from his face and the sadness replacing just as quick.

I felt a bit guilty when I realised how harsh I was on him and I’ve not been back longer than five minutes. Sometimes I forget I’m his older brother and not his father and I shouldn’t be so hard on him… but I had to be strict because it was for his own safety. I’m only like this to make sure his stays out of danger, the over protective parent figure is all I really know, since we were kids I took it upon myself to look after Tom and make sure he got the best up bringing I could give him… I know it wasn’t exactly the best but it was all that I could give him at the time. I hate being this unkind to him but he leaves me no choice he needs to learn he can’t break my rules the second I’m away from base, he needs to be safe at all times.

“Go on, get out of my sight the lot of you. I don’t want to see any of you right now because I will not hesitate to do some serious damage if any of you decide to piss me off any further.” I say, turning to the other three who were just standing there like a bunch of idiots.
“But you just got back.” Tom says, his arms falling from his chest and his voice dropping faintly.

“Oh yes, lets talk about that shall we. How I’ve spent the last eighteen months inside and you all basically left me to rot in hell! No one bothered to contact me, not even a word from my own brother.” I snarl, still raging from the previous argument with him.
“I wanted to visit you but Matt never let me!” he yells back in defence.
I spun round and glared at Nicholls whose eyes instantly went wide with panic while I waited for an explanation good enough to explain why he didn’t allow my own brother to visit me. He was walking on very thin ice with me right now and if he wasn’t careful I’d be sure to have his head on the bbq faster than he could blink.

“You told me to protect him and that’s what I did! I thought it would be too risky to allow him to visit you, too many inmates wanting revenge and waiting for the perfect opportunity for a younger Syko to waltz right into that place… it was a death trap. A phone call which could easily be traced and a letter which could as well as easily be led back to our address. I didn’t want to put him in any sort of danger, so I did what I thought was best and kept him away.” He says, and I see Matt and Lee behind him nodding their heads in agreement with him also.

Fuck, he was right but I didn’t want him to be right and there was no way on this earth I was going to tell him he was right either. Eighteen months locked up in that hell hole wondering if I would ever see my little brother again was torture. I hated being away from him and not knowing he was out of harm's way, it drove me insane.
“Don’t ever keep him from me again.” I gritted through my teeth at Nicholls, my hands clenched up in balls of fist but I manage to hold back my violence and storm off out of the living room and into the kitchen, having Tom follow not far behind me.

“Please Oliver, don’t be angry. I’ve missed you so much, I just want to spend time with my older brother now he’s back.” He says, reaching out for my hand but I pull away from him at once which causes him to jump a bit.
I sigh heavily and drag a hand down my face; I can never stay mad at him for too long. Yes he is a little shit who’s always up to no good and never knows when to shut up but he meant the world to me whom I never tell him enough and I guess we had a lot of catching up to do.

“I’ve missed you too bro.” I say pulling him into a hug because I really did miss him. This is the longest we’ve been apart and I will not let that happen again. He clearly needs his big brother to keep him line and keep him out of trouble. Things will go back to how they were soon enough now I’m back and it won’t be long until we have our brotherly relationship back in no time. As I pull away from the hug I hold up the tiny clear bag which I managed to sneakily take from his back pocket. I raise my eyebrows at him and send him a look of disapproval when I eye up the reasonable amount of white powder placed inside of the plastic.

“Saving a little something for yourself was you?”
“I… I, erm.” He stutters biting his lower lip and looking to the ground nervously when he knew he’s been caught red handed.
“I meant it when I told you to never touch this stuff.” I warned and I’m met with blue anxious eyes when he knew he broke yet another one of my rules.
“Hand over your bag, now.” I demand, frowning at him. It was taking everything in me not to lose my temper with him again but he was making it so bloody difficult. What the fuck is he doing with his own personal stash of cocaine?!

He whines and stomps his foot in annoyance but reluctantly hands me his backpack anyway. I was annoyed that he would go against my word when I specifically told him not to get himself into the same drugs I was into. Damn it, what was Nicholls playing at! I told him to keep an eye out for him not to turn him into a drug addict as well as a dealer. I didn’t want him following in my footsteps but it’s so hard to prevent it from happening when the people I’m suppose to trust are disobeying every order I give out!
I’ll give tonight a miss but when tomorrow comes I will put them all back in they’re rightful places and make sure they know that Syko is back and Horizon is handed back to its rightful leader and once again will been known as the most deadly and feared.

“Go get me the laptop, I need to do a couple of background checks.” I tell him and he nods but just stares at me nervously.
“Oliver, about what’s in the bag…”
“Just go to your room Tom!” I snap, watching his eyes grow wide with shock but he lets out a strangled sob before running out of the kitchen, hurt with my scolding. Did he really think I’ll be proud catching him with his own stash of cocaine? That better be the only thing I find in his bag for his sake because if not, shit is going to get real.

I’ve had enough, I was so sick of having everyone not listening to me and breaking all the rules I set for them years ago and they think its ok to break them just because I’ve been inside and think I wouldn’t find out? This isn’t a game, its serious business and I’ll make sure I’ll show them how serious tomorrow.

“Anything I can help you with?” Vegan says breaking me out of my thoughts as he places the laptop down on the kitchen table offering his assistants. He obviously heard the row with Tom and me and thought he’ll come and make some peace. Vegan was actually one of the best known computer hackers and trackers I have ever met, he could easily find anyone’s profile and destroy them and they’re entire reputation in mere seconds.

“I think you’ve all done enough for today, don’t you think?” I hiss.
He’s smart to keep his mouth shut and simply nods and leave me to it, at least one of them is keeping in line unlike the rest of them.

---

It was roughly around half three in the morning and the sun was slowly rising but I was still wide awake working, letting several profiles of wanted people on my checklist download on to the computer. The contents of Tom’s bag was layed out on the kitchen table in front of me and lets just say what was revealed from that bag was unbelievable.

I’m absolutely disgusted that Nicholls had my brother do all this dirty work and actually believed that I wouldn’t find out about it or crazy enough to think that it was okay. It defiantly was not okay. There were five stacks of money, piles of bags of four different class A and class B drugs, as well as more than a handful of various peoples credit cards, driving license, passports, mobile phones, stolen car keys, not to mention the two guns and knives. I accept the weapons because those are the two curial items I demand all of my gang members to have on them at all times, including Tom as that’s the one important lesson I’ve taught him growing up is to be able to protect himself and know how to use a gun and a knife.

But all the rest, fuck. It was impressive, very impressive and I see why Nicholls thought it was a good idea and wanted to continue with it. But it was all Tom. And for the first time in my life I felt ashamed, I felt ashamed that I led my brother into this sort of life, he’s learnt from the best being his big brother and picking up all my best tricks along the way, now he might be even better than me at it all. Fuck, I didn’t want this for him, I wanted him to have a better life, I tried so hard for years to try and not get him as fucked up in the head as me but if he continues with this he won’t be far off.

I drag a hand down my face and groan at the headache I’ve cause from all the stressing. I reach for the pack of cigarettes on the table but a little sound rings from the laptop which stops me and I turn my attention to the laptop and look at the profile which was finished downloading. I smile when I see the name and photograph on the profile matches the one on the driving license I have currently in between my fingers.

Oh, Joshua Franceschi. How you became to be a very delightful fuck to me the other night and exceeding beyond my expectations when he took me back to his flat and screamed my name so heavenly and took my pounding so beautifully. Somehow the boy managed to stay in my head since I left his flat three days ago… Despite how far gone I was on the coke I took that night, there was something about him which my mind just didn’t want to forget.

So here I am, my eyes reading the first half of his profile and the smile on my lips only grew bigger.

Name(s): Joshua James Alphonse Franceschi

D.O.B: 07/08/1986 (age 20)

Nationality: English, British

From: Weybridge, Surrey
(Home address)

Occupation: Undergraduate Student; Film Studies, University of Sheffield – Unsuccessful

Employment: Pizza King
(Work address)

…

So he was a twenty year old uni drop out, perfect. A little young but that shouldn’t be a problem, he didn’t have anything suspicious or alarming in his profile which showed any concern to me and there was no trace of the name I was long searching for either. I continued to scroll down the rest of his profile and read all the information what told me where he went to school, his parent’s names, his bank details and all that rubbish. It even reminded me of the address of his flat which I had forgot the moment I left that night.

I twirl the driving license in between my fingers tips as I think deep about a decision. Hmm, maybe I should return Joshua’s car and wallet back to him, I’m sure he’ll be stressing his pretty little head over his lost valuables and I’m sure he will be so willing to repay me for returning them back to him in one piece.