Deadly Weapons

Chapter 13:  Surprise, Surprise!

“Finally, you guys are here!” Andy exclaims with an exaggerated sigh as we enter TJ’s living room. I see all the guys sat on various couches and chairs but no sign of TJ’s family, not that it was any surprise.
 
“We’re not even that late, get a grip.” Jacky muttered flopping down next to him and TJ. I take a seat next to Craig as TJ gets up to fetch some final things before we set off.
 
The weird feeling hadn’t left my gut as we sat and waited for TJ to finish getting ready- in fact it got worse. I wasn’t tuned into the conversation going on around me; my mind was scattered and my thoughts were elsewhere, I hadn’t ever felt that on edge in all my life. A light nudge in my side and a gentle call out to me from Craig grounded my thoughts. “You okay?” He whispered in my ear.
 
“Yeah.” I reply, but my response came out as a question more than a statement. He went to open his mouth again but a loud thud from the first floor distracted all of us from previous conversation.
 
“You alright up there, Teej?” Ash called up to TJ, when no response came back to us we decided to investigate. I hung back as I didn’t want to be the first heading up the stairs, eventually that unfortunate spot landed with Andy. We took each stair one tentative step at a time not really wanting to know what would meet us at the top.
 
“TJ, where are you?” Craig called out into the darkness. Again there was no response from him. Andy led us toward his bedroom but before he opened the door, it swung open reveling the very people I dreaded to see again.
 
“Surprise, Surprise! Nice of you to join the party!” Ronnie smirked sauntering forward stepping over TJ’s legs. I gasped as I saw his unconscious body slumped against the wall.  “Lexi! So nice to see your pretty little face again.”
 
I shot him the coldest stare I could muster, “What have you done to him?”
 
“Thomas?” He asks tilting his head to the side with the sick smirk still on his lips. “He’s just out of it, he’ll come round… eventually.” When he saw my shocked expression he chuckled. “Why so surprised? I wasn’t me who did it; Ricky and Chris are responsible for that, which reminds me you haven’t been properly acquainted have you? Well let me introduce you!” He exclaimed beginning to walk forward to me.
 
“Back off asshole,” Ashley growled.
 
Ronnie tutted. “Now, now that’s no way to speak to someone who’s just tying to be nice. Anyway; Lexi this is Ryan, Chris, Ricky and the pussy in the corner is Cody he’s like one of you guys! You should get along just fine!”
 
“Why don’t you take your entourage and get the hell out of here before you really start to piss me off.” Craig snarls stepping in front of me.
 
“Aww that’s cute! Playing the valiant hero trying to save the princess who’ll never ever go for scum like him. Nice try Mabbitt but the façade really doesn’t suit you.”
 
As their bickering session continued I glanced around and noticed amongst all of the taunting and chuckling that Jacky was no where to be seen, I hoped that he was okay but I couldn’t find him now. A deep snarl from Craig brought me out of my daze and I just caught him as he lunged for Ronnie.
 
“You really shouldn’t have done that you half-blood scum!” Ronnie growls just as I feel ice-cold hands grab my arms and with ease drag me back out onto the landing; I let out a squeak, as the grip gets tighter. All eyes were on us.
 
I turn my head slightly to the left just enough to see that it is Max who’s behind me and holding onto me like a child’s favorite teddy bear that they were scared of loosing. 
 
“Hey sweet cheeks. Such a long time since we last met.” He whispers in my ear, his cigarette and booze stenched breath fans across my face causing my nose to cringle in disgust.
 
“Sorry I don’t go for druggies and alcoholics.” His grip on me becomes unbelievably tight, the glint of metal shining in the light streaming through the curtains made my eyes pop as the cold metal blade was lifted to my throat, I let out a whimper and squeezed my eyes shut.
 
“I wouldn’t open your smart ass mouth while you’re in this position girlie.” He warns.
 
“Leave. Her. Alone.” Craig hisses but it doesn’t faze Max, in fact it only makes him push the knife further into my skin. Ronnie as he leans casually against the wall next to TJ’s slumped body and lights a cigarette.
 
“Now gentlemen, you have two choices here. Choice one; You give up lovely Lexi here, live and everything is easy. Or choice two, you fail fighting against us resulting in a difficult time for you and an even more painful time for her. Choice is yours.”  He shrugs putting the cigarette to his lips taking a long drag. The room is deathly silent as the guy’s frantically look between one another.
 
“I don’t know why you’re trying to conjure up a plan, there’s two choices that have been laid on the table for you for you, choose.” Chris injects suddenly making me jump.
 
“Tick, tock.” Ryan adds from his spot on the bed.
 
“Alright!” Craig yelled holding his arms up. He glances at me with a worried look before he turns back to Ronnie. Just before he speaks again the sound of breaking glass fills the air and Max’s grip on me loosens. Craig effortlessly pulled me way from Max’s curled up body on the floor and into his chest, I glanced toward the doorway and saw Jacky standing behind Max with a smirk on his face he reached for the knife that had clattered to the floor, I had a small smile on my face too but when I saw the look on Ronnie and his asshole entourage faces the smile quickly disappeared.
 
“You’ll regret this you dickheads!” Chris roared striding toward us, all too quickly the room erupted in a full-blown fistfight. I squeaked and ducked out of the way, avoiding any on coming punches. I quickly scanned the room through the chaos witnessing the violence erupting throughout the room and out on the landing.
 
I saw one of Ronnie’s guys cowering in the corner- I think Ronnie said he was called Cody or something. He was the only one not fighting besides me and everyone was staying well clear from that corner of the room; he looked like the only sane person I could get any sort of answers from at that point so I made my way over to him. He flinched and cowered when he saw me, he was pretty pathetic to be honest. I grabbed his arms and moved them away from his face to which he shot me a death glare.
 
“Answer me this and I wont hurt you. What does Ronnie want with me?” I demanded holding his arms tighter in my grasp but he didn’t open his mouth. “Tell me you pathetic asshole! What does he want?”
 
“I don’t know!” He snarled making me jump. “Nobody tells me anything, I’ve just been dragged along to this. I'm as clueless as you are!”
 
“Right, okay like I'm really going to believe that.” I responded over the ever growing yells and crashing sound from behind me. “Tell me.” Once again he didn’t open his mouth, I sighed he was tougher than first thought. Just as I was about to back away I felt my hair being tugged back roughly, I instantly let go of Cody’s arms and scratched and thrashed at the person who was yanking my hair.
 
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Ronnie whispered in my ear with a harsh edge to his tone.
“Now you're coming with me.” He pulled at my hair again causing my feet to slip from under me but before I hit the ground I felt one of his hands grab my arm hoisting me back up again.
 
“Let her go.” I turned my head as much as I could to see Craig I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw him.
 
“And what are you going to do about it Mabbitt?” Ronnie mocks gripping onto me tighter. Craig growled before punching him as hard as he could in the ribs clearly winding him. Ronnie’s grip loosened which gave me the chance to slip out of his grasp. I ducked out of the way just as Ronnie landed a punch to the left side of Craig’s face. I grabbed the closest thing to me, which happened to be a picture frame, and smacked it as hard as I could across Ronnie’s head. He grasped onto the top of TJ’s chester draws as his body fell to the ground- taking the objects that occupied the top of the draws with him. All eyes were on us as I breathed heavily trying to ground my thoughts.
 
“I think you all should take Radke and get the hell out of here!” Craig yelled. There was a quick scramble to get Ronnie before they were all gone in the blink of an eye.
As soon as they had gone, Craig whirled around and consumed me in a bone-crushing hug.
 
“Are you okay?” He whispers so only I could here.
 
I nod. “You?”
 
“As long as you are.” I felt my cheeks become warm; he gives me one final squeeze and a kiss on the head before rushing over to where Andy and Ashley were stood over TJ’s form trying to revive him.  Jacky appeared at my side and smiled at me, I saw that he had a large purple blue bruise forming on his cheek and a split lip.
 
“Thanks for ya know, smacking that asshole over the head.”
 
Jacky chuckled, “Its alright, it’s what friends do, those nasty bastards aren’t going to touch you whilst we are around.” I smiled and gave him another quick hug although I knew that none of this was over.
 
A groan from the floor distracted our attention away from the conversation and to the group that was surrounding TJ’s body. I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw TJ rub his eyes as he opened them.
 
“My fucking head is pounding,” He groaned rubbing his temples.
 
“I’ll get some pain killers.” Ash said before darting out of the room. Jacky and I rushed over to help TJ stand and walk over to the bed where he sat with a thud. 
 
“The fuck happened here?” TJ asks us glancing around his now wrecked room.
 
“Ronnie and his oh-so-delightful entourage of assholes decided to pay us a visit.” Craig muttered as Ashley re appeared with a bottle of pills and a pack of antiseptic wipes, which the guys and myself used to clean the wounds that we had received that night. 
 
“Well whatever they want we need to go now because they’ll most likely come back soon and I don’t want to be here when they do.” TJ said I had to agree with him I knew that if we were to run into Ronnie and his co-horts again any time soon we would certainly loose.  
 
Once we had tended to our injuries and TJ could stand without the room spinning around him, we cleaned the house the best we could before we packed up our things into Ashley’s car and as soon as we were able, we set off with Ashley at the wheel with Andy in shotgun giving out directions.
TJ and Jacky spread themselves out in the next row of seats while Craig and I sat in the back two seats with the bags. Andy had told us that the house was a fair drive from where we were so with nothing else better to do I closed my eyes and attempted to get a few measly hours sleep.