I can't believe that I actually updated in under a month!

Anyways, thanks again to everyone for their amazing support, and please enjoy the chapter!

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When Shawn and I came home from the store, Shawn made me wait on the pavement while he checked to see if the house had been broken into or anything.

"Alright, it's good." He said, motioning for me to come over.

"How can you tell?" I asked with a frown, stepping over.

He showed me his phone screen, on which there was a split screen observing all the major possible entryways of my house. "I would have been notified if anyone or anything showed up on the cameras." He replied, putting his phone back into his pocket.

I looked at him in concern. "How long have those been there?" I asked.

He blinked. "Since always." He replied vaguely.

I sighed unhappily. "Of course." I said. What else was I expecting really?

Once we entered the house, we went to the kitchen and put the groceries in the fridge and shelves. "So... What now?" I asked. It was surprising that we had nothing to do, even with some crime lord (with the unfortunate name of 'Bobby') after our asses.

He smirked "Well-"

"Don't say sex." I interrupted quickly.

"Then-"

"Or anything sexual." I added. I knew how this motherfucker's thought patterns worked.

He narrowed his eyes at me. "Then I don't know." He said.

There was an awkward silence. "Uh... what do you normally like to do when you're bored?" I asked, in an attempt to be conversational.

"Stalk you or kill someone." He replied nonchalantly. Well, we weren't going to do any of that.

"Okay, both are definitely out of the question." I sighed.

"Yeah, because you cant stalk yourself, and if I try to kill someone, you'll just protect them and lie about losing your virginity." Shawn said, glaring at me pointedly.

"Yes, exactly." I agreed, ignoring how damn sour he still was about it.

Another awkward silence was broken by a sharp clang. In reaction Shawn grabbed me and pushed me to the fucking ground of the kitchen.

"What the fuck-!" I exclaimed, before Shawn shoved his hand over my mouth.

"Shut up; someone's here." Shawn hissed, holding onto me protectively.

I rolled my eyes and tried to pry Shawn's hand off my mouth. When he didn't let go I growled at him angrily.

"What?" He whispered in annoyance, staring towards the door cautiously. He moved his hand a few inches from my mouth, clearly ready to cover it again if I got too loud.

"It's the mailman, dumbass." I hissed. The clang was the sound of the mail slot opening.

Shawn froze, before standing suddenly to look out the kitchen window. He sighed. "Yeah, I guess so. Sorry about that." He said, holding out his hand to help me up off the floor.

"It's fine." I sighed, taking his hand. His paranoia was warranted after all.

"I heard footsteps, so I thought someone was trying to break in or something." He explained. He heard the mailman's footsteps? Damn, he had really good hearing.

"I'm gonna go get the mail." I said, walking over to the door. I took all of the mail out of the mail slot and started to leaf through it. Junk, junk, bills, more bills, something for Mom... and a black envelope addressed to me in cursive handwriting.

I dropped all the other mail onto the counter and showed the letter to Shawn. "Uh, am I the only one that finds this kind of sinister and suspicious?" I asked, turning the envelope in my hands.

Shawn's eyes widened and he snatched the envelope away from me, jumping across the counter. He inspected the envelope, eyeing it with scrutiny. "...There's no return address or stamp." He observed.

"Then why did the mailman have it? Since you a need a stamp to send snail mail, he couldn't have gotten that from the post office." I said.

Shawn glared at the letter. "He must've been threatened or bribed into delivering it." He scowled.

"...Well, should we open it?" I asked.

Shawn eyed the edges of the envelope closely. "I don't know. If this is from whom we think, then he might have stuck razors in it, or maybe poisoned it." Shawn considered. "I honestly wouldn't put it past him." He added with a scoff.

"We have to open it eventually, don't we?" I said. If this was going to bring us a step forward towards finishing this business with Smiles- then I'd say opening the letter was an easy step to take.

Shawn sighed. "I guess so. Jake, stand back." Shawn instructed. I personally doubted that the letter was rigged with anything; what would be the point? But I wasn't about to argue with Shawn when he was this paranoid and on edge, so I stepped back without protest.

Shawn slowly ripped the seal of the letter and pulled up the tab. Lo and behold, there were no razors. He then cautiously brought the letter towards his face and inhaled. "Shit! It reeks!" Shawn exclaimed, holding the letter out at arm's length.

"Wait, he actually poisoned it!?" I said in shock.

"I don't know. I don't recognize the smell as any type of poison." Shawn frowned thoughtfully. "In fact, it sort of smells like..." Shawn brought the letter back to his face and inhaled tentatively. He groaned and gave himself a facepalm. "The sleazy asshole sprayed it with perfume."

I sighed in relief and walked back by Shawn. "So, what's in it?" I asked.

Shawn unloaded the contents onto the counter; a folded piece of paper and two black invitations lined with intricate gold designs. I picked up the invitation addressed to me.

Dear Jake Daniels

You are cordially invited by Bernard Alco to attend his dinner party, hosted on the thirty-second floor of the Layland Hotel in San Francisco, hosted on January 18th. Formalwear is required.

"...Who the hell is Bernard Alco?" I asked.

Shawn had picked up his invitation as well. "Probably Bobby." He sighed.

"Do you think he changed it because he doesn't want people knowing his real name? Or because he knew it would've been super weird to be invited to a formal event in San Francisco by someone named Bobby?" I asked.

Shawn laughed. "I'm thinking the latter."

"So, should we read the letter? I'm guessing that he didn't just expect us to come to his fancy event without explanation." I said.

Shawn nodded, unfolding the piece of paper to reveal neat cursive handwriting (which I could barely read because cursive looks like neat scribbles to me).

Dear Ace and Shawn

Well, Shawn, look at you! You actually decided to get over your suspicion and open the letter! Moving on, it's time for my ultimatum. I know that you won't bring Cutie anywhere near me or my party without some motivation (because "threat" is such an ugly word). But let me make this brief; don't come and I'll have gunmen come over and pump your guts with lead. Don't come and I'll have a certain cutie's house blown sky-high. Don't come and certain family members will get axed (because while I know that you don't care about your family Shawn, I'm sure a certain Ace will miss a certain maternal figure). Yada yada, there's a lot of things I could do (speaking of which- aren't I kind? I haven't done any of this yet. Even though I could). I want to play fair with you Shawn. It will make the endgame that much more rewarding.

And a small note to you Ace! Remember when I said that I wouldn't kill you? That deal also comes without mutilation or severe bodily harm (so long as you attend my event)! You got a two in one deal right there! No limbs will be lost and no organs will be sold on the black market (not from you at least). So don't let Shawn hold you back from attending!

With much love,

Me <3

After we finishing reading the lengthy- and rather disturbing- letter, Shawn growled angrily and crumpled the letter up violently.

"...That was the most condescending letter I've ever read." I murmured, unsure of what else to say.

"That asshole's gotten really arrogant over the years." Shawn grumbled. There was a long silence as Shawn thought. A Really long silence. I glanced over at him to see that his eyebrows were furrowed and had a conflicted expression on his face. He must have been thinking if he should bring me to the event or not. Well, I'd already made up my damn mind.

"...Shawn, you know more than anyone that I don't fuck around when my mom gets involved." I said seriously. "So we're going. We don't have a choice."

He shot a glare at me. "This isn't for you to decide Jake." He said harshly. His angry expression then suddenly dropped to a blank one. Shawn gave me a look though the corner of his eye. " And that's not entirely true." He said.

I frowned. "What do you mean?" I asked. I did not like the look he was giving me.

He'd gotten a determined look in his eyes. "I mean, if he can't find you, he can't hurt you, right?"

I finally realized what he was getting at, and my eyes widened. I back away from him cautiously. "You're thinking of kidnapping me again." I said.

Shawn rolled his eyes. "It wouldn't be kidnapping if you'd just fucking come willingly." He replied, walking towards me. Fuck! This couldn't be happening!

I stepped back. "What about my mom?" I asked.

"Well, she wouldn't be coming with us- if you catch my drift. And I care too much about your damn life to care if you hate me forever." He said with resolve.

I stopped backtracking. He was willing to let my mom die at the hands of Smiles in favor of getting me 'safe.' I mirrored Shawn's expression of resolve. "Hate you? That's way too fucking tame." I said, advancing towards Shawn until we were less than a foot apart. I looked straight into his eyes in rage. "I'd kill you." I scowled.

He scoffed, looking at me mockingly. "You'd kill me?"

I faltered for a moment. Would I? I doubted that I could manage it... but that definitely wouldn't stop me from trying. And I was bound to succeed eventually. "Yeah."

He scoffed again. "Liar- even if you tried every day for the rest of your life, you wouldn't be able to."

I cocked my head to the side. "'Liar'? I thought that I wasn't allowed to lie."

Shawn and I held an icy eye contact, before Shawn narrowed his eyes and said; "Is it bad that I'm starting to get a bit hard?"

"Fucking damnit Shawn!" I yelled, quickly shifting away from him. Why did this happen every fucking time we were in an intense situation!?

"It's not my fault that you're too fucking attractive for your own good." He grumbled.

"I was threatening to kill you!" I yelled in exasperation. "Scratch that; I'm still threatening to kill you if you let my mom die." I glowered.

He waved his hand in dismissal. "Even if I abduct and run away with you, I'm sure he'd still find us. He obviously has the resources to track wherever we'd go... and my recourses aren't any match for his as they are now."

I frowned. "When'd you figure this out?" I asked. His stance on our argument did a 180 in less than a few minutes.

"During our staring contest. In the end, it might end up being less risky to play into whatever plan he has cooked up." He said offhandedly, as if this decision had been made hours ago, and not just a fucking minute. I had no fucking clue how this guy's thought process worked.

"...so on top of getting horny you also figured all this out?" I asked in disbelief.

He shrugged. "I guess."

I opened my mouth to question him some more about it, but decided that it wasn't worth it. I'd just never know at what frequencies this guy's mind moved at. ...Furthermore, I hadn't intimidated him at all!? I was fucking serious too! Aaghh, who was I kidding- he'd probably been threatened by people ten times more threatening than me. "But... I was being so cool." I accidently muttered out loud.

Shawn broke out in laughter. "What did you say?"

Fuck! "Nothing." I snapped, averting my gaze to the far right.

Shawn patted me on the head and chuckled. "Sorry Jakey, but against me, you have the killing ability of a squirrel." He said condescendingly.

I smacked his hand away from my head. "It only takes one bite from a squirrel to give you rabies." I argued. Yeah, probably not my best argument.

" So your gonna give me rabies?" Shawn asked mockingly, his smile only growing wider.

"I was trying to make a point...or something." I said weakly. "So, we're going to that Smile's party after all?" I asked, to ditch the whole damn embarrassing topic and get back on track.

Shawn sudden good-natured attitude left and his serious expression came back. "Yeah... and though I hate that he'll be within 100 feet of you, as long as I keep you by my side the entire evening, we just might be able to make it through the evening without getting killed."

I nodded. "So, do you have any idea what he's planning?" I asked. I was thankful that we were over that 'abduction' hurdle.

Shawn sighed in aggravation, raking his hand through his hair. "Well, I know it's a fucking trap. He didn't fucking invite us for a nice dinner and chit-chat, he invited us to corner me somehow. He's forcing us to come onto his turf, surrounded by people he invited, so that way he can do... whatever the fuck he plans on doing." Shawn said.

Yeah, that's what I figured too. "We have better odds of getting out of this alive by attending. He said that he wanted to play fair... and though that's probably total bullshit, it means that he doesn't want to just shoot you- or me- in the head, outright." I said.

He raised an eyebrow. "Knowing him, he's just going for a prolonged torture." He said, biting his lip in confliction. "...But you're right. And I have a better chance at beating him at his own game if I go... the only problem is that he's obviously set on dragging you into it." He grimaced. "And I don't like that he calls you by nicknames... especially Cutie." He said in disgust.

"Well if it makes you feel better, I don't like it either." I sighed. I glanced at the invitation lying on the counter. "January 18th, huh? That's tomorrow isn't it?" I asked.

"Yeah. Which means that I'll hardly have any time to think up different scenarios and plans tonight." Shawn pondered. "Also, do you own a suit?" He asked.

I shook my head. "No."

"Then we'll have to make time tomorrow to buy suits too." Shawn said. "And possibly firearms and knives." He added casually.

I blinked. "You really think they'll let you in carrying weapons? Don't they have security?" I asked.

"Bobby is a crime lord- just about everyone there will have a gun. Besides, I'm sure he's already expecting it." Shawn explained.

I plainly nodded in response. There was no way that this was going to end well.

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There we go, a step forward with the plot! (tbh they were gonna play monopoly at first before I realized there was a plot I should move forward with. I'll add what I wrote as a bonus later or something haha) The next few chapters are gonna ramp up in intensity, so I'm pumped for that.

Thanks again to everyone for reading! I hope you enjoyed!