Elias I drove for a few hours, It was past 2 am and I was exhausted but every time I thought about stopping for the night I thought of Elijah finding me.

I was paranoid, I knew that. I knew no sleep made it worse but I didn't have any of my medicine to help.

I eventually pulled over in an abandoned parking lot. I looked through my bag and saw a phone and cash.

What the fuck?...

I pulled the phone out of my bag and turned the screen on. No password...

My hands were shaking as I looked at the messages.

There was one from a random number.

If this is Elias then answer one question. What was the first nickname Alvaro called you?

Do I respond?

What if this is a trick?

What if this is Elijah?

What if Elijah has had eyes on me my entire life?

I threw the phone out of the car and drove off.

I grabbed the wad of cash and roughly counted it.

$2000....

Who left this for me?...

I stayed on the back roads, I'm not confident in my driving to actually go on a road where other people are.

I continued driving until 10 am. The only reason I'm stopping is because of low gas and the fact that I'm falling asleep at the wheel.

I stopped in a random small city at the only gas station around.

"You look a little young to be driving." The shop keeper says. He's an old man with a beer belly and a trucker hat on that has seen better days.

"And you look a little too old to be working." I tell him as I hand him $40. I've never pumped gas but I assume thats enough. Plus I bought a couple of snacks.

He laughs at my dig, not insulted in the slightest.

"How old are you kid?" He asks.

"I believe thats non of your business." I tell him with a sneer.

"I think it is my business when a kid who barely looks 12 comes walking into my shop with bruises and blood everywhere and smells like death." He says as he raised his eyebrows.

I look away as my cheeks turn red. I completely forgot about the blood...

"Why don't you clean up in the bathroom and then come with me? I can give you a hot meal and a bed to sleep in." He says softly.

I look around, considering it.

But can I trust him?...

"Why don't we try it out and see how it goes huh?" He says.

I nod my a head a little and walk to the bathroom in the back of the shop.

As I look in the mirror I wonder how the hell I forgot about this.

I scrub my face with ice cold water, washing the blood away. I didn't even know my nose was broken. I guess the pain in my shoulder made me ignore the pain in my face.

I can't move my shoulder at all, every move sends an electric pain throughout my body.

I sigh as I walk out of the bathroom and back to the counter.

"Now don't you look better. Now why don't you move your car to the back and then meet me back here?" He asks.

I nod before doing just that.

I walk back into the shop and follow him behind the counter, into a little apartment.

I see an older lady stirring something on the stove.

"Now who is this?" The older women asks with a big smile on her face.

"He hasn't given me his name but I told him he could have a hot meal if he washed up." The older man said.

"Well I'm Margaret, my friends call me Peggy, and this is my husband Jim. It is wonderful to meet you baby." She says.

I blush as I look down at my feet, my cheeks warm.

"Now breakfast won't be ready for another few minutes, why don't you head into the bathroom over there and have a quick rinse?" Peggy tells me.

I glance at the bathroom before agreeing. A hot shower sounds like heaven right now.

I grab my duffle bag from my car and walk into the bathroom. I run the water on scalding as I use the washcloth and soap, scrubbing my skin until it's raw. My shoulder burns from the water hitting it, the bullet is most definitely still in there.

I pull on some grey sweatpants and a black long sleeve shirt.

I come out of the bathroom and smell the food. My stomach immediately grumbles.

"Well I'm glad someone's hungry, I always make way to much food for the both os us." Peggy says with a smile.

I make my way to the table, sitting across from Jim.

"What's your name baby?" Peggy asks as she sets some bowls down onto the table.

Do I tell her my real name?

Can I trust these people?

"my name is Crow..." I tell them while filling up my plate with a bunch of foods.

She made a lot. There's pancakes, bacon, eggs, a soupy thing that smells amazing, toast with three types of jams, a whole bowl of fruits, and sausage.

"Now thats not a name you hear everyday" Jim says with a smile. "I will be hard to forget it." He laughs.

"what's this?" I ask pointy to the soupy thing that smells amazing."

"Oh baby those are grits, it's ground corn meal. It is my granny's recipe." Peggy says with a warm smile.

I nod my head, putting some on my plate. The second it touches my tongue the flavors hit me, it's buttery, salty, and isn't over powering but it's not bland.

I eat three plates of breakfast foods before being too full to eat anything else.

"Did you get enough to eat baby?" Peggy asks.

I nod my head before yawing, between the hot shower, warm meal, a full belly, and no sleep I'm exhausted.

"Do you want to take a nap baby? We have a guest room you can sleep in." Peggy asks me.

I hesitate before nodding.

"Well I'll go get it set up then. You stay right here okay baby?" Peggy says as she walks out of the kitchen.

I fiddle with my hands in my lap.

"So Crow, are you comfortable answering some questions?" Jim asks me.

I hesitantly shrug my shoulders.

"How old are you?" He asks.

I look at him before mumbling "16..."

Jim gives me a small smile, "now I know thats not true, son you look no older than 12."

I just turn away, not answering his question.

"Okay, did you come from a bad home?" He asks.

I nod slightly.

"Are you heading to a place you know is safe? Or were you just trying to get away?" He asks.

"I was just driving..." I tell him quietly.

"Okay, now is anyone going to come looking for you that I should be worried about?" Jim asks.

I just shrug, I don't know if good people or bad people are looking for me.

"Okay you don't have to have a yes or no question but would you want to stay here? With me and Peggy? We can guarantee you a hot meal, a warm bed, and hot showers. We might put you to work though depending on how long you stay. You'd be expected to help with house hold chores, deliveries, and I might let you help me out with my store." Jim says with a wink.

That actually doesn't sound too bad...

I look around their house, or apartment thing. I saw some animals behind here so it makes me wonder if this is also a farm...

"'I'd like to stay here for as long as you'll let me." I tell him.

He smiles at me.

"Now this is my last question for now." He says.

I nod my head to tell him to continue.

"Do you have any injuries we need to treat? Peggy was a nurse back in the day so she can help you with just about anything you may need." He asks as he looks me over.

I hesitantly nod at him.

"What is it? Peggy and I will help you as best we can." He says.

"I uh.... I..." I struggle to tell him.

"ihaveabullteinmyshoulder"

I tell him quickly and quietly.

"Can you repeat that? My hearing ain't what it used to be son."

"I have a bullet in my shoulder..... I was uh- I was shot in my..... in my shoulder a few hours ago." I tell him.

His eyes go wide as he calls Peggy in the room.

"What?! What's wrong?!" She asks frantically.

"Crow here says he was shot in his shoulder. I need you to check it out." Jim says urgently.

Peggy nods as she runs to the sink, crouching down to grab some items from underneath it.

"Which shoulder baby?" She asks as she sets down gloves, tweezers, gauze, and rubbing alcohol on the table.

I show her my right shoulder. Luckily I'm left handed.

She immediately gets to work, she gives me some pain medicine too take the edge off because she needs to dig around for the bullet. She says if we leave it it could travel into my heart...

"Jim, go get my suture kit. I'll need to stitch him up once the bullets out." She says.

Jim nods and runs to another side of the house.

"Now baby I need to know who did this to you. I need to know if they're going to try and come find you." Peggy says.

"It was someone who I thought was a friend..." I tell her quietly, tears coming to my eyes at the thought of the massacre that happened at a place I was calling home....

"Oh baby... well I'm glad you're letting us help you." She says with a small smile. Jim walks back into the room with a small cookie tin.

Cookie tin?

I thought she needed a needle and thread...

"Thank you sweetie." She says as she gives Jim a quick kiss.

Once she sits back down she's in Nurse Peggy mode.

The pain medicine helped a little bit but it still hurt like a bitch. Jim held my shoulders down on the couch while Peggy dug around for the bullet, whispering apologies the entire time.

After what felt like 3 hours she finally got it out. She wasted no time. She disinfected the wound, stitched it up and had me in an ace bandage sling super quickly.

"Now why don't you go lay down baby? I know you're tired." She said as she brushed the hair out of my face.

I nodded and followed her into the room. She tucked me into the bed and kissed me on the forehead before turning the light off and closing the door.

I didn't ask for help...but I'm glad help found me...

Sleep found me quickly...

Third persons pov

The entire family was on edge, between the attack, their uncle being murdered, and Elias running into the woods....

Nobody was in a good mood.

After they watched Elias push Elijah and himself out of the window and balcony all hell broke loose. Everyone immediately broke free of their bindings and killed the people holding them hostage.

If the Russian Mafia thought ropes would keep them contained....

Then they severely underestimated the Spanish Mafia...

It's been a week since the attack and the only sign they had of Elias being alive is one of their cars being gone.

Of course, they planned for that to happen.

After the massacre everyone went into the woods to search for Elias but they couldn't find him. Even the Russians that went to find him disappeared.

Alvaro and Alencio put little clues to help him find them.

They left one car unlocked with the keys inside, so that he could get out of there.

They also left a burner phone and $2000 in his duffle bag.

But after a week with no response everyone was getting antsy.

They went and checked the house, the car and his duffle bag was gone so why didn't he answer his phone?

Leo was most concerned about Elias being off his medication.

The medication helped curb most of Elias's hallucinations, helped make his paranoia not as severe. Without his medicine Elias is a danger to himself...

So a week without it...

Leo was extremely worried...

Everyone was...

The Rameriez family was now on the hunt...

They lost their youngest member before....

They weren't going to loose him again...

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Sooooo

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I really like where this book is going.

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