Ryder's POV

I woke up to the sound of voices in the other room. I rolled onto my side, looking out across the room. Sierra's bed was empty, and so were all the other beds in the room, where Gray, Roman, Texas, and Blake had been sleeping. The others had slept in a different room. 

I looked up, and noticed that the dip was still in the bed above me. "Samuel," I whispered, not wanting to wake him up if he wasn't already awake.

There was a creak as he shifted around, before his head peeped over the edge of the bed. "Hey," he said.

"Mornin'," I said. "Are we supposed to be up or something?" 

"No, they'll come and get us when we need to be awake. They like to get up early and make sure we're all packed up and stuff."

"Oh I see," I said. I sat up in my bed and Samuel hopped off his bunk, sitting on Sierra's bed. 

"Did you sleep well?" he asked, yawning and wiping the sleep out of his eyes.

"Yeah, best I've slept for a long time," I replied.

"How come?" he asked, briefly looking at the clock. It read 5:57 am.

"My parents used to always shout at each other throughout the night,"

"Oh." He said, unsure of what to say for a second. "I never knew my parents, so I guess I never had to deal with any of that," he said.

"Have your brothers looked after you your whole life?" I inquired.

"Yeah, shortly after I was born, my parents went MIA," he shrugged, not really bothered. "I've always had so many people around me, I never really missed them. We're like a huge family. I see Gray as a father figure, and Sierra as a mother figure, and then I have the two most supportive brothers in the world. I guess I couldn't want more,"

I knew what MIA meant. Missing In Action. "I'm sorry to hear about that. And that sounds nice. The idea of this being a huge family. I only met you guys yesterday but you're already nicer to me than my family ever were,"

Samuel gave me a sad smile and reached forward, placing his hand on my shoulder and giving it a reassuring squeeze. 

Gray walked into the room, causing Samuel to retract his hand. "You guys are awake already?" he said playfully. "You still have about half an hour before you should start getting ready and stuff. I just came to ask, Ryder, do you have a phone?" 

I nodded, pulling out my old cracked phone. 

"Is there anything you'd want to save off there? We'll give you a nice new phone, we just wouldn't want to get tracked or anything," he said.

"Um . . . I guess there's not much I want to save. Would I be able to keep my Spotify account?" I sheepishly asked. 

"Is it paid for by your parents?" 

"No, It's not a premium account," I said.

"Yeah sure, you can sign into it on your new phone, and we can make it premium, the rest of us have it,"

I smiled. "Thank you so much, that means a lot,"

Gray waved it off, "It's no big deal. Anything else," 

I thought for a second. "Uh, I guess I kind of have a distant cousin, who I'm very close with, and if it's not too much to ask, could I keep hold of his number? He's a really good guy and he's the only reason that I'm still alive today. He's saved me from ending it so many times, and he the only family member I have that matters to me," I reasoned.

Gray thought for a moment, before sighing. "If you trust him, then we do to. The others won't be happy, so this is gonna stay between us okay?" he said, looking between me and Samuel. We nod. "Write down his number," he said, sitting next to me on the bed and rolled his sleeve up. I copied Jecil's number onto his arm and he rolled his sleeve back down. "We're not going to tell the others that you're gonna stay in contact with this guy. You have to be careful you don't tell him things he might feel inclined to release to the public, and you have to make sure he doesn't tell your whereabouts to anybody. Once your parents report that you are missing, the whole county will be looking for you,"

I nodded understandingly. "Thank you so much,"

"It's okay, he clearly means a lot to you. Samuel, no telling your brothers, okay?" Samuel nodded. "I'll add this number to your new phone before I give it to you. All phone we use go through me, so that I can disable certain things like government tracking and install our own tech tools."

"That's cool." I said. "So um, here, I guess," I said, awkwardly handing him my banged up phone. It wasn't much but I was almost attached to it.

He smiled and took it, standing up and beginning to walk out of the room. "You're getting a serious upgrade kid," he said.

Once he left, Samuel turned to me. "So who is this guy?" 

"He's my 2nd cousin. He lives in Canada, so were barely see each other in real life. But we message all the time. He's like a brother to me, a brother I never had, and I guess I didn't really think of him when I said there was nothing left in my old life. We don't live near each other anyway, so I guess joining you guys won't have too much of an impact."

"How old is he?"

"He's 23. He's always supported me when my parents have been shit to me and my classmates have caused problems. I guess I'm gonna have to tell him that I'm with y'all because he's gonna hear about my disappearance one way or another,"

"He sounds like a really nice guy. I hope I get to meet him one day," Samuel said.

We continued to talk about what life used to be like for me, and just like that, half an hour passed. 

Sierra walked into the room. "Morning kids. How did you sleep, Love?" 

"Morning, very well, thank you," I replied.

"That's good to hear," She said, giving me a warm smile. "You two should start freshening up and getting ready to leave. What would you like to eat?"

Samuel stood up, rummaging through his bag. "I'll eat at the airport,"

"Which airport are we leaving from?" I asked. 

"London Heathrow."

"I've been there," I stated. "It's about a 3 and a half hour drive from here. And I'm mildly car sick, so I think it's better that I don't eat,"

"That's fine, let me know if you need anything, honey. We'll get you a fresh pair of clothes to change into once we get to the airport. We're leaving off the private strip so we shouldn't be faced with any major checking or a strict time schedule." She said, before leaving the room. "Oh, and Samuel, make sure you hand in your stuff," she called. 

Samuel pulled out some jeans and a T-shirt. "Yeah sure," he replied to Sierra. 

"What does she mean?" I asked. 

Samuel pulled off his shirt with no warning. For a second, I found myself staring at his very defined torso, before I tore my eyes away, blushing. "Every time we cross the border of a country-" he paused, pulling the fresh t-shirt over his head "-we have to hand in all our weapons, and place them all in one bag or suitcase which doesn't go through the checking process. Roman hands it to a member of staff that we pay large amounts to, who takes past all the security and stuff, so that we can avoid getting caught for taking weapons onto aircraft."

"Ohh, I see," I was worried that he was gonna change his pants in my presence too, but thankfully he didn't.  

"I'm just gonna go and brush my teeth and stuff," He said, leaving the room. "I'll be back in a sec,"

I myself stood up and went into the other room, where the others were stood talking. There was a large duffel bag on the table, almost full with weapons of all sorts. Texas spotted me eyeing it and spoke. "Morning Ryder. Don't let that stuff intimidate you, we only use them when necessary,"

I smile and shrug. It didn't really bother me that much. Reeve looked at me across the room. "Sure you don't want to back out now? You've probably never even seen a gun before," he said, scoffing.

"Leave the kid alone-" Josy started, but I interrupted her.

"I have, actually," I said, fairly loudly. 

"For real?" Blake asked. 

I nodded. "I'm a Royal Air Force Air Cadet." I paused. "Or at least, I was,"

"Does that mean you handle weapons and stuff?" Jared asked.

"Yeah. I'm only 12, so I've only been allowed to for less than a year, but I have passed a weapon handling test on the L98 Cadet GP rifle." I said, proudly. 

"Wow," Texas said. "And you said there was nothing left for you here,"

"I had to leave last week because my parents refused to pay anymore," I added.

"Oh. Okay I see why you said that now," Josy said.

"I heard that Cadets are trained harshly, and brought up with discipline and good skills," Jared said, interested.

"Yeah, I've learnt a lot for life,"

 "It's your weakness Reeve," Gray said, out of nowhere. When nobody said anything, he continued. "You seem to believe this erroneous conclusion, that you know everything. That was the 2nd thing you have ever said to that girl, and it was so hideously inaccurate. How do you feel?" Gray chuckled. 

Reeve stood up. "You always seem to want to get on my bad side. Want to fight it out?" he sneered at Gray.

Gray didn't move a muscle. "I'm the only one in this room with the balls to tell you what you so desperately need to hear. Maybe that's because I'm the only one in this room who knows that I wouldn't lose a brawl with you,"

Reeve snarled before sitting back down. Gray smiled, evidently feeling accomplished.

As Samuel had briefly mentioned while we were talking earlier, Gray clearly didn't get along with everyone. From how much I knew about him, I seemed to admire him. He was very clever and he spoke with control and poise. 

I used the bathroom after Samuel, and soon everyone was ready to leave.