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“Michael,” the Brit whispered, slowly backing up. “Michael, please. Don’t do this. Y-You’re not thinking straight. You don’t want to do this.” The six were in a room in the Safe House - Michael facing the other five of the Crew. He had a remote in his hand, one that they all recognized to be to C-4. Michael had betrayed them.
“Gav, I’ve been planning this for months,” Michael smirked, holding the remote in his hand, his thumb over the detonate button. “You were all fucking stupid to trust me. Especially you, Gavin. You thought I actually loved you? Hah! How could anybody love you?” At that, Geoff growled, gripping Gavin’s shoulder and moving him back. His right hand was in Jack’s, and his left was on the younger man’s shoulder.
“Michael. Please. L-Let us go,” Ray pleaded, his brown eyes filled with sorrow. “We’ll leave the town. You can h-have Los Santos, it’s all yours. You’ll never hear from us again.”
“You think I’m an idiot?” Michael laughed, an evil laugh. “You guys would be at my throat the second I turned my back.”
“You’ve put so much C-4 in the building,” Ryan stared at him. “You know you’ll be going down too.”
“Yes, I can see that. But all I ever wanted was for you all to lose. And now? It’s game over.”
If only the others weren’t so stupid. They should have seen that they weren’t able to trust Michael. And they never, ever should have left their guns where they couldn’t reach.
While Michael continued on his rant, Gavin placed his hands behind his back - and doing so, he felt the handle of his knife. His knife! How he could have forgotten, he had no clue - they could have been out of this mess already. He carefully tapped Geoff’s leg, and motioned to the knife. Geoff patted his shoulder, a way to tell him that he understood.
Moments later, Geoff lunged. He lunged for Michael, tackling the smaller man, knocking the remote out of his hand. “Gav! Quick!” Thankfully this had served as a distraction for Michael.
But Gavin couldn’t bear to do it. He stood frozen, the knife in his shaking hand. “For Christ’s sake,” Ryan growled, taking the knife from his hand, and running to Geoff’s aid. The Brit turned away, letting out a shaky sigh. He had loved Michael - he’d loved the boy with all he had, he would have given his life for him. And the whole time, he was… just faking.
“It’s done,” Ryan whispered, standing up, discarding Gavin’s knife on the ground. “We need to go. Bring the remote. We’ll detonate the house when we get far away. We can’t go to any other safe houses either, who knows what he’s done to them. We’ll go to your place, Geoff. It’s the closest.” It wasn’t unusual for Ryan to take charge in times where they needed it. Geoff was too stunned to do anything other than nod, and follow the others out of the apartment.
“Gav, c’mere,” Ray said, as they were getting into Geoff’s car. Gavin was in the back seat, between Ray and Jack. The youngest Lad hugged his friend, rubbing his back. He was the second closest to Michael, thinking that he was Ray’s best friend. Of course this was hard on everybody, but Ray and Gavin had suffered the most.
“Safe to detonate, by now,” Geoff told Ryan, who simply nodded. Gavin covered his ears, trying to ignore the explosions in the distance. That was Michael’s body - destroyed. He ceased to exist.
After close to thirty minutes of driving, they arrived at Geoff’s apartment. He lived on the very top floor, and it was large enough to house the five of them. Of course Geoff would have the biggest apartment, he was the richest of the crew.
“Gonna check for more explosives before you guys come in. I’ll text when it’s safe.”
None of them would sleep that night, something that was obvious. They were all sitting in the living room, Geoff and Jack playing a half-hearted match of Halo, Ray at there feet watching, Ryan with his head in Ray’s lap, and Gavin across the room, scrolling through his phone. There was no doubt that he was looking through his old texts with Michael.
“I-I think I’m gonna try and get some sleep,” Geoff said, setting the x-box controller down on the table.
“Me too,” Jack nodded, standing up.
“I’m fucking exhausted. Probably won’t sleep, but it doesn’t hurt to try,” Ray followed. Ryan just nodded, and Gavin ignored them.
“You killed him,” Ryan heard the quiet whisper from Gavin, later on.
“Gav, believe me, I didn’t want to. I can promise that. But I had to. He was going to kill all of us, and I couldn’t let him do that. You guys, you’re my boys. I’ve gotta take care of you. I couldn’t live with myself if I let something happen to you.”
“You would’ve been bloody dead if you wouldn’t have done anything. I would’ve been dead. I wouldn’t be how I am now. I fucking wish I was dead, you prick. You fucking heard what he said about me. He said that he never loved me, that nobody ever would. And he’s right. He was always right.” His rant ended in tears. “Nobody would miss me if I was gone.”
“Bullshit!” Ryan screamed. “Gav, we all fucking love you. You’re like a son to me. I only killed Michael because I had to. If there was any way we could have gotten out of there and left him alive, it would have happened. But it was just too risky.”
“Just leave me alone,” Gavin sighed, turning away from the older man. Ryan just sighed, and headed into the guest room, with Ray.
The next morning, they found Gavin laying on the kitchen floor, blood pouring out of his neck, a note laying next to him.
‘Michael was right. Nobody could ever love me.’