Taken By The Mafia Lord

737 Beat Him Up

Elijah got back home at a later hour after getting some air. It had been chaos in his head earlier as the emotions tried to overwhelm him –the guilt of what he had done to Adele blanketed him till he was nearly drowning in it.

However, he was able to compose himself and was back. But then, the moment he walked into the living room, Ephraim was standing in there alongside his huge brother Elvis, as if the both of them had been waiting patiently for his return.

Elijah gulped unconsciously knowing that trouble was already waiting for him. Since Ezra was not in sight, he could already guess he had told them everything. Hence, he unconsciously braced himself for the chaos about to unleash. Ephraim was slow to anger compared to his twin Eric, but when his bottled emotions reach their limit, he’s much more ferocious.

“You’re still up?” Elijah said casually, hoping to walk past them without trouble when Ephraim asked,

“Where’s the girl,” Ephraim was leaning against the pillar while Elvis in question pulled him back by the shirt before he left.

Elijah scratched the back of his head before he stared up at his brothers. None of them were smiling at him, which was enough to convince him not to lie to them. They were going to kill him tonight.

He took a deep breath before saying,

“She’s gone.”

“Gone where?” Elvis asked sternly. Amongst all of his brothers, he likes throwing his weight around even though he wasn’t the eldest child – and Elijah was grateful that he wasn’t in Eric’s position.

.....

Ejivis believes that he would have been the second eldest child had Ephraim not come around. Hence, both of them tend to fight a lot even though Ephraim would win in the end. While Elvis was strong, Ephraim would always win with his wiles and brains.

Every family had its problem and

as united as his brothers seem to be, they had their flaws too, nor were they indifferent to sibling rivalry. Sure Ezra might argue that he – Elijah – depended on them to get his mess cleaned up, but then, that was his only way of drawing attention.

Having four overachieving brothers, where was he supposed to step in? How was he supposed to display his special attribute without being covered by the shadows of his brothers? It was always Eric who did this or Ephraim did this or Ezra did this and even the less brainy one among them, Elvis did that.

He was not just their baby brother anymore. But then, each time Elijah tries to do his own thing, he ends up causing trouble instead. Any time he attempts to gain his brothers’ respect, to make them stop thinking of him as their brother whom they attempted changing his diaper as a kid, it all goes wrong.

He must be a jinx.

“She’s with Marcel,” Elijah let out.

“You!” Elvis stepped in, raising his hand to hit him only for Ephraim to step in and stop him.

He turned to Elijah and said, “Come to the boxing ring.”

And yeah, they do have a boxing ring.

To engage his children, their father made sure to provide for and fulfill whatever sporting desires they loved and one of them had been boxing. There was just something so intense, so aggressive, heart-pounding, and beautiful about the game that drew in his competitive brothers.

They often used the ring to resolve their issues. Whenever they had a dispute and a little violence was needed to settle the matter, they were advised to take it to the ring where they ended up beating each other to exhaustion. In one word, Elijah knew that he was only going to receive a beating there, so he braced himself.

“You have only five minutes,” Ephraim announced to Elvis who finished putting on his boxing gloves and did a little warm-up by throwing a few practicing punches in the air, that is if you could call it that with the knowing looks he was throwing Elijah’s way.

Elijah was silently thinking of many ways to save his ass from getting terribly kicked. It has been a while since they did this since everyone had moved out and there was no time to get into fights anymore. Of course, they taught Elijah everything that he needed to know, and he knew their fighting styles nor was he out of shape.

But then, the same could be said for his siblings too. There was no way that they had been slacking off and had practiced as well. Hence, Elijah couldn’t tell if they had improved or not, or what new trick they had picked along the way.

However, if there was anyone that Elijah feared more, it was Ephraim, not the heavily muscled Elvis. Sure, Elvis was fearsome, but he was all about brute strength and Elijah planned to go on the defensive until his time was over else his brother would break him in two.

He couldn’t go confrontational with Elvis and from the smug look the asshole has been giving him for the past minutes, Elijah was sure that he knew that too.

But Ephraim?

He was calculating, manipulative, and as smart as he was. While Elvis strikes on the surface, his other brother is good at psychological attacks and they hurt more because they run deeper.

So the moment they entered the ring, Elijah was already calculating his exits and mentally scanning Elvis body to see an advantage in this unfair fight. Something like his brother favoring his left or right leg, aka a recent injury. None of them were wearing protective measures like headgear or mouth guards. This was not a sport to be enjoyed, but a chance for them to beat each other up or in his case, get punished for what he did.

So the instant Ephraim gave the signal, Elvis charged forward with a primal growl and took the first jab while Elijah began to defend himself.