Brothers of Chaos (The Unstoppable Titans Book 1) by Jerry Hart Page A

exciting.
    “Where’s cutie-pie?”
Owen heard the coffee-shop employee ask Chris one day. He was around the
corner, because Chris had instructed him to stay out of sight and keep his head
down for some reason.
    “Oh, I don’t
know,” Chris answered. “He took off a while ago.”
    “You know,
he looked rather familiar,” the clerk, Bonnie, said with a conspiratorial tone.
Owen had heard that tone in the movies enough times to recognize it.
    “Really?”
Chris said, though he didn’t sound the least bit interested; he sounded
distracted. He’d gone inside to get his and Owen’s free muffins and iced
coffees for the week.
    “Yeah. He
looks like this kid.” Owen didn’t know what Bonnie was talking about because he
couldn’t see from behind the bookshelf in the adjoining store, but he heard
paper crackling.
    “I guess
you’re right—he does look like him,” Chris said nervously.
    “Why are you
getting two of everything, Chris?”
    “I met a
girl.”
    “Oh. Is that
so? I’d love to meet her.”
    “Some other
time, Bonnie. Just remember you’ll always hold a special place in my heart.”
    “That’s
sweet, doll. Just don’t do anything stupid. I can’t, in good conscience, be a
part of anything that shouldn’t be going on.”
    Owen had no
idea what she was talking about and it worried him.
    “I’m not
doing anything wrong,” Chris said, then added, “I’ll do the right thing.”
    A second
later, he was walking out of the coffee shop and past Owen. Once they were out
in the streets again, Chris handed him his snacks.
    They dodged
into a familiar alley and sat down on the ground next to a trashcan.
    “Why did you
want me to hide?” Owen asked as he took a bite of his blueberry muffin.
    “No reason,”
Chris said unconvincingly. “I just think you should stay hidden for a while.”
    Owen, at the
tender age of fourteen, simply accepted the answer as he enjoyed his snack. At
that point, he had been living on the streets with Chris for a nearly two
months. He’d felt more at home there than he ever did with the Matthews. And he
could tell Chris was enjoying having a buddy.
    “Do you miss
your old life at all?” Chris asked.
    Owen stared
at him for a while before answering. “Not really. I mean, I miss my dad, and my
mom.”
    “What
happened to your mom? You never told me about her.”
    Owen didn’t
know how to answer that.
    “She left me
and Dad last year. She just disappeared. Dad said country living didn’t agree
with her, so she ran away.”
    “Do you
believe that?”
    “Deep down,
I don’t. I think something happened to her, but I don’t know what. I think
wherever she is, she’s okay. She’s happy.”
    “Happy?”
Chris asked, confused. “Without you?”
    Owen nodded.
“Otherwise, she wouldn’t have left.”
    “And you’re
happy, living with me on the streets?”
    Owen smiled.
“Extremely.”
    Chris smiled
too. He seemed almost relieved. “That’s what I needed to hear.”
    A silent
moment passed between them.
    “Did I ever
tell you I used to make movies?” Chris asked after finishing his coffee.
    Owen shook
his head.
    “Me and a
buddy started this company, and we went around looking for talented filmmakers
to make movies with. Then we were going to release those movies through our
company.”
    “That sounds
cool,” Owen said, grinning. “Did you release any movies?”
    “No,” Chris
said sadly. “The company fell apart. My producing partner and I didn’t get
along very well. But there was this one guy who wrote this fantastic script
about these monster hunters who went around town, killing vampires and demons.
And the monster hunters are young, like us. I would have loved to have gotten
that movie made.”
    Owen
snickered.
    “What’s so
funny?” Chris asked, grinning.
    “You’re not
young. I’m young.”
    “I’m twenty-four.”
    Owen laughed
even more. “That’s old!”
    Chris
thumped him on the head. “You little punk.”
    They laughed
together,