Page 50 of Shattered Souls

“Fine by me, Seek.” she grumbles under her breath. My head pounds. Rick hinting that he knows I took someone captive, and now the officers poking around here are weighing on me. I go back to my room and collect the very thing I left the park this morning for. Walking back to the cuffed woman, I plop it down in her lap.

“Oh,” She picks up the thick ASL book and flips through the pages. Different hand patterns and symbols flashing through the book. Each page that fans by washes away a hint of her sadness, her eyes gleaning with excitement now. “You remembered.”

“Seek!”

“Yes, Beth?” I’m walking through the dressing rooms a few hours later, my mind full of a black haired woman and her venomous mouth, looking for Maverick.

“I’m glad I finally caught you alone.” I have to pinch my eyes shut to stop myself from biting an unnecessary insult her way. I’m in no mood to be nice tonight.

“Well, do you have plans tonight?” She once more runs a hand down my arm.

“Beth, the whole park is closed. We’re only here to finish cleaning up from yesterday.” The only reason people came in today was to collect any belongings they might’ve left, since we were supposed to be open today as well. I agreed to help clean the park up since the man that died last night was on the janitorial team.

“So,” I halt, slowly turning to face the woman beside me.

“Just go home, Beth.” I walk past her, leaving her slack jawed and alone.

It doesn’t take me long to find Maverick. He’s sitting on a bench in the costume room, his head in his hands and shoulders slumped in defeat.

“What the fuck was that about last night?” I’m leveraging the fact that he sees us as friends, hoping I won’t have to push too hard for an answer.

“Not sure what you’re talking about, man.” Where Maverick is usually carefree and laid-back, he’s currently tense and snappy in his tone.

“You know exactly what the fuck I’m talking about.” I cross my arms over my chest. A few people walk past us, purposefully avoiding looking at the reason for the murder last night—not directly, but still the reason.

“How about you just shut the fuck up for once and mirror Hyde—quiet.” My fist flexes at my side.

“I’d watch your fucking mouth before you have multiple people after you, Maverick.” That makes him look up at me, his face gaunt and washed of all humanity.

“I’m not sure who he was, but he came after my girl, man.” Just as I thought, he views me close enough to him to confide in. I reluctantly take a seat beside him, forcing myself to act like I can have normal empathy for this man. Though I’m not sure many people have empathy for him—the apathy for his side of this hangs over the park like some sort of fog.

“Did the cops catch him?” I’m interested in shoving all the cops' attention towards the man from last night, and not the missing woman. There’s been a pit in my stomach all day over what I’m to do with her. I can’t kill her—not even just to save Hayze’s heart, mine’s oddly invested in her as well. To kill her feels an awful lot like killing a part of me.

I’m in deep shit.

“No,” His head falls back in his hands. “They have an idea who he might be. But, said efforts to locate him are going to take time. I’ve been advised to remain sparse in the public eye.”

“Yet, you came right back here?” Rick was right, he’s fucking reckless.

“What else am I to do?”

“Figure out why he’s after you—that’d be a good start.” I know the first thing about running from something, or someone—you figure out their motive. Then you distance yourself from that as much as humanly possible.

“It’s not that simple.” Yes, give me all the information. I need to gauge if you’re a threat to my cover. “He’s just a pawn in a much bigger scheme.”

Fuck.

I let my head fall back against the concrete wall. If Maverick has brought the attention of a fucking gang, or worse, here then I’m screwed. We’ve spent so long perfecting this cover at Shattered Souls, and now it’s crumbling down before my very eyes.

“Just figure your shit out, man. Don’t show your face here again ‘til this shit is worked out. You’re jeopardizing others in your own self destruction.” I stand to my full height, readying to go back down and finish cleaning the fun room. I have a shift first thing tomorrow on the ambulance, and I don’t want to be worrying about a bloody mess at home while I deal with other bloody messes.

Maverick stands, anger once more surfacing. He opens his mouth to say something. He thinks better of it and sinks back down. I roll my eyes, chuckling at his cowardliness, and turn to leave.

As I’m walking back to the door of our home, Rick walks past me. I motion with my thumb to where Maverick is hidden and wish him luck. He mumbles his thanks and slithers off.

“I’m aware this is less than ideal,” I say to Hayze, not bothering to sign. “But we have no other choice.” He runs his hand through his hair, an action he’s repeated over the last ten minutes.

“And what, we just take her along with us and wipe Rayvn Harlow from existence?” Rayvn is watching us with a very bored expression on her face. She’s been quiet the whole day, her excitement over the book I got her only lasted about five minutes. Now, she’s back in her shell-shocked state of mind.