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“Are you ready to let me drive myself?” She asked in exasperation.
She’d gotten her car back from Reed the week after the fire, but it’d been sitting ever since. I’d told her about the threat from the two boys that were involved in the fire, but she didn’t see the big deal. She’d said that she got threats like that from the kids at the high school all day long, and if she took the threats seriously, she wouldn’t be able to live her life.
The high school boys at her school were small potatoes compared to the drug makers who’d gotten out on technicalities less than a week after they’d been jailed.
Although they hadn’t heard from the two boys, or the one that had lived there, since the day of the fire that had burned down both apartments, I had a niggling thought in the back of my head that was warning me not to relax.
“I know, Adeline. I just have this,” I said shrugging into my shirt. “Feeling that I shouldn’t let you drive to work by yourself. Then again, if you really want to, I’ll follow you, but that’s the only way you’re getting out of riding with me.”
The boys left Adeline alone while she was at school, but they always had someone there to follow her home, or to the grocery store if needed. If she wanted to go somewhere, they always had a prospect ready and willing to follow her.
And as much as she hated to have a tail, it made me worry about her less, which, in turn, made Adeline happy.
“How long is this going to go on?”
My fingers moved deftly on the buttons of my shirt, and then I started shoving the shirt down into the pants before buttoning and doing up the belt.
“I don’t know.”
I really didn’t. I was just worried about her, especially after what I’d learned last night from Silas.
I stewed on the call from Silas all the way to Adeline’s school, agonized over what bad shit Silas was going to throw at me next.
Silas had called late last night after she’d gone to bed and told me he’d found out some things that he needed to discuss this morning before I went to work.
So, after I drop Adeline off at work, I was running to the clubhouse before my shift started to speak with Silas and Sebastian.
I knew I wasn’t going to like it.
Then Adeline did something so cute, that it knocked me off my game for a few short moments, allowing me to smile despite the impending doom.
“Oh! Hey, hold on one second.” She said as soon as she got off the bike.
“Adeline, we’re both really late.” I groaned but stayed where I was.
Out of all things I’d expected her to do, dropping down on her haunches, ass to the back of her legs, and putting on eyeliner wasn’t one of them. Using the chrome plated overlay of the bike’s air filter, she deftly used the long stick and rimmed the edges of her eyes with black. Followed shortly by mascara on her lashes.
Then, she stood up, leaned in to give me a kiss, and walked quickly to the school building, smiling widely over her shoulder at me from the doorway before she disappeared inside with a tide of high school kids.
I should’ve known, though, that life was never nice to me, and never had been.
Good things had a way of going bad when it came to me, and I was about to be shown how.
• • •
“So let me get this straight,” I said while leaning forward. “Those two-bit criminals were bailed out by Adeline’s brother?”
Trance and Silas nodded in confirmation.
“Then what?” I asked.
“From what I can tell, they all left the station together and Mr. Sheffield drove them in a shiny new Hummer to a park where they had some sort of meeting. After that was over, the boys left with about twenty grand lining their pockets and took up a new residence in the old Umber House on the outskirts of Benton.” Silas said.
“Okay,” I said hesitantly. “What the hell is going on with the brother? Just a few months ago, he’d broken into Adeline’s apartment and then went to steal from Viddy. How’d he go from zero to hero so fast? What’d he do?”
Trance shrugged. “The brother, as far as we can guess, is the middle man. He finds the suppliers, gets them what they need, makes sure they get their shipment done in time, and then carries the cargo to the buyer.”
“Fuck,” I sighed and rubbed my face. “I don’t fucking understand.”
