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He studied me suspiciously before dipping his chin once. I had to fight not to let out a relieved sigh. Stepping back, I jerked my chin towards the hall.
“Now let a man shit in peace. I’ll be down in a–”
Sam scoffed, brushing past Reaper. I sidestepped her to block her, and she glared at me. “If there’s nothing in there, then there’s nothing to hide. Move.”
I scowled. “Sweetheart, I don’t even know you. I don't need you looking through my shit. Don’t you have work you should be doing?”
She crossed her arms and glared at me, clearly not believing anything I just said to Reaper. It made me antsy, and I snarled at her without thinking.
“Get your ass back to work and mind your fuckin’ business.”
Her eyebrows flew up and a tinge of fear crossed her face before she masked it. Guilt sank into my gut, but I needed some way to get her to leave me the fuck alone. She took a step back, but the triumph was sour given how hurt she looked.
“Clink, move the fuck out of the way.”
CHAPTER 13
SAM
It wasn’t hard to figure out Clink was lying. His eyes kept darting around and he looked anxious even when he plastered on that easy going persona and grinned at me. I thought about leaving him alone, I wasn’t his sponsor and his sobriety wasn’t my responsibility, but I couldn’t justify that in my head. I’d been volunteering with Tyson for a while. Sometimes I went with him when someone was just starting out to help him check for drugs. Some women especially felt more comfortable when it wasn’t just them alone with Tyson. Some had issues with men, from pimps who forced drugs on them to spouses who beat them and they used to numb the pain. I knew the signs that someone was hiding something and I felt like if I ignored what I knew to be true, I’d be just as responsible for Clink’s slip as he was. So when I saw Reaper near the top of the stairs, I asked him to come with me to check on Clink. He didn’t question my reasoning, he just spun on his heel and headed for Clink’s room.
Clink wasn’t happy about us barging in. And he was definitely a master at manipulating people into getting his way. He went after what he knew would work with Reaper, not once fearing the consequences of lying to that man. I wasn’t part of his crew, though, and I could see right through him. He was going to say anything to get us to walk away and leave him alone. He said Reaper searched his room, but Reaper never said anything about doing drugs in the past. He wouldn’t know just how good people could get at hiding it.
When I tried to bypass them, Clink blocked me, not bothering to hide his scowl. He knew I would be better at finding it than Reaper.
“Get back to work and mind your fuckin’ business.”
I almost flinched. Deep down, I knew he was lashing out to protect himself and to keep me from finding the drugs, but it still hurt. There was a reason I was glad I’d never be a sponsor. I wasn’t built to handle stuff like this. Patience wasn’t my strong suit. I either shut down or fought back. Neither would help Clink right now.
I took a few steps back, considering calling Tyson to help, when Reaper intervened.
“Clink, move the fuck out of the way.”
Clink swung his furious gaze to Reaper. “Fuck no. We just went over this. I–”
Without warning, Reaper moved. He had Clink in a choke hold in an instant, kicking his legs out so he landed on his knees on the floor. My mouth fell open, and I turned to run away, but Reaper’s snarl made me pause.
“You think he’s still hiding shit?”
With a grimace, I turned around slowly and nodded. “Yes. He’s deflecting and lashing out to get us to go away. People with nothing to hide don’t do that.”
Clink struggled in Reaper’s grasp, his glare locked on me even as his face turned red from the lack of oxygen. Reaper didn’t seem to even notice, tipping his head towards Clink’s room.
“Find it then. I found the shit in the vent, but everything else was clean.”
“That’s because it is clean, you asshole,” Clink choked. “She’s probably fucking projecting and using herself.”
If he’d kept his mouth shut, maybe I would’ve been nicer and told Reaper that I was wrong. But his comment about me projecting made my spine stiffen, and I swung around to glare at him. I didn’t touch drugs. Not after what happened. Not when my parents’ deaths could be tied to the one night I ever touched drugs. Without a word, I marched into his room. I zeroed in on the body spray on his dresser, remembering someone using the same one to hide drugs before. I grabbed it and pulled off the bottom, dumping the little dime baggie of white powder onto the top of the dresser. When I looked back at Clink, his eyes were wide and angry and he struggled harder against Reaper’s hold. He wouldn’t still be fighting if that was it, so I kept going, finding two more baggies with little effort. One was behind the baseboard under his bed. The other was tucked into the toe of one of his boots in his closet.
I washed my hands, not willing to accidentally ingest it or something in case some of it was coating the outside. Reaper finally released Clink, tossing him to the floor and pocketing the drugs I’d found. While drying my hands, I nodded to him.
“You’re going to want to dump those as soon as possible. If he thinks he still has a chance of stealing them from you, he’ll try it. As loyal as he says he is, addicts don’t always focus on that when they’re looking to get high.”
Reaper nodded, shooting a dirty look towards Clink. I basically just ripped apart Clink’s whole speech about trust and brotherhood. I felt a little guilty, but it was for his own good. His friends obviously didn’t know anything about dealing with addicts. They supplied to them, they didn’t spend time around them.
“Thank you. I’ll make sure it’s handled. You should get back to work. I’ll have one of the guys help you while Clink is busy.”
Nodding slowly, I edged past him but came up short when I saw Clink flick his gaze up and drop it back down. He was sitting on the floor, leaning against the door jamb, like he was trying to get his strength back, but for some reason he was holding his breath. I took a step back, watching his body language. He tensed when I stopped alongside the end of his bed. Frowning, I grabbed the sheets and yanked them off the bed. There, right along the seam, was a hole just big enough to hide something in it. When I reached in and pulled out another bag, I sighed.
