Chapter 24

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I stood in the bathroom staring into the mirror after I washed my face in the basin and pushed my hair back trying to figure out why I had let yesterday happen.

Who was I? I didn't do things like that impulsively...

It was just so easy to lose myself around him. I held my breath thinking about just lying there with him, not doing anything but that little bit of bickering we did. My stomach felt weird, tight, but not like I was sick though. I released my breath slowly wondering if I had missed him more than I had let myself think I did.

No. No, you didn't.

But –

No. Just... no.

Yeah, I was probably just a little sick.

I nodded to the guy in the mirror and let my breath go realising I was holding it again. I'll get over it. What? I have nothing to get over. Whatever. I'll go out with... What's his name? Ryan. Yes, I'll go out with him. Sergio would be nothing more than a... business associate. No more casual sex. No more whatever the hell happened yesterday. We were done.

I smiled at myself as I brushed a hand through my hair and let a few strands fall onto my forehead and eyes. When was the last time I had gotten it cut? I'll do it today, an excuse to stay out of the house longer. I walked back into my room and felt a little subconscious disappointment at having walked into an empty room but I brushed that away very fast before I got dressed.

I walked downstairs and stopped at the opening that led to the living room, I noticed the couches were gone so the coffee table was in the middle of emptiness. I blinked picturing Paul's blood on the floor and shivered slightly, grateful I had not seen his body. I honestly couldn't handle that again.

"Breakfast, Alex. We have to leave in ten minutes." Clyde's voice came from behind me as he gave me a pat on my shoulder. I nodded turning from the living room and walking into an almost empty kitchen, only Kent was in it. Thank God because I did not want to deal with anyone that lived or worked there at the moment.

I ate quickly and got handed drugs before Clyde rushed us outside, no idea why he was in such a hurry, but before I reached the car, someone grabbed my arm roughly. I turned to frown at Ben.

"Ben, what are you doing? We have to leave." Clyde called impatiently from behind me.

"Just a second." Ben called back. I heard Clyde's door shut after he climbed into the car before Ben glared into my eyes. If he wasn't an asshole, I would admit that he has really nice eyes. They were a really deep blue, it was almost hard to look away from them. "I don't know what you think you're doing, but he doesn't like you and he's not stupid so you won't get him to let you go by being a bitch."

"What?" My eyebrows rose.

He just frowned at me in disgust as his eyes ranked over me. "He gets so desperate when he's overworked." He muttered more to himself than me before his eyes met mine again, "You're not on his level, don't kid yourself." He said before he walked back into the house.

I stood confused until I heard Clyde hoot from the car snapping me out of it and I turned to give him an apologetic smile as I made my way over to him.

"What did you do this time?" he frowned at me.

"Nothing, I swear. I have no idea what that was abo... oh." I felt a smile spread onto my face. He thought I was trying to get Sergio to like me, didn't he? He thought I was trying to 'trick' Sergio into some type of relationship so that he would let me go...

I didn't even know Ben could act like that about someone. It was so weird. I chuckled shaking my head and Clyde shot me a glance as he drove. Good thing that thing between Sergio and me is over; I definitely didn't want to be the guy Ben thought was trying to take his man. I didn't want more run-ins with anyone. But let's be realistic, I was me so I guess I wanted to reduce the amount of run-ins I had had with them?

We stopped in front of the school and I tried to leave but Clyde grabbed my wrist. I turned to look at him and he was staring at me seriously.

"You're still looking for Declan?"

"No." I shook my head.

"Bullshit. I heard you asked about him." He glared at me, I shrugged. "Alexander, I am warning you. Don't be a fucking idiot. If you think about what we have done to people, it gets so much worse when we are actually threatened by them."

"You're all sick, and he deserves what's coming to him." I said.

"Are you not listening to me? You won't be able to touch him! You are going to die." He said.

"If I were you I would focus on my own life, Clyde." It was a reference to the drive-by. I pulled my wrist from his hand and got out of the car. Across the street I could see Rodrigo and some guy I had never seen before watching me from the gate. I swallowed. Paul meant nothing to anyone there, had he?

I shook my head walking towards school wondering if Kyle would still be there.

A few hours later I was seated in a lecture room staring down at Kyle – or Mr Rayman. He was talking about work and I was wondering where our regular lecturer had disappeared to. Why was Kyle here anyway? Was he selling here? Was it just a coincidence that our lecturer wasn't here or had they done something to him to get Kyle into the school?

I pushed the questions out of my mind trying to focus on what he was actually saying since it had a lot to do with my work.

My eyes fell to the edge of his desk where two phones were lying. I narrowed my eyes wondering if I could have the answers to some of my questions from those. What if he had lied and actually had contact with Declan? I mean, I was a dealer and from what I had seen it wasn't a usual occurrence for me to have any contact with Clyde – much less Sergio. Kyle was a policeman and policeman had connections within these rings that could probably get him moved up closer to Declan really fast.

I had decided. I was going to get a hold of his phones and scan through all the recent activity. I ran through plans in my mind as I watched the clock tick until it was time to leave. I packed my things and began to leave but noticed a few students walk up to Kyle to ask some questions. I held my breath walking down stairs, straight by Kyle as he spoke to a brunette girl and grabbed his phones on the other side of his desk. I glanced back to see that he still had five other students to talk to and I walked out only releasing my breath when I was out of his sight, my heart pounding at the thought of getting called out about taking the phones.

I shook my head as the thought that I was way too good at this sounded in my mind.

I went through one phone first; it just had a few calls to some woman and messages about dinner. I glanced at the door I had just walked out of as the girl walked out with a guy by her side. Four more...

I began going through the other phone but frowned seeing that his call history was cleared, as were his inbox and outbox. I grit my teeth deciding to copy some of the numbers but I stopped when it buzzed in my hand.

I opened the text and raised my brows. It was a message scheduling a meeting between him and whoever had sent it at six once he had finished work. I recognised the place as a bar not that far from the apartment I shared with Jordan. I glanced up at Rodrigo, he was leaned against the wall speaking to his friend and they both kept occasionally glancing at me.

I would need to get away from them again. This time without my laptop and I was sure my phone had a tracker in it as well so that wasn't going with me either. I took note of the time and address again before I marked the message as unread and saw the message icon reappear on the home screen. I then walked back into the lecture room. Kyle glanced at me and gave me a smile before his eyes returned to the guy he was talking to. I slipped his phones back onto his desk, side-by-side on the red folder like he left them before I got in line planning to make it look like I had walked back in here because I forgot to ask him a question about some work. The little bit of work I had actually somehow managed to pay attention to.

I watched Kyle as he nodded at something the guy was saying before he greeted him and spoke to the next one. On to thinking about how the hell I'm going to get out of the house and across town tonight without Rodrigo, Clyde or anyone else noticing until they had no idea where I was...

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I smiled at my bed. I had laid out my phone, laptop and a note telling Clyde or whoever else saw the note that I had gone out and giving them a list of suggestions detailing other things to do besides focus their lives on me. Like learn a new language, play board games or bond over a candle light dinner. That last one was to tease Ben – or piss him off.

I changed my washed out blue jean to a black one – just in case Kyle was very observant –and added a black jacket over my shirt. I hadn't gotten around to cutting my hair but it didn't matter as long as I could run without it blinding me and right now it was brushed back under my hat so it seemed alright. I walked out of my room and listened. I could hear Sergio's voice from his room, along with Clyde's. I could hear some voices downstairs but there was a door down the hall where not a sound came from even though it was open. I walked into the room casually and smiled finding it empty so I shut the door and walked across the room.

I lifted the window open pretty easily before I climbed out onto the sill still holding the frame as I looked down.

Jesus, what had made me think this was a good idea? I had no parkour training whatsoever...

I took a moment to be grateful this window faced the backyard before I decided to try to climb down steadily.

Once I was down I climbed over the fence to the neighbour's yard and then the house beside theirs. I stopped at the third yard because I could hear dogs playing so instead I walked out the front and began jogging my way through town with my hood on until I got to a place where I could stop and get a taxi.

I had decided earlier that I would sit closer to them and listen in on their conversation.

I payed the driver and climbed out of the taxi when it reached the bar before I walked in. My eyes searched every chair and corner of the bar before I bought myself a drink and walked out. I leaned against the wall outside of the bar; I wasn't the only one outside so I didn't seem out of place. I sipped on the beer slowly until I saw Kyle park at the side of the road and then walk into an alley not far from the bar. I began making my way to where I had seen him walk into, my eyes running along the walls to see if there was anywhere I could hide. I decided it didn't matter where I stood, he wouldn't recognise me as long as my head was down and whoever he was meeting didn't know me anyway.

I leaned against the wall just outside of the alley and drank slowly. I was just a few feet away from some guys who were drunk off their asses and speaking to each other very loudly while they occasionally stumbled around.

I sipped my drink again as three men who had parked their black Chrysler with windows tinted darker than Sergio's soul – okay, no, tinted darker than his black hair – walked into the alleyway giving me less than a glance.

"Kyle." I focused on the voices as I stared at the ground.

"Why did we meet here?" I recognised Kyle's voice.

"To tell you we've decided to push forward so you need to find out who their dealer is and get rid of him before Thursday." I nearly spat my beer out. Were they talking about me? Is that why he was the substitute?

"Thursday? That's impossible –"

"You'll figure it out. Also, Zack got taken out so we need you to get in and out of Anne's before five."

Anne's... Where had I read that before...? I could not place the name as I tried to remember it.

"I thought we were blowing it next week, you want me to do all of this in the next two days?"

"You're a cop; it should be easy to get into their building. Pretend you got a call or something. If you get rid of their dealer before then, there won't be a possibility of anyone recognising you."

They were planning to blow one of Sergio's buildings up... I felt my heart quicken as a sickening feeling filled my stomach. So many people worked there, not to mention the actual bakery workers that had no clue what was going on below them. Wait... They burnt down the other baking factory, didn't they? No. They didn't seem like the type to go silent after two of their own warehouses get burnt down, this gang, the way Kent described them: they would have come back bigger. But maybe this is that come back...

"What about the others?" Did he mean the other warehouses?

"We've got that covered."

Did Steve know about this? Had Kyle told him? Oh my God...

What did I have to do with any of this? What were the chances of me going to Anne's when Kyle tried to get in?

"You couldn't tell me all of this on the phone?" Kyle sounded annoyed.

"We could, but then you wouldn't get this." I didn't want to risk looking into the alley. The street lamp was sure to point my intrusion out.

"What's this for?" Kyle asked.

"You'll need it. Sergio's got all his dealers trailed. Get him alone, kill him silently." I bit the inside of my cheek feeling my heart bang in my chest as I tensed. I was currently alone... if they realised it was me I would be killed right where I was,

They wanted this town... That's why they were going to get rid of all of Sergio's warehouses... Well, why couldn't they just ask nicely that I stop selling so they could take over instead of plotting my death?! Why did I matter? It's a university. It's fucking massive. We could both sell there, and I'll keep my mouth shut about recognising Kyle if I have to.

"See you." I turned and began walking as I looked around for a taxi.

I stared at the bar. I might need more than one beer tonight...

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