Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
DEMITRI
From not telling anyone to telling everyone, I guess? That’s all I can think when I look at the bar full of people. Aiden and Grady are one thing. Even Aunt Linda being here shouldn’t freak me too much, but Mia’s friends? I don’t want them anywhere near this mess. This is my mess. Because no matter what I try, I’ll never get away from my family completely.
“What did she say to you?” I ask Mia.
“Nothing. Said she was driving through, but didn’t give anything else away.”
“How did you know?” Aunt Linda asks.
Mia looks at me, not giving anything away when she replies, “Her eyes. She has the same eyes as Demi—John.”
“Ugh, seriously, can we cut the John shit? Everyone here knows?—”
“John, dear, watch yourself,” Aunt Linda sternly replies.
“Actually, I didn’t,” the woman sitting at the end of the bar says. She’s got brown hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. “I only know you as Beluga Boy.” The smirk on her face almost makes me laugh, but Aiden beats me to it.
“Beluga? Like a whale?” he laughs.
“No,” Mia deadpans. “Like the vodka. The expensive shit, unlike that draft drivel you two drink when others are paying attention, big guy one. Or should I call you Old Fashioned, Irish boy?”
Aunt Linda snorts into her glass, and Grady chuckles next to him.
“Mia, Mia, I thought we were past all this no-name stuff.”
“Yeah, well, good luck with that. I know what you drink, I don’t need to know your name and background.”
“We need to know names. We can remember them,” Mia’s other friend says. “I’m Nola. This is Sofie,” she points to the first woman, “and this is Grace. That’s Mia,” she grins as she points to my girl, “and Beluga Boy must be John? Or something. So, who are you?”
Mia leans against the counter behind her and smiles at her friend. Part of me thinks it’s because Mia is used to being the one in this group to speak out. Doesn’t take a genius to see that if one takes five minutes to watch them interact, but Mia has always taken the step back to let her friends speak and shine.
“I’m Aiden, and this is Grady.”
“And why are you here? Who are you?”
“We work for ANON, and we’re here because he called us?”
“Are you asking me or telling me?”
“Telling?”
“Alright, enough flirting. That was painful,” Aunt Linda interrupts. “I’m Aunt Linda, and I’m here because I am, so just go with it.”
“She knows things,” Mia whispers to her friends. “She might be the only one I trust to be here.”
“Thank you, dear.”
“Anytime.”
I look between the two women and frown. I don’t think I like these two getting this close so fast. Aunt Linda is a powerful woman, one who can fucking kill if she needs to, and I don’t want any of this touching Mia.
“Turn that frown upside down, son, and get over yourself. She’s involved, and the universe doesn’t give a shit what your feelings on the matter are.”
“I really hate it when you do that.”
“I know. Tough shit.”
“Alright, enough. What are we all thinking?” Mia asks, putting an end to my bickering with Aunt Linda.
“I don’t think she was here for him,” Grace says. She’s been quiet since the bar closed.
“Why would you think that?” Aiden asks.
“She showed up after they were already here. She had two drinks and left before closing. The parking lot is empty, correct?”
“Yeah, I watched the video feed when she left. She got in a taxi,” I confirm.
“She never went down the back hall, or even tried to look at anyone else in the bar. She sat in the first booth and faced the bar. If she was here for anyone, it was Mia.”
“What would she want with Mia?” Grady asks.
“Who knows. But that’s my take on things. You have a better idea?”
“I think she knows we’ve been trailing her for months and that we come here. Maybe she was trying to get intel on what we know. Which is not a lot.”
Aunt Linda jumps up from the stool and goes over to the booth where the lady was sitting. I can’t think of her as my sister. The only sister I have is rotting in jail after being taken down by the FBI. She sits down and starts doing her Aunt Linda thing. None of us say anything, just watch. She feels on top of the table, under the table, and in the booth. When she frowns, I know she’s found something she doesn’t like.
“What is it?” I ask, getting up and joining her at the table.
She shakes her head, giving me a hard look. When she raises her hand and I see what she’s holding, my entire body sags. Some type of bug. Or camera. It’s a flat disk type thing, but with tech these days, who the fuck knows exactly what it is. I turn to look at Grady, who immediately knows something is up and pulls out his phone. I look at Mia and put my finger to my lips, letting her know to be quiet.
I help Aunt Linda up and we walk back to the bar. She holds up the small disk in her hand and Aiden and Grady immediately start cussing. Mia takes out a notebook from under the bar and hands it to me before plucking a pen out of her hair and holding it out.
It’s a listening device or a camera. Be careful what you say.
Mia closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before nodding her head. She turns to the women and shows them the note before placing the notebook on the bar face down.
“So, what’s the plan for this weekend? Are we still going over to watch the baseball game at the University?” she asks, a fake smile plastered on her face.
“Can we go to the diner while we’re over there?” Nola asks. “Their food is so much better than anything we have here.”
“I beg to differ.” Grady smiles. “Sandy has some good food, but Danielle’s? That place has the best lasagna and cannoli I’ve ever had.”
“I don’t disagree with you,” Sofie interjects, “but I’m with Nola on Sandy’s after a ballgame. Pretzels and beer go with diner food better than a heavy meal.”
Grady thinks about it before nodding. “Fine. I’ll give you that one.”
“Hard to argue with me. I’m always right.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
Mia shakes her head, looking at me with an incredulous look on her face. She flips over the notebook and writes:
What are we waiting for?
I reply:
Grady called someone. Hoping they can help.
She quickly writes back:
How long do we have to wait?
Before I can write my reply, Grady gets up and goes to the door and unlocks it, opening it up and letting someone in before closing and locking it again. Joker. The newest ANON member. I hear he’s a super hacker and security guy. Also heard he was a sniper in the Army. Not someone I’d want to fuck with, that’s for sure.
He tips his chin our direction and looks at Grady expectantly who holds up the unknown object. His brows raise, but he doesn’t give anything else away, taking the disk from Grady and walking to the bar. Sitting on a stool and pulling out a laptop, he gets to work.
After about five minutes of clicking around, he finally looks up. “Okay, it’s paused. What do we need to be worried about it recording?”
“It’s not a live recording?” Aiden asks.
“Nope. It records for three hours, sends the data, and records for another three. It’s also sound activated, so it will shut off and not record anything when there’s no one here. Saves battery. Kinda nifty, wonder if Daniel would let me have some. Looks like it last sent at eleven. What kind of conversations do we need to be worried about here?”
“The last hour should be good. There’s a fake conversation if you can save that one,” Aunt Linda replies for all of us.
“I can do anything,” he smirks in return,
“Umm, who are you?” Nola asks.
“He’s big guy number three,” Mia chuckles, pouring Joker a beer and sliding it across the bar.
“How many big guys are there?” Sofie asks.
“Too fucking many.” Grady grins. “Of course, we’re the only ones who matter.”
“I’m Joker. I work with these assholes. And I break into tech shit. Mostly legal, of course. Now, is someone going to tell me what I need to delete on this recording before it’s sent? Easier to manipulate it before that happens than have to try to hack the system receiving it.”
“Can you track it to the location getting it?” Aiden asks.
“Yup. But we have about twenty more minutes before that happens, and we need to fill this thing with inconsequential conversation.”
“I think the only part that needs deleted is this conversation we are having,” I reply.
Joker nods, clicking away on his laptop.
“Well, I guess everyone’s helping me clean this place up for closing. Chairs being put on tables and stools on the bar and glasses clinking. That’s pretty inconsequential sounding, right?” Mia looks at Joker.
“Sure is.” He stands and glares at everyone. “You heard the lady. Let’s clean. We can talk movies. Musicals. How hot my wife is.”
“But I don’t know your wife.” Grace gives him a once over. “Or you.”
“Well, you should. She’s amazing. Her name is Ginny, and she plays cello.”
Everyone moves, following the order to clean, but Aunt Linda grabs me and pulls me to the back hallway, away from the recording device.
“We need to play this carefully, son. I agree with Mia’s friend, I don’t think she was in here for you.”
“Then why? I know you don’t believe in coincidences, Aunt Linda.”
“I don’t. I think she was absolutely here for something, I just don’t think it was for you.”
“What could she want with Mia?”
“Location. Access.”
“You think she’s what? Going to try to move her drugs through here?”
“It follows her pattern. She moves into a town, finds a place to move product, and then gets out before the heat can get to her, leaving someone else to take the fall. She’s done it in Briar Mountain, where there’s a connection between your girl’s past, in Diamond Cove with the rich kids, in Rock Hill at the high school, and in other schools up and down the range. If she’s looking at getting power, she needs money and capital. If she can’t find you, the easiest way to do that is with drugs.”
“And a bar is an easy place to move that kind of product.”
“Bingo.”
“You think she wants to use me to help her move drugs?” Mia interrupts us, her face ashen and her lip curled into a snarl. “Not a fucking chance.”
“She doesn’t know that yet. That’s why she left her present. This woman isn’t stupid. She’s been operating with someone for years and has never gotten caught. Hell, we weren’t even sure of her name a year ago. You need to play this carefully. At least until we know what she’s playing at,” Aunt Linda smiles at Mia. “I have faith in you.”
“I don’t like this one fucking bit,” I growl, turning and walking away.
Aiden, Grady, and Joker all notice and leave their chores to corner me on the other side of the room.
“You need to calm down,” Joker says quietly.
“Fuck you.”
“Not my type, buddy, and you know I’m right. You won’t do anything but push her away if you go all alpha macho on her.”
“You have no idea. You don’t know what I’ve seen, what I know.”
“You’re right, I don’t. But each of us has our own burdens, have seen some shit, and we’re still here,” Joker says, a faraway look in his eyes. “And I’m telling you, from experience, that the best thing you can do right now is let her know you are here, you aren’t going anywhere, and that you want to keep her safe. You can’t demand shit. Trust me, that will backfire faster than you can fucking say you’re an asshole.”
“So what do we do?”
“We keep her safe. It’s what we’re trained to do.” Grady smiles. “Kind of our fucking jobs. We take turns, we act normal, we keep an eye on things.”
“I can’t be seen in public right now, remember?”
“Which is why you have us.”
“Enough penis plotting,” Mia whispers from behind us, making us all jump. “Time to go.” She nods her head to the disk, and Joker goes over to retrieve it off the bar and put it back in the booth where Aunt Linda told him it needed to go.
“She’s going to be trouble, you know that, right?” Aiden quietly tells me as we walk toward the bar.
“Yup. But she’s my trouble.”
“Take your trouble home, man. Keep her safe. And don’t smother her.” Joker grins. This is where I should point out that when that man grins in any form or fashion, it’s actually terrifying, right?
“Let’s get out of here,” Mia whispers when I’m close enough to her.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And Dem, we’re going to talk about whatever plan you and the big guys came up with without me, so I can tell you if it’s something I’m willing to go along with.”