Chapter 11 #3
“Good,” Linda states, patting his shoulder. “Be careful out there. You won’t go on the field, but remember what you have been taught. Go for the kill if you have to. We only have one shot at this.”
I fist my hands. The usual fear is trying to overwhelm me, but the memory of Ezra’s face reinforces my determination. I won’t stay here while he risks his lives—all of them. And I’ll keep myself out of trouble.
“Are we going to use your driver?” I ask Lori. We both drank, and I feel a little loose from the alcohol.
“No. But I have just the right person.” He smiles.
Fifteen minutes later, a taxi stops on the curb in front of Michael’s building. Lori tells the bodyguards to go back to their positions and gestures me to get in.
I open the taxi door and slide into the purple back seat. A sweet smell, like pumpkin latte perhaps, fills the cabin.
“Hi!” the driver says. “I’m Petunia. You a friend of Lori’s?”
Petunia is a young woman with black and bright green hair styled in cinnamon buns on both sides of her head, purple lips, and round glasses. She gives goth-doll vibes with the dark makeup, lacy, white fingerless gloves, and frilly black shirt.
“He’s Sully, my bro. This is the most discreet driver in Chicago,” Lori says, clicking both our seat belts in. His stalker kit is between us.
“And the best in Illinois,” she adds.
I utter a weak hi.
“We are stalking his boyfriend, this is the address,” Lori says nonchalantly. He checks the tracker app Linda downloaded on his phone and shows it to Petunia.
“Fun, another tailing,” the driver declares, while typing the address in the navigator.
Another? Does Lori call her when he follows Gabe? “How do you know each other?” I ask.
“It was fate. She helped me save a kid,” Lori simply says.
“Your bro is badass,” Petunia asserts with awe in her voice.
“We are kind of in a hurry, could you push on the gas, dear?” he asks her.
“Say no more. I’ll take the usual alternative routes so the Smurfs won’t bother us.” She leans over the wheel, looking very invested.
The Smurfs? I mouth at Lori. The police, he mouths back.
“Turn on the car’s Bluetooth, I have a new stalker playlist,” Lori excitedly shouts, tapping on his phone.
As soon as Petunia obliges, Corey Hart’s “Sunglasses at Night” starts playing in the car.
“You weren’t kidding when you said you enjoy…this.”
“Are you kidding?” Lori’s laugh. “I’ve improved my skills and tried to perfect the art.”
Art…of stalking?
“Maybe it’s in my family blood. I need to check the old genealogical tree. There must have been a Michael Myers or an Alex Forrest somewhere on those branches.”
“Where’s your feathery pet this time? Hold on,” Petunia suddenly warns us before making a hard left. My body slides with the sharp movement, but the seat belt stops me from hitting Lori.
“Home. She watched the movie Birds yesterday, and afterward attacked the pizza delivery guy. So I decided to keep her away from people for a while.”
Definitely a good call to leave her there. Maybe I should have done the same with Noodle. His small nose pokes from my hoodie’s collar. But I couldn’t leave him at Michael’s. Pink is there, and she doesn’t really enjoy his company. We didn’t have time to take him somewhere else.
“But we have a special guest—Noodle.” Lori points at the ferret’s face, now sniffing the sweet air.
“O.M.G. That’s adorable. Can I pet it at the next red light?” Petunia asks eagerly, looking at him through the rearview mirror.
“I can do better.” I move toward the front, pat her shoulder, and Noodle quickly climbs the seat headrest and stops on her shoulder.
“I could die!” Her excited voice reaches a high decibel. “I need to take a selfie. My sisters are going to love this.” She then starts to talk to Noodle in a baby voice.
I move back to my seat, thinking that at least this is distracting me from the agitation and dread I keep feeling.
Lori has opened his stalking kit and is now changing into more suitable clothes.
His arm hits me on the face as he takes off his sweater, and as I slide away from more attacks, I almost strangle myself with the seatbelt.
“Be careful back there. Proper seat belt usage is very important,” she tells me.
“You’re wise beyond your years,” Lori teases her.
“Utter tosh,” Petunia imitates a perfect Lori, and I laugh at him.
“Oh, Sully, you are handsome when you smile, and your eyes. Freakishly beautiful.”
Is that a compliment? I blush anyway.
Cheap Trick’s “I Want You to Want Me” plays next.
“Ohhh, not good. Baby Jesus take the wheel!” Petunia suddenly exclaims, before pushing her torso down on the passenger seat. Noodle jumps back on the back seat and slides quickly inside my hoodie, scratching my neck.
“What’s happening?” I look at Lori with a wince.
“The fuzz.” He points his thumb toward a police car parked near a hotdog stand. “She just hates them.”
“I really do.” She comes back up, checking the review mirror. “We are almost there.”
Lori looks at his phone before saying, “You can stop right here.” He rummages in his kit before taking out a pair of binoculars.
The car stops, and Petunia turns off the engine. I look around. Is Nine hiding in one of these buildings? They don’t look like a good place to hide, too visible. But what do I know? I’m just a student, not an experienced killer.
“What do you see?” I ask Lori after a few seconds.
“Your boo, wearing a black hoodie and looking all gloomy and intimidating. Sexy.”
Ezra is fine, thank gods.
“Stop drooling over my boyfriend,” I whisper-scold him.
“Can I check the level of hotness?” Petunia asks.
“Sure!” Lori passes her the binoculars as I raise my hands in the air with exasperation.
“Totally a babe from what I can see. Good catch, Sully. But why is he wearing a white mask?” Petunia gives the binoculars back to Lori while I’m fuming.
“He’s into very disturbing kinky shit.”
What the fuck? I pinch Lori’s hand, enjoying his gasp of pain.
I feel a headache building in the back of my head, and I grab the bottle of water I see sticking out from the stalker kit and chug it to try and stave off the pain.
“Ezra is talking to someone. Uri, I recognize the pattern of his sweater. They are at the entrance of an alley. It’s too dark there. The others must be inside.”
He passes me the binoculars, and I finally look through them. And there he is, my masked man. A rush of pure relief runs from my chest…to my balls. He is so sexy. Maybe I’m the one with the disturbing kink.
“I took a video, I almost forgot how fun this is.” I hear Lori’s voice as I remember we have to activate the earbuds now that we have eyes on them.
“Lori.” I point at our ears.
“Oh!” He nods.
One push and I can hear Linda calling for us.
“Tac team, are you there?”
“Y-yes. We can hear you,” I answer.
“The tic-tac team is in position,” Lori deepens his voice, gesturing something at Petunia. I lift the binoculars again to look at Ezra. He’s still there.
“And where is that?”
Can she just check the tracker? Lori has one behind his ear. I’m the only one without.
“Somewhere between Englewood and Washington Park.”
“We are in West Garfield, the boys are moving now, and we are following,” Michael lets us know. That means they aren’t so far away.
“Roger that. Keep us posted.” Lori is still using that idiotic deep tone.
The margarita plus the water I drank weren’t such a good idea. “I need to pee,” I tell him.
He silently hands me an empty detergent bottle—that he took from the kit.
“What should I do with this?” I stare at him, baffled by his level of preparation.
“Use your imagination,” Petunia snorts.
“I’ll hold it.” I toss it back into the bag.
“They are on the move.” Lori lowers the binoculars. “Fuck, they disappeared into the alley. We need to continue on foot.” He pushes a bag into my hand, tosses me a black cap, and then passes Petunia a roll of cash.
“I’ll keep your stalker kit safe, call me if you need me,” she says as we slide out of the taxi.
“It was a pleasure, Sully. Leave a good review.” I hear her say as I gently close the car door.
“Follow me.” Lori moves in the alley’s direction, holding a black umbrella in one hand and his phone in the other, where the three blue dots keep moving—Rague, Ollie, and Uri.
I haven’t talked to my brother since we fought yesterday. He sent me a text this morning. Stay safe. I should have been the one saying that since he’s going to fight against Nine, not me. I didn’t write anything back. I should, but I’m still so angry at him.
Lori snaps his fingers in front of my face, signaling me to stop alongside the wall near him.
He’s wearing the same cap over his curls, dark gray leggings, and a black jacket, with leather boots on his feet.
He takes the bag from my hands and passes me a knife.
Then he seems to reconsider it and replaces it with an expandable baton.
He looks at his phone and then takes a quick peek in the alley.
He frowns and then takes another peek. His frown deepens.
He moves to the entrance of the alley and just stands there.
“What is it?” I ask.
“I think the tracker app is broken.”
“What do you mean broken?” Linda’s voice resounds in my ear.
“On the screen, it says they are walking down this way, almost at the end, but there’s no one.” Lori is right, the dots are walking thirty feet down this same street. I take a step inside the alley. My eyes fall on a manhole, and suddenly I know. “The freight networks!”
Lori snaps his fingers again. “The tunnels underground, that’s how Ezra went around the city and spied on us at first, avoiding both Serena’s and Nine’s eyes.”
“Keep following them,” Linda tells us.
“Eww, really?” Lori asks.
We both use our strength to lift the grate—which had been unsealed. The smell is ripe, but it’s not sewer stench. It’s dark down the hole, so I use my phone light to illuminate the bottom. I can’t see it.