74. Tess
TESS
After my sweeping victory, Blade and Nash needed a few minutes to recover as we polished off the rest of our burgers and fries.
By the time we finished eating, we were all pretty tired.
“I don’t think you two could handle another loss.” I shrugged as I popped the last fry into my mouth.
Blade reached around me and gripped my hips, yanking me closer. “Careful, Trinket. I love a challenge.”
As day had turned to evening, the bowling alley grew crowded with teenagers and birthday parties. A recreation league had started up a tournament at the far end of the place.
But it was the looming figure over us that made all of our heads turn.
Something about Cyrus’ face at the top of the steps made my stomach drop.
Her face was as stern as usual but there was something else there, sadness.
“Hey, dude. What’re you doing here? Checking in…?” Nash asked, her arm over the back of the booth.
Blade was about to stand. “We can add you to the next round!”
“No.” Cyrus snapped. “We need to go.”
“What?” I stuttered, surprised that she would be so commanding in such a crowded room. Behind her, Danielle was scrubbing and polishing the counter.
Cyrus took the two steps in one stride. “It’s time to go.” Her voice was stern but not bitter, not carrying its usual vitriol. It was heavy. Like every word was filled with regret.
Something’s wrong.
“Why can’t we…” Nash started, wanting more information.
Nodding, I stood up. “Okay.”
Blade and Nash were just as confused but as the bright overhead lights faded and black lights flicked on, they stood up and exited the lanes.
We made our way back to the counter, turning in our goofy bowling shoes and putting on our sneakers and boots. The music turned up louder, a pop dance party breaking out over the alley. The screens over each lane lit up with a flashing animation that read: “Cosmic Bowling Starts Now!”
“Thanks, Danielle.” Cyrus nodded to the nice young woman.
“You got it.” Danielle nodded and slid our shoes back into their slots after spraying them with disinfectant.
Cyrus marched on, pushing open the glass doors and leading us into the chill of the late September night.
The cool air smacked my face, flushing my skin pink.
Stopping before we reached her Aston Martin, I shook my head. “Where are we going?”
The glow of the red and white neon sign lit most of the parking lot. “Headquarters. We’ll talk once we get there.”
Blade swallowed hard and pressed her hand into my lower back. “Come on, Trinket. Better not to dilly dally.” Opening the passenger door, Blade slid the front seat forward and helped me slide into the back of the sports car.
Once we all buckled in, Cyrus peeled the Vanquish out of the lot. We drove deeper into Valemont first, the town weirdly quiet for dinner time. But as we approached town center, the gazebo just across from Perkatory was packed.
Pedestrians held paper cups, gentle flames flickering inside.
A vigil.
“What is that?” My brows furrowed as I peered out the window, squinting for a better view.
At the gatherings center, Rubin’s bearded and robed figure rose above the crowd on the steps of the rotunda. Candlelight cast over his face as he shook his head. He lifted his hands as he began to speak.
Around him, others held each other. Some of them even wore matching robes.
As they pulled each other close, a few cried.
“Cyrus…” Before Nash could finish asking, Cyrus pressed her foot down on the gas and sped up.
“Seriously, what’s happening?” I pushed. I’d followed her lead — didn’t make a fuss about getting in the car without details. But this shit was getting weirder by the second. “Who died?”
Meeting my eyes in the rearview mirror, Cyrus’s pitch black eyes looked defeated. “Jane. The woman we brought to Lucky Strike…”
“I know who she is, Cyrus. What the fuck happened to her?” I hissed back. The news hit me hard, like a ton of bricks to the skull.
“We don’t know yet. But we’re going to find out.”
The rest of the drive was silent as we all sat with the tragic information. We left Valemont’s center and headed for the edge of town where warehouses met the river, connected to docks.
Where the fuck are they taking me?
I’d thought headquarters meant home… to Feverpoint. But this was far from the abandoned amusement park.
The Aston Martin came to a stop outside a towering brick factory, a few lights on beside doorways.
Cyrus hopped out of the car first, throwing open the door to her precious Vanquish as she stormed toward the metal doors.
Blade gripped my knee and squeezed it before she crammed herself out of the car. Waiting outside my door, Nash held out her hand to help me climb out.
In silence, we all followed behind Cyrus who threw her shoulder into the metal door. Forcing it open, Cyrus strided into the dark warehouse.
Beside the door, Nash flicked on a few light switches. Overhead, massive lights blinked on.
“Holy shit…” My jaw dropped as I realized where we were. The warehouse wasn’t empty. No, it was completely full.
Pallets and pallets lined the walls and aisles of the entire place.
Cyrus walked deeper into the brick building, moving toward the back.
I couldn’t move, not when I realized what was on the pallets.
But Blade’s firm hand on my back forced my feet forward.
Stopping next to one of the freight containers, I ran my hand along the shrink wrapped bricks. A white powder was compressed inside, one brick of thousands. I scanned the next one — blue pills in those.
I knew they must be dealers… they had to be with that kind of money.
How else would they have been able to renovate the loft to be a luxury apartment?
But this…
They were kingpins.
A shiver ran down my spine.
Did they have a hand in Jane’s death?
The thought made me sick, bile rising in my throat as I tried to push the idea out of my mind. I was no expert but I didn’t think this is what hard drugs looked like. There weren’t distinct bags of crystals or dark black heroin powder.
Even if it wasn’t, this kind of stock… I could only imagine what kind of control it would take to protect it. Or what kind of power it left my Freaks with.
I may have known these three when we were younger but despite my best efforts to get closer to them, it was clear that I still didn’t know them well enough to trust them.
Not really.
Was I willing to get caught in the crosshairs of a drug war?
Once I had my $40k in hand, I could decide what I wanted. But without it, I had no power or say for myself.
Pulling me from my spiral, Nash and Blade guided me to the back office.
Sensing my tension, Blade leaned into my ear. “We don’t do hard shit. We supply clean, party drugs. That’s it.”
“Right.” I nodded before they opened the office door and stepped inside.
Nash stood by the exit and crossed her arms. “Details.”
Leaning on the metal desk, Cyrus shook her head. “We don’t know much yet. But she was found dead. Likely overdose. Dumont is sending over the toxicology report as soon as the coroner has it. Should be any minute.”
“Fucking how?” Blade rubbed the metal piercing in her eyebrow. “We cleaned everything up. We sealed the cracks.”
“What?”
The three of them exchanged knowing glances, but it was Nash’s gesture to Cyrus that spurred the honesty. “We’d been in a turf war for years. When Dom and the Violence took control, she gave us authority to remove the bad actors.”
“We test all of our shit. We don’t sell to repeat users. We have a moral code. Something to live by.” Nash gritted her teeth.
“Then how…” I started.
Cutting me off, Cyrus growled. “Someone’s slipping past. But not through traditional means. They’re outsourcing. We knew it was a possibility. But an overdose will fall on us. Dom and her gang of bikers are going to want answers.”
“Fuck.” Blade was pacing now.
My chest felt heavy, like one of those pallets had been placed on top of it. I couldn’t help but feel responsible. Maybe that guy had something to do with it. If we hadn’t gotten involved…
“Don’t think about that.” Cyrus snapped as she met my eyes. “It’s not our fault. People use. We do our best to take care of them. We did what we could for her that night. It was the right thing to do.”
“We couldn’t stand by and let a woman get hurt.” Nash’s temple tensed as she stared down at her fullbore boots.
Shrugging, Blade let her hand run along the brick wall. “Maybe we should have made her stay longer.”
I bit my lip. “She was scared of us. We couldn’t force her to talk.”
But when I looked at Cyrus, her knuckles were turning white as her fingertips dug into the lip of the metal desk.
We should have looked harder for that man. It’s his fault. I know it.
I wasn’t sure why, but everything in me told me it was true. Maybe it was because she had been tied to Rubin and his mountaintop compound. Or maybe it was that I hadn’t gotten a look at her assaulter's face. But it was all starting to feel too connected.
Our silence was interrupted by a ping on Cyrus’ phone.
Without a word, she opened the email and scanned it. “Toxicology is back. Hallucinogen.” She took a moment to read before her face scrunched tight with confusion.
“What?” Blade pushed, bothered by the silence.
“Dimethyltryptamine.” Cyrus looked up from her phone. “DMT.”
“How the fuck?” Shaking her head, Nash pushed off the door. “We haven’t seen that shit anywhere. Not a single warehouse…”
Cyrus gritted her teeth together. “How could we? That shit is on lock down. No one has it.”
Waving my hands, I scoffed. “I’m sorry, can someone please explain? I’m not some drug lord.”
Blade bit her lip, her metal labret piercing slipping into her mouth. “It’s the chemical in Ayahuasca. Highly hallucinogenic. In its concentrated form, it gives you crazy visions and shit. But it’s short.”
“Having access to it is difficult enough, but to have overdosed… whoever gave this shit to her had a lot of it.” Nash continued.
Cyrus slammed her hand into the metal table. “And they managed to slip it past us. Someone else has a drug route into Valemont. And it’s more dangerous than we thought.”