Chapter 5 – Whitney
WHITNEY
Mack woke me when we arrived at my house. I thanked him profusely and got his contact information for future rides.
Once inside, I made a beeline for the bathroom. I felt dirty and had not had time to be properly disgusted by being stuffed into what I presumed was a casket with Glenn.
Glenn’s dead.
My heart pounded in my chest as realization dawned.
I was supposed to be dead, too.
The thought had me fleeing the bathroom and running around the house, making sure each door and window was locked. Then, I locked my bedroom door, barricaded myself in my closet, and tried to call Stevie again. She didn’t answer.
Whitney: I’m home. Call me.
Stevie worked as a court reporter and was unable to answer personal calls or texts while she was in court. Glancing at my phone, I sighed with relief. I would only have to wait an hour at most.
Thankfully, Stevie called back fifteen minutes later. “You kept following him, didn’t you?”
“Yes, and something happened, but I’d rather tell you about it in person,” I said carefully.
“If you believe your phone was compromised in any way, power it down fully and do not turn it back on.”
“It could’ve been,” I admitted. I had no idea what happened between following Glenn into the pawn shop and waking up with his dead body.
“I’ll do the same with mine. I’ll see you in person soon. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
While I waited for Stevie, I tried to put the pieces together, but I couldn’t make sense of it. Glenn stole my wallet and drove to the pawn shop, but he didn’t stop at an ATM, and he didn’t take any items inside to pawn. The more I thought about it, the more my head hurt.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Stevie was home. “Whitney!” she called.
“Just a sec!”
Unbarricading myself took longer than I had anticipated.
When I opened my bedroom door, Stevie was standing on the other side with her arms crossed over her chest as she tapped her foot.
“What the fuck is going on?” She stepped into my room, locked the door, and ushered me back to the safety of my closet. She knew me so well.
I told her everything I could remember happening after I met Glenn at the restaurant.
“Oh, Whitney,” she said in a low tone. “This is bad.”
“I know! Somebody killed Glenn and tried to kill me.”
“Where were you picked up?” she asked, producing a phone I’d never seen before.
“It’s one of Hadley’s. She’s letting me use it to search stuff I don’t want to search on my work phone.” She navigated to the map and handed it to me.
“It’s hard to know exactly without looking at the app on my phone, but it was somewhere in this area. I remember the three mailboxes in a row,” I said and passed the phone back to her.
Her eyes widened when she looked at the screen. “What was the name of the pawn shop?” she asked urgently.
“I don’t know, but it was the one on Stallings Road, in that strip mall with the vape store. Why?”
“Yep, this is bad.” She tucked the phone in her pocket and clapped her hands together. “We need to pack for a few days and go somewhere else.”
“Why? What’s happening?” I was trying not to freak out, but Stevie was scaring me. She usually underreacted to situations, but she was being serious as fuck.
“The pawn shop is owned by the Wood brothers—Nate and Tate. I’ve heard they’re loan sharks.
Based on what you told me, I’m gonna say it’s true.
When they find out you’re not dead, they’re gonna be looking for you.
And the place you ran from? That was Grave Cremations, owned by the Grave Prowlers MC.
So, yeah, they’re gonna be looking for you, too. Pack now. Questions later.”
I packed on autopilot. My mind was reeling from what Stevie told me—I was wanted by loan sharks and an outlaw motorcycle club.
How was that even possible? Fucking Glenn.
When I found out he was cheating on me, I thought my life was ruined.
I was wrong. Cheating had nothing on making me wanted by criminals.
“Are you ready?” Stevie asked, startling me.
“I don’t know. I’ve never packed for anything like this.”
“That’s okay. We’ll take what you have and go. I can come back later if I need to.” She took my bag and nudged me toward the door. “Is this it?”
I pointed to the bed. “Those two and my backpack.”
“Oh good. I was worried for a second,” she joked, but I didn’t laugh. Fleeing my safe space in a hurry brought up a lot of bad memories for me. “Come on, let’s get you in the car.”
She loaded our bags and locked up the house while I sat in the passenger seat, dazed. I couldn’t process what was happening. I understood it; I just couldn’t believe it had happened to me. I felt like I wasn’t reacting like I should, considering what I’d been through.
“Where are we going?” I asked once we were on the road.
“Hadley’s.”
“Could you be more specific?” Hadley was rich as fuck. She owned several houses in South Carolina, and they were all multimillion-dollar estates.
“Yeah, but we need to call her first. Can you do that?” Stevie asked, gesturing to the display screen in her car.
“She doesn’t know we’re coming?”
“I haven’t talked to her. Have you?”
“No.”
“Hello?” Hadley answered.
“It’s me, and I’m in the car with Whitney.”
“Hey, Whit. So, why are you calling me on the secret phone I gave you?”
“Whitney has a situation, and we need to lie low for a few days.”
“I’m at the lake house. Do y’all want to come here?”
“Perfect! Yes, we do.”
“She needs to know why first,” I said to Stevie. Stevie didn’t have a choice about being involved because we lived together, but I wanted Hadley to have the option to decline the mess I was bringing to her door.
“This sounds interesting,” Hadley said excitedly. “What happened?”
I told her a shorter version of the story I told Stevie.
“Holy shit,” she breathed. “Yeah, I think coming here is best. Where are you now?”
“On the highway just outside the city,” Stevie said. “We should be there in an hour.”
“You don’t care that criminals might be after me?” I asked in disbelief.
“Someone would have to get past the gate, the cameras, the motion detectors, the locks, and the alarm system to get to us, and we would’ve had plenty of time to get to the panic room by then,” she said confidently.
“What the fuck am I gonna do? I can’t hide forever.”
“Patience, Pumpkin,” Stevie said. “We haven’t had time to come up with a solution. This crisis has barely gotten off the ground.”
“What solution could there possibly be? I’m supposed to be ash right now.”
“If you have to get a new identity, Ash could be your new name,” Hadley said.
“Let’s see what you can uncover before we jump to changing identities,” Stevie said.
“Tell me Glenn’s date of birth.”
“Uh, shit, it was in June. I don’t remember the date, but he turned thirty-two this year.”
“Found it. The twenty-seventh. Okay, let’s see what I can find.”
“Do you need anything else?”
Stevie laughed. “She didn’t even need that.”
“Having information given to me saves me a lot of time. I’m a PI, not a magician.”
“She says that, but watch, she’ll be able to tell you what color underwear he was wearing when he died by the time we get there.”
I exhaled heavily. “I cannot believe this is happening. I mean, I can, but damn it, I don’t deserve any of this.
I’m a good person, for the most part. When I found out Glenn had been cheating on me for an entire year, I didn’t do anything to him.
I should’ve gotten all the reward points and bonus miles for keeping that negative energy in check.
Seriously, if this is how life is gonna be when I’m intentionally being positive, I think it’s time to give the negative side a try. ”
“Let’s not be hasty,” Stevie said. “Everything is about perspective. Yes, there are some negative aspects, but there are some positive ones, too.”
“Ooh,” Hadley said excitedly. “Let’s hear Stevie’s Spin.”
“Well, just look at all the things Glenn can’t do anymore because he’s dead—and you didn’t kill him.
He can’t cheat on anyone. He can’t drive that obnoxious-ass car and pollute the coastal scenery with its hideous color.
He can’t ruin the lives of the clients he represents. I’m sure we can think of more.”
“He can’t almost get you killed anymore,” Hadley added. “After this time, I mean.”
“You suck at pep talks,” I told her.
“You’re not wrong,” she admitted. “So, about Glenn. Looks like his life went to shit after you broke up.”
“That’s unfortunate,” I said flatly. He deserved what he got, but I didn’t want to reap any negative energy for enjoying his troubles.
“For fuck’s sake. He cheated on you and threatened to sue you for breach of contract when you moved out. He was getting what he deserved. You can be happy about that,” Stevie said.
“You suck at pep talks, too.”
“I don’t have much practice. Only the weak need pep talks.”
“Thank you for the backhanded compliment, bitch.”
“Yoo-hoo,” Hadley said.
“Right. Sorry. What’d you find?” Stevie asked.
“He was in a lot of debt. Two months ago, he lost his house and moved into an apartment with Tori. He’s two payments behind on the booger-mobile. He was fired from the law firm earlier this week. And he has multiple credit cards completely maxed out.”
“Holy shit,” I breathed. “Where was his money going?”
“I’m still working on that.”
“I’ve heard he’s gotten into booger sugar, but that’s purely courthouse gossip,” Stevie said.
“Great. Do I need to worry about his dealers coming after me, too?”
“Oh, please, can we call them boogeymen?” Hadley asked.
“The answer to both questions is no,” Stevie said. “The only reason anyone is after you is because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. As long as his dealers weren’t there, you should be fine. And no to the other. Just no.”
“Okay, so just loan sharks and a motorcycle club. Got it. What the fuck am I gonna do about this?”
“You’re not gonna panic,” Stevie said firmly. “We’ve gotten ourselves out of sticky situations before.”
“You’ve gotten us out of sticky situations,” I corrected.
“Well, aren’t you lucky? Look who’s here.”
I turned around so fast my head throbbed. “Who? Where are they?” I scanned the cars behind us, looking for anyone suspicious.
“Fucking hell,” Stevie groaned. “I meant me.”
“You scared the shit out of me.”
“You want some weed?” Stevie asked. “I think it’ll help. There’s a joint in my purse.”
I scrunched my nose. “I think I’ll wait until I’m not in a moving vehicle. My head still feels swimmy.”
“Do you want to put your earbuds in and try to nap?”
“Yes. Yes, I do.”
“I’ll wake you when we get there.”
Once I found something to listen to, I leaned the seat back and closed my eyes. I couldn’t stop thinking about the events of the day, so I didn’t try. I let them flood my mind as they came until I fell asleep with the vision of horrified blue eyes staring back at mine.