Chapter 24 Spencer #2
“What did you find?” he asks, and I take a moment to decide whether I want to tell him.
We might not always see eye to eye, but we work together so well because we have years of trust put into this.
I trust them to tell me shit even if it will piss me off, and I do the same for them, just like we trust each other to have our backs.
With a sigh, I dive into it, telling him about everything that was on the tapes, and he listens without interruption.
“So, really, I got a whole lot of nothing,” I tell him after I’ve gone over it all. “The only things that might be useful are the markers for their height and..” I let my words trail off as I try to figure out how I want to continue. If I even want to continue.
Fuck, too late to stop now. “I think it might have been Jade,” I tell him before I can change my mind, watching him from the corner of my eye. His reaction is subtle, but it's there, and I instantly regret saying anything.
“Spencer, this has got to stop,” he says, and I can hear the lecture coming even before he starts.
“No, don't start with this shit Rick. Zander, I understand, but not you too.” I don't even try to hide my annoyance. Rick's a big boy, he can handle it.
“I’m not saying you have to trust her, Spencer.
I know you can’t or won’t, or whatever it is, and that’s fine.
But we have to keep her safe. That's the mission, and like it or not, that's what we have to do. So if looking into her helps you, fine, do it. But we can’t be at each other’s throats about this, and you can’t keep going after her.
If you push her away, Froggie could very well take that out on us.
Until we know more, we can’t fuck this up,” he tells me, and yeah, logically, I know what he’s saying makes sense, but it’s not that easy.
Regardless, I let it go as we pull up to Hoppers. Zander's bike is parked in his spot, letting us know he’s already here.
I wonder when he went to get his bike. I’m pretty sure Rick wanted to wait to take Jade to the house until Sunday before classes start up again, and seeing as he was with her all day, it doesn’t add up.
I'm about to ask Rick about it when the loud rumbling of another bike makes that impossible. We turn to find Kratos pulling up, and I swallow my question for later; it's not important now.
Rick stops just outside the door, and I stand with him, waiting for Kratos. A moment later, he turns the corner and pulls into his spot. It’s not until the light turns away from us that I notice someone’s on the back with him.
Kratos never lets anyone so much as touch his bike, let alone ride bitch with him. I can’t think of anyone he would feel the need to bring to our meeting who would be important enough to start now.
I look to Rick in question, but he shrugs. Apparently, he doesn’t know either.
His passenger hops down before he gets off. Turning, he reaches for them and swiftly undoes the clasp of their helmet before handling his own and placing them both on the bike.
Long green hair falls from the helmet the moment he removes it, and I realize with a start that it’s Jade. Looking closer, I see that it should have been obvious with her tiny build.
Who else would it be?
They make their way to us, and Kratos nods in greeting before walking through the door without a word. Jade is hot on his heels, but she throws us a smile and a wave when she sees us.
“Hey, guys,” she says, her words light, and her eyes lack their usual fire when she looks my way. I don’t know if she’s in a great mood or just decided to be nice because she was talking to Rick, too. But having her speak to me in anything but sarcasm or annoyance feels weird.
Rick follows her in, and I bring up the rear. We head up to the office floor; Jade’s voice bounces off the walls from in front of us as she talks to Kratos about something.
On the top floor, we bypass Froggie and Kratos' offices and make our way to one of the few other rooms on the floor. The club below is packed, which isn’t surprising with it being a Friday night.
The lights occasionally catch on the glass and shine through on us, but other than that, it’s relatively quiet up here.
Zander stands in the hall, cleaning his nails out with his knife, waiting.
A smile tugs at his lips when he looks up and spots Jade.
He quickly tucks his knife away and throws his arms open.
Jade looks to Kratos, and he gives her a nod before she sprints the rest of the way down the hall and into Zander’s waiting arms.
I feel the frown settling on my face, watching them, and I quickly look away.
Kratos goes into the room, with Rick and me following behind. Zander and Jade make no move to follow us as we pass. They stand facing one another next to the door, talking in hushed voices, and I have to push myself to have a seat instead of lingering to try and overhear what they’re saying.
A few minutes later, they both come in with smiles, holding hands like love-struck teenagers, and I fight the urge to gag watching them.
Am I being dramatic? Probably, but oh well, sue me. I’m not a fan of my best friend being played by the little innocent act she has going on.
Kratos clears his throat to grab our attention as Zander closes the door behind him, steering Jade to the empty seats between Rick and Kratos.
I don’t miss the fact that he decided to sit as far from me as possible.
It fucking stings to know we have so much shit between us that he can’t even be near me, but I work hard to keep it off my face.
Instead, I look at Kratos and pretend not to notice.
“As we all know, Froggie has been working hard to clear out the traffickers. We know of only one left in the area thanks to Jade shutting down this last one,” Kratos tells us, recapping before he continues.
“From what we’ve gathered, it appears to be run by the last few remaining Sin members.
We believe they were one of the first groups in the area to take the skin trade to what it was a few years ago.
Meaning they won't be easy to nail down.” Again, we know this.
None of the rings have been easy, but this one is the largest, and while we may have been able to take out the smaller groups.
This one, in particular, is the one we have been after for years and have gotten nowhere with.
“Jade’s going to give us everything she can, from client lists, to known meeting points, anything and everything, so we can try to see if anything crosses over with them.” Zanders's posture stiffens, and I know without asking that he hates this, but he manages to keep his mouth shut.
We all know better, and honestly, Jade may hate having to talk about this, but I know she would never pick herself over shutting down the ring.
She would give whatever she could to take them down, even if it tore her apart.
She’s been doing it for years already, and this seems like light work compared to what she's already been through.
“After we have as many pieces as we can, we will figure out how to best handle the rest,” Kratos says, giving Jade a pointed look. She rolls her eyes at him but nods as if agreeing to something.
“Froggie wants this handled as quickly as possible. If we can shut down the last ring before another pops up, it will be easier to keep this kind of shit out of the city in the future.”
I watch as his posture goes rigid, his jaw clenched.
Kratos is already a fucking hard ass, but right now, he looks like a fucking marble statue, cold and unwavering.
Whatever he’s about to tell us, he’s not happy about it.
He hasn’t looked away from Jade, and I get the feeling whatever he’s about to say has to do with her.
I can’t help but look at her as well to see how she feels about whatever he’s going to say.
She sits tall in her chair, looking utterly unfazed as she holds Kratos' gaze.
One look at Rick and Zander tells me neither of them knows what's going on either. I feel the tiniest bit of relief knowing I'm not the only one kept in the dark here. But that relief is quickly squashed when I realize that Jade knows something we don’t. I bite my tongue against voicing my annoyance at this turn of events, instead waiting to see what’s said.
Kratos unclenches his jaw and slowly turns his gaze away from Jade as if it’s a struggle before he addresses the rest of us.
“If we have nothing by Christmas, Jade will be going back in to take the ring down from the inside. " He all but spits each word, as if saying them left a bad taste in his mouth.
His words shock me so much that I wonder if I possibly misheard him.
One look around tells me I didn’t. Zander and Rick both have different signs of shock showing on their faces.
My annoyance at Jade evaporates as I go back over the words Kratos just said.
I had to have heard him wrong. There's no way we could be planning to send her back to that shit.
I might not like her, but that's too far even for me.
Zander jumps up, and his chair flies back, clattering to the floor behind him from the force. “No! No way! She’s not going back into that shit!” he screams, slamming his hands on the table. “How the fuck can you even suggest that?”
Zander’s usually the first to overreact, but I think, for once, his anger might be justified.
He cares for Jade, and while I might not agree with him trusting her, I agree with everything that just came out of his mouth.
My own anger at the situation boils just below the surface as I watch Zande, knowing this is going to tear him up.
“He didn’t.”
Zander turns to look at Rick so quickly I’d be surprised if he didn't give himself whiplash.
“What the fuck do you mean? Did you not just hear him?” Zander demands, looking at Rick like he’s lost his mind, each word sounding like he’s choking on it as he tries to keep his cool.