30 Ollie
Ollie
Ollie turns to look at Pete, who is happily lapping up water, his teething ring dropped next to him.
Ollie’s heart is beating furiously. He’s scared—for Victor, for all of them—but also maybe…
excited? He swallows that down (he’ll think about it later).
For now, he walks slowly toward Pete, who doesn’t even glance up.
Behind him, his friends are watching silently.
He can almost hear them holding their breaths.
He picks up Pete, who looks at him, mouth dripping, and starts licking his face.
“Who are these guys?” Nicole asks. “Was that Heart-Eyes?”
“No, totally different voice,” Ian says.
“Did you eat it?” Ollie asks Pete, turning him around, looking for something. “Your bow tie?” But no, the bow tie looks normal.
“That thing!” Brandon shouts suddenly. “It looks like Jon’s bracelet.”
Ollie doesn’t remember Jon’s bracelet but puts down Pete and picks up the toy.
Except it’s not the toy. Sure, there are some bite marks on it, and it looks similar, but it’s not the same one Pete has been chewing.
And on the inside, there’s a little pocket cut into it.
Ollie tears it open, peeling away the rubber, to reveal a zip drive, which he holds up, triumphant.
Everyone stares for a moment.
“The guy on the phone said it was Velvet Alley, the online black market.”
“People were bidding millions of dollars for that,” Ian says. “I don’t even get how it can fit on there.”
“Maybe it’s just a key,” Nicole says with a shrug.
“It doesn’t matter,” Ollie says. “These are bad guys, and they want it. We can’t let them have it.”
“But they have Victor,” Ian says.
“And…” Brandon starts, then sighs. “This is all my fault. I should never have slept with a guest.”
“I don’t think anyone could have seen this coming,” Nicole says, patting him on the back. “Though that was a really stupid idea.”
“We can try to save Connor, too,” Ollie says, knowing Brandon might be heartbroken but still soft-hearted. And Connor made him happy. That’s worth saving. “We might send him to prison, but he shouldn’t die.”
“Yeah,” Brandon says. “Thanks.”
“Victor is the priority,” Ian says. “He’s innocent. All we need to do is give them that, right? Do we even know it’s dangerous?”
“Velvet Alley is dangerous,” Nicole says. “They traffic weapons, people. It’s all bad news. And I don’t think people taking hostages are planning on shutting it down.” She shakes her head. “Ellen and I were just…” Her eyes go far away as the sentence drifts off.
“So we should just destroy it?” Ollie asks. That’s what feels right.
“Then how do we rescue anyone?” Ian asks.
Everyone is quiet. Ollie doesn’t want to turn this drive over to anyone except maybe Victor, or someone in law enforcement they can trust, if that person exists.
“Another client,” Nicole says suddenly. Ollie looks at her. She’s focused now. “That’s who has them. Someone else bidding on the data, some client of Ellen’s. That’s how she was using me. I was the lookout; I just didn’t know it.”
“What?” Brandon asks.
“Sorry.” She shakes her head. “I got used. Same as you, really. Ellen lied to me, led me around like there was a collar on me. ‘Report on what your friends are doing. Tell me if you find Jon. Tell me where he is.’ She knew everything that was going on… I don’t know when.
By the time we…” She blushes faintly. “She had me text her about him all night. I told her when he left. Which is right after Victor left, too. She told her client, and they didn’t know who Jon—or Connor—was, really, so they grabbed both of them. Because of me.”
She looks sad for a moment, then angry. Not at Ellen though, Ollie thinks, but at herself.
“She was your boss,” Ollie says. “She manipulated you.”
“I know,” Nicole says, her hands clasping into a tight knot. “I hate that.”
“So let’s get her back,” Ian says. “Let’s fuck her up.”
“How?” Brandon asks.
“This is what Heart-Eyes was looking for, too, right?” Ollie asks, an idea starting to percolate.
“Yeah,” Ian says. “But I don’t want to turn it in for ten million and get Victor killed. I hate him right now, but…you know.”
“Yeah,” Brandon says, taking Ian’s hand.
“Maybe he’s working with Ellen,” Nicole says. “You said there was some woman on the phone, right? We assumed it was Battle, but it could be someone else.”
Ian nods. “Possible, but then why kidnap Victor for ransom when they already promised us a lot of money? And that definitely wasn’t Heart-Eyes on the phone just now.”
Everyone is silent as they try to turn everything over in their mind.
Nicole looks especially pissed off. Ollie knows how much she hates being used, and it sounds like Ellen used her in a lot of ways.
Would be nice to get back at her, too, somehow, while also rescuing Victor and finally closing the case.
“I have an idea,” Ollie says, smiling.
“Is this going to be dangerous?” Nicole asks.
Ollie grins. “Working a case takes risks, right?”
****
Ian holds their phone out on speaker and dials the number labeled Art in his phone.
“Hello, beautiful,” says a voice after one ring. “You find what we asked you to?” Beautiful? Ian said he’d been flirty, but Ollie didn’t realize how direct.
“You’re on speaker,” Ian says. “We’re all here.”
“Ah, well, hello. Is Connor there?”
Ollie nods at Ian; that confirms that he didn’t take Connor, isn’t working with Ellen. They can go on to part two.
“No,” Ian says. “We have the drive, but someone else wants it, and they’ve taken Connor and our friend Victor hostage.”
“Mmmm, so you want me to get them back?”
“Victor is innocent,” Ian says. They smile slightly at the phone, and Ollie doesn’t know if they’re thinking about Victor or unconsciously flirting back with Heart-Eyes. “So yes, we’d appreciate you rescuing him.”
“And Connor,” Brandon says, looking a little ashamed as he says it.
“Ah, that Connor’s lover boy?” Heart-Eyes asks. “Still into him, knowing everything you do?”
“I don’t know,” Brandon says. “But he shouldn’t die.”
There’s a pause. “I understand that. Love is a confusing thing, ain’t it?”
Nicole frowns. Ollie knows why—Heart-Eyes sounds almost likable.
“I guess,” Brandon says.
“So can you rescue them?” Ian asks.
“Let me see what the boss lady thinks about it,” Heart-Eyes says. “You know I could just break into that fancy house you’re all in and take the drive from you.”
“Not as fast as I can crush it,” Ollie says. He expected that.
Heart-Eyes laughs. “Oh, you’re friends with a Tough Guy as well as a Lover Boy, huh, beautiful? I like them.”
“Can you stop flirting?” Nicole asks. “Check with your boss—Judith Battle, I assume—and tell her we think the folks who have our friend are clients of Ellen Kang’s. She’ll know the name.”
“And a Clever One.” It sounds like he’s smiling. “All right, hold on a minute.”
“We’re all clever,” Ian says. “Go talk to Judy.”
Heart-Eyes snorts. “I won’t tell her you called her that.”
The line goes dead. Everyone looks up at each other.
“We really did that,” Ollie says, pointing at the phone. He feels a huge grin on his face. No one else has one though. “Come on, that was good stuff.”
“Only if it works,” Nicole says. “And then we still need to make the rest of the plan work.”
Everyone is silent, and Ollie can tell they’re all still hurt from their blowout.
Ian is slumped, looking at the floor, Nicole has her arms wrapped around herself like she’s cold, and Brandon’s eyes are still red and watery.
But so what? Ollie was hurt, too. But he knows these are his best friends and everyone is sorry, and they can get past it. They need to.
“Come on,” Ollie says. “Look what we can do working together!”
Everyone is silent. Nicole rolls her eyes. But the mood shifts. Ollie can feel it. Ian looks up, Nicole drops her arms, and Brandon smiles a little. They’re going to be fine. Ollie wants to say even more, but Ian’s phone rings and they tap it.
“Judy”—Heart-Eyes pauses to chuckle—“says it’s a deal. Your friend for the drive. I’ll handle the rescue personally. She’s guessing it’s McClintock, which means good weapons and good marksmen, but terrible up close.”
Nicole nods. “They’re one of Ellen’s clients—an arms manufacturer. With that drive, they’d control the weapons black market.”
“But they won’t,” Heart-Eyes says. “Because you’ll give the drive to me, and I’ll save your friend. And Connor. Though you can let him know his position with us has been eliminated. And considering what he did to get it…”
“He’ll go to prison.” Brandon nods. “Or spend his life on the run. He deserves that.”
“Please don’t tell me you’re going with him,” Ian says.
“No.” Brandon’s voice is too loud, like he’s forcing the word out.
“So where are you supposed to deliver the drive?” Heart-Eyes asks.
“An abandoned gym,” Ollie says. “We’re going to go, too. We’ll be a distraction so you can rescue everyone.”
“I know you think that’s smart, Tough Guy, but if I’m worrying about all of you—especially you, beautiful—then it’ll be harder to take out the McClintock soldiers. Better if you hang back.”
“No,” Nicole says. Being a distraction is part of the plan. “We want to see it happen so we know this isn’t all some big setup to get out of paying us. And to be clear, we’ve seen the auction—we know how high you’re willing to go.”
Heart-Eyes laughs. “Clever, clever. But civvies in the area is dangerous. For everyone, including me.”
“If we’re willing to risk it, you should be,” Nicole says.
“So we’ll be there,” Ollie says. “You save our friend, we give you the drive. Then we never have to see you again.”
“Never say never,” Heart-Eyes says. Ian smirks. “Give me an hour to get there and get ready. Then you four do your thing, and I’ll handle the rest. Duck when the bullets start flying.”
Ollie can feel his heart speed up at that phrase. They’re really doing this.
“See you then,” Ian says, their voice maybe a little flirty. Ollie can’t tell. Does Ian really like this guy, or are they trying to be a nonbinaire fatale?
Nicole reaches out and taps the phone off, one eyebrow raised at Ian.
“Are we all ready for this?” she asks, turning to look at each of them in turn.
Brandon looks the most scared, his eyes still red from crying.
Ian looks a little nervous and a little surprised, too, like they didn’t think it would work.
Nicole’s mouth is a line of determination, though she doesn’t look thrilled about it.
“Come on,” Ollie says. “I know this is dangerous, but it’s an adventure, right?”
“Let’s hope the plan works,” Nicole says. She waves them away, lifting up her own phone but putting it on speaker. She hits Dial, and someone picks up after a moment.
“Nicole? Everything all right? Or were you calling to see if you could come over?”
Nicole frowns as Ollie and the others hold in laughter.
She glares at all of them, then turns back to the phone. “Someone kidnapped my friends and wants this drive thing that Jon left here. What should I do?” She’s trying her best to sound scared, but anyone who really knows her can tell what an act this is. Ian snickers softly.
There’s a pause. “Jon left the drive there?”
“Yes, but if I don’t give it to them, they’ll kill my friend. They said to meet them at this abandoned gym in Williamsburg. I’m afraid if I go alone, they’ll kill me.”
“Okay, okay,” Ellen says, half sighing. “I’ll come with you. I represent a lot of people in their world. No one will kill me. And by extension, you.”
“I— Well, if you’re sure,” Nicole says, still overacting, but now waifish and appreciative. “We should meet there. I need to go soon.” She gives the address and even throws in a sob before thanking Ellen and hanging up.
“We’ll work on the acting,” Ian says flatly.
“Hey, I was pretty good for the circumstances,” Nicole says. The word circumstances hangs in the air, heavy with meaning and fear. Ollie shivers. “We should get going. And if this doesn’t work and we all die, I’m just glad I did it with you freaks.”
She looks for a moment a little like she might cry, and Ollie rushes to hug her.
He knows he should be scared, too, but he’s not.
He’s excited to make everything happen, excited to rescue Victor, save the drive, solve the case.
It really would make a great podcast, if his friends didn’t mind having their lives splashed all over the internet—which they almost definitely would.
Ian and Brandon come in and join them in the hug, too.
“You know, when we survive this,” Ollie says, “we really should start a detective agency.”
Everyone immediately drops their arms and steps back, leaving Ollie alone in the middle of the room.
“Come on,” Ian says. “Let’s go get shot at.”