The next morning, I woke up to excessive banging on my door. I lugged myself out of bed and slowly made my way over, looking through the peep hole to see Josh's face as he continued to bang.
I undid the extra locks on the door and as soon as I opened it for him to enter, he strode in and cupped my face in his hands. My eyes widened.
"Lacey, you are so brilliant I could kiss you right now," he proclaimed as the door shut behind him.
I retreated, taking him with me as he still hadn't let go of my face.
"Please don't." My voice came out mumbled, from his hold.
Josh shook his head and let go of my face. "I said I could. Not that I would."
He made himself at home in my hotel room, making a beeline for the individual coffee cup maker. He poured some coffee grounds in and went to get water from the sink.
"Can I help you?" I asked as I slipped a hoodie on over my head, feeling self-conscious in my pajamas.
"Yes," he said, pushing the start button on the coffee machine and it started to brew. "I was up all last night thinking and going over the entire day which by the way, was a lot more than I thought I was going to do on my first day, let me tell you that. And I may have gone down to talk to some of the others that are already up down in the breakfast area and do you know what they said?" His hands were moving wildly and he couldn't stay in the same spot as he walked back and forth in front of the coffee machine.
"That you've probably had enough coffee?" I suggested quietly, highly doubting he needed any more today.
"What? No," Josh said like my idea was ridiculous. "No one, not one single person out of everyone that I spoke to had any sort of interaction. All they saw were people who lived there."
I pursed my lips. "How do they know they weren't involved in one of the gangs?"
"That's what I asked them but they said the only people they saw were homeless people or elderly people or people who looked like they went home to their family and tried to do the best they could in this shit hole of a town. No, the people we saw yesterday, all of them. They were different. I know they were different. And do you know what none of the others had in common?"
I shook my head, no.
"They weren't with you," he said, nearly jumping with joy.
"Josh, that's stuâ"
"Stupid? No, think about it Lacey." He turned his back to me and started getting the coffee ready. "How many possible people did we see yesterday? You don't think that it's a little coincidental that so many popped out? Hell, those two uh, Finn and Ben, even called you over there. They shook my hand! Well, one of them did. No one else had that. You don't think it's because they're familiar with you? I knew I picked the right partner, I knew it." He grabbed the coffee and held the cup out for me.
I barely got any sleep, so I was grateful both to have some coffee and for the fact that the cup wasn't for him.
"So they know me. I don't understand what's got you all hyped up. I thought that fact was already established when I was picked to come on this mission."
Josh waved his hand impatiently, "Yeah but I don't think anyone knew how much of an asset that would be. I thought maybe you'd know some areas or if they saw you, they'd avoid you. I mean, who actively seeks out someone trying to arrest them."
Well, I wasn't trying to arrest any of Cameron's guys so there was that...
I shrugged.
"I suggest we form an alliance," he said as seriously as he could.
I stared at him, waiting for him to tell me he was joking. When he didn't, I sat down on my bed. "I don't have time for this."
"Just hear me out," Josh rushed, sitting on the bed next to me. "I don't know why they're seeking you out, but if they do maybe we can get some information from them. Maybe we can get some type of lead and just blow the whole thing up. And then I'll â no, we'll â get that promotion and the big bucks."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "So you want to use me."
"No, well, okay. Kind of. If we tell everyone about it, they might keep a close eye on where you go or something and none of them saw anyone yesterday. That can't be chance! I just want to see where this goes."
"I already told you this isn't a competition, Josh," I groaned before taking a long sip of coffee.
He sighed, looking defeated. "Just keep being my partner?"
"I wasn't the one that suggested multiple times, might I add, that I wanted a new one. Because again, I don't think it's a competition." I paused before taking another drink, my eyes going to him. "Did you tell everyone about what happened yesterday?"
"No."
Odd. Usually he would boast about any little accomplishment he had.
"Why not?"
Josh looked at me with wide eyes. "I told you! Because none of them even saw anything. If they follow us around, the organization members might stop coming around."
"Your plan then, is to withhold information from the others?" I asked slowly, making sure I understood him correctly but it was difficult when he was all jazzed up.
"My plan is to just follow the leads we have until we have something concrete," he responded.
"I have to get ready," I said and kicked Josh out.
In the shower, I mulled over Josh's words. While he was going a mile a minute, the only thing that I thought was helpful was the fact that he hadn't told anyone yet. I didn't really want to be questioned more on Cameron's people if that meant they would be closer to getting arrested. Maybe Josh's need to be the best at everything he did would come in handy this time if we could somehow get information from someone on Sterling's guys. It would be a win for Josh for getting to take them down and it would be a win for me for leading everyone away from Cameron's guys.
After getting ready, I was headed out of the door, my hand lingering over Travis' leather jacket. Ben's words played through my head again and again. I grabbed it, throwing it on and pulling it close to me. My legs started to get shaky and I held onto the chair that the jacket had been resting on. When I first got his jacket, back in the hospital, it had smelled like him. It was comforting and I would wear it whenever I was feeling lonely and wanted to cheer up. Now, the smell had long disappeared. It was tattered and worn. Some of the bottom was starting to tear and the back has distress marks. It wasn't bought that way though, it was from use and him fighting in it.
A few tears fell down my face and I longed for it to still smell like him. Once a few minutes had passed and I felt my legs regain their strength, I wiped my eyes and took a deep breath. Straightening the jacket, I shoved the camera pieces in my pocket and left my room, holding my head high.
I walked down to Dylan's room in a haze. Owen went over the day's plan while everyone took notes. I stood next to Elle, not paying much attention. Instead, I was busy wondering if I should listen to Finn and Ben and just leave. They had dealt with being in a gang for years now. What good would I be if they didn't even want my help?
Owen's voice spoke up and caught my attention. "It seems like one of our security cameras went down yesterday. I'm not surprised. They're going out incredibly fast all over town. This one was posted up here," he said, holding up his map with a red 'x' marked on the spot the camera was. There was a bunch of other x's scattered throughout the map.
"My advice is to try to stay near any of the other cameras we have. If something happens between you and a member of either of the organizations, we have a higher chance of charging them if we have video proof," Owen added.
"Did you see who did it? Before the footage cut out?" one of the members, Janice, asked.
Dylan shook his head. "The last thing we saw was sparks. It looked like whoever it was used some small explosive thing to shatter it."
Josh craned his head around the people between us, catching my attention from his movement. He pointed to his arm, right where Finn had the burn from the firework. Josh's eyes were wide, like he was internally screaming. To anyone who didn't know, it looked like he was just anxiously asking me the time. I gave him a thumbs up to tell him that yes, I got what he was saying, so he would calm down.
"If anyone sees any of the cameras or someone in the process of taking it down, let us know. We might be able to get the fingerprints off of it and figure out which organization is responsible," Owen said.
I bit my lip, anxiously waiting for Josh to raise his hand and point to me and declare we did in fact have one and that we knew exactly what group did it. I stuck my hand in my pocket and started fidgeting with the camera. I glanced cautiously out of the corner of my eye, praying for Josh to keep quiet. Maybe we could find one that Sterling's guys destroyed and we could turn that in. Doubtful, considering we only had this one because Finn literally handed it to me.
To my surprise, Josh was looking at the floor and kept his mouth shut.
When everyone was dismissed, I walked outside with Josh hot on my heels.
"Why didn't you tell anyone about the camera?" he hissed, low enough for only me to hear.
"Why didn't you?" I challenged. "I didn't think you'd lie to your superiors."
Josh looked around, making sure we were alone. "I bet they took that camera out to talk to you. If we have others around, it's just going to cause them to fall back."
I led the way outside. "What makes you think they're going to show again?"
Personally, I highly doubted they would seek me out again given the attitude they had before Josh started talking to them. They want me to leave, they made that clear. So what exactly was here for me anyway? Maybe I could go back to training and get reassigned eventually to a different case in a different town and help the people there.
Josh shrugged. "How did they know we were going to be there? How did they know to take that camera out?"
"It's just a thing he does," I said not thinking about it but then froze, starting at my shoes. Josh ran into me.
"Who?"
I started walking again, clenching my fists in my pockets. "No one, never mind."
Josh looked like he wanted to say more, but walked silently with me through the parking lot to his car. I took short, shallow breaths to try to steady my nerves and not get upset again about Travis. It wasn't until both of our doors were shut that he spoke up again.
"I told you yesterday, Lacey. If we're going to blow this up then you have to talk to me."
I really wished he would stop saying that. I didn't want to blow anything up. I wanted to calmly and quietly take Sterling's people down. My head rested against the car window as I looked out of it.
"This will all be for nothing if you don't tell me things. That's the whole reason you're on this mission, because you're familiar with it all," he continued to argue.
"It doesn't matter," I snapped, "I was talking about Travis so it doesn't apply."
"Oh," Josh said, sinking in his seat as I barked at him. I figured it was due to the fact that what I said led him nowhere closer to the number one spot.
"Where are we going?" I asked with a sigh when the car started to move.
"I figured we could go look at all the places the cameras have been taken out. If I was being tracked by the cops, I would go where they couldn't see me," he suggested. "Maybe we can get a lead or some information out of anyone we see."
This time, Josh drove to Melkin saying we could cover more ground this way and get from camera to camera faster. I didn't argue with him, feeling like I was just along for the ride as I continued to debate what I wanted to do.
We had visited about five spots the cameras had been taken down because apparently, if something wasn't going on the second we pulled up, Josh deemed it as a bust. He had zero patience and the coffee was not helping with that.
He put his car in park when we got to the sixth spot and he looked around. I expected him to start driving again, seeing as nothing was immediately going on, but instead, he shut the car off.
"There's a few around here. We can probably walk around and see if anything's happening," he suggested.
I nodded and got out of the car.
The area we were in looked worse than the ones we had been in so far today and all of yesterday. Multiple buildings were crumbled to the ground which didn't match some of the cars we saw parked on the street, which were quite flashy.
I ran to catch up with Josh, who had already started heading down the street. "Let me see the map," I instructed.
"Now you finally speak," he mumbled but still got one of the maps out of his backpack, handing it to me.
I turned it around in my hands for a second, trying to figure out where in Melkin we were. I pulled up my GPS on my phone to get a better picture and made sure it corresponded to where Josh said we were on his paper map.
"I think we need to turn around and leave," I said.
"So when we do your idea it's fine, but when I suggest we walk around, it's a bad idea." He sped up his walking. "I know you don't think it's a competition or whatever but maybe I want to do this so I would appreciate it if you supported some of my decisions or backed me up a little."
I groaned. So we were back to that argument.
"That's got nothing to do with it, Josh. Listen-"
"No, I just really want to make a name for myself here. I want to do something good here. Look at this shitty town. I want to help be part of the solution that led to its rebuilding," he said. "If you don't want to help or whatever fine. Go tell Dylan about the cameras but I really thought you'd help me."
"Would you stop?" I yelled, grabbing his arm. "This isn't about your stupid ego or your idea. I really don't care about that. I actually like waiting until we have something concrete to tell Dylan and Owen. But this," I gestured to our location, "This isn't where we should be right now until we have more information."
Josh looked at me confused and finally stopped walking.
"I think this is where the Dacostas hang out. At least I think. Travis showed me once. It was a terrible map but he indicated this area of Melkin was their territory."
Josh perked up and kept walking, seeming enthused by the idea. "Cool."
"No, it's not safe is what I'm saying."
He looked at me like I had grown two heads. "Carson, nowhere in Melkin is safe if you haven't noticed. Also, if you haven't noticed, we are the authority figures here. Not them. It's fine. There's a few cameras that got taken down around here. We'll check them out and then be on our way."
I glanced around as I followed him, not about to leave him to explore this area on his own.
After about ten minutes, we were nearing the second broken camera. The entire time, I was looking every which way and it felt like I was in Melkin all over for the first time. My heart was on fire with how fast it was beating. Josh seemed unfazed as he marched on.
We turned a corner and suddenly, Josh was on the floor. A man was standing over him, shaking out his fist. Josh rolled onto this side, holding his nose.
A second man's arms wrapped around me from behind and I used all my strength to elbow him in the side. He released me and I made a break for Josh, who was working on fending off the guy on top of him. I watched as he got in some punches that seemed to startle the guy on top. All of our weapons were in his backpack. I only had a knife in my pocket and my hands wrapped around that, hoping that would help.
Before I could do anything, the second man must have recovered because he grabbed my throat with both of his hands, quickly halting me. I was shoved up against the brick wall of the building we had turned around and he squeezed harder. One of my hands clawed at his arms while I raised my other to try to stab him with my knife. However, he just squeezed harder and the knife fell out of my hand as my fingers went to his knuckles on my throat. I started to get dizzy.
In the background, I could see Josh getting the upper hand on the guy he was fighting. Maybe he would get to me in time. Or maybe this was how it was supposed to go. Maybe this was supposed to happen.
"Where is he?" the guy snarled, close to my face.
I opened my mouth but gasps just came out.
"I said, where is he?" he repeated and loosed his grip only slightly. I still couldn't get my fingers under his own.
"Who?" I managed to whisper out. My legs started to go weak and I could feel my heart beating in my neck as it echoed in my head.
A large figure started approaching from behind the man. His size looked to be about double that of the one that had his arms around my neck.
"Help," I barely croaked out. My own voice surprised me and I could only pray that he wasn't here to finish me off himself. The man grabbing me tightened his grip and I started seeing spots.
"Lacey!" Josh yelled somewhere in the distance. The guy he had been fighting was on the floor and his eyes were on the bulky man approaching. I saw Josh run to make a break for us but the bulky guy got to us first. I closed my eyes, ready for whatever was about to happen.
Instead, the grip around my neck disappeared and I fell to the ground in a heap. My breath came in ragged as I took deep breaths, trying to regain my senses. My eyes were watering but I wasn't crying. I grabbed at the ground blindly until I felt the familiar feel of my knife.
Josh was next to me in a second, with a hand on my back. He looked me over before grabbing his backpack and going through it.
The bulky giant of a guy was punching the one who was choking me and I watched curiously as Josh spoke to me. It felt like everything was going in slow motion. Noises and Josh's voice seemed dulled. My chest burned.
"Who was that guy talking about?" Josh asked, his voice slowly coming into focus like I was trying to find the right setting on a radio.
"Huh?" I asked, my head shifting to him slowly.
"The guy, he asked you where someone was. Who was he talking about?"
I shrugged, a hand going up to my throat. Josh put a gun in my lap. The bulky giant knocked the second man out and started walking towards us.
"If we're going to be here, you have to fucking tell me things. If I don't know everything then we're fucked. What aren't you telling me?" he snapped. I think he was too amped up for the situation and didn't actually man to raise his voice so loudly.
I hesitantly stood up, pocketing my knife and holding onto the gun with one hand and the wall with the other.
"I told you it's a bad area," I said. My throat felt like someone had taken sand paper to it. Josh got in my face like he couldn't believe what I was saying.
"Fuck that, that's not why we were just fucking attacked like that. I could understand getting robbed. They wanted something. Just fucking tell me!"
It was then that the bulky guy made his way back to us, his eyes trained on Josh. He grabbed Josh by the shoulder and pushed him away, creating a distance between the two of us. I feared he was about to finish things himself.
"No one talks to the little Miller girl like that," the man told Josh sternly.
My face paled and I felt my knees go even weaker. The man looked to me and grabbed onto my arm to hold me steady.
Josh cocked his gun and pointed it at the man, eyeing his hand on my arm. "Thanks but we got it from here," he snapped.
"I will put you down before you pull the trigger," the man threatened. Josh got into a staring contest with the guy and eventually, albeit hesitantly, lowered his gun.
The man bent down and hooked his arms underneath my legs and beneath my back, picking me up.
"Hey, hey, back off," Josh protested.
"You two need to get home. It's not safe here," the man said and started walking with me in his arms back in the direction we came.
I studied the man's features. His skin was tough, like he desperately needed a shower and lotion. His beard was starting to grow out. He looked down to me for a second.
"I saw you yesterday. Didn't I?" I asked. Even though it was dark last night when we were getting home, he looked vaguely familiar to the man that had been standing by the alley watching us when we got to the wall.
He kept quiet and looked forward.
"Who are you? Who were those guys?" Josh demanded, next to us. "Are you following us?"
The man didn't say anything.
"Who's Miller's girl? You?" Josh asked, now diverting his frantic gaze to me. "Travis Miller?"
I opened my mouth but nothing came out. What was I supposed to say right now? He was already going a mile a minute and if I said yes it was only going to speed up his questions. Instead, I looked again at the man.
"What happened?" I asked the man.
He looked down at me for a second before his gaze shifted forward again.
"What happened?" Josh repeated. "What do you mean what happened? We were fucking attacked and this mammoth comes out of nowhere, we don't even know his name, and we're just supposed to trust you?"
"Shut up, Josh," I croaked out, glaring down at him.
"I haven't killed you yet, have I?" the man said to Josh with an edge to his voice.
"Did Finn send you? Ben?" I asked, pushing through every part of my head and throat that screamed to stop talking and rest.
The man, shockingly, didn't say anything. Instead, he just shrugged. Figuring I was getting nowhere, I rested my head against his shoulder and I could see Josh's car as we came closer to it. There was a man leaning casually against it, looking bored out of his mind. Josh was having none of that, and quickly charged over, asking him what he was doing by his car and demanding he leave.
As we got closer, the man standing against the car turned out to be Tom who looked like he was growing steadily more agitated with Josh's bickering. He confirmed my suspicion that the guy who was carrying me was a Casey member. Tom let out a long groan. "You're welcome."
"For what?" Josh snapped.
"Watching your car you left here like an idiot," Tom said as he opened the passenger side door like it was the biggest inconvenience in the world.
Josh's lips formed a straight line as he eyed Tom. "Thank you," he practically forced the words to come out of his mouth.
The man lowered me to my feet in front of the open door. "Thanks," I said, much more genuine than Josh's, despite being confused by the entire interaction.
"You shouldn't come around these parts," the man advised and I nodded. Tom's eyes were glued to my neck which I could feel bruising already.
I got in and Tom shut the door. Josh got in, watching both of them and quickly started the car.
"What the fuck?" he exclaimed as he sped away.
I reached down by my feet where we had some water bottles still and downed half of one. When I took a break, relishing in the feel of the water on my throat I sunk into the seat, my body tired. My head swirled with everything that had happened. I wanted to sleep so badly. I wanted to sleep and forget any of this happened. I wanted to go back at least a week before any of this. Before I watched Travis and Cameron not make it out of the building. Before I came back to Melkin. Before I saw the anger on Ben's face.
Miller's girl.
My eyes started to water but I wiped my jacket sleeve against my face.
"How great is that plan of yours looking now?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him, my hand rubbing my neck.
He glanced over at me, slowing down as we started to leave Melkin. "Sorry. I'm so fucking sorry."
I nodded, not willing to argue with him right now.
"I think we should talk," he said seriously. His hands gripped the steering wheel tightly. "You're not telling me everything and I can't keep us safe if I'm in the dark."
"I don't need you to keep me safe," I said.
He sighed, "I mean I won't make any stupid mistakes that puts us in danger."
"Can we talk about this later?" I offered lightly. Like when my throat wasn't on fire and my headache subsided.
Josh was quiet for a moment and I thought he was going to accept that.
"Why did he say that about you? Miller's girl?" Josh asked slowly.
I played with the ends of my jacket. "I'm pretty sure you can figure that out, you're smarter than I am."
He didn't answer, instead he just sent me a look, pleading for me to continue.
"I was still dating him after I came here," I said, the words stinging on their way up and I wasn't sure if it was from the choking or not.
Josh squinted, like his mind was running overtime trying to wrap his head around everything and figure out some complex puzzle.
"He's the one that dropped me off at the hospital. He wasn't trying to hurt me, he was trying to help me."
Josh kept thinking. "So they don't see you as the teenager who was kidnapped, do they? They see you as a girlfriend of one of the more influential members. Well, previously influential...not so much now. Maybe it's out of respect for him or something."
I bit my lip and took another long drink of water at his words. I wondered if he had a point. I could have sworn that bulky man was at the alley opening when we entered it. And Tom was uncharacteristically polite the first time we saw him at the corner store. But that didn't add up with how Finn and Ben acted towards me. I wish the note they gave me made more sense. What crowd was I even supposed to be avoiding? Was that code for something?
"I don't know," I admitted. "I wasn't everyone's favorite. I barely spoke to any of the other members. If anything I think some just put up with me because of Travis."
"Weird. So uh," Josh cleared his throat. "That jacket is kind of big on you..." he trailed off.
I started to nod to his first statement but when he continued, I sighed. Wanting to rest my voice, I kept quiet as I tried to make sense of any of it. All I knew for sure was with Josh's busted nose and my neck, there was going to be no way to hide this from Dylan and Owen when we got back.
--
Dumb, dumb Josh.
I hope you liked it. I think you guys are really going to enjoy the next chapter. I'm going to start on it asap! :)
Have a great day!