"Give it ten seconds, they'll call back again," he said, shrugging then moving off to rejoin the party.
I wasn't going to wait the ten seconds. If K was calling, something serious was going on. But even as I moved to swipe into my contacts, the phone started ringing again. "Hello?" I said somewhat tentatively into the phone as I moved further away from the dock that was pounding out rock music, the guitar rift raking over my already sensitive nerves.
"Fucking hell Maisy," K's voice called, sounding worried. "I've been calling for an hour straight."
"The BBQ was today. I wasn't by my phone," I hedged, leaving out the fact that I was busy because I was getting finger-fucked by my boss in a broken down car, not because of actual club business. "What's going on?"
"They're gone, Maisy."
In that moment, the entire world fell away. The music muted to my ears, the smell of food and booze disappeared, everything became colorful blurbs to my eyes.
"Gone?" I repeated, my voice hollow as I leaned back against the fence protecting the property, not trusting my legs.
"I keep tabs. Did a drive-by earlier and saw no cars. It was weird so I parked up the block and took a walk. Maisy, the doors are bolted, the windows boarded from the inside. I went around the back and jimmied off one of the boards facing the alley, everything inside is gone. Desks, lights, filing cabinets. Everything. It's all gone."
"What does this mean?" I asked, needing to hear it from K. If I was left to let my mind wander, I was pretty sure I'd be checking the buildings across the street for gunmen. I had a tendency to run toward paranoia. Not that anyone could blame me.
"I don't fucking know," he admitted, the frustration evident in his tone. K wasn't the kind of man who settled for not knowing. He knew everything. He knew all the good guys, the bad guys, what the bad guys have done, where the bodies were buried, who the weakest links were, how to exploit their Achilles' heels. For a man as powerful, as all-knowing as K to be in the dark, well... it wasn't good. "This doesn't fit their M.O. They've been in the city for a decade."
"Maybe because of..."
"The cops don't have shit anymore. They were paid to bury it. You know that. I know that. It's something else, but fuck if I know what that is. And the not-knowing, that's not fucking good."
"Did you go to their places?"
"'Course I did. Empty too. Cars cleaned out of the garages. Went to their favorite dinner spot and pretended to be an old friend and asked around about them. They haven't been in in a week."
"A week?" I squeaked, the panic in my system turning to outright hysteria. They could have made it anywhere in a week. They could be in New Jersey. They could be in Navesink Bank...
"Maisy, breathe. We don't know anything for sure. Right now, there is no reason to believe they know where you are. We've been careful."
"But," I prompted, knowing there was one coming.
"But we can't be sure they haven't sniffed out a lead either."
"What do you need me to do?"
"I need you to stay inside those gates. Whenever possible, try to take a shift with another probate. Try to avoid the overnight and early morning ones alone. Be alert. If anything feels fucked, chances are, it's fucked. And if it's fucked..." he prompted me.
"If it's fucked, I need to make sure I have a safe way out. Then I need to get to the train station and head to Pennsylvania. I need to get my bug-out bag, power up the burner, and call you."
"Then I will point you in a new direction," he said, sounding calmer.
There was an unexpected, nauseating swirling sensation in my stomach at the idea of leaving. I didn't even need to consider it to know that it was Repo that put that feeling there. Shit again. The last thing I was supposed to do was get attached. K had been specific about that. He told me that, chances were, I would have to find more than one cover. He said most of the women he 'disappeared' had to move at least once every two years. And while it was in my best interest to stay with The Henchmen, to integrate into the lifestyle, chances were it wasn't going to be somewhere I could stay indefinitely.
"Maisy..."
"Okay, K," I said, taking a deep breath as I scanned the trees, the darkness not letting me see anything.
"Stay vigilant, but don't get paranoid. I want to hear from you verbally every two days and I want a text with the word 'pineapple' every single day by noon. If I don't see that by noon, I am in my car. You with me?"