“This shit feel weird to you?” Reno asks as we lean against our bikes, waiting for the contact to come with the product. He was supposed to be here more than half an hour ago, and so far, nothing has happened. We didn’t get a call or anything that he wasn’t going to show up.
If he’s just blowing us off, I’m going to suggest to Boss we don’t do business with him any longer. I don’t have time to just be sitting out here working on my fucking tan. I got a woman at home who’s just out of the hospital and a clubhouse that is all on edge because they don’t know what they can say to her.
“Yeah, man, this shit is a waste of time.” Everything in my gut tells me this shit is wrong. We’re out in the open, so I don’t think this is a threat or anything like that, but it could be someone trying to get us separated from the club. I don’t know. Either way, I don’t like it. Just as I swing my gaze from one side to the other to check for the guy again, there’s a group of people talking to a young woman sitting on a bench. At first, it seemed normal enough, but then I realized why that particular group of people caught my attention. The small group is wearing those white gowns.
Reno’s on his phone when I hop off the back of my bike without telling him what’s going on and start to walk over to the group.
“Hey!” I call out, and when the ones in the robes see me, it’s like they see a ghost. Instantly they run off, and all that’s left is a young woman sitting on the bench looking at the groups behind.
I make my way to the woman, making sure I stand a few paces back, so I don’t intimidate her. I don’t know if that’s the same cult for sure, but if they were trying to recruit her, she needs to steer clear.
“I didn’t do anything,” she says right away. My eyes scan her body quickly, and I notice that even though she’s fully clothed and looks somewhat clean, her clothing is ratty and not her size. She has two duffle bags at her feet and a plethora of smaller plastic bags with various items in them that looks like she’s been carrying them for quite some time. She’s homeless.
“Yeah, I’m not here to bust you or anything like that. I just have a question.” I put a hand up, and she nods but raises an eyebrow in skepticism.
“What did those people want with you?”
“I don’t really know. They were just asking me a bunch of questions. It was like they were going to ask me if I wanted to go to a shelter with them.”
“Did you want to?” I ask, and even though I’m not going to bring her back to the clubhouse or anything like that, I may be able to help her out.
“Not really. They aren’t very nice in the shelters.” She shrugs, and I nod.
“I hear you. Listen, I don’t know if they’re the same ones that I’m looking for, but I think you need to steer clear of those people. They’re just going to get you hurt and in trouble. I’d hate to see a beautiful girl like you messed up in the streets, you know,” I say, trying to get on her good side, and she smiles at me. Her eyes scan my body now, but it’s more than just a glance. She’s checking me out.
She’s beautiful, but honestly, I don’t feel even one grain of desire for the girl. Not when I have Beretta back home.
“Thank you for the tip,” she says, and I reach into my pocket to pull out my wallet. I pull out about two hundred and fifty bucks and the small card I have with the fight club’s information on it and give it to her. “The people at this club may be able to help you out with a job if that’s what you’re looking for,” I tell her. She eyes me again before she takes the money and the card out of my hand.
“What do you want for this?”
“Nothing, I’m straight. Seriously, you need to keep away from those people. Good luck with everything.” I nod once and turn on my heels to go back to where Reno’s sitting.
“What the hell was that?” he asks, a little pent-up. It’s obvious that he didn’t know what was going on, but as a prospect, he can’t really do anything unless I tell him. “Were they part of that cult?”
“I don’t know, thought so, but they ran off before I could even get over there to them. I was just over there warning that girl to stay away from them.”
“You want to wait a few more minutes for the guy?”
I don’t, really. I just want to go home, but a few more minutes won’t hurt. I hate to tell Boss that we couldn’t make the pickup.
As I’m thinking about the pros and cons of just sitting on my ass, my phone goes off in my pocket. When I dig it out, I’m surprised to see it’s a call from Hoodrat.
“Yo?” I answer, and he’s out of breath.
“You have to come home.” It’s the first thing he says, and the intensity of his voice lets me know immediately that something’s wrong.
“What happened? Is she okay? What’s wrong?” I ask him and turn my bike on at the same time. As my bike roars to life, I strain to hear Hoodrat on the other end of the phone.
I want him to say she fell, or she passed out, or something I know I can go fix. Even though I have an idea, I know what happened.
“She figured it out. The baby.” I’m not prepared for what he says.
I squeeze my eyes shut and force myself to keep cool. She’s probably over there having a freaking panic attack, and I’m stuck here waiting for some asshole that doesn’t have the decency to show up. I’ve missed it again. I’m never fucking there when she truly needs me. Not when they took her and beat her down, not when she was there in Luigi’s house, not now . . . always hurting her.
“We’re on the way.” I look over to Reno, who’s already set to go, and we peel out.
I don’t know how many of her memories have come back, but I know this one is going to be hard for both of us to get through. I just hope she lets me help her this time.