Page 68 of Elling & Jackie

Chapter 26

The acrid odor of burntmicrowave popcorn filled the hotel room. Jackie waved a towel in the kitchen, trying to dispel the smoke.

Stassi turned off the faucet and shook her head. "The bag isn't smoking anymore."

"We'll be lucky if the smoke detector doesn't go off and the sprinklers turn on." Her arms cramped. "How could you put the wrong time on the microwave?"

"I wasn't paying attention. I had to pee, so I was in a hurry." Stassi picked up the soaked bag of popcorn. "Where am I supposed to put this?"

She lowered her arms. "There's plastic shopping sacks in the cabinet under the sink. Put it inside a few of them and knot the last bag. Hopefully, that'll stop the stink from spreading. I bet everyone walking down the hallway can smell it and will complain."

"It's just popcorn," muttered Stassi.

Popcorn in a hotel room was a bad idea. She flapped the towel a few more times and gave up. "Why did you bring a bag of food from home?"

"I didn't." Stassi closed the cabinet and walked to the couch. "Mom sent a bag of snacks, so we didn't have to go out and eat."

"Uh, we have a restaurant and a cafeteria here. Mom knows that."

Stassi laughed. "Well, maybe she thinks microwave popcorn is a home-cooked meal. We did eat a lot of it growing up."

Jackie picked up her phone. "I wonder why Chief hasn't called me back."

"Call mom, she'd know." Stassi turned on the television. "I don't know why you're in such a hurry to talk to him when you know they're all busy trying to stay out of prison."

A sharp pain came to the middle of her chest. She rubbed the spot. The last thing she wanted to happen was her family members going away.

Her phone rang. Her heart pounded, looking at the screen. "It's D-Con."

"Oh, shit," muttered Stassi, standing from the couch. "Put him on speaker, so I can hear."

She connected the call and tapped the button. "Hello?"

"Hey. Chief wanted me to call and see if everything is okay. Your mom's with Sydney and Ashley, helping with the kids."

She swallowed. "What's Chief doing?"

"Shit."

She rolled her eyes at Stassi, knowing she wouldn't get any better details from the Brikken member. She wouldn't confide in D-Con about what she knew about Elling.

Brikken business was one thing. Personal business another.

While she wasn't responsible for what happened to Brikken, she could've said something about Elling being at the hotel and about seeing him following the Federal Agent. Maybe Chief or Jett could've figured out ahead of time that there was going to be a raid on the club and who was responsible.

"Everything is the same...shit?" she asked, knowing he wouldn't tell her anything else.

"Yep."

They could only hold Jett, Thorn, and the other members for seventy-two hours. After that, they'd either charge them or let them go. It'd only been twenty-four hours.

"Tell Chief to call me when he can," she said.

"Right. Anything else?"

"Um." She looked at Stassi, needing to do something more. "Can you buy pizzas for those at the clubhouse and my parents? I'll pay you next time I see you."

"Don't worry about it. I'll cover you," said D-Con, his voice softening. "You and Stassi stick together."

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