Page 30 of Brick

"Wow, you brought all the old-timers out of retirement for this meeting? It must be important," the man in the center of all the others speaks. That must be Dutch.

"Old-timers?" Light looks around. "Who the hell..." he starts, but Brick puts his hand on his chest to stop him. Just like that, Light closes his mouth.

Now that type of power is exactly what I'd call sexy. I know I should be focusing on what's going on in front of me, but now I'm looking at Brick. The man sure is yummy.

"It is important, and it's something we don't need to discuss with your entire crew," Brick calls out.

"You think I'm going anywhere on my own with the lot of you? You're out of your mind, biker."

"I just brought them here to watch my back the same as you did your people. I'll leave my guys outside if you leave your guys." Brick calls back. I quickly yank on his arm to let him know that I'm not staying outside. He better add me into the equation real quick.

He sighs, annoyed, but doesn't say anything else.

"Alright, have it your way. Let's have a private conversation. Just you and me."

"She's coming too. That's not a problem, is it? Unless you think a little girl can get the drop on you?" Brick tilts his head to the side, and instantly I know what he's doing. I hate being a pawn in this little game, but I'm willing to play along too. As best I can, I put on a sweet, shy-girl persona. It doesn't fit, but I'll handle it for a few minutes if it means I'll get into this meeting.

"Nah, little mama can come too. It'll be good to have something nice and tight to look at while I have to deal with your ugly ass." Dutch chuckles before he snaps his fingers and walks away from his group of people.

Brick tugs me along as we follow behind him. We walk into a small Chinese restaurant, which I think is strange, but the minute Dutch walks in, all the workers walk out. Within seconds, we are alone with Dutch. The air in the stuffy restaurant gets heavier somehow.

"So what's this about? I've got shit to do, money to get." Dutch leans back in his seat, completely unbothered by Brick.

I can't tell if it's just posturing or if he really doesn't fear Brick. Either way, it's a bad stance to have.

"I came here to tell you, you've got some snakes in your grass, and now it's fucking with me and mine."

"Who, this one? I don't remember you being one of my girls. What happened, one of the boys got too rough with you?" Dutch blows a kiss in my direction, and I instantly recoil. He's disgusting. I can't believe my sister had anything to do with them.

"Your boys don't know what to do with an actual woman," I hiss back at him, and Brick slams his hand down on the table. The metal bracelet he wears clangs hard on the surface.

"No, she's not one of your girls, but her sister might be, which is why she's here and the only reason I'm letting her stay." Brick turns in my direction with the last bit of his statement before turning back to Dutch.

"It seems like some of your old members either have her sister or know where she is. My girl's house was broken into, and we were able to figure out it was Daly."

Dutch's face drops to a frown, and his eyebrows knit together. "That's bullshit. Let's just say Daly isn't with us anymore."

"Oh, are you sure? Did he die in the last forty-eight hours?"

"No, months ago."

"You're wrong." Brick pulls out his phone and pulls up the CCTV camera footage from outside my apartment building. Right there, clear as day, is Daly, the man Dutch seems to think is dead.

"What the fuck," he whispers under his breath before he slides the phone back to Brick. "Fine, maybe I got some of my information wrong, but what's that got to do with me? You already know Daly doesn't run with us anymore. He's on his own out there. At least until I fucking catch him again."

"That's all well and good, but Daly isn't the only one you need to be worried about. Did you send someone to look for some lost footage? Do you know her sister or where she is?" Brick finally starts asking the questions I care about.

"I know a lot of people. Who's to say if I know her sister or not?"

No way. I'm not going to play this denial game. I reach into my pocket, going slow when I see both of them react, and pull out my phone. I quickly pull up two photos of Wendy: one from when she was sober and one from not so long ago.

I show it to Dutch but make sure to pay attention to his reaction. I want to be able to figure out if he's lying or not.

"Oh, this little piece. Yeah, she used to be one of my best customers, but I haven't seen her around in a while. Last I heard, she was off getting clean." Dutch shrugs his shoulders.

"She is clean," I snap out before closing my mouth again.

"She's clean but missing, and we have reason to believe some of your men are keeping her against her will. We want her back." Brick leans back in his seat now, both of them snatching the power from the other.

---