Page 19 of Uncaged Obsessions

“She’s tough. She can handle herself. All three of us have taught her well.”

“She is. It’ll be fine, right?” he asks, and the glimpse at his vulnerability isn’t usual for Drew. He doesn’t like to show any sort of weakness. But I can see it in his eyes right now. He misses her. We all do.

I think it’s also pretty obvious to all of us that whatever this is has gotten more serious. She’s not just someone we’re having fun with. We miss her, we want her in our lives. The way I’m feeling is something foreign to me, this pain in my chest a constant ache without her here.

Once she comes back, she’s going to know just exactly how much she means to us. At least to me, because I’m not going to let her go again and she’s going to understand why.

“Let’s go, son,”the cop tells me in the middle of the night. I grab my ripped backpack, the only thing I have that’s actually mine, and put a change of clothes in it just in case the next place doesn’t have any for me.

Sometimes I get lucky and the foster home is actually decent, but most of the time that hasn’t been the case. Especially as I’ve gotten older. It’s like one day I turned thirteen andsuddenly no one gave a fuck anymore. I’m just supposed to figure it out on my own.

I follow the cop and the social worker out of the house into the unmarked car. At least it doesn’t look like I’m being arrested this time.

“Why am I moving?” I ask, but the cop doesn’t say anything and I roll my eyes. It’s not like I’m oblivious to the place I was living, I’m fifteen and see a lot more than they think I do. I’m told a lot more than they think too, I just keep my mouth shut about it.

If I had to guess, this was about the bottle incident where my foster dad threw a full bottle of wine at Jeremy, another kid that’s been living here. I don’t know what caused it, but I know he ducked just in time and then there was red wine everywhere. I thought it was blood at first, but the color is deeper and not as thick.

The social worker turns toward me. “Hey Adam, are you okay?”

I shrug.

“We’re going to take you somewhere safe, okay?”

I roll my eyes. I’ve been told that before and yet, here I am being moved once again.

“Do you need anything?” she asks.

I shake my head, not looking at her.

The next place they take me is the same story, different day. Everything is okay for a couple weeks, until something goes wrong and I’m forced to move again. Rinse and repeat. As I getolder, I become more difficult and soon, I’m the only reason I’m being moved. Cops bringing me back home right before they remove me again. I don’t trust a single one of them. I don’t trust anyone who thinks they have any authority over me.

The only person who will ever look out for me is myself, and that’s especially true the day I turn eighteen and the home I’m staying at kicks me out. No longer in the system, no longer a paycheck to them, no longer their problem.

Still to this day, I hate talking to the cops. They always look at me like I’m the problem, it doesn’t matter what I’m doing or even if I was involved or not. Their eyes go directly to me, cut and covered in tattoos, and I’m instantly the one to blame. When Jesse came into my life, I decided to actually change how I was. I tried to stay out of trouble as much as possible.

Right now, I don’t give a fuck about that because we need to talk to Officer Doug—Doogie—and I have a feeling that if we are right about him being involved with any of this, it’s going to go south very quickly.

Especially with Caine because he insisted on being involved.

Though, at least he got a couple hours of sleep on my couch, so maybe his fuse won’t be quite so short.

We’re all waiting around Max’s house to see if he’s going to come by, maybe check on his handiwork. I’ll stay camped out here all night, every night, if I have any chance to catch that asshole doing something suspicious. Anything that could lead to getting our girl back.

We’re positioned away from each other in different spots. Every time a car shines their lights, driving down the street,I tense. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s just a normal car.

After who knows how long another one approaches, slower than the others and I stand up straight, watching, waiting to see what will happen. The car drives past me, which is when I see it’s a police patrol car. His lights turn off as he pulls up in front of Max’s house.

That’s when I decide to emerge from the shadows. Doogie steps out of the car, hunched over slightly and I close the distance, stepping in front of him with my arms folded. I hardly notice Drew and Caine walk up as well.

“Is there a problem, gentlemen?” the so-called Officer asks.

“There’s going to be unless you tell us what you know about Max.” Caine jumps forward immediately, and I press a hand to his chest to keep him from physically attacking this man right away.

“Max? Who’s that? One of the guys at that useless gym?”

I do my best not to react, knowing that’s exactly what he wants. It’s what they always want. They instigate until someone reacts, then they can say they reacted and weren’t the reason for the altercation.

“She’s the new girl. The redhead that works at The Tavern,” Drew explains, calmly. “This is her house you just parked in front of.”

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