Page 14 of Haunted

My morning routine usually consists of a workout session, but today I need fresh air, so I opt to go for a run instead.

My feet pound the pavement as I take the broken down and neglected streets of southside Silver Hills. Sweat beads my forehead and slides down my cheeks, and I welcome the new acheforming in my chest. This burning pain I can handle, and even welcome.

I pass by old abandoned buildings barely standing, along with a few shops that still manage to stay open. The sorry excuse for an elementary school the city refuses to remodel flies by. There’s a couple of cars in the empty lot, parked driver window to driver window. Drug dealers making a deal, no doubt. School doesn’t start for another hour, so there’s no kids present, but the sight still disgusts me.

I round a corner and the tracks that separate one side of town from the other loom ahead. When I get within a few feet of them, I stop. Bending over, I rest my hands on my knees to give myself a few minutes to catch my breath.

When I stand back up, I use the bottom of my shirt to wipe away the sweat coating my face. I look past the railroad tracks to the north side and notice the differences. The other side has solid roads with no cracks or potholes. They don’t have trash littering the ground. Even the fucking grass is greener on the other side. I roll my eyes at the stupid pun. It’s like the city council has forgotten this part of town even exists.

I’m not bitter about the place I live or how I grew up. Mom and Dad did the best they could with what they had. What pisses me off is there are good families that live on the south side. Good families that have bad shit happen to them because of the piss-poor way the city takes care of this side.

I turn on my heel and start back toward home. Five miles seems like a long way, especially after already running the same distance, but the strain on my muscles and the pang in my ribs feel good. Better than the pain I feel every time I wake from a dream.

I’m halfway home when I spot a familiar car coming toward me. It pulls to a stop on the opposite side of the road, and I walkover. Beck, a good friend of mine, throws his fist out the window and I bump mine against it.

“Hey, man. How’s it going?”

“Same shit,” I grunt.

He pulls a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket, sticks one in his mouth, then lights it. Through a puff of smoke, he asks, “How’s Ella?”

My jaw tightens at the mention of my sister.

“She’s good. Bruises and scrapes will be there for a while, and she’s sore, but you know how tough she is.”

“That I do,” he says with a nod.

In our teens, Beck was over at the house a lot. Theo and I weren’t like most teens with younger siblings. We never cared if Ella was around when friends were over. Our way of thinking, it was better she was with us than out on the streets with her own friends. With Theo and me around, we knew she was protected. That included Beck’s protection. He’s one of the good guys.

“You take care of Chase?”

I give him a look that portrays my answer.

“Shouldn’t have even asked,” he mutters.

“I need you to do me a favor. If you see Cora or Chase on the south side, call me. And pass that shit around.”

“You got it. But you gotta promise if you go after him again, I’m with you. It’s fucked you didn’t call when you took care of him the first time.” He gives me a level look.

There’s a reason I didn’t call him. Beck may be a good guy, but he’s also a hothead. When provoked, he doesn’t know how to control his temper. I don’t know if he zones out and doesn’t realize what he’s doing, or if he just sucks at locking his shit down, but either way, I’m not sure Chase would have survived our visit had Beck been there. I wouldn’t give a fuck if Chase bit the bullet, but I’m not taking that route in my life unless I’m forced to. Getting away with beating the shit out of a guy iseasier than getting away with murder. And there’s no doubt Spencer would work ‘til his last breath searching for who took his son out.

Even so, if Chase shows his face around here again, or if I even get a hint of him disobeying what I told him, God fucking help him. I won’t hesitate to call Beck in and we’ll both go pay him another visit. One he won’t be leaving still drawing breath.

I jerk my chin. “Done.”

He takes another drag of his cigarette before flicking it away. “I’ll be in next week for you to finish the dragon.”

“Sounds good.”

Beck is one of the few people who can just walk in the shop without an appointment. After all, he’s damn near covered from head to toe in ink and Ink Me has done them all.

We part a few minutes later, him driving off in one direction, me running in the other. Back at the house, I take a shower, grab some coffee, and sit at the bar to draw for a couple of hours before heading into the shop.

“YOU GOT ALL YOUR stuff together?” I ask Aria after walking into the break room at Ink Me.

“Yep!” she shouts. She jumps down from the chair at the table and starts stuffing the picture she was drawing into her backpack. I get a glimpse of it and feel pride settle in my bones. Theo’s drawing skills aren’t bad, but Ella and I trump him in that department. Theo’s talent is computer shit. Aria has obviously inherited the natural ability to draw from Dad, Ella, and me.

He dropped her off an hour ago while I was in the middle of putting a vine of dead flowers on a woman’s back. Considering Ella was just beaten to a bloody pulp five days ago, I wasgoing to cancel the babysitting gig to cover her shifts, but Ella, being the stubborn woman that she is, insisted on coming to work. It’s her first day back, and the only reason I agreed to leave and still stick with the plan is because Jazz was coming in. I finished the tat fifteen minutes ago, ten minutes after Jazz showed. Ella threatened to kick my ass if I didn’t leave. She’s got the stupid idea that she should feel guilty since I’ve been working thirteen-hour days for the last four to cover her shifts. It’s not like she asked for that shit to happen. Besides, I’ve done it multiple times before. But her jaw was set, and I knew she wasn’t budging. Ella’s tenacious as hell when she wants to be, and as the baby of the family she gets her way most of the time.

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