Page 46 of Wandering in Darkness
Anxious that if they find out Lane has ties with the police, they’ll panic and want to make sure he can never speak again, I pull out his ID. And then I take out a credit card from my wallet in case we need some money to get the hell out of here. Ned can have my ID. He’s going to see that I’ve had one too many run-ins with the police and gather nothing else. And he basically already knows who Cal and Antonio are.
Slipping both cards into my pocket, I close the drawer and have to use the paper clips to relock it since I don’t have the key to do so. But before I can get up, I hear someone outside the door.
If they’re coming in here, I really only have one place to hide, and it’s a cupboard that is definitely not meant for a normal-sized human. There’s absolutely no way I’ll fit in it with how small it is, and it’s foolish to even try, but I have absolutely no other option. I mean… really, who would even fit in this cupboard? A hobbit? Maybe if they squeezed and shoved and twisted a bit, they’d fit, but definitely not me…
Okay… maybe I kind of fit… and maybe I even have a bit of legroom, but that’s just because it’s one of those weird things where it looks really small from the outside but from the inside it’s actually huge.
Fucking hell. I fit too well.
“So… what are we doing with those two?” I hear Emma ask.
A voice I recognize as Ned’s responds, “I don’t know yet. I grabbed their wallets to see who they are. They might have ties to Antonio’s family as well, for all I know. Hell, she could be trying to fuck with us.”
“Why would she? We have nothing she wants.”
“That she knows of,” Ned says. “She thinks we really are trying to move in on this shit. Elena has no idea that we’re only trying to string Leonard and his men along.”
“So… you handed her son over to Leonard? Do you think that’s a good idea? The moment she finds out you were involved in that… it’s going to be a fucking shit show. She might kill you before Leonard ever gets to touch you.”
Handed her son over to them? What the hell does she mean? Antonio? Didn’t Antonio, Cal, and Grayson just drop some drugs off or do some kind of deal or something? Obviously, we knew something was up with it for them to send Cal and Antonio and not their own guys, but I’d hoped it was a “Something is up with it” because they wanted free labor from a guy who clearly knows what he’s doing. But I really didn’t assume that he’d be over here trying to trade off Antonio… what exactly does that solve?
“So… let’s see who these guys are,” Emma says.
“The yappy one doesn’t seem to have much on him.”
Obviously, he’s talking about Cal.
“Looks like he has records with the juvenile court. Can you read what they were for?”
Ned responds, “No. I can’t see anything else on him. The other one doesn’t have a license. I guess that makes sense if he can’t drive. Only money in here… why’s it folded so weird?”
“It’s so he can feel what the bills are,” Emma says.
“Huh. Guess he really is blind.”
“You thought he was joking?”
“Hell if I know. And the third one… Looks like he was in the military. I guess that explains why he’s a bodyguard now and good at fighting.”
“So? I mean… might as well let them go, right?” Emma asks.
“How the hell do we let them go? You think they’re not going to notice two of their buddies have disappeared?”
“Well… we don’t actually know what Leonard’s men are going to do with the bodyguard. Did you tell them not to kill him? Has Blake updated you?”
“Not yet… which… is kind of concerning.”
“You did tell him what was happening, right?”
“I told him to send Antonio’s bodyguard in alone, so they should have dealt with him,” Ned says. “They assured me they’d lock him in some room or some shit.”
“Yes, but you… told Blake everything? Not just to send the bodyguard in alone?”
The silence tells me that he didn’t tell Grayson anything, but why? Why would you send your own man in with no information? “I didn’t know this was happening until he was in the car with them. I didn’t want one of them to overhear.”
“You could have texted him.”
“What if they saw? It’s fine. I explained it to Leonard.”
