Page 93 of Vengeance & Sin

I finished the apple even before we made it to the car. It didn’t do shit, not really.

When was the last time I actually ate?

Fuck, I don’t even know.

We make it off the grounds before Rick says anything.

“Did you get all the shit from the station cleared up?” He asks.

“Yeah, it’s all gone and clean, like it never happened.” The lie rolls off my tongue easily because it’s more like twisting information. The videos are gone, nobody else could pull them up, and the one small video I kept is hidden away. Over the years, I’ve found that it's easier to keep shit from the guys if I’m not outright lying.

“What did you find?” He asks, and I take a moment to decide whether I want to tell him. We might not always see eye to eye, but half the reason we work so well together is that we have years of trust put into this. I trust them to tell me shit even if it will piss me off, and I do the same for them, just like we trust each other to have our backs.

I let out a sigh before I dive into it. I tell him about everything that was on the tapes, and he listens without interruption.

“So, really, I got a whole lot of nothing.” I tell him after I’ve gone over it all. “The only things that might be useful are the markers for their height and..” I let my words trail off as I try to figure out how I want to continue if I even want to continue.

Fuck, too late to stop now.

“I think it might have been Jade.” I tell him before I decide against it.

I can see his face out of the corner of my eye. But, mostly, he doesn’t react but lets out a sigh.

“Spencer, this has got to stop.” He says, and I can hear the lecture coming even before he starts.

“No, don't start with this shit Rick. Zander, I understand but not you too.” My voice comes out strained as I try to keep my cool.

“I’m not saying you have to trust her, Spencer. I know you can’t or won’t or whatever it is, and thats fine. But we have to keep her safe, that's the mission, and like it or not, that's what we have to do. So if looking into her helps you, fine, do it. But we can’t be at each other’s throats about this, and you can’t keep going after her. If you push her away, Froggie could very well take that out on us. Until we know more, we can’t fuck this up.” He tells me, and yeah, logically, I know what he’s saying makes sense, but I also know it’s not that easy.

Regardless, I let it go and nod as we pull up to Hoppers. Zander's bike is parked in his spot, letting us know he’s already here.

As we get out of the car, I wonder when he went to get his bike. I’m pretty sure Rick wanted to wait to take Jade to the house until Sunday before classes start up again, and seeing as he was with her all day, it doesn’t add up.

I go to ask Rick about it on our way to the back door, but the loud rumbling of a bike has me closing my mouth. There's no way Rick will even hear me over the loud engine of Kratos's bike as he pulls up.

Rick stops just outside the door, and I stand with him as we wait for Kratos to come around the back. A moment later, he turns the corner and pulls into his spot. It’s not until the light turns away from us that I notice someone’s on the back with him.

Kratos never lets anyone so much as touch his bike, let alone ride bitch with him. I can’t think of anyone that he would feel the need to bring with him to our meeting that he would think important enough to start now.

I shoot Rick a look to see if he knows, but he shrugs. Apparently, he doesn’t know either.

His passenger hops down off the bike before he gets off as well. He reaches for them and swiftly undoes the clasp of their helmet before grabbing his and placing them both on the bike.

Long green hair falls from the helmet the moment he removes it, and I realize with a start that it’s Jade. I look closer and see that it should have been obvious with her tiny build because who else would it be?

They make their way to us, and Kratos gives us a nod before walking through the door without a word. Jade is hot on his heels, but she throws us a smile when she sees us.

“Hey, guys.” She says, and her words are light and lack the fire she usually has when she talks to me. I don’t know if she’s in a great mood or just decided to be nice because she was talking to Rick too, but it feels weird to have her speak to me in anything but sarcasm or words dripping with fury.

Rick follows in after her, and I bring up the rear. We head to the office floor without a word, but I hear Jade’s voice from up in front of us as she talks to Kratos about something.

When we get to the top floor, we bypass Froggie and Kratos's offices as we head for one of the few other rooms on the floor. The club below is packed, which isn’t surprising with it being a Friday night. The lights occasionally catch on the glass and shine through on us, but other than that, it’s relatively quiet up here.

Zander stands in the hall outside of the room we use for meetings cleaning his nails out with his knife. A smile breaks out on his face when he looks up and sees Jade. He quickly puts his knife away and holds his arms open at her.

I watch as she smiles at Kratos, and he gives her a nod before she leaves him to fly down the rest of the hall and into Zander’s outstretched arms. I can feel the frown settling on my face as I watch them. I quickly decide to look away.

Kratos goes into the room, with Rick and me following behind. Zander and Jade make no move to follow us as we pass, they stand facing one another next to the door as they talk in quiet voices, and I have to push myself to have a seat instead of lingering to try and overhear what they are saying.

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