Hush - Fighting Fate #2 (2 page)

Her eyes moved over my chest and arms, then slowly, she turned her body so it was angled directly towards me. Still smiling, she bit her lip with playful contemplation. “It might be about to get better…”

Damn, she was good. She picked up her glass and threw back half of its contents. I followed suit, never taking my eyes off her. “What’s your name?”

Her lips twitched with amusement. “Renee. What’s yours?”

“Mitch,” I said automatically. “You know, Renee, I’m a very good listener...”

She looked me over again, a wicked smile creeping onto her lips. “I think I’d prefer to be distracted from my problems than talk about them,” she said suggestively.

I pushed myself up off the edge of my seat, coming to stand only a few inches away from her. Her breath hitched. “You want a distraction?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

I stared into her eyes for a moment, trying to get her to fold, but she stood resolute. I downed the last of my drink and smiled. “Come on then.”

She looked at me for a while, seeming to be making a decision. With a quick glance back at the barman, she picked up her glass, emptied it, and took my hand.

Without another thought, I led her straight to the restrooms. It was an obvious choice, but that was the point.

As soon as the door closed behind her, she locked it and smiled at me widely. I quickly stepped away from her and laughed. “You know
,
Renee
, I didn’t know you were such a slut.”

She tried to pretend to be offended, but her smile gave her away. “Yeah whatever,
lover boy. What’ve you got for me?”

I sighed, quickly switching to business mode. “Not a lot. TJ’s warming to me. He’s still taking Pock to most of his transactions, but
mentioned to all of us that a big delivery is coming soon. I think he wants all hands on deck with this one, so I should be in. I’ll try to get some details about it over the next week.”

“Okay.” She looked me over, this time a slight worry creeping into her gaze. “Captain wanted to know if you were okay, so…are you? Are you handling everything okay?”

I knew what she was trying to get at. The drugs. I knew when I was asked to take on the job, I’d be required to do everything humanly possible to look as though I fitted in with TJ’s gang, and that included doing what they did. That’s what undercover meant. Unfortunately, it meant I needed to drink, party, womanize, and do whatever drugs they did. And it took everything I had to look as though I enjoyed it, because believe me, I didn’t. I had to repress the urge to punch at least one of them more than once a day.

I sighed. “Yeah, I’m alright. Some of the shit’s going to be a bitch to kick though,” I said in a defeated tone.

She gave me a sympathetic glance. “Just be careful okay? We don’t want to lose you.” She stepped closer then, giving me a quick sisterly hug. “We’re going to send Leah in next Wednesday, so give her a hard time for me, okay?”

I laughed. “Sure thing, and Kate…Thanks,” I said softly.

She gave me one quick nod, then unlocked the door and stepped out. As the door swung closed behind her, I caught a quick glimpse of her straightening her dress as though she’d just gotten a bit as she headed for the door. After a few more seconds, I strode out to the bar for another drink.

***

Later that night, I sat on a stained brown sofa, in the middle of a dingy lounge room with worn, mottled carpet that stank like alcohol and smoke. Pressing a joint to my lips and inhaling deeply, I tried to numb it all from my mind.

Unfortunately, this was where I lived. We called it The Den. I have no fucking idea why. I guess
ed it was supposed to imply we were some sort of family, and if that was the case, then it was some fucked up family.

I blew out a puff of smoke in a sigh. Yep. This was my life. I fucking hated it, but it was also my job.

TJ, the leader of this fucked up gang of disgruntled criminals, paced the floor in front of me. He was on edge, swearing each time he turned and paced the other way.

“Fuck
, I hate waiting!” he yelled.

I inhaled again.
I was used to his behavior by now. So were the other guys. None of us so much as looked up from what we were doing. I leaned back on the couch and exhaled, and Davo turned another page on the titty mag he was reading beside me. When TJ’s cell beeped with a message, he swore again, but he seemed to calm a fraction.

We continued on like this – Pock and Vinnie sharing a cone, while Davo and I slumped on the couch, and TJ paced
. The only one not there was Mac, who was in the kitchen with a bad case of the munchies.

Fifteen minutes later, there was a knock at the
back door.

“About fucking time!” TJ mumbled.

He called to Mac to answer it, and a minute later a scrawny, dirty haired guy, about the same age as me wandered into the room, followed closely by Mac. He looked a bit frazzled, but then again, that was how he looked every time I saw him.

TJ didn’t bother trying to hide
the fact that he was pissed off. He just cocked his gun and pointed it straight at him. “I fucking HATE waiting for people, Tom! Didn’t I tell you that the first time you came here?”

Tom’s eyes widened a fraction but
he otherwise remained the same. “Sorry, TJ. I thought I was being followed. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t leading anyone here.”

TJ glowered at him for a few more minutes, but even he couldn’t fault him for that. “Just give Mac the fucking bag!”

Tom passed Mac a large brown bag – a bag I knew belonged to the middle-aged business man Tom worked for, and sank down onto the couch. He immediately proceeded to light a joint while he waited. TJ shook his head at him before following Mac into the kitchen.

Ken was the only
buyer of TJ’s who knew where The Den was. I wasn’t sure why that was. I’d heard it had something to do with Ken helping TJ stay out of jail when he was younger, but that was only hearsay.

Sitting back, I took a long drag on my joint and blew the smoke out slowly.
Usually I would help Mac bag the drugs Tom was there to collect, but we’d already done it earlier that day.

Falling into a languid state, I allowed my mind to drift back to my real life, the one I was hoping to get back to real soon. I didn’t allow myself to think about it very often. That would be an occupational hazard, but I had to do it every now and again just so I wouldn’t forget who I was. I refused to allow myself to turn into anything like any of these fucked up people.

Funnily enough, the world of drug dealers, rapists and murderers was my reward for graduating the police academy with honors. Some fucking reward, huh? But at the time I did feel honored. Growing up with a detective for a dad, as well as two brothers who also worked in emergency services, it was a natural move for me to go into the police academy. I wanted to catch the bad guys, just like my dad did.

The undercover job was offered to me because apparently it was common knowledge TJ only took young guys into his gang, and I fit the profile perfectly.

It took me six months to work up enough credits with the guy for him to induct me into his gang, and the initiation was far from pleasant, but here I was, eighteen months into my job – eighteen months since I last saw any of my family, and I was doing everything I could to bring it all to an end. I’d had enough. I wanted out. I just needed TJ to trust me so I could find out the set up for the next big delivery. If we could just get TJ’s supplier, this whole operation would go down, and I could go back to my normal life.

I just hoped I could last unti
l then.

Chapter 3

Kaeli

I came home to
raised voices.

After
what had happened that morning, my heart immediately jumped into panic mode. Stepping wearily into the lounge room, I found Ken and my loser step brother, Aaron, having some kind of face off over the coffee table.

The second
they both spun on me, their gazes dark and feral, I regretted my decision to interrupt.

“Where’s Mom?” I asked.

Ken’s eyes narrowed. “She’s gone shopping.”

I exhaled with relief
and turned, ready to make a quick escape.

Aaron spun back on his father. “I’m not going. Make Kaeli go! I’m sure they’d appreciate
her
a lot more anyway.”

I froze on the first step and looked back at them. Getting in the middle of their problems was the last thing I wanted to do. Aaron was o
ozing anger, looking between me and his father, and Ken was practically livid.

I watched
Ken’s gaze turn from feral to calculatingly malicious. I’d seen that look a few times before, and the aftermath was never good. I was petrified to the spot.

“Do what?” I asked hesitantly.

Ken just continued staring at me, considering whether he wanted me to do this ‘thing’ or not. I was just about to ask again, when his lips curled up into a snide grin.

“
Hmmm…I think you might be right, Aaron,” he said. “This could work in our favor.”

“What do you want me to do?” I asked again, th
is time a little more forceful.

He wasn’t looking at me anymore. He’d begun bust
ling around near the lounge, arranging a bag of some sort.

“You’re going to go pick something up for me,” he said, not bothering to turn around.

“I have homework to do.”

“It can wait. This is more i
mportant.” He zipped up the bag and walked over to the stairs to stand in front of me, shoving a piece of paper into my hand. “Here’s the address you’ll be going to. You’ll have to catch the fifty-one to Forty-Seventh, then go the rest of the way on foot.”

“What? Why can’t I just drive?”

“You just can’t! Tell them Ken sent you – that Tom OD’d, and you’re his replacement.”

Alarm bells
started ringing in my head. “Who OD’d? What are you talking about?”

“Just shut up and do as you’re told, you stupid bitch! If you fuck this up for me, I swear to God, you’ll regret it!” He thrust the bag at me, knocking me back a fraction.

I glanced up at him in alarm, pushing the bag back towards him. “This doesn’t feel right. I don’t want to do it.”

Ken’s eyes flashed with murderous
rage. “You’ll do it alright, you little bitch, because if you don’t, your mother will be the one to pay for your mistake, and it will be a lot worse than what happened this morning!”

I felt
the blood drain from my face. Oh God.

As if reading my mind, he
smirked.

I felt sick. Every part of me screamed that this was bad. I
’d never wanted to say no more in my whole life, but the thought of Mom cowering next to the bed was still so fresh in my mind, I just couldn’t. I swallowed hard.

He shoved the bag hard against my chest. “Now get going or you’ll miss the bus!”

When I didn’t move, he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me towards the door. Once it was open, he thrust me out onto the porch and slammed it shut behind me.

I started to shake as I stood there. I didn’t know what to do. I knew Ken’s threats weren’t idle. He’d definitely follow through with it and Mom would pay the price, but my head was screaming at me, telling me if I did this, it would be the biggest mistake of my life.

Seeing no choice before me but doing what Ken wanted, I shakily checked I still had my cellphone on me and started down the street.

As I walked, I kept reminding myself I was doing it for Mom, not Ken. Every time the anxiousness started to creep back in again, I placed a firm picture of Mom smiling on the screen of my mind to help me.

The second I arrived at the bus stop, it rolled to a stop beside me. As the door swung open, I tried to ignore the warning bells that were still ringing inside my head. I couldn’t help but feel like I was standing on a precipice, and the instant I stepped foot on that bus, my life was going to drastically change.

With that god awful
pang of unease still churning in my stomach, I forced myself to step on.

Twenty minutes later, I
got off where Ken had instructed and called up the address using my cell’s GPS. When I saw where I needed to go, I frowned. What the hell?! It was nowhere near Forty-Seventh. Why did he tell me to get off there?

Swearing under my breath, I tightened my grip on the bag’s handle and set o
ff down the back street. The whole situation was making me sick. Something was seriously wrong with it.

The fact that Aaron hadn’t wanted to
go was a major indicator, because I knew Ken would’ve offered him money to do it. He had to bribe the idiot to do everything - even take out the freaking trash.

And then there was the whole thing about this Tom person OD-ing. I had no idea what the hell that w
as about, but any sentence that included the phrase OD’d, couldn’t be about anything good.