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“So, I act the part,” Brawler begins. “I tell the guy at the bottom of the stairs that I heard there was some fun shit happening upstairs. He gets this twinkle in his eye. I hand him over a twenty, and he lets me up. I’m directed to a room with her inside,” he says, staring down at her. “She’s awake, barely. Slurring her words.”
“She’s on something?” I ask.
“Something, but I don’t know what.” He shakes his head. “It wouldn’t have struck me as odd except I fucking recognize her. She goes to the Heights.”
Oscar’s gaze narrows. Much like me, I’m sure he’s probably trying to look past the caked-on makeup to figure out who it is. “Fuuuuuck,” Oscar breathes. “That’s the chick that actually cares about school.”
I glance at her again. I don’t know many people at school, but as I said, I feel like I know her. I turn my head, tilting it at the angle the girl is facing, and that’s when it clicks into place. This is the girl who walked me out my first day at the Heights. The one who told me to stay away from Nevaeh and to not leave the school out the front doors when everyone else had left because the guards were handsy.
“Shit.”
“Natalia,” Brawler says. “She lived around the corner from me growing up. No way would she be doing this. Her grandmother was so strict with her.”
Oscar rubs his face. “I hate to say it, but you never know.”
“I’m telling you,” Brawler growls. “She seemed confused. She seemed not to know what was going on. I slipped the guy at the top of the stairs a hundred dollars and told him I wanted to take her home.”
I glance at Brawler. How he even had that much money on him, I don’t know. But I do know he needs that money for him and his mom. He must be certain about this.
“So, what’s your plan?” I ask him.
“When she wakes up, we’re going to ask her what she’s doing there. If we have a witness to what’s happening, even better.”
Magnum and I exchange a look. He must still be thinking that the Crew knows about this.
“Oscar, the file?” I ask, holding my hand out.
Oscar pulls it out of his jacket and starts leafing through it. He shakes his head. “It’s tough to know because I’m not privy to what Candy’s numbers actually are. It’s not like there’s a sign here saying this is the money we’re keeping away from the Crew, don’t tell anyone.”
I roll my eyes at his pure Oscar remark and then take the file to flip through it myself.
Magnum reaches through the divider and pulls a bottle of water back through. “Sit her up,” he instructs.
Brawler does so, making her sit up in the car next to him. She stirs. Magnum leans forward, holding the opened bottle of water to her lips and tips it up. Some of it gets in her mouth and some of it dribbles down her face.
Her eyes blink rapidly and then they open. Immediately, she’s on high alert. “Where am I?” her gaze darts around to us surrounding her. “What’s going on?”
“Natalia, it’s Mack,” Brawler says. “You were at Candy’s. I noticed you were kind of messed up, so I got you out of there. Are you okay?”
“Candy’s?” she slurs. “Okay…”
She starts to go back to sleep, and I snap my fingers in front of her face. “Hey. Stay with us.”
She looks me up and down. “You.”
“Me,” I say. “We were worried about you.”
She shrugs. Her head lolls around on her neck like she has no control over it. When it points down, she frowns. “Whose clothes are these?” She picks her hand up, then brings her finger down on the short leather skirt she’s wearing. She pulls it up, flashing us all her panties again like we couldn’t see them before. “Whoa. Is it Halloween?”
I pull her skirt back down. She’s totally out of it. I don’t know Natalia like Brawler does, but I think his instincts are correct. The girl who walked me out of school that day would not do this.
“I look like a slut,” she slurs.
I jab Oscar in the ribs.
“What?” he exclaims.
“Don’t even think about making a joke.”