Page 82 of Beasts in the Shadows

“She’s gone,” I told Ezrah when I climbed off the Suzukibecause I knew the police interview was preying on his mind. He’d been waiting for me to update him on whether she’d snitched. As soon as I spoke to her, I went for a ride to the lake, then up to The Lud to see the boys. By then, she’d be long gone, so they couldn’t do anything to stop her.

“What do you mean, she’s gone? Gone where?” he snapped as Nicolae looked up from his phone, wearing a black scowl. He was sitting on the deck steps, smoking a joint even though he promised to quit for football season, especially being capped captain.

“Home,” I answered, taking off the helmet and tucking it under my arm.

“How long for?” Sickle asked, blowing out smoke, then passed it to Ez to take a pull.

“I don’t know, maybe indefinitely,” I replied, my heart lurching.

The thought of not seeing her again wasn't sitting well with me. I sat at the lake, smoking a joint, trying to erase her from my head, but instead I thought about her more.

Every moment I spent with her, every moment in her room inhaling her scent became tattooed onto my brain. It didn’t work, and I hadn’t felt this low in a while. The thought crossed my mind to wade into the lake and let myself sink to the bottom, and the only thing that stopped me was the slim possibility that I might see her again. Fuck, how did I let this chick get under my skin like this?

“Fuck, what did she say to the pigs?” Ezrah’s fists clenched so tightly, his knuckles turned white. The dude was close to punching the wall, and his older brother barked, “Settle the fuck down, Ez.”

“I’m certain she didn’t say anything,” I tried to assure him, but I wasn’t sure about that part of the conversation at all. I believed her when she said her dad wanted her home because of a family emergency, and it was just a strange coincidence, but whether or not she snitched to the police was a different story.

“You’recertain?” Nicolae shot me a severe expression like he was trying to climb inside my brain.

“Yeah, I’m fucking certain,” I stressed, refusing the joint because I was already a little stoned and came home to binge. “Did you find the gun?”

Ezrah groaned, but he seemed more relaxed than when he called me earlier. “We’ll sort it,” Nicolae said, taking the reins of the situation.

“We got supplies,” Ezrah confirmed, referring to the hunting rifles hidden away in the safe, which was where they should’ve put the handgun that we stole from Adina. “So, we’ll be fine if they’re going to use it against us.”

“Do you have a hunch of who stole it?” I was compelled to ask, eager to move the conversation away from Adina. Every time I saw her face in my mind, a stab of pain hit me in the chest, and it unsettled me.

“No,” Sick said casually as if he wasn’t worried about it, or maybe he was faking it. “Well…maybe. I don’t know.”

Ezrah started pacing high on green and getting twitchy and aggro, “Fuck, she lives in Richmond, doesn’t she? Across the river. With her daddy, right?”

“Bro, chill,” Sickle said firmly while another stab of pain hit my chest from him mentioning her again. It was starting to feel like battle wounds as another spray of bullets pummeled my ribs.

“We know where she lives, so we can chase her down,” he persisted. “What time did the train leave, Lev?”

“About 3 PM,” I checked the time on my phone. “Over two hours ago.”

“What the fuck have you been doing in the last two hours?” Nicolae stabbed me accusingly.

“The lake to get stoned,” I mumbled, giving zero fucks about them being annoyed that I didn’t go to them straight after speaking to her.

“Huh,” he grunted, then shot me a knowing look as if he knew I was suffering a little by her leaving. “She’s nothing.”

“She’s not nothing, bro,” I said in a steely tone, and he narrowed his eyes at me.She’s everything.

An awkward silence fell between us as Nicolae kept scowling at Ezrah to stop fidgeting and stressing about Adina. His younger brother quit pacing and leaned against the deck’s wooden railing and folded his arms across his chest, finally calming down.

The only sound to ease the tenseness was raucous laughter and shouting from the gaming room as smoke from Sick’s joint billowed into the air. The light was dying, and I was considering heading to the dining hall to grab something to eat, when I thought about Morgana and how hollow it would feel without her being there. No scent of her shampoo when she opened the door, no cute little scowls and dodging the fucking fish hooks when I snuck into her room. Fuck, this was insane.

She’d be halfway to Morrisville by now, and I wondered who would be there to pick her up. I assumed she was single, even though we never had that conversation, because it was irrelevant. I was planted into Morgana to watch over her, and that’s what I did. I didn’t expect to like her. I didn’t expect to find her feisty nature hot as hell, and yeah, I broke Nicolae’s rules, but I couldn’t give a fuck.

I kissed her. I held her, and I might not ever get the chance to do that again. That was as depressing as fuck.

“Fuck it,” Ezrah spat suddenly, making us jump, and left the front deck to step inside.

“Where are you going?” Sick called after him as he ran up the stairs to the first floor.

“To see about a girl,” he yelled back. “I’m going after her.”

My chest filled with excitement, and Sick looked at me and cocked his head. “Go with him, so he doesn’t do anything stupid.”

“Gladly,” I replied as he rolled his eyes, knowing that was what I wanted all along.

To be continued…