Page 52 of Caution to the Wind

For privacy, he’d said, but also for a sense of brotherhood.

Like Henning calling me Rocky.

I couldn’t deny there was a magical kind of bond in giving and receiving a nickname.

I was beginning to understand, in a way I never had before, why people turned to gangs. If you felt alone and misunderstood by society, there was no better feeling than not only being accepted by a group but also feared by that same society that had rejected you in the first place.

“I’ll be fine,” I lied, trying to be convincing as I accepted little plastic bags filled with powdered drugs.

“You need to do a line to relax?” he asked, zipping up the pockets on his travel wallet before lifting his shirt to secure it around his torso. It was a clever way to keep the drugs on him while keeping them concealed.

“No, I don’t do drugs.”

Kang fixed me with his cold stare. I fought the urge to fidget and let him look his fill. I’d changed out of the red dress into my usual black jeans, a black tank beneath my leather jacket, and my heeled leather boots. The drugs were in a little black purse I wore across my body.

“Why do you want to be a part of Centre Street?”

It was a good question, one I was ready for. “I’ve been trapped by the expectations of my parents my entire life. I want to live my life for me. I never fit in with their lot, and I want to find my own way and my own people.”

“And you think a criminal outfit is your lot?” he asked, tone dry enough to peel like paint.

I rolled my eyes. “You saw me fight, Kuan. You ever seen a girl do that before?”

His hesitation was answer enough.

“Trust me, this is where I’m meant to be,” I said, and there was enough truth to my words that they rang clear and true.

Kang didn’t have to know I was meant to be here to find whoever killed Kate.

But it begged the question now that I was so close to finding answers, what would I do if I found them?

The men who’d killed her and the person who’d ordered the hit.

Did I want them imprisoned and on what evidence? She’d been murdered years ago, and the trail had long ago gone cold.

Did I want them dead?

My heart shivered a little in my chest. Not with fear, but with dark delight.

Yes. I wanted them dead. They didn’t deserve to live when Kate did not.

More than that, I wanted them tosuffer.

And maybe that did make me the kind of person who fit in better with outlaws than respectable society folk. The barbarism of criminality made sense to me.

“Okay, I’ll be close by, but you take the barn, and I’ll do the house. We’ll meet out back by the field in two hours and check in. If you haven’t managed to sell shit, this is the end for you.”

This time, a shiver of fear, a cold zipper closing up my spine.

“Whatever,” I said with a flippant shrug I didn’t feel.

I moved past him, biting down a shudder when our shoulders brushed. Something about Kang unnerved me. He didn’t blink enough, his predatory gaze unflinching. It alerted something primal in me, an urge to flee.

Don’t trust this man, my gut cried.

I didn’t, not really, but who else was there to trust at this party?

I wondered with dread why Brian hadn’t shown up at prom. He was a drug dealer, sure, but he’d been excited for the dance. He’d even bragged nonstop about a white suit he’d bought that he thought made him look as dapper as Charlie Chan.