Page 65 of Into the Blue

“That’s good. Enjoy your visit. Don’t worry about me.”

He told me that he wanted to keep his brother out of the business. I couldn't know what that cost him to do. What sacrifices he made to let Tony do that. It’s clear to me now how isolating that must be for him.His only true family removed from his dark reality.

He has all these people around him, but he might as well be alone. How can he trust anyone when they’re all employees?

And then there’s me.

When he finds out, I know that it will not end well for us. Us being this relationship that he is cultivating like a rare cannabis strain. So much effort and stepping out of his comfort zone for me.

All of this is an illusion.

But I’m the only one that can see the cracks in it.

I’m not falling for him.

My place is at the top, not under him. It’ll be too late for him to decide if that place is beside him or above him.

The light bounces off of the watch face a few more times and then I see the inscription: My Diamond with the date we met.

Shit.

“I’m gonna be worried.”

I’m going to miss you when I’m gone.

“You’ll be back before I know it, right? It’s just a few days. I’m as safe as I could be at your house.”

“Yea,” he says noncommittally. “Be good, Racquelle.”

“Bye, Milo.”

“I’ll never get tired of you sayin’ my name,” he responds before ending the call.

I’m fucked.

“Everything went as planned. We were able to divert his attention away from the California grab and now he’s following the wreck in Colorado. Do you think he’ll be home any time soon?”

“I don’t know. His lock was more difficult than I thought it’d be for a home office. I’m gonna keep working in here until I get a sign that he’s coming back.”

Difficult was an understatement. It took me two days trying to get this door open to this office. It wasn’t like I had proper tools, so I had to get very crafty with what I could find in the house since I couldn’t leave.

Not just because he didn’t want me to, but because the guards outside each of the entrances were told not to let me.

Ordering food? Acceptable.

Ordering clothes? Also acceptable.

Going anywhere, including a hardware store? Absolutely not.

I’m still proud of myself for actually getting in. The space was fairly neat and organized. There were minimal files or anything that screamed important information. I started looking through drawers and under any of the decor for a secret passageway or something. But it wasn’t too hard to tell that he must have everything electronically stored.

Then I go to the laptop bag. It had a few pockets and I found exactly what I was looking for in the largest section.

There was a little black notebook that had his crude handwriting on it detailing all the planned routes and locations of drops in the near future. I could have gotten this information on my own, but written out so nice and neat makes my life a lot simpler. I take photos and send them to Liezel.

Now, I can start sifting through this laptop. It was unlocked since I’m sure he didn’t find a need to. Being essentially the monopoly on weed, allowed him to be lax in this area. Caught a lucky break there because going through these files is going to take a lot of time.

Hours and hours of it.