Page 23 of One (The Towns Syndicate #2)

King

H alloween town took care of a few contracts a month when I first started working the concession stands with Momma Dae. I wasn’t privileged to that information but hiding in the shadows long enough, I listened to a lot of conversations I shouldn’t have.

The town wasn’t as big either. I was surprised the Mayor let the guy in charge live for so long. As I moved up, making myself valuable, I realized how corrupt the leaders of the towns were.

I didn’t need more power and money, drugs and trafficking held nothing for me, so when I was offered it, I was never motivated for more.

You see when you grow up in the system, and you have to forgo meals cause your foster parents would rather buy shit for themselves, or there were just too many kids to feed you begin to realize, sometimes you just want the bare fucking minimum.

Eat, have a warm place to sleep, and not worry about constantly surviving.

I ran Halloween Town with such efficiency that there would never be anyone better than me because I needed the job security. I made friends, acquaintances and kept people in my good graces for this purpose. One day, I knew I would need it.

I called in favors, and I had more men than I needed to protect Ally. Mars knew most of these men and was able to organize them in my absence. We still had no idea who was after Ally. Was it was one person or multiple groups? That pissed me off.

These men saw Ally as an easy target and after tonight, Boogie and I would be busy hunting down these men. I wouldn’t stop until I had every fucker in a meat locker or in a hole in the ground.

After planning, we were ready to head back to Halloween Town.

Once we were behind our gates, I would feel better about Ally’s protection and then I would figure out how to keep her safe.

As much as I hated the triplets, it seemed we might have to tell them to hurry the fuck up and just kill their target and come back.

We’d have to figure out an excuse to tell the Mayor to put them out of commission for however long we needed to get Ally an even better team. I wasn’t risking her safety again and I needed to do a more thorough background check on Arthur and Lance.

I walked to the SUV Ally was in seeing Boogie walking away pissed.

“Hey, you ok?” I walked in front of him.

“You can ride with her.” He tried walking past me.

“What happened?” I stood close to him.

“Ride with her and I’ll watch from another car.” He hit my shoulder, and I grabbed his arm.

He growled at me.

“Don’t shut us out,” I pleaded.

He looked away.

“Liam, please,” I whispered as he jerked, looking back at me.

His jaw clenched a few times before he yanked his arm from my grasp.

“Don’t get used to that name,” he snarled. “That boy is no longer here.”

“You might not think he is, but you're running scared, and I can’t do this without you,” I said.

Boogie never dealt with his trauma, he hid it in a box in his mind, and hoped for the best. Right now, that box was barely being kept closed, and this was triggering for him. Ally almost dying, and her almost getting taken away was starting to take its toll on him.

“I’ll have a better advantage to protect you from a different vehicle.” He walked away and the further he walked away the more I worried that he wouldn’t be able to come back to us.

The drive was surprisingly uneventful, and I was grateful. Ally slept most of the way and when we arrived, she looked around for Boogie, but didn’t ask for him.

I carried her to the haunted house, taking the stairs to the rooms we had on the second floor that we kept for some of the employees who stayed overnight or Mars and Roman.

It was nicer than our trailer, it would be easier for the doctor to see her, and it was the most protected building.

I opened the door, and it was the nicest room we had.

I was relieved they had cleaned it up and gotten it ready for her.

It had its own bathroom, and it was big enough for Boogie and I to stay with her.

“I didn’t think there were any rooms up here,” she said, looking around as I sat her on the bed.

“We keep these for the employees in case they don’t want to drive home or Roman and Mars,” I said. “Well, before Mars got his own trailer.”

“Why don’t you live here?” she asked, leaning back, melting into the bed.

She looked exhausted and her blood-stained clothes, bloodshot eyes or her dark circles didn’t help either.

“We like our privacy,” I said, feeling exhaustion hitting me too.

My body knew we were safe, and it was starting to shut down. We needed to be checked out by doc, and a shower and food before we went to sleep wouldn’t hurt.

“Yeah, with how loud you guys are, I don’t think people wanna hear you while getting scared,” she smirked.

I chuckled while sitting next to her.

“Definitely not while we make you come, but sometimes you do sound like you are dying.” I nipped her nose.

“You murder this pussy so good.”

The door opened as she spoke and I’m sure Doc heard what she had just said.

“Whoops.” Ally turned red.

“Thanks for coming, Doc,” I said, shaking his hand.

“Hello, Noelle,” he said, laying his bag down on the bed.

“Hello,” she said softly, looking between the doctor and me. “Are you leaving?”

She looked at me. I shook my head wondering why she was so worried. She relaxed a little, but she still seemed a little wary of Doc. I explained what had happened and he started his assessment.

“How does it feel when you breathe?” he asked Ally after he inspected the bruise on her chest that was starting to darken from the two bullets the vest caught.

“A little discomfort, but nothing major,” she said, as he heard her breathing.

He asked a few more questions, and inspected the bump on the back of her head.

“Just a lot of bumps and bruises,” he said, putting his stethoscope around his neck. “Take some pain killers and rest. If you start having double vision or a lot of vomiting, call me, you might need to take her to a hospital. Other than that, you look good.”

“Good,” Ally mumbled, her eyes blinking slowly.

“Alright, what about you?” Doc looked at me.

“I’m good, you need to see Boogie, he got shot,” I said, standing up.

“He refused to let me look at him,” Doc sighed, packing his bag.

“Stubborn asshole,” Ally murmured.

Doc chuckled.

“Where was the shot?” Doc asked.

“Shoulder,” I said, as we walked to the door. “A bullet also grazed his ass.”

“I’ll track him down and take a look at it before he gets an infection,” Doc said.

“Thank you,” I said, relieved. “See Mars before you leave for a check.”

“I will,” he said. “Call me if anything changes.”

Sarah was coming down the hall with a tray of food just as Doc was leaving. I was hoping it was ours and when she smiled at me while handing me the tray, I was grateful.

“Thank you so much, Sarah,” I said, feeling immense gratitude.

“Boogie said you would be hungry and that Ally liked chicken soup,” she said, giving me her less creepy smile— she was still creepy. “If you need anything, call me or let Boogie know.”

“Do you know where he is?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Last I saw, he was walking down to the rooms.”

“Thanks, Sarah,” I said before closing the door.

Boogie was doing something stupid and as soon as I had Ally asleep, we needed to talk.

“That smells delicious,” Ally said, as I walked closer to the bed.

“Shower or eat first?”

“Eat,” she said immediately, never taking her eyes off the tray of food.

I chuckled, laying the tray of food over her lap. She grabbed a piece of bread, eating a piece of it before lathering it with an obscene amount of butter. She ate the bread in between spoonfuls of the soup, and I couldn’t stop watching her as I ate my bowl of soup.

“Some salsa would make this soup phenomenal,” she said as she ate.

“I haven’t had good salsa in a while,” I said while drinking the rest of the soup.

“I remember having tacos the night before I was taken,” Ally said somberly.

“I know this place in Denver,” I said, placing the bowl down. “Maybe after all this goes away, we can take a trip and get some good Mexican food.”

“Maybe I can go see my brothers,” she sighed. “Hopefully one of them learned from my mother.”

She laughed but frowned. “Ok, maybe doubtful.”

“Either way, we will find some good places.” I said, grabbing her empty bowl. “Shower?”

She nodded.

We went into the spacious bath, I turned the shower on, and stripped her. The bruise on her chest made me angry all over again. Hopefully, Boogie was using his time wisely and plotting someone's death. I led her into the shower, holding her close as we just let the water run red.

I grabbed the shampoo to wash her hair as she sighed, and I took my time washing every part of her. She tried to do the same for me, but I shook my head and cleaned myself quickly as she stood in the hot water. I got out first, held out a towel for her hair and then her body.

“Where is Boogie?” She finally, asked even if looked like she didn’t want to.

“I don’t know, but hopefully with doc getting patched up,” I said, drying her body lightly.

She gave me a pointed look. “Don’t bullshit me or try to placate me.”

“I don’t know.” I sighed.

She nodded as I grabbed her hand and led her to the bed. I pulled the sheets off the bed, motioning for her to get in, and she did without a word. I handed her some pills that doc had left.

“These are just pain killers?” she asked softly.

“Yeah,” I said, studying her.

She nodded, staring at them for a moment longer before putting them in her mouth, and taking a drink from the Gatorade bottle I had given her. I clenched my jaw wondering how many times Kris had drugged her and what he had done to her to make her wary of drugs or doctors in general.

I slid in the bed behind her wrapping an arm around her waist, bringing her flush against my body.

She threaded our fingers, intertwining our hands together.

The absence of Boogie felt louder as we laid in bed without him.

Ally sighed and I waited for her to say something, but nothing but silence surrounded us.

Minute by minute her body slowly started to relax and while I had the intention of leaving to find Boogie, I couldn’t stay awake any longer either. The warmth of Ally’s body and the softness of the bed lulled me to sleep.