Page 81 of Shrapnel

“Hey,” Elijah greeted as he ducked his head against the wind.

Owen turned, eyes widening as he looked around. “Are…are you alone?”

“Yeah. Was I not supposed to be?”

He looked disappointed, wide muddy green eyes dropping. “No, it’s fine.”

“But you were expecting Jamie?” Elijah asked knowingly.

Owen looked surprised but Elijah wasn’t oblivious. The IT tech had shown up at their apartment looking for information on Jamie, even going so far as to snoop around his bedroom. Something was going on between the two of them.

“It’s not that. I just…was hoping he would come with you. I need to talk to him.” Owen resumed chewing on his fingernails. A nervous habit, judging by how ragged the rest of his fingers looked. “I hurt him.”

Elijah felt his hackles rise. His fingers clenched out of habit, ready to grab a blade. “What did you do?”

Owen looked away, unable to maintain eye contact. “I told him I was afraid of him.”

His stomach dropped. How could he say that? Elijah staggered, laying a hand on the cool brick of the Falafel restaurant. Turning his back to Owen he tried to remember how Jamie acted the last time he saw him.

Even for Elijah—who was arguably the closest person to the gunman, except maybe Grant—there was no baseline for Jamie. There was no way to know when he was being his usual goofy self or if he was putting up a front. As a child, Jamie waivered from stony silence to hysterical laughter. When he got older, he settled in. He was able to sleep through the night as long as he was behind locked doors or if Elijah was there. But with time Jamie also got better at lying. And Jamie loved to lie. Elijah used to hate it. Used to resent the fact that he told Jamie everything, but Jamie hid so much of himself away.

Eventually, Elijah accepted it. The lies were Jamie’s way of protecting those he cares about.

Jamie never told them his name because he wanted to keep the Weavers out of his past. He never told them what happened to him during that year away because he didn’t want them involved.

“The last person in the world you should be afraid of is Jamie.”

Owen swallowed around his finger. “I-I know. I didn’t mean it.”

“Do you know how a gang functions? Loyalty. We trust each other implicitly. And there is no one more loyal, more trustworthy than Jamie.” He shook his head, trying to remain calm. “Once he lets you into his circle, he never lets you out. Look at Noah.”

“He doesn’t like Noah.”

“Wrong.” Elijah turned to Owen, surprised at how the smaller man flinched. “He does. Don’t you see that? Do you think he would do any of this if he hated Noah? I would argue that they’re closer than you think.” Jamie might pretend he was doing this for Elijah, but there was nothing in the world that could make Jamie do something he didn’t want to do. Not even fanfiction.

Owen dropped his head, roughly scrubbing at his hair until he pulled at the long strands. “I’m sorry! I know. I know I fucked up, ok? I’m not scared of Jamie. I know that. It was just…something I said.” Owen’s hair was sticking up in all directions. “He confuses me, and I let that turn into fear.”

Grabbing onto Elijah’s arm, he tugged him toward the alley. “That’s why I went back and looked at all the footage, and I saw this.”

He led Elijah to the Mr. Swirly statue. The photos hadn’t done the dilapidated ice cream cone any favors—it was uglier in real life.

Owen dropped to his knees, peering around the statue. Elijah grimaced at the ground, wondering if he should point out that there had been a decomposing body here a couple of weeks ago. And that was probably the least disgusting thing in this alley.

Owen made a satisfactory ‘hah!’.

Pinched between his thumb and index finger was a tiny, misshapen piece of candy. Even from where Elijah was standing he could see teeth marks embedded into the hard surface. Owen was grinning, holding it above his head as he struggled to his feet.

“The guy who dumped the body was sucking on this. He tossed it just before leaving the alley.”

Elijah took in the candy. “It’s been two weeks. Do you think it’s the same candy?”

“How could it not be? Look, I know it’s a long shot. But there are so many preservatives in these things that they could withstand an apocalypse. We can send this into a lab and get DNA off it.”

Skeptically, Elijah crossed his arms. “Isn’t that kind of stuff only seen on TV shows?”

Owen whipped out a plastic bag from his hoodie pocket. He snapped it a few times until it opened He dropped the candy in, sealing it with care. “You got anything better?”

Elijah didn’t, but just as he was about to agree to call Noah and ask about a lab, he heard something at the other end of the alley. Hairs standing on end, he got in front of Owen and slid a blade out.