Page 99 of Shrapnel

“About how Luther adopted strays? He was paranoid about people betraying him. Even the Mesas. He surrounded himself with people loyal to only him.”

Jamie glanced out the window. It was pitch black and impossible to see anything against the flat expanse of desert. “Mateo fits that description. No home or family. Makes sense he would gravitate towards someone charismatic like Luther.”

“Right, and what if Mateo graduating high school was my uncle's influence? Like he became a father figure of sorts.”

Jamie supposed that was a good reason to hate the man who killed Luther. But it was also a reason to hate the Mesas. Most of them switched loyalty the moment Luther was dead, looking to the new heir rather than avenging his murder.

“Mateo isn’t doing this for Luther. He’s trying to dismantle the entire gang.”

Elijah exhaled sharply. “That’s ambitious. Even for someone as smart as he is.”

Jamie chewed on that. Mateo had the blood thirst, which would explain the overkill on the first few victims. But he lacked finesse, the ability to plan out something big enough to not only take out Noah but irreparably damage White Sand Mesa. Which led to their second guy.

Elijah tapped on the wheel. “We need Owen. I know you might not want to involve him anymore but…he’s the only one who can look into Mateo. See if he has any accomplices or family.”

Jamie pulled out his phone. It was almost dead and the screen was cracked worse than it had been before. He dialed Owen’s number and waited.

“Is everyone ok?” Owen’s voice broke through the static on the first ring.

“Yeah, O Face,” Jamie lied. He still felt on edge, the hum of drugs coursing through his veins bringing him a little too close to the edge. His throat hurt. “We need another favor..”

“Sure…ugh…hold on…” Owen grunted and Jamie could hear things shifting around, keys jingling, and something solid thumping. “Sorry, had a delivery of new hard drives at my door. Box was stupidly big. What do you need?”

“We need you to look into Mateo Hudson. Unseal all his files and whatever other illegal shit you can do to get information on him. See if he ran with a crowd or had someone close to him. Anything to do with Luther, the Mesa’s, or whatever.”

Owen slammed his front door. Jamie recognized the way it settled into the door frame. More phone shuffling.

“I can run facial recognition software, too. The Weavers have enough CCTV cameras that I should be able to pick up his face if he comes into frame.”

“Owen,” Jamie sighed. “Did you lock the front door?”

Silence.

“Uh…I was going to. Just need to put this stuff down. Anyway, I have a buddy with some decent age progression software. If I trade him some skins, he’ll let me use it. That should help with accuracy.”

“Lock the door first.”

Owen chuckled. Jamie could picture the way his eyes closed, and his cheeks flushed as he did it. He probably had an energy drink on the way home and his fingers were twitchy with the need to get working on his computer.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m going. Just dropping this off and then—”

A muffled bang cut him off. It sounded like Owen slammed his phone into the counter and then dragged it through gravel.

“Owen? Owen?” Jamie began to panic, sitting up in the back seat.

Elijah cut the wheel, changing direction towards Owen’s apartment without asking.

“Owen? What happened? Can you hear me?”

The line went dead. Jamie redialed only to be met with the operator.

The call cannot be completed as dialed…

19

Returned to My Burned Scars of Birth

The entranceto Owen’s apartment complex was blocked by emergency vehicles. Jamie didn’t wait for Elijah to stop the car. He fell out of the back seat and scrambled to his feet. There was an unmistakable glow in the night sky and a heavy layer of smoke that stuck to the back of his throat.