“There’s an emergency. We need to meet. Now.” I growled into the phone, figuring that it was best to tell them face to face. We all needed to have a deep, serious discussion on how to get through this scandal that Tom was recklessly bringing to the club.
“What?” There was more laughter from the other side, with a girl playfully shouting, “Oh stop iiiiit.”
“I said,” I gritted through my teeth, my hands tightening on the steering wheel, “We need to have a—”
“I’m… I’m sorry, man. I can barely… Kiki don’t do that! James, James… dammit, James! Bring her down from there!...” There was a pause from the other side followed by the sound of a door opening and slamming it shut, “Okay, I can talk now. Sorry for that earlier, it’s been a really busy weekend right here.”
“I can imagine.” I said, already feeling a headache come on.
Why does it sometimes seem like I’m the only one who gives a damn about the club?
“We need to meet up ASAP.” I said, “I’ll text you the address and all you need to do is—”
“Uh… now?” He cut me off and I frowned.
“Yes. Now. Didn’t you hear the ASAP?”
“Aw… sorry, man. I-I really, really can’t come now. See, I’ve got all these people over and the party’s just starting and you know I can’t just up and leave these girls here. I got to do my duty, you know. As a gentleman… But I’m free tomorrow if you want. Call me then, okay?”
And then the noise from the other side ended, leaving me in stupefied disbelief.
Did he just cut the call?
My hands started to twitch, but I took a deep breath, willing myself to not give in to the rage knocking at my door. Let me call Kevin first. He’s a reasonable one, and a long-lasting member of the club, even longer than Jack. He’ll see what a mess we’ve found ourselves in. He’ll understand.
But Kevin's number didn’t even go through.
Rather than his deep, impersonal voice, I was greeted instead by that blasted mechanical tone saying the number is unreachable.
Clenching my fist around the steering wheel, I barely resisted the urge to tear it off and smash it on the car window, screaming at the top of my lungs like a lunatic on the loose.
Everything here made me want to lose my mind.
I needed to get out of this house, this town, even this state. Fast. Before I do something I’ll regret forever.
Chapter Two
Crystal
Being a thief had its perks.
You got to sit down – or stand if that’s your kind of thing – and creepily watch people from a distance, your eyes going over their clothes, hands, legs and even faces, if you’re really, really experienced. You do all these while pretending to do something else, like drink a milkshake for instance, as you steadily draw closer to your targets. Of course, the veterans in the game don’t need to go through such a long, boring process. They just walk over to the target, even greet them, look them in the eye, shake their hands, and walk away like nothing happened. Only later the poor targets would discover that something on them was missing – a bracelet, purse, wristwatch, even earrings – and have absolutely no idea where they ‘lost’ it!
Sighing, I shifted on the bench, my eyes fixed at the airport entrance as I adjusted the cap on my head and the cloth around my face.
I wasn’t a thief, per se.
In fact, I wouldn’t call myself one.
I was just in a ‘special situation’ and if I didn’t find something – anything – to take back home today, then… I didn’t even want to think about what would happen.
At this point, I’ll even take a half-finished burger if that was merciful enough to show up. Freddie needed food. Mercy hadn’t even had a cup of good water for the past few days and I was worried to the bone that she was going to end up like Freddie soon – bedridden by a sickness that seemed to eat him out with every passing day.
I needed to find something for them. And at this point, it seemed like stealing was the only way to go.
But I’ve never done this before, never sunk this low. Even when our parents died last year, leaving us with nothing, I’d slogged through the months, foraging around the city, seeking odd jobs, even almost starting a career as a cheap prostitute at one time. I’d done anything and everything I could to at least keep us alive and breathing.
But then Freddie fell sick last month and what I’d called our steady existence started to crumble. More of what I could find needed to go to him. Right now, the scraps I managed to gather from the dumps of nearby fast-food restaurants wouldn’t cut it. In fact, there’s a big part of me that feared that maybe, just maybe, those almost-rotten foods were the reason Freddie fell sick in the first place.
Sniffing, I got up and walked towards the airport, pushing those somber thoughts to the back of my mind. That little voice of doubt rose again, telling me all the reasons I shouldn’t do this.
This was super risky – I could get jailed for this. And what would happen to my siblings then? How would I care for them? Who could they go to?
We had no family, no friends. Papa and Mama never told us about any of their relatives and after months of futile searching, I’d accepted the truth that we were really on our own.
But then again, what if I didn’t get caught?
I could buy a decent meal for them, maybe even get some medicines for Freddie. I didn’t care if I had nothing to eat. As long as the money was enough for them, that was okay for me.
Taking a big gulp of air through the black cloth I’d tied over my face as
