“If only we could get into those guys’ phones. I’m sure they’ve been communicating with Connor, or at least other contacts of his. They get pretty regular phone calls, but the phones are so protected, you have to know the password just to answer a phone call,” Cobalt explained.
“You have their phones?” Nathan said, and then his eyes shot over to Sicily.
Sicily leaned back in his chair and a sly smile crossed his face. He interlocked his fingers and stretched them out away from his body. “Once again, it’s time for Sicily to save the day.”
“Once again?” Colette said. “We’re still grinding our way through the fifty thousand pings you dug up.”
“Hey!” Sicily snapped. “We are all learning a marketable skill, and we’re doing it together. Trade and friendship. That’s invaluable.”
I just shook my head and chuckled at him. Be it comic relief or just his pure inability to be anything other than laid back, Sicily was a much-needed light in the dark halls of The Royal Court.
“I can bring you their phones,” Anisa said. “Do you think you can get in?”
A voice we rarely heard croaked up. “He can do it,” Jaxon said, bringing everyone’s attention to him. “What? I can recognize talent.”
Sicily’s hands flew to his face. “Did… Did Jaxon just compliment me?” He picked up a napkin and dabbed it at the corners of his eyes. “I wasn’t prepared for this. I’d like to start by thanking my parents, and my best friends, Deon and Cherri.”
“You mean Cherri and Deon?” I said.
“Stop,” Jaxon growled.
Sicily nodded. “Stopping.”
Cobalt chuckled. “I like this one. He’s weird.”
Nathan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, he is, but Jaxon is right. If you can get us those phones, Sicily can get in.”
Anisa smiled. “I’ll bring them by tomorrow.”
Just like that, the trail that was running cold was blazing again. This was different from my and Nathan’s phones that only contained a single, designed-to-be-untraceable phone number. These guys worked for Connor and could have even communicated with the people who were after Deon. It was a huge development.
The rest of dinner with our renewed hope was enjoyable and delicious, so much so that the restaurant had to kick us out when it was time to close. We spilled into the parking lot laughing and chatting, and Nathan gave Anisa and Cobalt each huge hugs, promising to see them again soon. I watched them and my stomach burned thinking of my own parents. I’d apologized, but it still felt like there was a huge wall between us.
One only I could break down.
“Cherri?” Avery said. “You ready? I know you rode with Jaxon and Colette but…” She glanced over in their direction and I followed her gaze to where the two were embroiled in a massive makeout. “You probably aren’t going to want to ride back with them.”
“Yeah, uh, actually… Do you think you can bring me to my parents’?” I asked. “I just… I never told them the whole truth about everything, and I think I’m ready. Nathan and Deon both had these fractured families and I have two parents who love me that I’m lying to. It’s time to come clean.”
“Wow,” Avery said. “Sure, if that’s what you really want.”
“It is,” I replied. “My parents deserve to know everything.”
16
Deon
Felicity was fidgeting back and forth, while I kept trying to keep a clock on the people who were following me, a tough enough task on its own given that everyone was in masks.
“How did this happen?” Felicity said. “Was it immediate? We haven’t been here that long.”
“I’m not quite sure. I found a man who I think was the guy who put Connor in contact with a bunch of the women he slept with for the purposes of using them for his own gain. All of the women that my mom discovered he was sleeping with, including you and her, are women who had some sort of second use for him. His wife Alicia may have just been a trophy, but my mom cleaned his house, including some shady areas most likely, you have pull over Venom, this teacher at my school was blackmailing my brother. Every woman he used, he used for a reason, and I think he found the right ones here,” I explained. “I found the guy, but when I started inquiring about a woman, almost immediately, he flagged these people down.”
“What people?” she asked.
I looked over my shoulder again, and the people still had their eyes on me, but weren’t advancing, at least not at the moment. “About 8 o’clock. Don’t look though, I don’t think they realize I’m with you.”
Felicity didn’t listen, which I might have expected. She turned to her left first and pretended as if she was looking for something, then she turned to the right and did the same, then got back to facing forward. “I see them.”
“One of them is one of the guys who snatched me on Connor’s behalf a few months ago. I don’t know if the other one is his partner or not, but if it is, I’m more afraid of her. She’s vicious.”
“Well, it’s like you said, Connor knows some unique women,” Felicity replied. “Shoot. I have a hot lead too. I’ll have to find a new way to follow it.”
“No,” I said. “If you have a lead, we need to follow it. We’re struggling enough as it is. I’ll lead them away and keep them busy while you do what you need to do. When you’re ready to go, go stand by the bright pink Caddi near the front, then I’ll know you’re ready to go.”
She didn’t immediately respond, but then sighed and said, “Okay. Deon… please be careful.”
“I will. You too.”
At that, I flipped around and left the group of people and headed straight for the center of the car show that was the most congested. Peeking behind me, I could see the two were following, which was good, because I just wanted them as far away from Felicity as I could get them. Once I’d done that, then I could worry about giving them the slip.
In the congested center of the show where there were several booths set up selling food and drinks, I weaved in and out of the crowd in no particular order. The last thing I wanted to do was draw more attention to myself, so I’d move a little, pretend to be assessing a menu, and then move again. The two that were following me, however, were doing a pretty good job of keeping an eye on me, so I had to come up with another plan.
Finally, I looked over and saw a woman in an extravagant white dress drinking a beer. There were several people standing around her, and whether it was because she was someone of importance or just because she was stunning, I wasn’t sure, but she was the center of attention. Keeping the people chasing me in the corner of my eye, I slid closer and closer to her, and then I pretended as if I tripped. I knocked into someone standing closer to her and he bumped into her, sending her beer spilling all over her. She let out a loud screech as her beer dripped down her dress and drenched her hair, and the people encircling her created an uproar. They were tripping over themselves offering her napkins or their jackets to hide the spill, and the congested crowd started to close in on where she was.