Dylan walked his bike over. “What are you up to?”
“I saw you coming and I knew you were going to need some help.” He twirled a teal Cali Lilly.
“How can you help me, and why?”
“Because I’m Mackey, and my cousin is in her room crying. I don’t like it when she cries.”
Something heavy settled in his heart. “No. I don’t like that either. Can you get me up there?”
“No.” Mackey huffed. “Do you know how many cameras we have? This is what you have to do,” he said. “Leave her alone for a little while...like an hour or two, or something. Everybody is badgering her to feel better, and she’s tired because she doesn’t know what to think.”
Dylan wondered what it meant that he was receiving relationship advice from a kid. But, the kid made sense.
“Tomorrow is going to be bad. Stay low, be slow. Don’t give her anything else to worry about.”
“How old are you?”
The Cali Lilly slipped from Mackey’s fingers. “Old enough.” He reached down to pick it up and offered it to Dylan. “Give her some of these. In the garden, around back, there’s a million of them.”
“You want me to steal flowers from your family’s garden?”
Mackey let out an exasperated breath. “It’s not stealing if I told you to. Besides, where else are you going to get them by tomorrow?”
“Good points, both of them. Thank you.”
“I have to get back into the house before I get in trouble. If it gets really bad tomorrow, she’ll go hang out at my Grandpa Will’s old house. It’s over there.” He pointed and started toward the mansion.
“Hey wait,” Dylan called after him.
Mackey paused.
“Why is tomorrow going to be bad? What’s going on?”
Mackey gave Dylan a look that made him question his own intelligence.
“My cousin, Jordan, will be back tomorrow...or tonight, if they speed. Maya’s boyfriend made him mad. That was the stupidest idea ever.” Mackey walked away.
DYLAN WALKED INTO JAKE and Sonny’s debate.
“I’m telling you, man, we have to strike first, strike hard.”
Jake shook his head. “We have to figure out what they gave us and get that dealt with first. For all we know, we could die in our sleep tonight.”
“Do you know what’s going on?” Sonny said to Dylan. “I’ll tell you. These asshats are trying to kill us. We have to deal with this crap, get it settled so we can go home.”
“Sounds like you both are saying the same thing.” Dylan took a seat.
Sonny nodded. “We need to call your dad. Get some real authority down here. Not G.I. Joke FBI agents playing cops and robbers. They got us screwed.”
“No, they didn’t.” Jake paced. “You heard them. The Bishops took care of us before we hooked up with the FBI.”
“The FBI didn’t help.” Sonny folded his arms. “We have to talk to your dad.”
“And tell him what, exactly?” Dylan asked. “Somebody said they snuck us some drugs and we don’t know how high we are?”
Jake pointed to Dylan as if they shared a sentiment. “We need to get to the bottom of all this mystery, find out what they want with us and get clean. Then we can hand out ass-whippings and retaliation.”
“So let’s bail.”
“You bail,” Jake said. “I can’t leave Maya.”
“How are you going to help her if you’re sick or dead or something?”
“What do you want me to do, Sonny, abandon her?”
“No. I want you to get reinforcements, so we can help her and ourselves too.”
“What we need,” Dylan said, “is to chill out...and think. Who set up your meeting, Sonny? And who was there?”
“That guy, JB, his kid, and some people that work at the factory with them. About six or seven total. Shouldn’t be too hard to round them up. They can tell us what we took.”
“They don’t know what we took.” Jake waved him off. “They don’t know what they took. That’s the problem and why they’re so pissed. Besides, Agent Malroy was emphatic. We cannot give those guys up. If we do, they’ll die.”
“We’re going to die,” Sonny said. “Do we need to die for them? They dragged us into this shit; they need to own it. Nobody warned us the damage was already done.”
“Who knew?” Jake countered.
“Look,” Dylan tried to inject some reason. “It seems like they have us on the clock. Time probably runs out for you guys soon. But, they aren’t hurting us, yet. They are waiting for Jordan and Maya to get back. Why don’t you leave now and wait for me somewhere safe?” He wouldn’t let Jake interrupt. “I’ll stay and talk to Maya and deal with this.”
Sonny asked, “Why does time run out for us but not you?”
“I don’t know that it doesn’t. But right before the Bishops arrived, Nile force-fed me a cupcake. It may have bought me some time.”
Sonny stood up. “She brought you a cupcake, and you didn’t think about us at all.”
Dylan rose to meet him. “Did you hear me? She forced me to eat a cupcake. She had more. I assume it was to help us all.”
“Where are they?”
“Not here.”
“Let’s go get them.”
Dylan stood in front of the door. “Not tonight. Most of our bad moves are the result of hotheadedness - yours. Take a beat.”
“Says the man who ain’t dying.”
“Says the man who didn’t get arrested. Who didn’t go to a meeting. Who didn’t insult the puppeteers. Who might be the only one who hasn’t offended everyone into wanting us dead. Take a damned beat.”
Jake pulled Sonny’s arm, giving him the incentive to step back. “All right, Dylan, we’ll let you make the calls. But, we’re not leaving. I’m not leaving you...or Maya.”
“Fine.” Dylan was out of energy. “I’m going to bed. Hell will probably get here early. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
Sonny didn’t say anything until they heard Dylan’s door close. “If that ain’t some shit.”
“What?”
“The girl Dylan is trying to dick bakes the antidote in her cupcakes. We found out more in a day than those agents probably learned in a year.”
Jake nodded once. It was late. He was tired. Arguing with Sonny was pointless.
“Seems like the plan made itself.” Sonny appeared relieved. He let himself out.
Chapter Nineteen
The morning felt ominous. Rain came down in hard sheets, dulling the fall colors, and further darkening everyone’s mood. Finding it pointless to avoid the food now, Jacob, Dylan, and Sonny went to the Bakery. The hustle of movement, combined with the warmth from the ovens, and the scents of cinnamon, pumpkin, and apple made a striking contrast to the cold gray day.
Dylan and Nile made eye contact.
Damn, she was beautiful. He couldn’t help but smile.
She turned away and went to the back.
Tigris followed her.