Against my better judgment—and I mean any rational judgment at all—I’m parked outside Sugar’s again. I rap my fingers nervously on the steering wheel.
“This is bad. I’m telling you, man.” I shoot Walker a glare. “This is not what we should be doing right now.”
Walker grins, unaffected by my obvious aversion to this. “Since when has that ever stopped us?” He reaches for the door handle and I put my arm across him.
“Maybe it should this time. This isn’t who we are, it’s something bad that we started when we were too dumb to even realize it.” I look him straight in the eyes, pulling my arm back. “We can change that now. We can be the people we were supposed to be.”
Walker rolls his eyes. “Sloan isn’t going to be with you just because we quit.”
My jaw clenches and I speak through my teeth. “This isn’t about Sloan.” I lean back in my seat and release a sigh. “She wasn’t wrong though. I know this shit is wrong and I do it anyway.” I look over at him again. “What about Tess? I know she isn’t cool with this either. What are you going to do when she’s had enough? Are you really willing to put her through that?”
“Stop it, Perry,” he says forcefully. The anger in his face surprises me. “You always bring it back to that and it pisses me the fuck off. She’s my fucking wife and I’ll worry about what’s best for her.”
I shake my head. “This isn’t it.”
Walker’s fist slams into the dashboard. “And I said I’ll fucking decide that! Worry about your shit and stay the fuck out of mine.” He exits the car and slams the door shut behind him.
Even though I kind of want to punch him right now, I follow him. At the end of the day, Walker is still my brother. I can’t let anything to happen to his irrational ass.
We make it to the front door before anyone says anything. He turns to me first. “I’m sorry.”
I pat him on the back. “I’m sorry, too.” I apologize even though I know I’m right. Sometimes it’s just better that way.
He bites his lip for a moment. “We can just take what we usually get. Maybe a little more, but not enough to make anyone that may be watching suspicious.”
“Fuck it,” I say, turning my hat backwards. “What do we have to lose?”
I wish someone would have told me the answer to that question. After grabbing twice the normal amount, we’re back at the old bridge waiting on our guy to show up. We meet at this spot at this exact time every Saturday. He’s never been late—until now.
I keep glancing nervously back to the road the truck is parked on. We always leave it at the end and walk the rest of the way. At first it was because we didn’t want anyone to recognize our vehicle. Now, we’re pretty well known and it’s a moot point.
The bridge runs high above the river and I focus my eyes on it as we stand a half-mile away. It’s a fairly long drop to the bottom and just the sight of it makes me shiver. Heights were never my thing.
Walker nudges me, pulling his gloves on. “Where is he?”
“I don’t know, man,” I say, shoving my hands in my pockets to ward off the chill in the air. “This isn’t like him. I have a bad feeling about this.”
Headlights appear down the road and Walker grins at me. “See,” he says, adjusting the strap of the duffle slung over his shoulder. “We had nothing to worry about.”
It’s never a good idea to say that, especially in situations like these. My heart pounds when I see flashlights pointed our way. Thugs don’t carry flashlights—cops carry flashlights.
“Run!” I yell, pulling his sleeve as I turn to bail.
We take off up the road, our feet pounding against the pavement until we are met by the metal grates of the bridge. The light is coming at us from both sides now, so there’s only one option. I take a look to my right and swallow hard.
I grip Walker’s jacket sleeve, breathing hard. “Can you swim?”
His eyes widen, following my gaze over the side of the bridge. “Perry, I’m terrified of heights.”
“Well, I don’t feel like going to jail tonight so suck it up.”
Quickly, we climb over the railing and dangle our feet over the edge as the officers close in on us.
“Okay, on the count of three, we jump.”
I glance over at Walker who has his eyes shut tight, gripping the guard rail for dear life. He nods. “Okay.”
“One…Two…”
I look behind me and they’re so close they could reach out and grab us.
“Fuck.” I shove Walker over the edge. “Jump!”
The fall is far enough that I have time to regret it on the way down. When my body hits the water, it feels like I slammed into a brick wall. I don’t have to dwell on that for too long though. The icy water makes my lungs burn as I struggle to paddle to shore. It’s not deep, but trying to move quickly after falling from that high is a challenge.
Walker keeps beside me until we reach the edge and pull ourselves out. He doesn’t have time to yell at me for pushing him because the cops above are now making their way down. We run down a trail until we reach the road again. Walker bends at his waist, breathing hard.
“Perry, what are we going to do?”
I look around, checking both sides of the road. They’re coming for us and there’s nothing we can do to stop them. The only logical thing I can think of is for one of us to distract them while the other gets away with the drugs. By one of us—I mean me.
“Go,” I say shoving him toward the woods. “Take the bag and go back to the house.”
Walker’s jaw hardens. “No way. I’m not leaving you.”
Sirens ring in the distance and I know we don’t much time before they come blazing up the road.
I plant my hands on his shoulders. “You have to. I’ll distract them while you get away.”
Walker scoffs, looking over my shoulder. “How will you distract them? By getting arrested?”
I smile.
He shakes his head again. “Perry, I can’t leave you.”
“You have to,” I say, more forcefully this time. I push him harder toward the trail. “You’re carrying all the evidence.”
I don’t wait for a reply and take off down the road, toward the flashing lights. It doesn’t take long to be surrounded. As I’m raising my hands in the air, I know Walker will get away. They only want one of us. This isn’t about nailing some kids slinging drugs. This was a set-up. Now I just have to figure out who’s coming for us, and more importantly, what do they want?
When I get my one phone call later that night, I don’t call Tess or my parents—I call Sloan.
32
Push & Pull
Perry- Then
I’ve been staying with Sloan for a couple weeks now. She has an apartment just outside of campus with two roommates she met at school. So far, they seem pretty cool. I didn’t really expect to be shacked up here with a bunch of girls, but every time I try to leave Sloan asks me not to. It’s like a switch was flipped after I was arrested. For the first time, she’s afraid to lose me.