I nod. “I won’t do it again. Where do we need to go?”
She starts walking, so I follow her. She pulls out her phone, typing something.
“Tiffany’s on her way to pick us up. We can wait at the bus stop.”
“What’s the job?”
“I don’t know yet. We will know when the group meets up.”
I don’t say anything else. I can tell Katie is off-kilter. Usually she’s demure. Quiet. Today she is brash with a bit of an attitude. It’s almost like I’m seeing a side of her she hasn’t shown before. I’m almost proud of it. I’ve told her before she needs to stand up for herself. Innocence like hers is only going to get her chewed up and spit back out.
Just like me.
When we reach the bus stop, I look around. Willow said I was being watched. Katie pretty much confirmed it. I wonder by who though. I take in each face around me. There aren’t many people on the street right now. Still, none of them look suspicious.
The old man walking his dog. He lives two streets over from me and never makes eye contact. Could he be their spy? Then there’s Miss Butterfield. She’s watering her garden, not paying any mind to the world around her. Lord forbid her precious flowers to become dehydrated. The only person I see that I don’t know is a man standing outside the butcher shop down the street, smoking a cigarette. Still, he doesn’t let his eyes linger before he stomps out his cigarette butt and heads back inside.
Everyone looks normal.
Tiffany pulls up, breaking me out of my thoughts. Katie takes the back seat, gesturing for me to take the front.
As soon as I slide in, I look over at Tiffany. Her hands are white as she clings to the steering wheel. Her eyes show me a hint of fear, but you’d never tell it from her tone.
“When I call or text, you fucking answer. Understood?”
I nod but keep my mouth shut.
She lets it go, pulling out onto the road to take us to wherever our final destination is.
After several minutes, I’m surprised to find us at the school.
“Isn’t the school locked up on Saturdays?” I ask.
“Not today,” Tiffany mumbles.
It’s obvious this isn’t her idea of a good time either.
I climb out of the car, following her to a side door. She knocks on it in a pattern before it opens. Mr. Kendall is standing on the other side.
He eyes my body appreciatively as I pass by.
I resist the urge to vomit.
Once we are in, he disappears as Tiffany leads us to the gym. I take a seat with the girls who are already there.
“Great. Now that we have everyone, let’s get to it. We have a job tonight. This isn’t like our past jobs. It’s not a random party and it will be dangerous.”
“Why are we still doing this?” Stephanie complains.
“We have no choice,” Tiffany snaps. She takes a couple of deep breaths before she continues. “There is a rave at the warehouse tonight. The amount of drugs they want us to offload…” She trails off a moment. “It’s going to take all of us. This isn’t a one-person job tonight. It’s all hands on deck.”
“What are we selling tonight?” I ask.
Tiffany huffs, “Ecstasy. It’s a rave, so it makes sense.”
“That shouldn’t be too hard,” I murmur.
“The problem is that we are selling the competition’s drugs. This rave is thrown by the Rockford brothers. I don’t know if they will actually be there, but they will be selling their own product. Usually we only have to unload fifty packets, but tonight we have to unload two hundred and fifty. That’s twenty-five a piece. They are ten dollars a pop. If you finish yours, hook up with one of the others and see if they need help. We will do this until we are all out. We need to be very careful.”
