Page 119 of The Secrets She Keeps

Before, they had paid off the guards in this stupid rich-idiot hell hole to look the other way while they'd delivered damned box trucks full of product to certain properties they had picked out. Kyle had owned most of them, under a fraudulent LLC. That LLC still operated. Steve had been in charge of running it.

Until now. Dude was never going to wake up. Trey knew that.

They had to get what they could out of the neighborhood now. Before that LLC was discovered. Before every property wasidentified. And with what had happened at that warehouse, they didn't have enough stockpiles of OPJ to fund what needed to be funded now.

Trey wasn't about to lose that money. He just couldn't afford it. He had expenses to pay, had clients needing product to sell themselves. He had fuckingordersto fulfill to keep the business going. His partners were already riding his ass for the warehouse. The significant cash loss it had been.

They never should have burned it. He'd tried to tell his partners they hadn't had any choice. But the other guys just wouldn'tlisten.Those two pricks had always thought they were smarter than Trey. Always trying to tell Trey and Steve and the rest what to do. It would piss Steve off every time.

Trey wasn't much better.

He made a couple of calls. He needed people to move this shit out of herefast.

Trey hadn't realized the latest location they'd been using was right next to Powell Barratt's parents. Hell, that cop Erickson was probably just days from discovering it. Powell owned that fucking house now. Trey had about shit his pants when he realized she'd bought it the same time she’d bought Kyle’s place right out from underneath them.

They had to get it the rest of the OPJ out of that house before Erickson brought Powell there and they found it. Ruining everything.

Trey couldn't afford another screw-up. He just couldn't. They had to get this shit out of Hughes Heights tonight.

It had to be tonight.

His contacts at the TSP were doing everything they could to buy him some damnedtimetonight.

Trey had two semis ready and waiting just south of Value to take it to the mines there. They’d hide the product in abandoned mines and hope it wasn’t too damned wet down there andeverything got ruined anyway. Still, ruined was better than caught.

He just didn’t know if it would be enough.

And it was all Fucking Heather’s fault.

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Brianna recognizedTrey moving around over by the Barratts' driveway. His curly hair was really distinctive. He was doing something with friends of his. It was hard to miss. She checked on Leena again. Somehow, they’d ended up at the park for the fourth day in a row. So Leena could play with all the other kids.

Brianna didn’t mind too much. People were actually talking to her now while she waited too. Like they were being nice or something.

Her little sister was running around the slides with a little girl who was a year or so younger, who had curly, blond hair everywhere. Leena was fine.

It was Powell who Brianna was really worried about.

Brianna was way too on edge after what had happened. Powell could have died. Her best friend ever. She’d called Powell’s mother every morning since Powell had been found, for updates. No one could get ahold of Powell directly, Melissa had told her. It was so Powell could heal without facing all the intrusive questions and stuff. It still scared Brianna every time she thought about what had happened.

Powell should have been safe inHughes Heights.It was the safest neighborhood in Finley Creek.

Brianna had questions for Trey. Something was going on with Timothy. She was starting to hear people talking about Timothy too. And not in a good way. Ellen Macomber from four streets over, who had lived in Hughes Heights longer than Brianna had been alive, had even told her that morning when Brianna was in her small office at the HOA clubhouse that someone in Hughes Heights had been running drugs out of Hughes Heights. The same stupid drug everyone said Banks had helped create. Brianna wasn’t stupid. Ellen had been fishing for gossip.

Everyone had heardTimothy’sname now. They were talking about Banks again now too. And that stupid drug everyone said he’d created.

Well, Brianna hadn't ever believed her brother had done that. She just didn't.That was something the stupid governor and his wife had made up.

She crossed the sidewalk from the park by the tiny creek that ran through this part of their neighborhood. Brianna could still see Leena from where she was. She checked quickly. She and Powell and Brandt had played in that creek a few times. Catching minnows so the Barratts could use them to go fishing later in the pond at the back side of the park, by the pavilions and picnic tables. The Barratts had been allowed to do that.

Brianna had gotten her rear end paddled for daring to get so muddy those few times she'd played in that water.

But it had been really fun. Maybe the punishment had been worth it. Leena was certainly far happier when she got to do things than when she had to just hang around watching Brianna all day.

"What are you doing?" She stopped right in front of her brother. She studied him for a moment. He wasn't anunattractive man. He was seven or eight years older than she was, she thought. She'd never really asked. She'd known him her entire life, but not that they were related until recent years. She was really trying to make this sister-brother thing work. He wasn't trying at all. "Trey? What are you doing here at the park? Are you looking for me and Leena? Is everything okay with Timothy? I’m really worried about him. People are talking about him right now.”

The park wasn’t exactlyTrey’skind of place.

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