Page 50 of Chaos Kills

“How are we gonna get fifty grand in a small amount of time?”

“Real talk?” I inwardly groan because that verbiage alludes that I’m not going to be a fan of the answer. “I got a guy who wants me to run some meth for him. Twenty grand out the door.”

I begin to shake my head, but where else are we going to get that amount of money the legal way?

We won’t.

I already told Levi I don’t want us to be reckless, but the longer we’re here, the more shit that might happen.

“I’d say I’d go with you,” I mutter. “However, someone needs to be on the outside.”

“And that’d be you.”

No shit.

I slide off the hood of his car and get to my feet. “I’m going to get another beer.”

“Get something to eat while you’re at it,” he says as I begin to walk away.

I won’t.

I just need a minute alone to gather up some free oxygen. To not be in the presence of someone or something.

Today was a bitch. It’s only going to get harder. No amount of time is ever going to wipe away the grief or the empty loss of my father.

Not Emilio.

Roger.

Dad.

“Bay!” I glance over my shoulder, finding Kyle, one of Levi’s buddies, jogging over to me with an uneven pattern of breathing.His long dark hair is pulled back in a man bun as he stops on a dime at my side and immediately begins panting. “Reeve Stanton…is stumbling around here like he fuckin’ forgot where home was. He just got into it with one of our dudes.”

Several things happen at once.

First, butterflies scurry and bump into each other in my gut before they’re shot down, one by one. Then, a shred of dread fills my veins and empties out into the vital organ because of what happened. Memories of how he begged me to not marry Ramsey and that he’d take care of everything.

I rejected that help.

I pretty much, in so many words, told him to go fuck himself.

There’s no way I’m ever going to be able to erase the look on his face when I annihilated what he wanted to do for me. I murdered him in that moment. I shoved everything we ever said or did and hinted he wasn’t good enough to do the job.

“Where?”

Kyle isn’t so quick to give me an answer at the pace I require when I glower at him.

“Last time I saw him, he was by the DJ—” I don’t wait for him to say anything else, my feet carrying me over to the area.

My pulse slams viciously with each step. My breathing stutters as my eyes skip around to each person, looking for sandy blonde hair and the surfer boy vibes that made me weak in the knees with just one glance.

“Lil Freak” by Usher booms from the speakers surrounding a patch of grass and the makeshift dance floor people have made.

Along the street, cars are still scorching rubber onto the hot cement, heating up their tires to make a good run as the throng bumps and grinds against each other along the sidelines.

I make another sweep before I land on my target.

The reason I left my guys behind.