Page 69 of Locke 2

Not when Lenny was gone, and his Pokémon cards had been left behind and his home was hidden away in a neighbourhood Georgewel pretended didn’t exist. They seemed to have shuffled all the desperate people together so that they did not coexist the same way they did in Blackwater.

It was cold and dark. Lenny’s home looked sad, not a single window glowing like the neighbours around it. There was a car parked in front of the townhome. There was a man smoking a cigarette on the sidewalk, his hip pressed against the car. He was staring down at a phone when Locke parked the car behind the man. Jem was sitting in the backseat. We stared at the man for a few moments. He noticed us, too, but he pretended to be absorbed in his phone.

So, this was the landlord, Sid.

He reminded me of my own landlord.

Why did they have to look so greasy here?

“Jem,” Locke said, breaking the silence. “You know what to ask?”

“Blah, blah, information,” Jem replied. “Too easy.”

Without another beat, he opened the door and slid out. Within seconds, he was standing before the man, chatting away like they were the best of buds. Locke watched them, his voice dropping lower. “You sure you want to go in, little lion?”

“Of course.” My voice sounded too chirpy. Unconvincing.

“You’re nervous.”

“Scared,” I admitted.

Locke nodded once, whispering, “I was, too.”

He looked at me. Really looked at me. His brows pulled together as he studied me. Concern shone in his eyes. It was a look I wasn’t used to seeing in him. “Kali…”

If he tried to talk me out of it, it might work. I shook my head. “Locke, I want to see.”

His mouth closed. He didn’t look happy, but he nodded once. That he didn’t try to convince me or order me behind because he didn’t agree with my decision, made me feel respected and seen. It was not what I expected from him. Up until this very point, I had expected him to tell me to stay in the car.

“You won’t force me to stay?” I asked, unable to keep that curiosity to myself.

“No,” he returned, adamantly. He looked gobsmacked I’d even asked the question. “Did you think I would?”

“You’re forceful in other ways.”

He shook his head, frowning. “You’re your own person…but you can be that way by my side.”

“You never once wavered about that?” I wondered. “About me belonging to you?”

“Never.” The simple word was loaded with so much conviction, I felt foolish for asking.

He opened the door, and I did the same. The landlord glanced at us, his body stilling at the sight of Locke. I glanced at Locke, trying to imagine how he looked to a stranger. That fucking suit. The hard face. The giant, tall body that towered over most. The way he moved, confident and unafraid. His cold eyes, dead when he wanted them to be, or burning with danger.

Yeah, I got why the landlord wanted to shit his pants. He looked away, staring back at Jem as though that was a better option. But I’d learned about Jem while I was in Blackwater, and from the stories Charlotte had exchanged briefly with me in the short time I knew her. I’d seen glimpses of it in the way his mood changed abruptly, replaced by a dark edge that was unnerving.

Jem was the snake you planted in your enemy’s garden. He slithered and schemed, always ready to strike when least expected. That damn smile was loaded with dark intent. I knew he was dark and twisted in his own way. At least I knew Locke’s darkness. I’d tasted it, learned about it. But Jem… What was his darkness? When he wore his mask, the very one he was using on the landlord, he scared the shit out of me more than when he let that mask drop.

“You want him on your side…” Charlotte said once. “He’s the perfect ally, but the worst enemy.”

How did she get through to him? What was their history that he might be “polite” to her like he was to that damn secretary? I wondered if I was just unapproachable and unlikeable. I wondered, too, what his other side could be if I had gained his trust, and he liked me the way he liked Charlotte.

I forced my focus away from Jem and those thoughts. Right now, I had to do this very ugly thing.

I had to see that bedroom.

The door to Lenny’s townhouse was unlocked. Locke opened it and strode in, his movements brisk, like he wanted to get this over with. He clenched one hand tightly while he held a flashlight in another. I stepped in, searching for a light switch. When I found one, I flicked it on and off.

Locke heard and spoke without looking back at me. “She didn’t pay the electric bill.”

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