Page 53 of Alive and Kicking
I’m heading out to do some more surveillance. I’ll be back late tonight.
Viv
Okay. Be careful, and thanks for letting me know.
I smile at the phone. And then I freak the fuck out as the passenger door opens and a giant figure folds itself into the seat. “Where’s my favorite future nephew-in-law heading?”
I grin at him. “Of course I’m your favorite. I’m your only future nephew-in-law.” I put the car in reverse and start backing out of the driveway. “Speaking of weddings. You’re an adult. I’m sure you’ve been to plenty of them. How does the whole mother-son dance thing work when the bitch is dead? Do I have to take her corpse for a whirl around the dance floor or something?”
Enzo just stares at me. “Jesus, you really are fucking insane.”
I hold a finger up. “We prefer psy…”
“Psychologically divergent. Ya. I know. I’ve been given the spiel lots of times. You don’t dance with a goddamned corpse. You either just don’t do it, or you have someone who’s like a mother figure do it,” Enzo explains.
He might have just called me insane, but at least he answered my question. The other guys would have looked at me like I was crazy and then just pretended like I didn’t say anything.
I consider his words carefully for a while. “I don’t know if I can convince Nox to dance with me.”
Enzo chuckles at that. “If he didn’t regularly supply me with French toast, I would help you force him.”
I shrug, but don’t respond. I’ll figure out how to make it happen. It’ll probably just take a lot of bribing. And if I can get Viv to offer him sexual favors, he might cave instantly.
I drive for over forty minutes before Enzo breaks down and asks where we’re going again. I grin over at him and explain about the ring of child pornography producers and distributers I’ve been tracking. He seems interested, especially when I tell him about the hush hush meeting we’re going to spy on.
“I couldn’t figure out what the meeting tonight is about, but I’m thinking it’s something serious.” I pull off onto a side road.
It takes me a moment to find a nice place to park on this deserted road so that I can keep my car out of sight. Enzo gets out at the same time I do, looking around with a furrowed brow. “This meeting’s happenin’ in the middle of the forest?”
I shake my head. “No. It’s about half a mile that way.”
I walk over to the trunk and open it up. Inside there’s just enough room for the overstuffed duffle bag. Not knowing what was going on tonight made me a little worried, so I packed for the occasion. I’m ready for just about every situation.
Holding my finger over my lips, I signal to Enzo that we need to be quiet as we make our way over to the warehouse. The thick underbrush slows us down, so what should have onlytaken ten minutes takes us nearly twenty. But when I can see the warehouse, I freeze. I sorely misjudged what was going to be taking place here tonight. I watch as a man pulls a dirty little boy from the back of a van and drags him into the building.
“What the fuck have you gotten us into?” Enzo hisses, dragging me back toward the trees to stay out of sight.
I glance over at him to see his jaw clenched tight as he watches a little girl being dragged out of a different van and into the warehouse.
“Obviously I didn’t realize this was going to be happening. It was just supposed to be a spying thing so I could connect them to more people. I never thought I would show up here to this,” I snap, pulling my phone out.
Enzo watches me as I pull up my text thread with Viv. “What are you doing?”
“Texting Viv. We have a deal. Plus, now I’m going to have to get the others to come out here and help out,” I tell him as I start typing a message to Viv.
“There’s not that many people here. The two of us can handle this,” Enzo says dismissively.
I look over at him and raise a brow. “There are like fifteen people here. I know I can’t handle half that, so how many are you planning to take care of yourself?”
He shrugs. “I know you’re not that useless or Vivy wouldn’t like you so much.”
I roll my eyes and look down at my phone. Fuck it.
Zane
I’ve gotten myself into a bit of trouble. But don’t worry, I’ve got Enzo with me.
Viv
