Page 17 of Point of Infinity
“Fuck.” Patrick leaned on the counter. I could see his mind racing. He read through a few more of the pages. I didn’t even read them all, just captured any page related to the Kings. He took the phone back to the couch.
I grabbed a bag of chips out of the pantry and joined him. “I think it happened in Pittsburgh. Do you remember this?”
He looked up at me. “Do you know when? Who did it exactly?”
“I don’t think she knows. I don’t think it matters to her. She wants to take us all out.” I had to give my girl credit; her mission was noble. She couldn’t save her mother, but she would save people in the future if the Infinity Kings no longer existed. “From the timeline I worked out, it had to be about six or seven years ago.”
“In Pittsburgh? You sure?” Patrick held his hand over his mouth.
“Yeah, why?”
“Ratch, dude.” He stood up and then sat back down. “We were there.”
I blinked and stared at him. I had never killed anyone who didn’t deserve it and never killed a woman.
“Dennis.” He scooted next to me. “It has to be right. Remember that woman, Brandy, that Sonny had been looking for? It was a few years after my mom died. He finally tracked her down in a shitty neighborhood, in a run-down house outside of Pittsburgh?”
I stood up and paced in front of the couch, working it all out in my head.
We rode out with the guys on that job, then were told to head back home. Instead, we circled back and followed them. Their plan for the woman didn’t include us, but the moment they forced their way in, it was obvious. The screams cut through the walls. After that, we went in and waited for them to finish, but Dennis and a guy we called Pewter didn’t leave.
It was Patrick’s idea to see if we could help the woman, and then we saw the little girl and had to protect her. It was the firsttime we took out someone in our own set. After seeing what they did to that woman, no doubt in my mind that they deserved it.
There had been more since. In a way, that defined the role we wanted to play in this world. We were saviors.
“Wait.” He tapped my phone, probably sending himself the images to study later. “That girl’s name was Mackenzie. It was written in pink neon above her bed.”
“Timeline fits. Age fits.” I crunch on a chip.
“Last night she reminded me of someone.” He ran his hand through his hair. “It kind of fits.”
“It’s the eyes.” I nodded.
“Yeah.”
“She had a crazy color of brownish gold eyes.” He nodded.
“Kind of like yours.”
His face drew up.
I stared at him, tilting my head for another angle. It kind of hit me like a freight train. I grabbed my phone and flipped through my contacts. The phone rang.
“Hey, Ratch, what’s up?”
“Mike.” He was kind of the club’s historian and on our side of the Kings. We hadn’t disclosed our plan to too many people in the club. Plausible deniability and all, but Mike was a world-class hacker, and we needed someone like him in the inner circle to move the Kings into their new reality. “You remember us joking about how many kids Pres had? And you said it was probably more like four.”
“Yeah.” His voice dropped low. “Why?”
“Was it true or were you just bullshitting us?”
Patrick grabbed the phone and put it on speaker. “Mike, this is Patrick.” His lip twitched. “I only know about Marty and Dana. Who else?”
“Well, I don’t know if it’s true exactly.” He spoke slowly and hesitated in his choice of words.
“Mike, you could break into the FBI database if you wanted to. What’s the story?” Patrick was losing patience.
“See, that’s the thing.” Computer keys clicked through the phone. “There’s no record on file. No filed birth certificates with your dad listed as father besides the ones you know about. I overheard some other guys talking about it. And I looked into her because I was curious.”
