Page 9 of All Wrong
Should they have had the product in their possession? No, but they would prove to be useful. After hearing rumors for weeks, he finally had his hands on some samples. That, and the fact that they’d brought those “free” samples to him instead of experimenting was a win in his book. They trusted him, and he’d be damned if he was going to let them down.
Coffee. He needed coffee and a clear head before he went over to Nicki’s and laid this shit on her. She was going to be every bit as pissed off as he was.
He was glad he’d pulled on a pair of jeans whenhe stepped out of the bedroom and saw the young woman sitting at his kitchen table. Her glossy black hair was streaked with crimson to match her inch-long nails.
Candace. AJ’s older sister. Eighteen, physically. A hell of a lot older than that in life experience, thanks to their addict mother. That was something Nick knew a lot about.
“Jesus, Candace. Breaking and entering now?” he said calmly.
She rolled her eyes and waved her hand around. “Do you see anything broken?”
He didn’t, but that didn’t mean anything. Nothing as basic as a locked door would keep the girl out if she was properly motivated. The skill had kept her and her younger brother safe and well fed before they came to The Zone.
Nick made his way to the coffee maker. Tipping the bag of grounds into the plastic well, he guessed, “You picked the lock.”
“Did I?” she asked, her wide eyes blinking with feigned innocence. “Maybe you forgot to lock it.”
He grunted, but said nothing because it was quite possible he had. His mind had been occupied with other things—like Corinne McCain and her ulterior motives—when he got back to his place.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, though he had a pretty good idea.
“AJ told me what happened,” she answered, confirming his theory. “Thanks for covering for him. If he got busted for possession …”
She didn’t finish the sentence. She didn’t have to. Having the cops poking into their current living situation was trouble waiting to happen. AJ was staying with his sister these days, which was a hell of a lot better than having to deal with his drug-addicted mother and her parade of skeezy boyfriends. Nick knew that firsthand. He and Nicki had been in a similar situation once.
Ignoring the dull blade of darkness that still resided deep in his chest, he filled up the carafe with water and dumped that into the coffee maker too.
When he turned around, Candace smirked and dragged her eyes up his bare chest. Her eyes twinkled with amusement. “You know, you’re in pretty good shape for an old man. Are you interested in being a sugar daddy?”
He snorted at that. He’d known Candace since she was in junior high, which wasn’t all that long ago.
“No. So, what did AJ tell you?”
“Probably the same thing he told you,” she said,her expression growing somber again. “Some guys were hanging around the parking lot at the fair, passing out shit. First ones were free, they said. He and Jackie grabbed a few and called you.”
“He didn’t know them?”
She shook her head. “No. He said they were high school age, maybe a little older.”
Pine Ridge School District covered a large area, so it made perfect sense that AJ wouldn’t recognize the distributors if they were high schoolers. AJ was heading into his first year at the senior high, where both junior highs converged for their final three years.
“Nothing stood out about them?”
“It was dark, and they were wearing hoodies, but not the Walmart kind. AJ said they looked like they came from The Hill and made a point of flashing cash.”
The Hill was the local name for the rich area, where multimillion-dollar homes had been going up over the last decade, outside the town proper.
She paused for a moment, then bit her lip and said, “I worry about him, Nick. I haven’t been around much in the evenings. I got a job at Angels. The hours suck, but the pay is good.”
“Angels, huh?” That was a big step up from thebiker bar where she had been working nights. Angels was a classy place as far as strip clubs went, and the owner, Jason, took good care of the girls, but still. “I thought you were working at the café in town.”
“I am, but it’s not enough. And don’t worry. Jason only has me working the first rotation, nothing hard core. You should stop by sometime,” she said, the teasing back in her voice.
He rarely hit Angels these days, but if he did, he’d make sure she wasn’t working first. He was old enough to be her father, for Christ’s sake. And wasn’t that a kick in the nuts?
“What about nursing school?”
She turned her gaze away. “I’m getting there.”
