I stare off into space, waiting for my number to be called when the phone of the big guy standing beside me goes off obnoxiously loud. I can’t help but glance up at him as he pulls the phone from his pocket.
First, I notice the gold chains and big ass rings hanging off his wrist and fingers. I follow the arm up and take in the silk shirt which is way out of place for Haven Falls and as my eyes roam over the guy’s face and take in the unapologetic porn star mustache, I finally realize who the hell I’m standing next to.
Anton Mathers, the one guy in Haven Falls you don’t want anything to do with. I mean, my mortality rate drops by shitloads just standing next to the guy. I wouldn’t be surprised if a car drives past and opened fire just to take the fucker out, not giving a shit who they have to sacrifice on the way.
This guy is the prime example of dodgy. No one actually knows what he’s involved in, but my guess is drugs. The cops do raids on his properties all the time but can never get him for anything, meaning the rest of us are left out in the dark, not really knowing what’s going down in our town. There are whispers of all sorts though. Money laundering, gun smuggling, drug labs. It’s ridiculous.
Anton answers his call and I try my hardest not to listen. Usually, I wouldn’t mind listening in on a conversation of the people around me. Call me nosey, I don’t care, but listening in on one of Anton’s conversations means you could end up overhearing something that you really wished you hadn’t.
My only issue is that the guy is obnoxiously loud and I don’t doubt the guys in the busy kitchen could probably hear his phone call, word for word.
“I don’t give a shit,” Anton roars down the line, balling his hands into fists and slamming them down on the counter before him. “Get it done. You have one hour. Miss your deadline and I’ll start going back on my word.”
Oh shit. Someone’s in trouble. That’s definitely not a place I’d want to find myself.
“I don’t care how you get it done, just do it,” he says. “I’ll even give you my boys, but it’ll cost you.”
He goes quiet as he listens to whatever the guy on the other end is saying and I thank my lucky stars when the guy behind the counter calls my number. I rush forward and give him a grateful smile for giving me a reason to move away from Anton.
I’m just slipping my hand through the handle of the bag when Anton’s voice rings arrogantly loud through the store once again. “I’ll text you their numbers. Pay ‘em good and they’ll do just about anything.”
Silence as I walk to the doors to leave.
“Yeah, the kid with the tatts and his friend,” Anton confirms to the guy on the phone, unknowingly making my world crumble.
He couldn’t mean Noah and Rivers, right? Noah’s the only kid in Haven Falls covered in tatts. I mean, others have tattoos, but none of them are ‘covered’. It’s too coincidental and everything starts falling into place.
‘Pay ‘em good and they’ll do just about anything’
The reason they keep disappearing.
The reason Noah can afford a car that no one else in Haven Falls could even dream about.
The reason he refuses to open up about what it is he does.
He works for Anton Fucking Mathers.
I suck in a breath as the realization hits me.
I rush back down to the beach, my mind a mess of twisted theories mixing around with what I’m silently begging not to be true. What does he do for Anton? Run drugs? Steal cars and sell them for parts? Money laundering? Fraud? Fuck, the list goes on and on.
Anton has his toes dipped in every fucked up pool around. Hell, I’m pretty sure the last raid on one of his warehouses was because the cops were tipped off about a gun smuggling ring. I’m even sure I heard he was running some underground fighting clubs.
I fucking hope Noah isn’t involved in that shit. Underground fighting sounds like something he’d be involved in, but there’d be more evidence if that were it. He’d be coming home in the middle of the night cut up and bruised. I mean, he’s a good fighter, but no one is that good.
This is so much worse than I could have ever imagined.
Noah stands beside Tully, watching Ari, in some kind of heated argument, probably after he dragged her skank ass away from that group of guys. I don’t know if I let out some sort of battle cry or the rage coming off me is enough to alert him of my presence, but he turns and gives me one of the heartbreaking smiles that usually would have my knees weak, but not now.