All Grown Up (Eden High)

My phone buzzed in my pocket, almost giving me a heart attack, and my heart sank when I saw the message and who it was from. Why the hell does she want me to come up there? My legs started to shake beneath the table in the cafeteria where I sat alone. What could she possibly want? I’ve done all that she’s asked.

I read the message a second time, knowing that there was no way to get out of it. Mandy had made it pretty clear that if I refused to be her little puppet that she’d destroy my family. I hate my dad for putting me in this position. But my parents are one of the only couples left in this stupid town that are still together, and for whatever reason, that still means something to me.

MOUTH

Geez, that was a pain in the ass, sifting through whichever guard was allowing the inmate to use his phone. Combing through schedules and eliminating suspects had taken hours until I pinned him down. Roger Cross, a thirty-eight-year-old father of three with a wife and a mortgage. Why do these humps always do this to themselves?

Getting his number was easy, but since I don’t know the first clue about cloning someone else’s phone, I took a chance and asked the kids for some help. I’m not sure if I should be proud or a little bit scared at the ease with which Lily and her little friends were able to help me yet again. I stopped short of letting them do any more of the leg work because, really, they’re eight.

Getting into the prison database and falsifying visitor records was a breeze even with the pandemic slowing things down on that front, so all that was left now was for me to get in place. Uncle Al had come through there, and I was now looking at a layout of the place. It would’ve been much easier if I’d had enough time to get there and scope it out personally, but according to what I know, the girls in Cali are worried that their men are about to make a stupid move, and that’s where I come in.

It’s no hardship pulling this off without alerting the men or the women, except for the fact that we’re on an island hours away, but uncle Al is going to cover for me there as well. I just have to get in and get out and back before I’m missed. “Time to go to work.” I turned off my computer and headed up to the media room, which seems to be the women’s favorite hangout.

I haven’t watched this much TV since my kids were into those mind-numbing kiddie shows. “Hey, ladies, how about tomorrow we have some kind of spa day? I think I heard Hank say you have the facilities for something like that.”

“Oh, that sounds marvelous. Why didn’t we think of that sooner? It’s only been a few days, but all this sun is drying me out.”

I knew once Cierra was onboard, the rest of them would be, so I sat back and listened as they planned for the next day. I’m not up on this shit, but from what I know with this many women, it should take a while. “We can make a whole day of it. Mani, Pedi, facials, massage, the works.” Danielle was all but cooing.

“And have the men watch the kids with the help.” Dana Sue grinned evilly.

“Oh crap, Colton’s going to have a cow; I’m in.” The rest of us grinned at the way Kat rubbed her hands together.

LYON

“Thanks, love.” I switched off the screen since we got what we needed.

“I told you all she was up to something.”

“I still don’t see how you got that from what we just saw and heard, Flanagan.” Sometimes I feel bad for the young ones. Poor Tyler seems to have lost all sense since he got married.

“My wife does not do spas. My mother and sisters damn near have to knock her out to get her to go get her hair done every couple of weeks, and she hates nail polish, not to mention the last person who tried to massage her ended up with a black eye.” When the rest of us looked at him for an explanation, he sighed. “She pressed her shoulders too hard or some crap, who knows. The point is that Mouth is not into this shit.”

I could easily tell him what I think she was up to given her specialty, but it felt too much like a betrayal at this point. I know very well that putting a horse back into a stall it had broken out of is a damn near futile endeavor. Arianna Flanagan is not like these other women. She’s…one of us. If we want to keep her safe, I’m going to have to find a way to get her husband especially, to let her in. I have the same problem with Jason and Roxy, but that’s for another time. Fucking Mancini must’ve known the headaches I would have going forward when he passed the buck to me.