Always Crew

“Please.”

She ripped her arm away but left.

And I could breathe easy again.

I couldn’t waste time. I took as many pictures as possible, getting everything on the board. I noted the guy’s picture in the middle of the right wall, and all the images underneath. There were a lot of images under that guy, but after getting everything, I moved to the table.

Papers were picked up, pictures snapped of them, and put back down exactly as they were first placed.

It took me ten minutes, and I didn’t even like that it was that long.

Bren was finishing in the first office. She came out when I did. I swept my light to the third office, but she shook her head. I didn’t know what that meant, but when she headed for the exit, I went to make sure that office was covered. It was a hangout room. Magazines were left opened. A couple books. A camera. I picked up the camera, turning it on and scrolling through the pictures caught.

I didn’t know who these people were, but I took pictures of them just to be safe and as thorough as I could.

I was leaving when I saw headlights sweep the place. Someone was pulling into the parking lot.

I couldn’t think. I had to move.

The door was shut, so I hurried out, hitting and holding a big red button. I was hoping it was the one to man the alarm system. As it clicked on, I was moving through the door connecting to the offices just as I heard a truck’s door open from the front.

I sprinted to the register, slipping the key back in.

The front door beeped open just as I shut the cash register. I dropped low to the ground.

Thankfully, whoever was coming in left the lights off. They moved through, knowing where they were going. I moved to the other side of the front desk, closer to the back door—my destination—as I heard the cash register being opened.

For a second, I panicked. Had I put the key where it’d been?

I froze.

“There you are.” It was Brock. He grabbed the key, shut the register, and I straightened up from my crouch, seeing him going to the office. I moved to the back door but purposely dropped Trundle’s key on the ground just as I moved outside, closing the door.

The lights were turned on in the office as I darted across the lot, merging with the shadows and following the tree line until the sidewalk. I continued, keeping off the sidewalk until I got to my truck. Moving inside, Bren’s face was pale. “I didn’t know if he caught you.”

Everything inside me was locked tight, but I couldn’t talk, not yet. We needed out of there as soon as possible. Turning the truck on, keeping the lights off, I moved forward. Once I took a turn onto another block, I flicked the lights on and headed back to the house.

“Shit!” I could breathe easier now.

She stared at me. “They never gave me a key.”

“I know.” I reached over, taking her hand.

She slid her fingers alongside mine. “You think they’ll look at the security cameras?”

I shook my head. A big fat fucking boulder was sitting in my gut, but I didn’t have anything to make it all go away. “Let’s hope not.”

“What about Justin’s key card?”

“I dropped it on the ground. It’ll look like it came off his shirt, or out of his pocket or something.”

She exhaled a deep breath, moving to face the front again, but her hand never let go of mine.

She held me tight the whole way back.

BREN

Cross dropped me off, and I was showering as he went to pick up Zellman and Jordan.

I knew he had a bombshell to drop on me. It was late, and I’d been happily buzzed. I wasn’t anymore.

The other rooms didn’t have much. Anything important must have been put away in a filing cabinet, but there was obviously a reason they didn’t want me in that second room. Had to be.

Why keep me on?

Why bring me on in the first place?

Was I being used?

After Brock brought up my dad the first day, no one had said anything again. I was the office intern, helping where they told me.

I hadn’t called Channing or my dad again. A part of me wasn’t ready, and I was glad neither had called me back. To an extent, I enjoyed sticking my head in the sand when it came to my dad. I wasn’t surprised about Channing not reaching out. He didn’t want me involved with anything concerning our dad, but a part of me had been waiting for his call telling me to stop working with Coug r Lanes, too.

On a whole, everything had been quiet regarding Tabatha and Harper, too.

It was a feeling, though. It was low, deep, and it was spreading.