"Nothing to worry about?! Listen to you man! Now we’re getting shot at? I’d say that's plenty to worry about! I want to stop these guys, don't get me wrong, but I don't want to get killed doing it. I don't know, Everett, I don't know. Maybe we should rethink this. We aren't cops, and we aren’t trained soldiers. And this seems to be turning into a war zone. Maybe, maybe we're getting in over our heads here."
"Ben, if we don't stop these guys, who will? Look at Captain Smith! He's not going to do a damn thing about this. Hell, it's obvious he's likely in on the whole thing! He doesn't want to catch these guys. Look, I understand you might be scared. I mean, sure, any reasonable person would be. And... and I understand if you want to bow out now. There's no shame in that. You're right; you're not a soldier, you're not a cop. And yes, we're in way deeper now than we thought we would be. But me? I'm not giving up. I'm not going to allow this Mr. Mask scumbag and his henchmen to walk all over us, to ruin the lives of the kids at JFK High. If Captain Smith isn't going to do anything about it, well, someone has to. And that someone
is gonna be me. I won't sit back and watch these guys destroy so many young lives. I don't care what the risk is to myself; I won't sit back and let it happen."
Ben nodded, his jaw tightening with determination and new courage flaring up in his eyes.
"And that's why we got you here," he said with quiet determination. "That's why we got you here. You're right. We're the only ones who can do this. And we have to do it. We have to save these kids and stop these bastards. I'm sorry for being a coward. I'm with you all the way, Ev…all the way."
I put my arm around his shoulder and gave him a reassuring squeeze.
"You're no coward, Ben. Not at all. You're braver than many men who carry guns every day. I guarantee you that."
"Thanks, I appreciate you saying that. I just want to do what's right, you know?"
"I know, I know. We're both on the same page," I told him.
"Well, what did you find out last night then – besides how it feels to get shot?"
I chuckled dryly. "Yeah, that wasn’t my favorite part of the evening. The dealer in the building, I saw him hand over a big briefcase filled with a ton of cash to Mr. Mask who, in turn, handed him a bag full of drugs. I wanted to kick myself; if I had caught that on camera, it would have been the hard evidence we need. Unfortunately, I didn't – and that's when I got shot."
"Well, you must have at least spooked them. Now they know we're aware of where they're dealing from."
"I figured that much. They're going to move their operation elsewhere for sure."
He nodded, frowning. "Yeah, one step forward, two or three steps back."
"Remember, we still have Panetti informing for us, though. He'll be able to help us find out where these guys have gone."
"And now we have more leads if Kendrick can help us ID the kids who were buying here at the school earlier," Ben added.
"Yeah. We'd better get to the hospital to see how he's doing."
"We'd better do that, yeah. Maybe we'll be able to get there before he goes into surgery. I'll get the yearbooks, you drive."
"Sounds like a plan."
Chapter Fifteen
Vivienne
I watched Everett go with a mixture of sadness and pride. Obviously, I wasn't pleased that our time together had been interrupted, but I knew it was for a good reason. And seeing the determination on his face when he talked about catching the drug dealers made me feel proud of him, proud to have a noble, honorable man like him in my life.
I also felt guilty about misjudging him before, about making assumptions and thinking that he’d ditched me and stood me up to go drinking with his friend. Now that I knew the truth, I felt bad.
I'd been only too happy to volunteer to help him with Jane if he needed me to. He had a lot on his plate at the moment, and I wanted to do what I could to help ease the burden.
I really felt like talking to someone about all of this, so I decided to call up Kerry to see how things were going. The thought of calling Angie to see how she fared with that guy last night did cross my mind as well, but I figured she might be pretty hungover after all the drinking she had been doing. I shot Kerry a text to see if she had time for quick a Skype session. Seeing her face when we talked always made it feel like she wasn’t so far away. She immediately returned my text, and so I made my way to my laptop and booted up my computer.
"Hey girl!" I said as she answered.
"Hey there, Viv," she replied, smiling. I turned my webcam on so that she could see me, too.
"Wow," she remarked. "You're looking happy! What's going on?"
I chuckled and blushed a little.
"I know that look. It's a guy, isn't it?" she continued.