Chapter Seventeen

Trick

"S eriously, dude, I thought something bad had happened," I chastise.

Of course, it's Jensen, so he doesn't look apologetic or anything as he simply waves me off and turns back to Rafe, who is grinning, "Seriously, though, what do you think I'd have to say to get your mom to make a batch just for me?"

Rafe chuckles and starts signing, "I don't think she would. She doesn't make them very often."

"Can you ask her though?" Jensen asks, "Maybe see if she can do me like a batch a week."

"Won't you get fed up with them if you have them every week?" Luc asks.

Jensen looks at him incredulously, "Have you tried these? I don't think you could ever get fed up of these."

Luc grins, "They are pretty awesome, but I don't think you're going to manage to convince Rafe's mom to make you some every week."

"Are you pouting?" I ask through my laughter as I spot his expression in the back seat.

"Yes, I am," Jensen replies, sounding very matter-of-fact about it. "I love them."

"Right, sure you do," Riot comments, rolling his eyes and looking just as amused as the rest of us.

Jensen's teasing expression suddenly falls, and he sits up straighter in his seat, "Shit, I forgot to tell you because I got distracted by all the founding family shit, but Knox actually told me that we should check out one of the houses on the opposite side of town. He said that we should find what we need there in order to sort this mess out, but warned me that we'd need evidence and a lot of it, if we were planning to involve the police."

"Which is what we usually do once we've got what we need from whoever we're going after," Cash points out, "which means he really does know about what we do, and what we have done."

"Yeah," Jensen replies simply. "But if he's right about this house, then he's given us a considerable advantage, and made this whole thing a lot less complicated than we thought it would be.

"Speaking of complicated," Cash replies.

"Uh oh, that doesn't sound good," Jensen interrupts.

"It's not," Cash replies honestly, "Rachel identified the guy who sold her friends Candy and it's Boyd, as in one of Billy's inner circle Boyd."

Jensen's reaction is immediate and the same as ours, "Well, fuck. You know I never liked him, he always seemed like a dumb fuck."

I chuckle; he's got such a way with words, "Yeah, so it actually is a lot more complicated than we'd like it to be."

"What's the plan then?" He asks, with excitement, and not worry in his tone.

As I've said before, none of us are normal, and all of us like this sort of thing. We live for it, and if it means that we stop people from overdosing on such a dangerous drug, then that's all the more reason to put ourselves in danger in order to ensure it doesn't continue happening.

"We're waiting for Trev to get back to us to see if he knows where they all are this weekend," I start to explain.

"You know, considering he's supposedly out, he's still quite involved," Rafe points out.

I frown, "Yeah, I think maybe he can't help himself."

"He's been doing this for so long that it's highly possible that he's doing it because it's what he's always done," Luc agrees.

"I think you're right," Cash agrees. "After this conversation, I think we should make a concerted effort not to message him and ask him to find things out. It's our fault as well because we're so used to asking him to find out things for us that I do it without even thinking about it."

"Agreed," I reply immediately, all the others doing so as well.

"Now that's sorted, what's the plan?" Jensen asks.

"Well, given the information that you've just shared, I think that we should split up; some of us should go to the address that Knox gave us and check it out, and some of us should follow Boyd," I suggest. "We need to figure out whether any of the rest of Billy's inner circle are involved."

"Yeah, we do. It would make it so much more complicated if it's all of them and not one of them." Jensen replies. "The plan sounds good to me; we just need Trev to let us know where everyone is; if they're all together, then it's going to make following them slightly more difficult."

"But fun," Luc points out with a grin, making us all laugh.

He's not wrong.

I realize that we've arrived at the street where Ryan now lives, and I ask, "Which house is his again?"

"The one just coming up," Cash replies, pointing to the one on the left.

I nod and pull up opposite it so that we have a clear view of the house and anyone coming or going. Ryan's car is in the driveway, and we just wait and see. Is it wrong that I'm hoping that he comes out and we can follow him? I mean, it's going to be a wasted journey otherwise, and we'll have to come up next weekend too. I wouldn't put too fine a point on coming back, but Ryan definitely seemed like one of the idiots that would try the same shit again if he thought he could get away with it, so we need to make sure that he realizes that we can get to him no matter where he goes.

Thankfully, we don't have to wait very long, and we watch as Ryan gets in his car and takes off in the direction of town.

"Let the fun begin," Cash chuckles darkly.

We follow him at a distance for a while before we get to a long stretch of road.

"Are you ready?" I ask Jensen since he's on the right side of the truck and will be in full view of Ryan.

"Hang on," Jensen replies as he rolls down his window so the tinted glass doesn't obstruct the view. He grins, "Good to go."

I chuckle and then, when the road is clear, move out as if I'm going to overtake Ryan, except I don't. Instead, I pull up beside him, keeping the truck going at the same pace as his car. Looking in my mirror, I see Jensen cross his arms on the door ledge with a shit-eating grin on his face as he finger waves. I take that as my sign to speed up and finish overtaking him.

Jensen howls with laughter as soon as we've driven past, "You should have seen his face. He went as white as a freaking ghost; damn, I wish I took a picture."

The rest of us laugh as Cash, sounding amused, adds, "It probably makes us just a tiny bit vindictive that we all find that so funny."

I shrug, "It would if he hadn't proved himself to be capable of the things that he has."

"Good point," Cash concedes.

I speed off, making sure to put a decent amount of distance between us so he doesn't see me when I pull over so I can get behind him again. It's such a simple move, but he'll be looking out for the truck now. He knows that it drove off in front of him, so when it appears behind him again, it messes with his head.

Unfortunately, this time, we're a lot closer to the town than I thought we were, so we have to park in a fairly obvious place and hope that he just isn't that observant. As he drives past, not seeming to spot us, I prepare to move to follow him, but he parks up instead, and we watch as he heads into a small dinner.

"I love that diners have big windows." Riot mutters. "We can see everything, and he can see us."

"I was hoping to make the first part where he's not sure whether he's seen us or not last a bit longer. I like messing with their heads," Cash mutters.

"We know," I reply, although I admit, "I do too, though."

"See, you're just as fucked up as I am," Cash grins.

I shrug, "I never said I wasn't."

"Alright, I'm going to go and get us some coffee since we're going to be here watching for a while," Riot suggests and then adds just before he gets out of the car, "How obvious are we being now."

I consider the question for a moment before I say, "Not so obvious that we're in the diner with him, but obvious enough that he knows that we're watching him."

Riot nods, "Got it. The usual then."

"Yeah, pretty much," I confirm with a grin.

Riot gets out of the truck, and Rafe goes with him. They don't bother asking us what we want since we always get the same thing anyway.