11. Boogie

11

Boogie

A ll the dreams I conjured up of the girl shattered the moment I saw where she ended up. I was pissed, I was ready to get on my bike and see what game she was playing. Was she spying for Christmas Town? Were we just a game to her?

Each town under the Mayor operated on its own, we never saw each other, we had no business with each other and it was a rule we didn’t fuck with one another. The Mayor would kill us if they knew we were interrupting any business.

We all knew of each other and I had been to two other towns with King: St. Patrick’s town—they ran a huge casino and specialized in money laundering, and Valentine’s Town—a cute town full of love, but they ran a pleasure house in the back and Madame Red traded in secrets because her girls were good at getting men to tell them their deepest and darkest information.

King said we should wait a day to see if she moved and if she hadn’t we needed to make a trip to see her. I checked my phone constantly all day and couldn’t even sleep because not once had she moved from that location. No one from the outside was allowed to stay and if she was there at night, it meant she was one of them.

She played me with her begging and her tears. I growled, knowing this was why I didn’t trust anyone other than King. The world was full of dishonest people who would take advantage of you any chance they got. I had heard stories of Nic, the man who ran Christmas town, and he sounded like a shady fucker who could barely run the town.

When the morning sun finally came through the window, I had enough, she needed to answer for her deceitfulness. Even though we hadn’t noticed anything different, who knows what she took or reported back.

“Come on, let’s get on the road to see her,” King said, getting out of bed.

He was a little too calm for my taste. I wanted him angry and out for blood, but I think a small part of him was hopeful she was innocent. Even if she was, she should have known better than to come to a different town. We didn’t mix and we didn’t fuck with each other.

King and I got ready quickly. The November air was crisp, and it was the perfect weather to ride in. I got the bikes out of the small garage by the parking lot while King spoke to Mars. King wanted to tell him what had happened even though I disagreed, but in the end, it was better because he could monitor our security more efficiently.

I went through my checklist before we rode to keep myself busy. We didn’t ride as often as I liked, but when we did, I fucking loved it. King walked up to me as I checked the chain to make sure it had good tension. We serviced the bikes ourselves, but it had been too long since we had taken the girls out.

“Ready?” he asked, scrutinizing me.

“I’m fine, let's go,” I said, putting on my helmet.

It was like my security blanket, and it was one reason I liked to ride rather than drive in a car. The helmet gave me the anonymity that I craved and when we arrived at the town, I had a hood and a skull gaiter to put on half my face. If we had to enter the town, I didn’t think there would be a way for us to blend in.

We started our bikes, the rumble and roar of the engines eased my anger. I placed my phone in the holder with my maps, ready for us to follow it. I kicked my kickstand, and we took off. It was a four-hour drive, but I was confident we could make it in three.

The roads were empty which made pushing a hundred on the bike easy, once we hit a city we had to slow down and get gas before getting back on the road. Christmas Town was off the grid just like Halloween Town. There was a small road that led to the town, and it was easy for them because they could bring drugs in and out without cops getting in the way.

We pulled up to the parking lot and it was a lot busier than I had expected. I almost forgot they operated during the day and night. We parked towards the back, taking in the town. I checked my phone to make sure she was still here and sure enough she was. It only made sense that she worked for Kris because why else would she be here. Unless she was someone's wife.

I hated cheaters.

“I think we should scope it out,” King said, leaning forward on his bike.

“Or we could wait for nightfall to break in,” I countered.

“I want to see where she is at and get a lay of the land,” he said, opening his visor looking over at me.

“I think we are going to stick out like a sore thumb,” I said.

“Maybe but if we are quick and—” He stopped talking. “Oh, oh, I just found our ticket in.”

A group of adults and several teenagers got out of a van. Some of the kids were dressed as Goths. I rolled my eyes, but he was right, we had gotten lucky. We took off our helmets and I put up my hood and my gaiter. King looked at me and I knew he wanted to tell me to take it off, but I couldn’t, especially if we ran into her.

“Use this,” he said, pulling out a fabric from his pocket. “Don’t think people will appreciate the skull covering half your face.”

I rolled my eyes. It was a medical mask in black, and while I hated the idea of wearing this, I was happy he didn’t tell me not to wear anything. We didn’t need me having a meltdown, not when we had to find her.

I slipped it on, keeping my hood up, easing my tension even more. We followed the family, purchasing our tickets after them. The teenage girl with the family who looked to be about sixteen, glanced back at us several times and I wanted to tell her I was probably almost double her age.

We stayed close to them, keeping our distance so we looked like we might have been a part of the group. We didn’t get as many looks as I thought we would, easing my anxiety a little more.

The town was just how I had expected, full of joy, bright decorations and laughter in the air. I would never admit it out loud, but I enjoyed the stark contrast to Halloween town. This appealed to my inner child, the one who was robbed of anything remotely happy. It made my skin crawl because I was internally asking “what’s this?” to everything.

The town felt bigger than Halloween, but I’m sure it just appeared bigger because everything was so light. We walked for over an hour, splitting away from the family who decided to eat. King bought me a drink called Eggnog and it was disgusting. Who the fuck drinks that shit? The ginger cookies and spiced nuts made up for it.

We made our way to Santa’s House, it sounded like a pedophile's wet dream. Kids sitting on an old man's lap, telling Santa what they wanted, and then trying not to get put on the naughty list sounded awfully suspicious. The closer we walked to the house, and we didn’t see our Doll, the more I wondered if she worked behind the scenes. Was she a part of the drug process?

King bought me peppermint bark and hot chocolate with an obscene amount of whipped cream. Eating gave me something to do and King knew I was a sucker for sweets. I was making up for lost time, when I wasn’t allowed to be a kid or do anything that normal kids did.

The house came into view along with an enormous line to take pictures with the old fucker. That’s when I saw bright red hair. I grabbed King's forearm in a death grip, I was stunned because she looked completely different. Her face looked natural without a lot of make-up. Her hair was half pinned up with elf ears sticking out of her hair. She wore a green dress that flared at her hips with bells on the bottom, red leggings and some weird shoes.

King tensed beside me, anger vibrated off of him, and just for a second, I worried for her safety. She was smiling at some children, but the look in her eyes was vacant. This wasn’t the sassy girl who we had chased or the girl we had seen for the last few years, she was different.

We watched her for a few minutes and each minute made my anger fade a little bit more. The longer we watched her, the more my gut told me that we might be wrong about her. It seemed King was having the opposite effect and when she moved out of the area where they took pictures with a box in her hands, King was on her.

I followed, wondering what the hell he was going to do because the last thing we needed was for someone to recognize us and tell the mayor we were here. We pushed through the crowd, they only paid attention to Santa and the kids. She rounded a corner and opened a discreet door. King didn’t even look around before he followed her. No one was around, but that didn’t mean there weren't any surveillance cameras.

It was a storage room and as I walked in, she cried out. King had her pinned against the wall. She clawed at his hand, he bared his teeth at her.

“Who the fuck are you?” he growled. “Did you know who we were when you spotted us three years ago? Did they send you to spy on us?”

King was livid and instead of letting her go to answer, he gripped her throat tighter. She stopped clawing at his hand, letting her hands fall to her side. Tears streamed down her face, her face was impassive like she had resigned herself to die.

“King,” I snapped, when her eyes began to droop.

He let go of her, walking away as she fell on the floor, wincing, taking in a deep breath, shaking a little. She looked up at me and then at King.

“I’m going to ask one more fucking time, and I swear if you lie to me, I will fucking kill you,” he snarled. “Who are you and were you sent to spy on us?”