Scar (2 page)

Trey’s cheeks grew red. “You think I
want
to admit that I’m a loser, Elijah? You think this is fun for me?”

Elijah shrugged. “I don’t know, man. What do you want from me?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all.”

“Okay, then. I guess we’ll get our stuff and go.”

“I still owe you for the help you gave me when I needed it, and I want to repay my debts.”

Elijah shook his head. “Forget it. There’s nothing to repay.”

Trey glared at him. “You guys are running from the cops, right? Is that true or isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it’s true. You calling me a liar?”

Trey laughed as if he couldn’t believe Elijah’s defensiveness. “No, I’m just asking.”

“I already told you this. You know we’re running.”

“And you’re dead broke, no?”

Elijah ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, we’re broke.”

“You need money and I’ve got money coming through this morning. Today.”

“Drug money,” Elijah said.

Trey’s grin turned into a smirk. “Since when do you care where the money comes from, buddy?” Trey’s eyes flicked to Caelyn.

She looked away from him. “Don’t drag me into this,” she muttered.

“I can’t wait around to collect,” Elijah said, but Caelyn could tell that he was only protesting on her behalf.

She knew he wanted that money and didn’t care if it came from a drug sale. But Caelyn really had a terrible feeling now, and she wanted to leave and forget they’d ever been in this place.

Trey stroked his beard, his shoulders slumping as he relaxed. “Listen, man. If you want to leave—be my guest. Nobody’s stopping you.”

“Cool,” Elijah said.

“But if you want to wait it out for like an hour or two, I’ll do my deal and then give you enough money to get where you’re going and not have to worry about sleeping in your car tonight. Or worse.”

“I don’t know,” Elijah said.

“You don’t have to answer me now,” Trey said, turning and walking out of the room. “Just think about it,” he said, and walked off.

Elijah went and shut the door as Trey exited. After a few seconds, he turned and faced Caelyn. “So, what do you think?”

“You know what I think,” she said.

Elijah’s expression was troubled. “I don’t want to stay here any more than you do.”

“Are you sure about that?”

His eyes met hers and she saw a hard, calculated intensity there. “Caelyn, we’re out of options. If we run out of money and
I get caught by the police
, I’m finished. We’re finished.”

“Don’t say that,” Caelyn replied, her throat constricting.

“I’m telling you the honest truth,” Elijah said, walking to her and grabbing her hand. Even now, her hand tingled from his mere touch.

“I can’t lose you again,” she said, hating the whining sound her voice made as she said the words.

“I don’t want to lose you, either. But we’re desperate now. This is as bad a situation as I’ve ever been in.”

She swallowed. Elijah had never talked like this before—she’d never seen him intimidated by anything, and his concern was frightening her like nothing else could do.

“I just have a terrible feeling about staying here—about
him
,” she whispered her voice trailing off. She didn’t want Trey or Paris to hear her talking badly about them. Things were already tense enough between everyone.

“I know you do,” Elijah said, “and I can’t say I blame you. The question is, how good of a feeling do you have about heading out into the world with no cash, knowing that we can’t use your credit card—knowing that the cops are going to be combing everything in sight for any sign of us?”

Caelyn’s heart started to beat faster as she came to the awful realization that Elijah was actually right about this.

“We have no choice, do we?” she said, her voice faint in her own ears.

“We either do this, or I’ll have to do something more dangerous a few hours from now.” The look on his face told her that whatever this other thing might be, it would be horrible. Mugging someone, breaking and entering, robbing a business—whatever he could do to survive…and she couldn’t allow that.

“No, no you can’t do anything else illegal, Elijah. You have to stop.”

“Then you know what we have to do.”

***

When Elijah told Trey that they were going to take him up on his offer, Elijah’s friend gave a rueful smile. “Good,” he said.

Trey was in the basement packing all of his drugs into a small messenger bag, the way Caelyn might have packed clothes for an overnight trip. The casualness he displayed was the mark of someone who’d done this a million times before.

Caelyn hugged herself, feeling suddenly very cold.

“So, we’re good?” Elijah asked.

“There’s just one little problem,” Trey said, rising to his feet after closing the top on his bag.

Great
, Caelyn thought.
Here we go.

“Problem?” Elijah asked
,
his voice tinged with impatience. “I thought we already dealt with the problems. I thought we were settled.”

“The thing is, my boy just called and bailed on me.”

“What boy?” Elijah asked.

“My wingman. My muscle.”

Elijah shook his head. “You shouldn’t need any muscle on this. It’s fucking weed, dude. You’re not Johnny Depp in Blow.”

Trey laughed. “Very funny.” His smile faded as he put his hands on his hips. “The thing is, it’s a lot of weed. My biggest deal in a year or so. And these guys I’m selling to, I don’t think they’d screw me over—but I don’t want to show up looking weak either.”

“No,” Caelyn said, stepping forward. “No way.”

“You don’t even know what I was going to say,” Trey told her.

“You’re going to ask Elijah to come with you.”

Trey grinned. “I guess you did know.”

Elijah glanced at Caelyn, then back to Trey. “She’s right. I’m not going to do that, Trey. You never said it was part of the deal.”

Trey sighed. “Fine. You know what? You’re right. I can’t ask you to step in and put your neck on the line for me like that. Even though I’d pay you double—a thousand dollars.”

Elijah hesitated.

“No way,” Caelyn answered. “I’d rather take nothing and starve.”

“She’s right, Trey. I’m starting to feel like I’ve been set up here.”

“This was never my plan,” Trey said, color rising in his cheeks. “I didn’t plan for you and your girl to show up at my house begging for a place to hide from the cops. And I didn’t plan for her to come down this morning and see my weed stash. And I definitely didn’t plan for my boy to flake on me at the last minute, either.”

“Your boy flaking isn’t my problem,” Elijah said.

“I know.” Trey stroked his beard. “Look, just do me one favor.”

“What now?”

“All I ask is for you to drive to the spot and be my lookout.”

“No,” Caelyn said again.

“Your lookout? What does that mean?”

“You won’t be in any danger, man. I promise. I’ll be the one going in and taking all the risk. You can take your own car and bounce whenever you feel like it. But if you could keep an eye on the street just in case…
”
Trey swallowed, and Caelyn thought he suddenly looked very afraid. Trey looked more like a young teenage boy who’d talked his way into something he didn’t truly even want to do.

“You think these guys would rob you?” Elijah asked him.

“No, of course not. But, if you could just watch from the safety of your car and like, send me a text if anything looks fishy.”

“Even if I did that, it wouldn’t be in time to stop anything,” Elijah told him. “If these guys want to jack you, there’s nothing a text from me will do to stop them.”

“It gives me a fighting chance,” Trey said. “And it gives me some confidence knowing you’re out there watching my back.”

“I can’t step in,” Elijah told him. “If something goes down, I won’t be there to help you.”

“I understand. Just
be
my lookout. Can you do me one last solid, bro? I’ll pay you a grand anyhow. Even if you don’t come inside with me.”

Caelyn was shaking her head no again.

“Fine,” Elijah agreed. “But I’m keeping far away and if I even get a weird feeling that I want to leave, I’m gone. No apologies.”

“Of course,” Trey said, his expression brightening.

“And the minute it’s over, you pay us and we take off. No more stalling on the money,” Elijah told him. “I’m dead fucking serious now.”

“You got it.” Trey clapped him on the back and offered his hand to shake.

Elijah shook hands with him. “Damn, I hope you don’t make me regret this, Trey.”

“I won’t, brother. I won’t.”

When they went back upstairs, Caelyn was quiet. Elijah glanced at her as they got their things ready to leave. “I know you don’t like this, and neither do I,” Elijah told her.

“I understand why you’re doing it, but I feel sick inside. Something’s wrong with him.”

“We’ll be away from him soon enough.”

“Not soon enough for me.”

They didn’t say much else, and it didn’t take long to get ready and then go to the car, after which they waited outside for Trey, who’d told them he would be ready momentarily.

The mangy dogs were playing nearby, growling and barking, eventually starting to fight over a bone before running off into the woods again.

The day was cold and overcast, and the weather seemed foreboding, as a chill wind blew hard enough to make Caelyn shiver.

Elijah wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close to him. “You okay?”

She nodded, not meaning it. “Yeah, just cold.”

“Come on, let’s wait in the car,” he said.

They got inside the car and then Trey came out not long after. He was wearing a jacket that was a little bulky for the weather, and he reached inside his coat as if to reassure himself, before pulling the messenger bag strap over one shoulder and continuing to the car.

“He’s got a gun, doesn’t he?” Caelyn asked. “That’s why he was fiddling around in his jacket.”

Elijah nodded, watching as Trey waved at them before getting in his car. “Yeah, he’s carrying.”

“Great,” Caelyn muttered. “Maybe we can be accessories to murder and a drug deal. Wouldn’t that be fun.
”

“Don’t say that--don’t even joke about it,” Elijah said.

“I’m not joking.”

Elijah pulled the car behind Trey and began following him back up the dirt path toward the main road. “Trey’s not going to kill anybody.”

“Then why’s he carrying a gun?”

“Because he’s scared. He’s paranoid, as always.”

“I hope you’re right.” She hugged herself again and looked out the window, trying to will
herself
to go somewhere else, anywhere but where she was.

She simply wanted to skip ahead to when this was all over and she and Elijah could finally be together in peace.

***

It took them nearly half an hour to get to where they were going.

Caelyn had prayed for them to get a flat tire or maybe even have the engine explode, anything to stop them from going to where Trey was doing his drug deal.

But there was no such luck.

Trey stopped and parked on the side of the road near a cluster of dingy apartment buildings in a neighborhood that looked sketchy at best.

There was nothing else around but some abandoned homes, a giant liquor store, and a basketball court with weeds growing up through the cracks in the cement and hoops with no nets.

A few pre-teen boys were throwing rocks through the hoops and then slapping five when someone succeeded.

“So this is the place,” Caelyn said, looking around. “I don’t blame Trey for being nervous here.”

Elijah was watching everything carefully too. He’d parked about ten yards away from Trey’s car, and Trey got out now, walking quickly toward them.

“Shit, what now?” Elijah muttered to himself. He rolled down his window as Trey approached.

“Hey, take this,” Trey told him, and handed Elijah something that looked like a big walkie-talkie.

“What’s this for?”

“My scanner,” Trey said, a little breathless. “Just in case.”

“In case what?”

“I don’t know. I just want to have all my bases covered, dude. It can’t hurt for you to have it.”

“Yeah, well I didn’t want anyone to think you and me know each other,” Elijah said with frustration. “That’s why I parked away from your car in the first place. Now you come over and if anyone’s watching out their apartment window, they know we’re together.”

Trey grinned. “Relax, partner. You sitting outside
is
just a precaution. I’ll be out in ten minutes, twenty at most. Keep an eye out and text me if something happens.”

“Fine.” Elijah rolled the window up and Trey walked off, shouldering his messenger bag and heading for one of the dingy apartment complexes.