The Price We Pay (16 page)

Latch

I could hear Harper screaming before I even parked the van. Ten minutes ago, when I saw the black truck on the dirt road, a bad feeling formed in the pit in my stomach. I didn’t really know the neighbors or what they drove because I wasn’t around much, but I knew this vehicle didn’t belong.

I slammed the van into park and rushed to the already open front door. I slid to a stop, dropped to my knees, and pulled Randy away from Harper so I could start CPR.

“Randy,” I barked out, checking his pulse. “Shit.”

“He’s gone,” Harper cried. “I’ve been waiting for someone to come.”

Marvey pulled her aside and I started chest compressions.

“No one came!” Harper cried out as Marvey got her out the front door. “No one came!”

I saw Jaxon feel for a pulse.

“It’s too late,” Jaxon said full of regret but I kept going. Randy saved my life. I would save his. I had to. I didn’t have a choice. He took a bullet for me a year ago and I’ve done everything I could since then to pay him back. I owed him. I owed him life.

“Latch…”

Everything inside of me told me not to stop. “Call 911”

“I’ll go call them, but man, you have to stop.”

“It’s Randy!”

“I know who it is!” Jaxon snapped back. “I saw him take that bullet for you. He saved your life, and you saved his life… but in a different way.”

“I can bring him back,” I grunted. I breathed air into his lungs then started compressions again.

“He’s gone,” Jaxon said angrily.

I kept going. I couldn’t let Randy down.

Jaxon leaned over and with both hands pushed me off Randy. “Dedrick!” he called me by my real name and I couldn’t hide from his glare. “It’s over. He bled out.”

I shook my head, trying to get back up on my knees. “I can’t-”

“There’s too much blood.”

I shook my head. “No.”

“Go!” He pointed towards the door. “You go call it in, I’ll take care of Randy.”

“Jaxon-”

“Get the fuck out of this house!” he yelled and I finally got up and walked out, but stopped and glanced back at Randy on the floor. His eyes were shut and I could tell his soul had left his body.

He was gone.

It was all my fault.

“Latch,” Marvey called, and I glanced at her and Harper sitting at the far end of the porch, the furthest away from the door. “I’m so sorry.” Her eyes were glassy and she held Harper in her arms.

I’m not sure if she heard Jaxon call me by my first name and at this point, I didn’t care.

Everything was fucked up.

Falling apart.

Turning to shit.

Sofia was missing.

Randy was dead.

And we were making no progress with our operation to bring down the worst MC club in the state.

I got in the van and drove until I hit the spot that I’d have signal and made the call to my uncle.

After the paramedics left with Randy’s body, after my uncle and the few cops he brought with him left, after our interviews of the events of the night, after Harper showered and cleaned the blood off her and joined Jaxon in his room, I went to bed.

Marvey was sitting in the middle of the bed, wearing a white tank top with black boy shorts, her long dark hair was falling out of her messy ponytail, and she was quietly crying. I shut the door and she lifted her head up and gave me a small smile.

“Hey,” she whispered.

I kicked my boots off, stripped down to my boxers, climbed to the middle of the bed, and pulled her into my lap with her legs wrapped around my waist. She laid her cheek against my chest and let out a long slow breath. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I lied. I let Randy down. I had to find out how Arsen found him. Then I had to find Arsen and kill him. I knew about the game they’d played, I knew everything about Randy’s life, prior to Arsen and after Arsen. The sick fucking bastard.

“No, you’re not,” she said tipping her head back. “And that’s okay, Latch. I know how close you guys were.”

There wasn’t anything to talk about so I said, “I’m wiped, babe.” I kissed her forehead and we moved under the covers where she curled into me gently and wrapped her arm around my waist. She placed a kiss on my chest and whispered goodnight.

Marvey

Latch wasn’t alright. He’d been on edge all morning and I couldn’t blame him. He was all business today, barely even looking at me. He was completely overwhelmed and had so much pressure and stress piled onto him.

I was pissed Sofia was missing and upset that Randy was gone.

Latch and Jaxon were either on their phones or talking outside most of the morning while Harper and I sat on the couch, watching Randy’s favorite movie,
Remember The Titans
. We talked about Randy and his favorite parts of the movie, but not about the fact that he was gone. Harper watched him die, saw him take his last breath, and she wasn’t doing well. She told me what they talked about in his final minutes and I was relieved that she was done looking for her brother’s killer. Now she was worried Arsen would come back for her because he threatened her before Randy had come into the house. The guys were confused as to why Arsen kept her alive, but they planned to kill the man before he could do anything to Harper.

As far as I knew, the guys had no clue where Sofia was or who had her. I was so worried about her. She was in a new world right now, one where she didn’t belong, but I knew she’d hold her head high and fight back. No one thought they’d take her to get to Kennedy but it made sense. There were so many people that Kennedy and his family employed and they weren’t making any progress with the list. They had no idea who had problems with Kennedy and it was making it harder to find her. I overheard some things that Latch and Jaxon had said while on the phone and I knew they got the security camera feed from the college and one of the businesses across the street from campus. My understanding was that the guy was inside the college prior to her arrival and that he took her after her second final. Why they waited I wasn’t sure.

Nothing made sense over the past wee
k
.
Well almost nothing, I was starting to have real feelings for Latch. I mean, Dedrick.

“Ladies,” Jaxon’s voice boomed into the house making us jump. We both glanced at him in the doorway. “Pack up, we’re leaving.”

“What?” Harper gasped sitting up on her knees, backward on the couch. “We can’t leave.”

“We gotta go.”

“But Randy…”

“We’ll take care of him.”

“So we’re coming back?” She climbed off the couch and stood. “He wants to be buried in the forest.” She pointed off, in the wrong direction, but that wasn’t the point. “The trees. We have to bring him back.”

“I know, babe,” he said pulling the door shut. “You got ten minutes.”

Harper huffed and I followed her stomping feet back to the master bedroom. We didn’t have bags, well I had one, but she didn’t so we piled what few things we had on the bed, and grabbed our stuff from the bathroom.

“We have to come back,” Harper demanded.

“The guys will make sure of it, Harper.”

“They better, or I’ll go get Randy and do it myself.”

She was so headstrong.

I laughed and she flipped me off while heading back into the bathroom. I shoved most of my stuff into my bag, thank God I carried a large one and sat back down on the bed. Harper came out of the bathroom empty handed.

“It’s all on the bed,” she said then walked out of the room. I sat and waited for her. She returned a minute later with a black trash bag and I helped her fill it up with the rest of the clothes on the bed.

“You okay, Harper?” I asked watching her tie a knot in the top of the bag.

She finished and stood back up with her hands on her hips. “Not really.”

“We all loved Randy.”

She quickly nodded, grabbed the bag, and muttered, “Let’s go.”

I followed her out of the house and noticed she ignored the blood stains on the floor behind the couch. She was trying to keep it together. I was doing my best to keep it together for everyone. I had to be strong for Harper, Sofia, and Latch. They all needed me. I’ve never lost anyone close to me because I never had anyone close to me to lose; losing Randy was a first for me. Us ladies had only known him a week, but we bonded that first night we sat around drinking Tequila. He instantly wanted to be friends. Randy was funny, spoke his mind, and was a good friend and roommate to us while we were here. All he wanted to do was take care of us.

We stepped onto the porch and Latch came up the steps and locked the front door without acknowledging me. He went back to the van while Harper stopped on the last step. I was on the step behind her. She twisted and looked at the spot where Randy always sat smoking his cigarettes. I waited a moment, watched her square her shoulders, and then followed her to the van.

I glanced at the steps before the van backed out and silently said goodbye to Randy.

An hour later, we were at an upscale hotel so fancy that there were valet and doormen. The doorman eyed the trash bag that Jaxon carried for us but said nothing while we checked in. Everything was shiny and covered in crystals. The floor of the lobby looked like it was gold, along with the elevator buttons.

The guys really splurged.

Latch and Jaxon checked the room out before they let us in.

“There’s a small bedroom you girls can share,” Jaxon said pulling out his phone, hitting some buttons, then jerked his chin at Latch. “He’s here.”

“Who’s here?” I asked confused, and Harper came to stand by me.

“Security,” Latch said, looking at his phone.

“Security?” Harper asked before I could.

“Jaxon and I need to go out,” Latch explained while shoving his cell into his back pocket and glancing at me. “Someone’s sitting with you until we get back.”

I had a bad feeling so I asked him, “When will you be back?”

Jaxon spoke before Latch could, “We aren’t coming back until this shit is taken care of.”

I wasn’t sure which shit he was talking about. Randy, Sofia, or whatever job they had been working prior to all of us interrupting their lives and turning it inside out. Harper walked towards Jaxon and Latch walked to me so we could each have our own conversation.

“It’s not safe for us all to be together,” he said pulling me into a hug. “Give us a few days to take care of some shit.”

I nodded and whispered into his ear, “I already miss you.”

He squeezed me harder and buried his head into my neck, giving me a small kiss. “You’ll be safe.”

“I want you to be safe.”

He pulled back and kissed me goodbye. “I’ll be fine.” He gave me a small smile but it just wasn’t enough. I didn’t want him to go. I threw myself at him, wanting to cry but I had to keep it together.

“Won’t be long Marv, I promise.”

“I want to go on a date with you.”

“I know,” he said, finally giving me a genuine smile. “And we will, soon.”

“Please be safe,” I said, then he kissed me one last time before the security guy showed up.

His name was Jack; he was wearing all black and had that stern hard face that said he was all business. He worked for Gabe at some security firm. He pulled up a chair and put it against the door of the room. The only door that people could go in and out of.

We weren’t going anywhere.

“I’m taking a nap,” Harper said going into the bedroom.

I went to the couch, turned the TV on, and curled up against the couch arm.

I barely cried last night and I really wanted to let it all out but I needed to be strong right now. I could fall apart another day.

Latch

Mrs. Blackstill, Sofia’s mom, was waiting in her black town car just like she said she would be. We walked out of the hotel and Jaxon stayed outside the car while I climbed in, as instructed by our phone conversation earlier.

“Ma’am.”

She pointed to a small brown box that was sitting on the seat. “My driver is sworn to secrecy so whatever is spoken in the next few minutes won’t leave this car.”

I picked the box up, noticing right away how light it was. There were no markings or stickers on it either. I slowly slid the top off finding a napkin with a small amount of dried blood on it. Mrs. Blackstill handed me a pen. I took it and used it to lift the side of the napkin, revealing a small finger. The pinky finger. Of a woman. I gave her the pen back and slid the lid on the box back on.

“My husband doesn’t know,” she said keeping herself composed, looking straight ahead. “I have to take it back to the house so he doesn’t find out I asked for your help,” she said holding back her anger.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Blackstill.”

“She’s alive, but they told my husband this morning that they’d keep cutting off her fingers until he pays them.”