The Koet

Chapter 3- Protect My Own

Jamie

Sweat drips down into my eyes. Eww. I pause just a moment to adjust the Baseball cap on my head before scanning the street in front of me for them. I spot them Turing down another street about a hundred yards in front of me.

Dang, do these people ever take a break? I have been following them for the past 2 hours per Tessa's request. As to why she couldn't do it, beats me, but I have trailed them from the time that we departed ways at the restaurant to now as they reach the most northeastern corner of this small town and they still show no signs of slowing down. It is mostly industrial area, and with the sun to be setting in a bit I wonder what they are planning to do for the night.

I may not have Tessa's inborn distrust of everything that moves and doesn't move, but these people make me edgy too. The younger one, the one with the dark brown hair and the kind grey eyes, didn't seem so bad. I smile slightly, remembering the way she listened to what I said with absolutely undivided attention.

I have been with Tessa on the streets for near 4 years now, I have her to owe for my life time and time again. It is just with her extremeness about never settling, I don't really get to talk to a whole lot of people. So when the group of three invited us to lunch I was all for it, pressuring Tessa to accept. But, after the thrill of being with other real people, it occurred to me of the strangeness of the trio and their invitation. Lunch was even stranger, they never really said anything important or anything about themselves. In fact, I don't even think they told us their names. I'm not even sure why they invited us to lunch. All I know is that Tessa was having her equivalent to a panic attack the entire time. She sat stiff, glaring at all of them the entire time, and afterwards it was all that she could do to keep from running out of the shop. She dragged me into an alley and hugged me, scared out of her wits. But she pulled it together enough to ask me to trail them and find out what they are doing.

I pause in front of a lamp post and make a vertical line with a chalk stick she gave me. She said that i should follow them and that I was to make Marks of chalk on the lamp posts so she could meet me at wherever they decided to stop for the night. When I asked her why she just couldn't come with me she got all vague and tense, saying something about the blond male sensing her. I roll my eyes.

I stop, watching the Trio step into a scary looking bar at the very edge of the town. Unsure of whether to go in, I Decide to sit down, Leaning my back against the wall, to wait for Tessa to meet me.

Dusk is just a little bit away by the time Tessa arrives, offering me a cold water bottle. I drink all of it greedily.

"They came out pretty far, didn't they?" she looks at me questioningly, her straight, Dark brown hair flying around her.

I smile up at her, "Yepoe, It was a bit of a walk," I say Dryly. she smiles and offers her hand to help me up. Accepting it, I tell her how they went in the bar a while ago and have not come out.

"Well, Looks like we are going in." she says excitement lighting her eyes. Now there is the old Tessa! "Think L A recon," she tells me grinning, referring to the time we scammed this one couple who... well, never mind. "Just sit, watch, and don't be seen. I am coming with you."

"Right on sister!" Her excitement seeping into me, Awakening my tiered limbs. We are a team. We are one of the best. But as we get closer to the Bar I feel less of her excitement and more of a determination/focusing vibe coming off of her. Getting down to business.

She enters the Bar first, scanning to see the trio. They are at the sitting at the bar, an impressive number of shot glasses already scattered between them. "Hard day?" She mutters to me dryly.

We sit in a booth; she sits with her back to them, and me facing them, hiding my face with my hat, because, after all, I am the better lip reader. I make a face when she hands me her sunglasses, but I don't protest; they will hide my face, and Tessa can watch them in the reflection.