Loving Maya

"Who's this slow one?"

"Yeah." Max nods. "We want to know if they've been meeting and what they've been meeting about."

"Noodles here has been asking around for you." Stan nods in his friend's direction.

"I'll get straight to the point." Noodles speaks. "The two haven't met in years. Now, I wasn't going to waste my time trying to figure out if they've been sending telegrams or smoke messages to each other. All I know is that she hasn't set foot in Lancaster prison, or the town itself, ever since she was transferred to Seattle."

That bit gives me some hope. I glance at Max and see the same hopeful look.

"The Man hasn't been very active in the business. The last time he delivered an order was five months ago."

Five months? That's too recent.

"Apparently his attention is back on finding the person who betrayed him. Some..." He squints his eyes as he tries to remember.

"Mason Wilder." Stan reminds him and he quickly nods.

My heartbeat quickens and I gulp nervously. Justin stops fidgeting as fear fills his widened eyes. Max's chest heaves up and falls down a second too long.

"Since your main concern was The Princess, I'll get back to her. She's planning on going to college in this city; yet to decide which one. She's currently staying with her aunt in Seattle but she has a friend she frequently visits here."

"Matilda Coleman became her legal guardian after she was sentenced." Stan adds. "The friend she visits here is some college freshman from Seattle, an Annalise van Henry."

I hear all of that but the most important thing is verifying everything she has told us.

"What about her treatment?" I ask.

"Hmm?" Noodles raises a brow. "Oh, you mean for her craziness? That gave her quite a reputation, didn't it?"

He smirks as he searches his pockets, his elbow almost hitting Stan in the face. He retrieves a piece of paper and stretches his hand to give it to me.

"That's her doctor. She's been undergoing her treatment since she was transferred from Lancaster. I hear she went from a thunderstorm to a rainbow."

I can't help but release a sigh of relief and Max closes his eyes and lays his head back.

"So she wasn't lying." He whispers.

"Is that everything?" Justin asks.

"Hmm..." Stan nods.

"Ahh, one last thing." Noodles speaks. "If you're interested in The Man, I have some names of the people involved in his current operations and well... A few names of the people he's gotten rid of since his incarceration."

Gg...gotten rid of?

"What do you mean gotten rid of?"

"Who's this slow one?" Noodles glares at Justin, who quickly looks away.

"Those names, unfortunately, will cost you much more than what you've brought." Stan smirks.

Max and I look at each other and slowly shake our heads. Not this time. This is not something I should involve myself in, especially if I want my whereabouts to remain unknown.

"That's enough." I say. Max opens his backpack and hands me the brown paper. I stretch my hand to give it to Stan as Noodles reaches for the door.

"Wait!" Max quickly stops me.

"What? Anything else?" A confused Noodles asks, his hand half hanging in the air.

"Who are the people working with The Man? I mean, on his operations and to help look for this... Person who betrayed him?" Max asks.