ᴇᴍᴇʀᴀʟᴅ ᴘᴀʀᴋ.

XI

Mari blinked, her face reading unamused. "Feel better? Got everything off your chest now?"

Alex backhanded Mari, her slap ringing through the hollow range. Mari's eyes shut involuntarily for a second, but once they opened, they immediately landed on Alex.

"Don't get cute with me." She seethed. "Remember, nobody here knows who you really are except me; one word outta my mouth, and your whole secret slips."

"Secret...?!" Mari parroted Alex with wide eyes, straightening her posture. "Who the hell said I was hiding anything, to begin with?!"

"Oh, you're hiding whooole lotta shit." Alex partially cackled. "The fact that you know me on a personal level, making L and them believe you don't know how to pick up a blick, let alone shoot a motherfucker, the fact that you probably know what happened to Nick-..."

"The fuck did I tell you about that?!" Mari raised her voice, growing agitated with the girl's accusations. "I don't know shit about what happened to him, Alex! How many more fucking times do you need me to say it, huh?!"

"The rest of them buy that, sure. Sadly, I fucking don't." Alex punctuated the last part of her sentence with a flare of her nostrils. "Nick is killed months before his retirement – the motherfuckers who worked for him knew he had a next of kin, so they find you, bring you back here, and you want me to believe that it's all just a coincidence – are you fucking kidding me?!"

"Because that's all it is!" Mari growled. "My God, you've grown paranoid – do you need me to prove it to you?! I'll pull up the proof right now if that's what you want me to fucking do!"

"Do whatever the fuck you wanna." Alex watched Mari pull her phone out, open her camera roll, and scroll through her pictures until she paused, turning the device to her.

"His autopsy report said he was killed the day after Christmas, right?" Mari clarified. "I was on a trip around then; I wasn't even in Nevada, Alex!"

Alex squinted at the picture displayed on the screen – Mari's point of view from the backseat of someone's car, staring out of the window and at a sunset. The location tag close to the bottom of the screen read, "Mesa, AZ."

"You fucking believe me now?" Mari chucked her phone at Alex in a moment of aggravation and annoyance.

Alex stared at the screen with a vacant expression on her face, blinking a few times before tossing the device back to Mari. "Sure, for now..."

"Now what the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Mari made a noise resembling a chuckle but with weariness tangled in her tone.

"Pics are one thing – knowing how someone operates after being around them so long is a whole nother thing." Alex glared at Mari. "Want me to be for real? You showing me pics of some location tag don't change shit about how I know you move."

Mari scoffed a little loud. "You're never gonna let this go, are you?"

"Bullseye...~" Alex sang, earning an eye-roll from Mari. "You gotta understand, Mari; with how much shit I know about you, I could easily make your time here a living Hell..."

"You're not already doing that?" Mari sneered.

"Oh, you think what I'm doing now is hard on you?" Alex laughed, and she continued laughing despite Mari's piercing stare at her.

"Say, Mari...You remember Smith from around the way?"

"Of course, I remember that conniving sack of shit..." Mari grumbled. "What about him?"

"Remember when he got caught up with that fourteen-year-old and offed himself because of it?"

"Where are you going with this, Alex?" Mari drew out an exasperated sigh.

"Smith had a...'whistleblower' of sorts," Alex went on to explain. "And that whistleblower was me. I was the first one to find out about what he was doing, and since he showed zero signs of wanting to stop, I spread the word around the block – that's how you ended up finding out."

Mari stayed silent as she listened to the other girl's words.

"Smith knew he was cooked by then – I'm sure he told you that he was fixing to move states, right? Well, after gathering every little piece of info I could get my hands on, I dropped them all off at his door in a cute little folder with a note attached."

"He couldn't move away because you pretty much trapped him..." Mari concluded out loud. "You blocked his exit..."

"Trapped is a strong word, man..." Alex tilted her head, hissing. "I just made it aware to him that every state surrounding Nevada knew about him and was waiting for him to show up at some point. Smith could've turned himself in, simple, but nooo – he ate a bullet like a fucking coward..."

Mari was stun-locked – her eyes were slowly growing wider, and she was frozen in her place. It was apparent that all of what Alex told her was starting to sink in.

"I really want you to try poking the bear, Mari." Alex stepped closer to the girl. "Smith shot himself point-blank in the brain, thinking I was gonna ruin his life with that folder – imagine what the fuck I could make you do if London and them found out who you really were..."

"Y-You..." Mari inhaled sharply, inching painfully slowly away from Alex. "You sound like a fucking schizo, my dude...I mean, you are hearing what you're saying, right?! Driving a man to suicide, even for you, that's just-..."

"If I'm a schizo, then you're a full-fledged fucking lunatic...my dude," Alex chuckled, mocking the girl's voice at that moment. "Last time I checked, I'm not the one sweating in here, stuttering over her words like Courage the Cowardly-fucking-Dog, am I?"

"I swear to God, Alex-"

"Wait, shut up a sec." Alex cut Mari off as her phone began to ring. "Ohh, speak of the devil!" She faked a smile, flipping the device around so Mari could see that London was calling.

Alex answered the call and put it on speaker. "Hey, we leaving?"

"Yep, just meet us all outside. And make sure uhh...Pistol gets her loadout, alright?" London's voice crackled over Alex's speaker.

Mari quirked an eyebrow in mild confusion. "Pistol...?"

"Your new nickname?" Alex matched the tone of her voice again. "It's easy to remember."

"But why 'Pistol?'" Mari squinted.

"Why not?" She heard London giggle. "It's cute, lowkey...It'll grow on you, don't worry."

"Hope you're right about that..." Mari mumbled.

"She is," Alex affirmed. "Hell, who do you think nicknamed me Ace?"

"I was just throwing shit out there, but you still live up to that name after a few years." London giggled again.

Alex laughed as well. "Alright, we'll be out in about ten minutes."

"Bet. We're taking Rodrigo's truck, so just meet me on the sidewalk." London informed her.

"Alright then." Alex hung up and looked down at the two discarded handguns on the floor. "Pick them bitches up and reload 'em. Holsters are back there." She dismissively pointed past the gun rack to a closed armory closet.

"What, you're not gonna help me with nothing?" Mari raised an eyebrow.

"Why exactly should I?" Alex frowned slightly. "You know what you're doing; I don't need to hold your hand."

Mari rolled her eyes a second time before doing as she was told – swiping the twin pistols off the ground and searching for magazines while she heard Alex's platforms click against the tiled floor, away from the shooting range.

~~~~