I Should Have Stayed

Chapter 4

Quickly I entered into the shop and sat down in front of him. My facade made its way on to my face. He looked at me nervously and then looked around hurriedly. "Do you have it?" I asked a little annoyed.

"Y- Yes." He placed a briefcase on the table between us. It's hard black leather seemed to stand out in the brightly lit coffee shop. I put it in between my legs and he spoke further. "Please don't kill me." He whispered.

"Why would I kill you? You've done what I've asked. News?"

"Uhh… Blank is running the pickups and drop-offs right now. All is good. No hitches." Blank was the guy right under me in the gang. He knew the ropes and he was in charge when I wasn't around. I nodded in reply and then looked off in thought.

"Why did you come here?" I asked him. "Why did you come to live here?" There wasn't any anger in my tone. Just curiosity.

"Uhh, I like it here. It's quiet." I nodded at him.

"It is. Did you know this is my hometown?"

"Really? No." He looked a little shocked but then let the emotion go.

"Yes. I came to tie a few loose ends and then I visited my family for the first time in over a year." He nodded at me. I could tell he was relaxing around me. I was intimidating when being met for the first time, but if you knew me, I was soft and squishy. I almost didn't like it. Almost.

We sat for a while in silence. "Well, it was nice meeting you…"

"Chase." He said. I nodded.

"Goodbye." I stood up and left. I had the briefcase in my right hand as I left. I walked back to my house and rapped lightly on the door. It was already dinner time and I felt my stomach eating itself already. A feeling I was used to by now.

My dad opened the door and I didn't bother to hide the briefcase as I walked in and went straight to my room to drop it off. I came back down and my mom stood in the kitchen looking at a letter. "Shanghai." I heard her whisper to herself.

"Yeah. I visited it 2 weeks ago. Decided I'd send you a letter."

"Ha ha. Real funny Dakota. This isn't the first letter I've had. And some have had money in them."

"I know. Mom." She looked at me. Her hazel eyes looked directly into my green ones. "I've been sending you the letters. I thought maybe you would want to go on vacation or even retire. You and dad are almost 50. You have plenty of money to do that."

She gave me a look that said she didn't believe a word I was saying. I sighed. "All the letters have a seal with a deer on it. A buck." She looked at the seal I was talking about and stared in disbelief. "Do you believe me now? Last letter I sent had 10,000 dollars in it. Right?" Now she looked even more shocked.

The oven beeped and took her out of her daze. She set a chicken on the table and we all dug in. She even had stringed beans and baked potatoes. It was a way to forget what I told her. After we ate, we all sat in the living room and watched the news. Some time went by and it started raining. Not too long after, we heard a knocking on the door. My first thought was that they found me, but as my dad opened the door I stared in shock.

"Are you going to let me in or not?" Brown eyes stared at my dad with disgust. "It's raining out here for goodness sake!" He looked at her but didn't make any moves. I pushed passed him and opened the door and motioned for her to come inside. Her blonde hair was soaking wet and her jacket was drenched. "Thanks Dakota." My dad had no idea what to do except shut the door.

"Who is this?" My mom asked. The visitor gave me a look of confusion that I hadn't told them about her and then proceeded to do it for me.

"Hi, I'm Lindsey. Dakota's fiancée." I felt the room drop tenfold. Lindsey stretched out her hand for my mom to shake which she did and then my mom shot me a look. "I came to see her. May we have a moment alone please?" Lindsey said.

"Yes. We'll be upstairs." My mom said and then dragged my dad up the stairs and into their bedroom. I waited until their door closed and then we sat down on the couch and stared at each other.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Visiting my fiancée." I gave her a serious look. She sighed. "I missed you. And besides, I think Blank will be fine handling the gang alone. He does any other time."

"Yes, but recently things have been… sketchy with him. He's been acting weird." As I spoke I heard the stairs creak slightly behind us. I didn't feel or hear anything again so I thought nothing of it.

"True." We sat in silence for a minute.

"How did the deal go down? With Carlos?" She was talking about the guy that I met yesterday. I laughed at the memory.

"Scared as hell." We both laughed.

"But I got what I asked for. I'm going to get it tomorrow. Plus a little extra for the two day delay."

"Really? What was the extra?"

"10k."

"Seriously? For a total of 510 eh?" She laughed.

"Yeah. We've got a lot at stake here Lindsey."

"You think? I mean this is just one deal. Wait, what about today?"

"Guess." I smiled.

"Hmm, 150?" She smiled.

"Yep. Spot on." She chuckled.

"I swear it's more money every time. How much in total now? In two days?"

"… 660,000 dollars in two days. That's just what you and I are playing with. What about the other revenue coming in?"

"Even more. We've got enough to last us through our great grandchildren's lives in luxury."

She chuckled. "I'm excited to play this game. Though you do know that this will be dangerous and will have dire consequences."

I sighed and didn't talk for a moment. "Yeah I know. We're playing a chess game here. But you have to remember that sometimes we have to sacrifice a piece in order to keep the game going." She nodded and looked off in thought.

"Well-" was all I could say. I heard footsteps coming downstairs. My dad joined us on the couch and we all decided to watch tv for a while. Finally, Lindsey and I decided to go to bed and my mom said it was okay that we stayed in the same bed. Since we were fiancées and all. She admired the ring I had gotten Lindsey. It fit her well.