Tethered Hearts | ✓ | Books 1 & 2

Episode 24| His Little Distraction

"No, wait," Anthony said, tapping my shoulder. "I want to know. How does it feel to be a failure?"

"The only thing that's a failure is your father's condom by failing to prevent your birth." I seethed.

"Lame," Anthony rolled his eyes, unaffected. He reached around to the roof of Conner's car where a six pack was placed. Wigging out one of the cans, he flipped the can's tab and took a long sip. "I was kidding. You didn't have to take it personal."

"Yeah, they were only teasing." Grayson defended, swishing around the content in his beer can. "You don't have to take it up the ass. It's a joke."

"I didn't roll out of bed so I could joke with you idiots. I came here because Conner said you guys had something to tell me." I countered. Seeing that the two of them had been drinking proved one thing. They were too drunk to comprehend the stupidity in insulting me of all people. "Get to the point or I'm gonna leave."

"We found something." Grayson presented. "I found something interesting, to be precise. You know how I know someone over at the sheriff's office? Well, they told me a little something about Officer Monroe ...after some persistent persuasion...coming from our good friend Benjamin Franklin."

When I got shot, Officer Monroe was the man who had dropped by to talk to me at the hospital. He had his suspicions that I was up to something because of some Eye-Witness reports. The reports claimed that Conner and I were speeding from a crime scene on Flower street. He didn't have any solid evidence that it was linked to us.

Also, I knew cops well enough to know that they'll say something just to get a reaction out of you and see if you'll fess-up. If he really did have eye-witness accounts that could testify against me, then he would've done something about it already. File for a search warrant or request for an interrogation down at the station.

"They had a file on you that they were starting on. Nothing major. They had Conner's name, but clearly your description." He explained, reminding me that I had pretended to be Conner at the hospital. "But that's not what I found interesting."

I leered to the side, easing my elbow on the rear-end of my car. "What was it?"

"They know about Blue Spades." He whispered, dropping his voice. "They plan on patrolling around the campus and your apartment complex. So far, they haven't started. He told me that they'll start as soon as next Thursday. They haven't gotten much on you. But I have a feeling that they'll put two and two together and figure out that you're not Conner."

"Talk about perfect timing," I grumbled, tracing my index finger on the back of my black Buick. "How are we supposed to find Audrey and her crew while simultaneously not tip off the cops on what we're doing?"

"We can hold off on the crack-down on Audrey and her crew." Anthony supplied, and I instantly scolded him. "You don't have another option. Grayson and I have been searching high and low for this chick, but she isn't turning up. I asked around and no one seems to know who she is."

"Are you sure Audrey is even her name?" Grayson asked and crushed his beer can, concaving the aluminum into a slanted heap of metal. "We've spoken to over thirty people about her. No one knows a girl named Audrey."

"She was messy with how she handled things. She could be new," Conner suggested. "The way she waltzed in there makes me think she heard about how we stole it from Julio and decided that she might as well take it from us since it wasn't ours to begin with. She saw an opportunity. If she has any intelligence, she'll be hiding off somewhere for awhile before she resurfaces again."

"I don't like that answer." My fingers curled, making a fist. "I want you and five of the lower-ranking associates to help track her. I'm not ending this week without at least some type of lead. We have to find her."