Toxic - Luke Hemmings

Chapter 50

We sat and drank our coffee for a little while until we were ready to go, and we walked out to her car in case we ended up getting something big. I wouldn't put it past us, we did go trigger happy with the spending up until now. I drove us to Walmart and we grabbed a cart to throw the ridiculous amount of stuff we were probably going to get in. We took care of the list first, but after that we just walked up and down isles and grabbed whatever we thought we needed.

I let her pick out the rug since she was good with all the color matching and crap, and that was the last thing we needed before we were confident we had everything. Izzy tried to make the cashier split the payment, but I shut her up immediately. I got that she didn't want to let me spend all this money on my own, but it was only fair since she didn't have much. She'd been making her check from Lorenzo last her for months, and she hadn't even started her summer internship yet.

"Shit, I forgot a drink." Izzy said aggressively. I had a bottle of water in the cupholder, though.

"You can have my water in the car." I told her, stopping the cart at the trunk so we could pack it up. "Here start her up." I threw her the keys and watched her hop in the driver's seat while I returned the cart to the corral. My phone started buzzing in my pocket, and once I saw it was Brett I quickly answered.

I'd been talking to him frequently the last week because of the war we had gotten into with the guys from the city. Lorenzo had it out for them after they set me and the guys up and robbed Chris, but I guess I'd do the same if I were him. He didn't like to see his guys get hurt, so he was ready to do whatever it took to send that message.

"What's up, man?" I greeted Brett, turning back around to walk to the car.

"Where's Izzy?" He caught me off guard by how urgent it sounded, but I didn't let it freak me out yet.

"With me, why?" I asked, not sure why that was even a question.

"Did you take her car to meet those guys?"

"Yeah, why?" I asked, more irritated this time. He needed to just tell me what the hell the problem was. I got back to the car and Izzy had the two front windows down, so I stood outside and leaned in the window frame of the passenger side door.

"There's a hit out for her car, you need to stay at home until I tell you you're good. Do you understand me?" He said sternly. I turned to see Izzy taking a few sips of the water, so I turned and tried to keep my cool.

"She's with me, we're fine. We're going home right now." I said quietly.

"Luke don't fuck around with this. They found Chris dead in his car a couple days ago. Someone doped him up with cyanide, and I think we both know who it was." He said, making my jaw nearly hit the pavement. They came back for him after robbing and beating him half to death? I heard Izzy coughing in the car so I turned and gave her a look. She just gave me a thumbs up and drank more of the water.

"Okay, okay. Just let me know if you find anything out. I saw one of them when we went to Ikea last week, and I know he recognized me." I explained, everything making a little more sense now.

I heard Izzy coughing again, only it was a lot harsher. I heard her call out for me, but when I got to the open window she was keeled over trying to open her door. The gears in my head started turning, and as Brett tried to keep talking to me I just zoned it out. Chris was hit with cyanide, and they had Izzy's car tracked.

"Brett I gotta go!" I shouted, running around the car to see Izzy on her hands and knees on the pavement. I didn't even let him respond before hanging up and dialing 911. "Izzy. Izzy!" I kneeled next to her as she hacked up a lung and clawed at her chest. She fell onto her back, and I saw how pale her face had gotten when a woman on the other end of the phone finally answered.