Thank god I didn't get in more trouble for skipping detention yesterday. Bubba's note was convincingly good. He claimed I had a family emergency and that I had to come home immediately. He even had my dad's signature. How he got it, I have no idea. But I'm not going to question it.
Training yesterday was rough. My head was all over the place, and I couldn't focus on anything. They made me go home, because apparently, they thought it was too dangerous for me to stay, being consumed in my thoughts.
No matter what I did, I couldn't get Ryan out of my head. Every single thought I had contained him. I felt like I was going crazy, and that fact he was five feet away from me didn't help matters at all.
Today is supposedly consisting of updating me. Because, you know, I'm still not in the group chat. They've found out some information about Austin and Ty that has to do with me, so it's important they tell me.
I don't mind. I really don't. It's just all these things I'm thinking of, and being in the same room as him. It makes me nervous. Not him. Not anymore at least. It's just the thought of us being around each other when I have all these feelings running through my head that I don't really understand.
"What's my favorite girl thinking about?" Chase asked, slinging his arm over my shoulder as he arrived at my locker.
"Oh, you know, the usual girl stuff," I replied.
"So, it's a boy. Who?"
"First of all, girls think about more than just guys. Our whole world doesn't revolve around you, asshole. Second, no. It's none of your business." I slammed my locker and started walking towards the parking lot.
"Kacey!" I heard Chase yell from behind me. "I'm sorry!"
I kept walking.
"Come on, where are you going? School isn't over yet."
"Ryan texted. He wants us all over. Need a ride?"
--
On our way to Ryan's, I needed to make a pit stop at my house. The ride was fairly silent. I was still mad at Chase for the conversation we had just before leaving school, so I was in no mood to talk to him.
As we pull up to my house, we notice a strange car in my driveway.
"K, whose car is that?" Chase asks as I park.
"No idea."
Chase gets out and walks towards the front door. I quickly jump out and follow behind him. I look towards him and see him pulling his gun out of his waistband.
"Chase..." I start before he cuts me off.
"It's just a precaution, Kacey. I won't use it unless absolutely necessary I promise." He opens the door and sets foot in my house.
"Kacey is that you?" someone calls out.
"Dad?"
"My trip ended early so rather than staying, I came home. I didn't mean to scare you." He turned his attention to Chase, who I forgot was standing next to me. "Who's this?"
"A friend. Come on, Chase." I grabbed his hand and began walking back out the door and to my car.
"Where are you going?"
"A friends." We climbed back in my car and took off towards Ryan's.
--
"Alright, it's time to get Kacey up to speed. According to my source –"
"Our friend who is still involved with the mafia unfortunately," Erik explained.
"Yeah, thanks. Anyways as I was saying, according to him, Austin and Ty have been studying you Kacey. Have you noticed anyone following you at all the last few days? Ryan asked.
"Not that I can think of, no."
"Okay. Well, someone has been following you. They have a room at their warehouse where they display every piece of information they have on a person of interest. They have pictures, videos, notes, everything. It appears that they've been following you since that day you came with us."
"So, what does this mean?"
"As we've told you before, they're going to target you and they won't stop until you're dead and six feet under the ground. They know that the people we surround ourselves with are the only people we care about. They'll use you to hurt us, and we can't let that happen. We can't let them get to you." Ryan raised his voice a bit, but quickly calmed down once he realized what he did. No one else noticed, but I did.
"Alright. So, what do we do?"