Jem…Chapter 169

*Before…

I chew my thumb a little. “Are you sure, I don’t want you in danger.”

She looks at me and at Mike. “We’re all in danger Angel; Adam’s a rich bastard from a family of rich bastards that have been doing this shit like generation after generation. I’ll watch it but that’s like all I can do, it’s all we can do short of something big and out in the open with the cops.”

And Mike’s like. “We can’t do that if we want to actually save everyone and nail his ass.”

I look at him. “What do we do?”

He sighs. “Right now…you make a call…talk to Uncle Bobby and see what he thinks.”

I nod. “Okay that’s the best course of things.”

I let out another hard sigh and I look at the clock.

“Rayne’s late.”

*And Now…

She’s late and it’s more than fifteen minutes and she never called which is not like her.

I try her phone.

It just keeps ringing all the way to voice mail.

Mike looks at me and he takes his keys out of his pocket. “No answer?”

I shake my head no. “No.”

“C’mon.”

I grab my coat and we head off to the car in a hurry with Carmen with us and she’s telling Molly. “Call Remy and the guys there something up!”

We pile into the car and I half expected Mike to dukes of hazard it over the hood of his car though we do rip out of the driveway and he’s speed shifting getting us going well over the speed limit as we head through the railway access road something not entirely legal I don’t think but with the CN pretty much barely running these days there’s like zero traffic and if you follow this it cuts through a whole bunch of blocks until you get to Prince George street and that’s like one of the main streets in town and it connects to the highway that runs through part of town and is where all of the malls and things are at.

There were pot holes but I’m pretty sure that none of us felt them and Mike actually fishtailed around some of them.

It didn’t take that long to get to Wall-Mart and we slowed enough to not be speeding and pulled into the parking lot and I get out fast at the curb and run in looking for Rayne.

I have no idea of the names of her co-workers but she’s not in her department.

I’m breathless as I get to the music and DVD section and I see this girl looking at me as I stop and I’m panting.

“Is…is…Rayne here?”

“Oh wow you’re like Angel.”

“Uh….huh….yeah…hi is Rayne still here?” Like I said panting.

“Uhm like no she got off shift like just over a half hour ago and stuff.”

“Shit!”

I turn and take off running and I head out and look for her vehicle and I don’t see it and I look for Mike and he’s pulling up.

“She’s not here but Eric Jones said he saw her get in her van and pull out.”

I don’t know who that is but it’s something.

I get in the car and I look at Mike who’s pulling out. “Where now?”

“We follow her usual route home.”

“And that is?”

Mike pulls down King Street which is one of the other streets that comes up and connects to the highway/main drag and King goes downtown and down the hill and we’re looking as we slowly drive.

Mike says. “Rayne usually takes King downtown so she can drive by The Pine Tree on gig days and then takes Main over to Humphrey and then cuts across over to Spruce Street.”

We live on Spruce Street.

And it’s a lot longer a drive in a way than it sounds since King goes from the highway to Lakeside drive which literally covers the lake and Main literally crosses town or the downtown out to each side of the town limits actually crossing the highway.

The rest well they’re longer side streets.

Carmen yells. “Here! I see her car here!”

Mike stops and backs up and we see her car just down one of the side streets off of King just before getting downtown parked on the street outside of a house.

Not like a house but like one of those older big houses that were turned into like rental or apartments.

Her car’s parked on the side of the street and I want to get out and Mike stops me.

“I recognize the other car.”

“What?”

“That’s one of the assholes that rammed your van and went after Brooklyn.”

“Shit…why?”

He gives me this look.

I close my eyes.

Right…as much as Rayne had been through she kept her and Brook and Kimmie together. And this was people that messed with Brooklyn and well the rest of us.

And she was really upset over the van being trashed.

“She seen them and went after them?”

Mike shrugs. “Maybe or they seen her alone and decided to start something.”

I look at him. “We just can’t sit here.”

He nods. “And I don’t intend to but you start calling Uncle Bobby and I’m going in.”

I take out my phone and start calling the number for “Uncle Bobby.”

Mike gets out and Carmen gets out and she takes out her phone and she’s using it as a video camera following him.

I hear it pick up. “Angel?”

“We need you here.”

“What’s going on?”

“The one’s we got into it with and hit and run our van are here at this house and Rayne ended up here in the same place as they are and we need back up of some kind.”

“Are you sure it’s them?”

“Yeah and Rayne was late at home and she always calls so we knew something happened and we went looking for her following her usual route home.”

“You keep track of how you get home?”

“Uhm yeah apparently we do.” I start giving him the address of where we’re at.

“Good girls.”

I see a pair of motorcycles pulling in with two guys on it and they’re not Billy and Davey.

“Two bikers just showed up.’

“Stay out of the way Angel I’m serious I’m sending people and coming too but stay out of the way.”

“I can’t do that Bobby Mike’s already went in and Carmen too plus Rayne’s in there.”

“Angel seriously don’t it’s too dangerous and we need you.”

“Sorry Bobby, just here quick.”

He was saying something else and I hang up and send all my calls to call waiting but I’m going to pull a Carmen and record stuff if I can because that might be pretty important.

I wait in the car until I see the bikers actually pull into the yard of the house. They don’t look that old or that much older than me like maybe late, late teens or really early twenties. I mean they could be guys from town here going to community college or something.

Once they’re past and everything I look inside Mike’s car and under the seat and I find one of those police style snap batons and I take it with me.

I slip out of the car and actually don’t close the door all the way just enough so it kinda latches and the door chime isn’t pinging and I keep kind of low and close to the bushes that are close to the sidewalk here and actually go through them once I catch a peep of everyone in the garage that’s at the end of the driveway on the lot. The wooden sliding door is up and I saw Rayne there and others but I seen Mike and Carmen there too.

I go through the bushes and am on the property next door and slipping through it and finding a break in the fence line and go through that and then try and sneak up to the garage through the back.

Every damned footstep sounds way too loud to me.

Old leaves, twigs, branches and a yard that’s not seen a lick of work because it’s now just a rental place and the landlord’s either part of the Marshall set or they’re from someplace out of town like Toronto.

I can hear voices and I hear Mike saying two names.

“Guff, Zee-Zee.”

“Hey rat.”