Part 11
FULL ART (coming soon!!!) by @scarletfish8eta
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“Do you think they’ll be much longer?”
“Do you think you can shut up?”
Delaney rolled his eyes as the teen dismissed him like that.
“I’m just saying, it’s been a while,” Delaney continued, “you’re not worried something’s happened?”
“Do you even know Lavender?” Erick said, raising a brow.
“I want to.”
“She’s fine, now shut up,” Erick said.
“But—”
“Shut the fuck up! I hear something,” Erick said, picking up his bat.
A rustling, the snapping of twigs, the sound was closing in on them, quiet talking. If someone was trying to get the drop on them they’d be more careful than that. And sure enough, once they got close enough to see in the dark, Erick recognised Lavender and Thorne, and he quickly put his bat back down as they brought Jaime with them.
“Erick!” she said, finally letting go of Lavender’s hand and hurrying forward to hug him.
“You’re bleeding,” Erick said, a little shocked at her state.
“I’m fine, just a bit bruised,” Jaime said, “oh and lost my piercing, but it’ll heal.” She squeezed him a bit, relieved to have a friendly face around.
“We have some medical supplies in the trunk,” Erick said, “let me clean you up a bit.”
“Just a couple more seconds,” Jaime said, refusing to let go.
Lavender was making kissy faces at them behind her back, so he flipped her off before managing to dislodge from the hug and sit Jaime down on the edge of the trunk, using the inner lighting to take a good look at the tear in her eyebrow.
“That’s gonna leave a scar,” Erick said, gently cleaning around the wound.
“I’ll make a cool story of it,” Jaime said with a shrug, “pierce my other eyebrow.”
“Your dad’s going to kill me,” Erick sighed, opening a package of gauze.
“If he doesn’t get killed first,” Jaime said, “what’s going on, Erick? That detective said some really fucked up shit, and I just need to know if I’ve been lied to.”
“It’s not my place,” Erick said, placing the gauze over her wound and pasting it in place with some medical tape.
Jaime sighed, waiting for him to finish before grabbing his shirt.
“The truth, Erick,” she said.
She demanded.
“You won’t like it,” Erick said.
She kicked him against the shin.
“Ow! Okay, okay, I’ll tell you,” Erick said, “but I still think it’s not my place, and I need you to remember, no matter what I say, your dad loves you very much.”
“How bad is it?” Jaime asked.
Erick looked down, rolling out and re-rolling a bandage.
“Pretty bad,” he admitted, “your dad…I guess the technical term is mercenary.”
“Don’t sugarcoat it, Erick, you know I hate that,” Jaime said.
Erick nodded, restarting on rolling up the bandage.
“He’s a criminal, the kind that other criminals hire to do dirty work…kidnapping people and holding them for ransom mostly, but sometimes they ask him to harvest organs. He likes those jobs because he gets to be a surgeon again.”
“He told me he lost his medical licence because he saved a patient with a lung from the black market,” Jaime said, “he’s been doing odd jobs to get by ever since.”
“Yeah,” Erick said, “the guy who sold him the lung recruited him as a harvester, and one thing led to another and now he’s one of the best…in the underworld. He’ll do a lot for the right price, just not everything.”
“And how’d you get involved?” Jaime asked.
Erick didn’t answer, keeping his focus on the bandage. He suspected she already knew the answer.
“Look me in the eye, and tell me the truth,” Jaime demanded.
Erick bit the inside of his cheek as he tore his eyes away from the bandage and looked up at her.
“He kidnapped me…”
“When?”
“I’m not really sure, but about two years ago?” Erick said.
“Dad said he saved you from an abusive home,” Jaime said, shaking her head in disbelief, “were you a captive when we met? Why didn’t you ask for help? Why are you still with him? Did he hurt you?”
“W-well, in his defence, my dad fled the country rather than paying my ransom, so…”
His focus was back on the bandage. He had to get it straight this time.
“Why are you still with him?” Jaime repeated.
“...I’m not crazy,” Erick said quietly.
“It’s a little crazy!” Jaime said, “Did he hurt you?!”
“Only if I do something wrong…it’s gotten way less since a while now though.”
“That’s fucked up,” Jaime said.
“It’s different,” Erick said, “unconventional…a lot of people said it’s wrong…but it’s not wrong to me. For one bad thing he did he’s also done dozens of good things. He looks after me…I guess he needed to after he wasn’t allowed to look after you.”
“But he’s still a criminal,” Jaime said. She honestly wasn’t sure what to think about it.
“He just needs to make a living,” Erick said, “there’s things he won’t do too…which is probably what started this whole mess.”
“...what happened?” Jaime asked.
“A little more than a year ago your dad was hired to sort of rescue a guy from another kidnapper, that was Lavender by the way, and in the end it turned out the guy who hired your dad was a pedophile so he abandoned the job,” Erick explained, “naturally the guy was pissed so he roped in his dumb friend for a revenge plot and they came after me. Lavender tried to warn us, but she and your dad tend to be a bit chaotic.”
“Some rescue that must’ve been,” Jaime said.
“I don’t remember, I was drugged,” Erick said, “they told me they killed the guy though, and now his dumb friend hired some cops to get his revenge.”
“And they have dad?” Jaime asked.
“Mhm…”
He suddenly dropped the bandage, taking a shaky breath as he put his hands in his pockets and forced himself to look away.
“Are you hurt anywhere else?”
“I’m fine,” Jaime said.
“We should uh…head back to the city,” Erick said.
“Yes, get me the fuck out of here!”
They got Jaime settled in the backseat before working out how to stuff Delaney in the trunk with most of the luggage. Jaime did notice, but she quickly lost her pity for the man when Erick explained he was the dumb friend he mentioned earlier. He didn’t go into further detail than that though, and she was too tired to push him. Not long after they started the drive back, she was fast asleep, resting her head on Erick’s shoulder.
“What are we going to do with her?” Thorne asked quietly.
“She lives in Kansas so best we can do is put her on a bus home,” Lavender said, “we don’t really have the time to bring her home ourselves.”
“Going after Fetcher next?”
“Yeah, before he gets himself killed,” Lavender said, “then I’ll be stuck with his kids and go insane.”
“You seem to be doing well so far,” Thorne said.
“Because I know it’s temporary,” Lavender said, “besides, if anyone’s gonna kill that moron it’s gonna be me.”
“As if he’d let you,” Erick piped up from the back.
“Shut up, your girlfriend is sleeping,” Lavender said.
“She’s not my girlfriend,” Erick hissed.
“Suuuure.”
“Lavender!”
He kicked against her chair, but not hard enough to run them off the road.
“Jokes aside,” Lavender said, throwing Erick a glare through the mirror, “we need a place where we can interrogate Delaney for more info, that’s also not too far away from a bus station so we can get Jaime home.”
“She might not want to go,” Erick said.
“She doesn’t get a choice,” Lavender said.
“She’s her father’s daughter, she’ll get a choice whether you like it or not,” Erick said.
“Do you want to walk back to the city?” Lavender asked.
“No.”
“Then shut!”
Thorne cleared her throat, getting Lavender to focus back on the main goal.
“I know a place you can use for your interrogation,” she said, “I could even give you a hand.”
“Honestly he’d like that way too much,” Lavender said, “I can handle him. I’ve an idea on how to make him cooperate even.”
“Strong girl,” Thorne said, “you can drop me off where I parked my bike, then I’ll give you the address and keys to the place.”
“Awesome,” Lavender said, “I owe you, really.”
“Don’t mention it~”
By the time they made it back to LA and Thorne’s friend’s place, Erick was asleep as well, so Lavender and Thorne quietly got out of the car and walked over to the front door together as she got her keys out.
“The place I mentioned is just an hour from here,” she said, “it’s an old garage where I used to go to get my bike fixed, until I learned the owner beat his wife and was beginning to do the same to his daughter.”
“Bastard,” Lavender said.
“Textbook scum,” Thorne said, “it was so easy to seduce him, convince him to put the building in my name, take out a life insurance…and then oops. The car lift malfunctioned and he was slowly crushed to death.”
“Brutal, I like it,” Lavender said, “and you get to cash insurance?”
“Just enough to pay for the building, the rest goes to the wife and daughter,” Thorne said, “above the shop is an office that I converted to an apartment. You can rest, take a shower, turn on the machinery to hide screaming.”
“Perfect,” Lavender said, rubbing her hands.
Thorne smiled.
“Wait here, I’ll grab the keys.”
Lavender nodded, leaning against the door frame and looking back at the car, but the two teens hadn’t moved. A moment later Thorne returned, handing her a set of keys.
“Avoid using the lights during the night, just to be safe,” she said.
“Got it,” Lavender said, “and the address?”
“On the keychain.”
“Oh yeah.”
Lavender awkwardly cleared her throat as she pocketed the keys, while Thorne laughed, reaching over and gently weaving a hand through Lavender’s ponytail. She tensed at first, but Thorne really only just pulled a couple strands out that were trapped in her shirt, before letting go. However, her hand lingered near her face, fingers gently tracing her jawline.
Lavender wasn’t sure what to do. She wasn’t even sure if she wanted to do anything as Thorne got closer. And before she knew it, their lips met. It couldn’t have been more than a second, maybe two, before she pulled away again, smirking a bit.
“Maybe when you’re older,” she said, “call me if you need any more help with this mess. I’ll stay in town.”
Lavender just nodded, regaining the feeling in her legs to begin walking back to the car, trying not to be bothered by the different feelings and thoughts that flooded her mind, but goddamn.
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