“Well, we worked the last Fashion Week, so we saw plenty of them then, but yes, there were times I got a VIP delivery. As exciting as it might be, it’s important to treat them like any other customer,” Emery replied. “That’s how you get the big tips. Discretion.”
“I’ve always hated bike messengers,” Mr. Higgins growled. “Speed demons screaming their presence as they pass you, as if that helps anyone. If you ask me, they’re more dangerous than cabs.”
“I’m well aware of your opinions, Mr. Higgins,” Emery chuckled. I cracked a half smile when Emery’s sparkling eyes shifted to meet mine as if we were sharing an inside joke. That was always one of the things I adored most about Emery; she never had any malice toward others. Had Higgins been talking to me about my career, I would have gotten a little offended and possibly a little snippy, but not Em. She just laughed it off good-naturedly.
“I always loved watching them zip around,” Lani said. “If I were any sort of coordinated and about thirty years younger, I would have been one.”
As the group continued talking, I noticed Liz and Jason sneak away toward the kitchen. I rolled my eyes at their inability tokeep their hands off each other for more than five minutes. When Nico looked my way, I nodded toward the kitchen, and he rolled his eyes in response. He’d seen them sneak away as well.
“What was the biggest tip you’ve received?” I asked, rejoining the conversation.
Emery looked at the ceiling as she thought about my question before a grin split her face. “Oh, this is actually a good one. I got a job notification for a pick-up from a hardware store to a residence uptown. The order was for a pair of bolt cutters.”
Luis started to chuckle, and soon Nico and I joined in.
Emery grinned at us. “You can see where this is going.”
“I don’t understand,” Darla said. “Why did they need bolt cutters?”
“I’m not sure this story is suitable for all ages, Em,” Nico said.
“Or maturity levels,” I snickered under my breath.
“You’ll understand soon, Darla,” Emery replied. “So I got to the delivery address, and in the space where they can add additional instructions, there is the code for the door. It says to let myself in and come upstairs. Now, I’m a little weary of this because it isn’t how deliveries typically go, but it’s also not the weirdest request I’ve gotten, so I go with it. As soon as I opened the door, I said hello very loudly to announce my presence.”
“Man or woman?” Luis asked.
“Man! He yells out that he’s upstairs. So I go upstairs, following the sound of his voice, to a bedroom. What I found is permanently burned into my brain. This middle-aged man is handcuffed to the four corners of his bed.”
“How did he place the order?” Emery’s dad asked.
“That’s what I wanted to know!” Emery exclaimed. “Was this some sort of kinky thing that I did not consent to be a part of? As it turned out, he was able to order the bolt cutters through his smart home system. Anyway, he’d staged this entire scene for his roommate. It was her bedroom. Only, when she came home, shewasn’t nearly as enthused or interested as he’d hoped she would be. I guess she saw him, screamed, and ran out of the house. A reaction, he hadn’t planned on, because that left him cuffed to her bed and no way to escape, and no way to know when she might return, if she returned.”
“So you freed him?” Emery’s mom asked.
“I did. I couldn’t leave the poor guy there,” Emery replied. “And once he was free and clothed, he gave me a five-hundred-dollar tip never to say anything to anyone about it. And I didn’t, until now.”
“My guy shot his shot and crashed and burned,” I chuckled.
“Emery, how could you not have told us about that?” her mom lectured.
“Mami, did you miss that part where he paid me five hundred dollars not to tell anyone?” Emery asked.
Before her mom could respond, we heard Liz scream from the kitchen. I jumped over the table toward the kitchen, entering right behind Nico. Liz was standing on a prep table, half-naked and screaming bloody murder. I followed the direction of her horrified gaze to find Jason on the stone floor with a zombie making a meal out of him. The back door had been pushed open, likely because the zombie was attracted to the kitchen by the noises Jason and Liz had been making. Nico quickly dispatched the zombie and Jason while I tried to calm Liz down.
“Liz, honey, come here off the table.”
“One minute we were, and then the next he was screaming and there was blood. So much blood,” Liz was babbling, stuttering over every third word as she continued to stare at the carnage while slowly moving toward me.
“That’s a good girl,” I crooned as she reached the edge of the table. “Give me your hand and I’ll help you down.” I slid my knife into the sheath at my hip as I held both hands out to Liz. The sooner we got her out of this kitchen, the sooner we could get thehell out of here before the blood and noise attracted any more zombies to us.
Liz grabbed my hands and started to hop off the table when we heard Luis shout, “Emery, no!”
Before I could figure out what was happening, Emery flew past me, grabbing my knife as she went. She charged toward Nico, who looked just as confused as I felt. When he reached out to grab her, Emery pushed him aside, revealing the zombie that had pushed through the back door and was steps away from Nico.
Emery lunged for the zombie, stabbing it through the eye. As soon as it was down, she slammed the back door shut before another zombie could come inside. “If you’re watching our six, who is watching yours?” Emery asked Nico as she leaned her back against the door. The door jolted, causing Emery to rock forward as one or more zombies tried to break in.
“We need to go,” I said, pulling Liz off the table and over my shoulder. The sound of metal scraping against concrete made me glance back to see Nico and Emery pulling the table toward the door to keep it shut. “Everyone, grab your things and quietly make your way toward the front door, please.”
