Haze shook his head. “No. I brought you here, little sis, because I wanted to ask you something.” He took a deep breath. “I want you to join us.”
My entire body stiffened as my face drained of color. I had to focus on what he had asked me, unsure if I even heard him correctly.
“What?”
He smirked and blew smoke into the night. “I want you to join Charlotte’s Web.”
SIX
INDI
Haze wantsme to join Charlotte's Web…an illegal, underground network.
I shook my head as I walked through the main street of downtown. Something I instantly regretted considering I was wearing a fucking skirt. The weather had turned from cold to freezing, and it had even begun to flurry outside. “Fuck, it’s cold.” I shivered. I pulled Haze’s leather jacket close and unintentionally knocked my phone out of the pocket and onto the sidewalk. “Shit!” I bent down and scrambled to pick it up, wiping snow from the cracked glass screen. “Haze is going to kill me if—” I stopped, noticing the reflection of a strange man. I wouldn’t have even noticed him if he didn’t stand out so much, dressed like a middle-aged man from the seventies. He seemed to be staring right at me, and before I could even blink, I watched him take a photo of me with his phone. “What the fuck?” My heart began to race as I slowly stood up.
Take a deep breath, Indi. You’re just paranoid. Everything is fine.
I tried to shake my fears away and continued walking down the crowded street. I couldn’t help but feel nervous, as if the man was still watching me. So, I stopped at the coffee shop andducked inside. As I waited in line, I checked my phone. It was not only cracked, but glitching. Which meant I had no way to text Haze.
Shit.
I casually looked over my shoulder and noticed the same odd-looking man standing outside the coffee shop. “Now what?” I mumbled to myself.
“I’m sorry?” I spun around to see the barista smiling at me. “I didn’t catch that. What did you want?”
“Oh, uhh, just a large black coffee.”
The barista made a face. “A large black coffee? You sure you don’t want anything else with that?”
I looked back at the man, still outside, only now he was on his phone. “Actually.” I faced the barista. “Cinnamon. Lots of cinnamon.” The barista made a face as she wrote my order onto a blank cup. It didn’t take long for the woman to hand me my coffee and wish me a happy holiday.
I waited inside and held the hot coffee close until the man turned away. And when he did, I quickly rushed out the coffee shop door and back onto the sidewalk.
“Just keep walking. Everything is fine.” I walked around for a few minutes, heading back to the car. “You’re just being paranoid. That’s all it is. That’s all—” I glanced over my shoulder to see the same strange man maybe ten feet behind me, and as I tried not to gasp, his eyes met mine. And he smiled.
Shit.
I quickly ducked into a nearby alley that I knew led to the other side of downtown. It was dark and empty, and if I could get through it, I’d be back at my car in no time.
Almost there.
I walked faster, hearing footsteps behind me.
Fuck. Walk faster, Indi.
I picked up the pace and kept pushing forward.
Almost there. Almost there!
I turned a corner to find the rest of the alley gated off. “What the fuck?” My cheeks burned as I searched for a way around. There wasn’t one. “No, no, no. No!” I kicked the metal chain gate and spun around to find the creepy man standing directly behind me.
“Hello, Indigo.” The man smiled as he said my name, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. His cheap cologne and aftershave made me want to barf as I stared back up at him.
My breathing increased and I tried to walk past him, but he kept cutting me off. “Excuse me, sorry,” I groaned. “I just need to—fucking move!”
The man roughly pushed me back into the metal gate. “I don’t think so.” He stepped even closer and glared down at me. “You see, I was hoping to catch you on your way out from your old apartment, but it seems you’ve moved.” He tilted his head, and his large double-bridge glasses slid to the tip of his wrinkled nose. “The weird thing is, when I tried to track down your new address, nothing came up.” His brows furrowed. “Now why is that?”
“I–I don’t know what you’re talking about. Please, I need to—” I tried to push past him, but he once again shoved me into the gate.
