“If he’s not a client, then it was one of the recruits that brought it in.”
A newbie might have stolen some phones to prove his worth to Clark. “Let’s go talk to the recruit outside.”
We find him with his back pinned to the wall with Josie confronting him. “You can at least nod your head,” she says. At our approaching footsteps, she whirls around. “Did you tell him not to talk to me?” she accuses.
“Yes,” I answer agreeably. “Good job, kid.”
The recruit straightens and gives me a salute. I knock his hand down. “We ain’t in the military.”
“No, sir.”
Behind me, Niki snickers. I sigh and show him Cole’s photo. “You know him?”
The recruit nods. “I came across his dead body last week, searched him, and found his phone and two Benjamins. Brought the phone here. Was I supposed to turn in the money?” The last bit comes out quietly, as if the kid’s afraid Niki and I are going to beat him to a pulp for it.
“Nah, finders keepers. You know the kid?”
“Nope. Tall fucker, though. Probably played some kind of sport.”
“What high school do you go to?” Josie interjects.
“Lincoln.”
Josie makes a face. That high school isn’t even in our district, so it makes sense that he wouldn’t know Cole. We let the kid go. Josie taps her chin. “We need to go back to Shane.”
“Why?”
“Because we need to find out where he was when the fire alarm was pulled. If he pulled the fire alarm, then we need to find out why.”
“Could be just a prank,” I suggest.
“Doesn’t feel like it.” Josie writes down the details of our phone investigation in her notebook and then slaps it shut. “Let’s go ambush him.”
Chapter Twenty
JOSIE
“Just so you know, I’m mad at you.” I keep my chin tilted up as we walk down the sidewalk back to the school. Bam has his hand again cupping the back of my neck.
“Because I told the recruit not to talk to you? He doesn’t need to.”
“No.” That was actually kind of funny, but I’m not letting Bam know that. Next time I’ll have to be a little more elusive when following him. It’s clear that my idea of being sneaky wasn’t that at all.
“Hey.” Bam stops walking. “Inside the laundromat isn’t a place for you, nor should you want it to be.” I know he only wants to protect me, and I need to trust him in that. My self-control just isn’t the best.
“Does this have to do with your Horde?”
“Horde?” He lifts a playful brow.
“Yeah, Horde. It’s what I’m now calling it since you don’t like theGword. So, you’re now the Horde because we’re definitely not the Alliance.”
“What the hell is the Alliance?”
“Warcraft.” How does he not know these things? Oh, yeah. Bam is way too cool for Warcraft. I bet he doesn’t have a lot of free time between school and Horde dealings.
“Is that a video game?”
“Yeah.” I nod before holding my hand up. “For the Horde!” I shout. A few people glance our way. “Sorry,” I tell him. “If I just embarrassed you.”
