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“Nick?”
“He, like, groped me and stuff, okay? But I fought back. That’s why he hit me.”
“Tonight?”
“Yeah. They really did rob me before too. His friends did that. Tonight it was all him.”
“What’s his name?”
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you fucking do. What’s his goddamn name?”
He huffs before muttering, “Chase. I’m not sure of his last name but I think it might be Brown or Browning. I asked around a little.”
“Is he a student?”
Nick nods.
“I’ll handle it.”
“What are you gonna do, B?”
“Don’t worry about it. The less you know the better.”
“I don’t want you to get into trouble.”
“I won’t.” I sit next to him on the couch and rub his back. “Are you okay? For real?”
He nods. “Kind of pissed off. I just want to go to school and do my thing, you know?”
“I know.”
“Let’s get you some pain killers and get you into bed,” Shelby says.
Nick nods, agreeing to let her take care of him while I’m left filled with rage. This is escalating and I’m not about to wait around to see what they try next. I’m gonna find the assholes picking on my brother and make them pay.
After I make sure everyone is safely in bed, I slip out of the apartment, my gun tucked into an ankle holster. I don’t know where I’m going but I’ll figure it out. I’ll start off at the campus and go from there.
Down in my car, I check that I have my hoodie, mask, and gloves ready in case an opportunity arises, then I drive in the direction of the campus, keeping my eye out for anyone lurking. I already did a little internet digging and at least saw what Chase Browning looks like. He’s pretty standard though—average height and weight, brown hair, and a non-distinctive face. He blends in. He does, however, have a tattoo on his chest of a Labrador dog, so I can at least make sure I’ve got the right guy before I teach him a lesson.
As I turn onto the main street that stretches through the city and takes you just about anywhere you want to go, my eye catches on a familiar looking van in the empty parking lot of a closed shopping center. There are two other cars parked around it, and whoever occupies those vehicles seem to be talking to each other.
I pull off to the side of the road to watch what happens, curious to know if Whisper is inside that black van, and when the van pulls away from the other two cars, I follow, forgetting my previous mission.
As I follow the van, I do my best to keep a discreet distance. There’s still plenty of traffic out, so I hope I’m not being too obvious. I’d be embarrassed if he caught me.
The van turns onto the freeway and I follow, keeping about three car-lengths back. He takes the Crestvale exit and I do too, trailing him through residential suburban streets until he turns into a neighborhood that my beat-up car would definitely stand out in.
We’re the only two vehicles on the road at this point too, so I continue past where he turned in but make a note of the street name. Is this where Whisper lives? It doesn’t fit at all. This posh neighborhood is where CEOs and finance bros live. I guess I don’t know that’s not what Whisper is, he just doesn’t fit the profile.
After waiting a few minutes at the side of the road, I make a U-turn and slowly drive back to where the van turned off, making my own turn to see if I can figure out where it went. Three houses up the street behind a large wrought iron gate, I spot the van in front of a mansion.
Interesting.
I continue driving as I note the many security cameras dotted around the property, then I make my way back to the freeway. Now my curiosity is even more piqued. It had to be Whisper’s van. How many people in the city have a black van with a dent in the right-side door and also happen to live in a mansion in Crestvale? He and Cashmere said he lives with, like, ten people, so this checks out.
What does he do for work to have a serious tech setup in the back of his van and live in a house like that? I want to know.
