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“Yeah, that’s Durden alright…” Hal hummed. “It’s a small ass dosage, but I know Durden when I see one.”

“How do you know for sure?” Kana asked.

“We’ve had some experience with it,” Alex answered. He held up the top half of the metal rod. “But what the fuck is this? Why was it in there?”

Kana shrugged. “Beats me. That’s what Robin was hoping you’d provide us with.”

“About what?” Alex asked, crossing his arms. He didn’t know how much this Robin person knew about him, but he was still curious about what kind of information they may have been feeding to random people.

“Robin mentioned Durden was first distributed by the Garras. They think there’s a possibility Sunny may have had a run-in with them. To find out more, they suggested we hear from someone who is in the Garras.” She nodded at Alex. “Well, are you?”

“Am I what?” Alex challenged back.

Kana gulped, as if steeling herself. “Are you guys giving out Durden to people?”

Alex and Hal both wheezed out a laugh. Kana looked at them with a confused look.

“Girl.” Hal waved, trying to contain his laughter. “I hate to break it to ya, but we in the dark like you.”

Kana blinked. “What?”

Alex kicked Hal’s shin. Hal yelped. “What he means is, we ain’t a part of that life anymore. So, no, we wouldn’t know.” Before Kana opened her mouth, Alex raised a finger close to her lips. “But that ain’t gonna stop us from figuring out if our homies are dealing with that shit again.”

It bothered Alex that the Garras were back on this Durden business. It made his blood boil that they would even touch this stuff when they all swore to never get their hands on it anymore. But the desperation in this girl’s eyes gave Alex more suspicion that there was more to it.

Kana sighed, slumping back into her seat. “So, can you help me or not?”

“With what?”

Someone plopped right next to Hal.

Everyone turned.

Jun hunched over on the table with his hands in his pockets.

Alex looked left and right in distress. “What the fuck is going on? Weren’t you supposed to be in the car?”

Jun nodded towards Kana. “You can see the front, right?”

Kana squinted at him suspiciously. “Yeah?”

“Tell me when you see a large guy with a brown hoodie and thick glasses.”

Kana cast her eyes towards the front and nodded.

Hal and Alex turned to look. Sure enough, there was a large, tall man in a brown hoodie with a messy fringe, covering the eyes of his thick glasses.

“What about him?” Hal asked.

“He’s been watching and following me since we got here.”

5

Escape

Everyone lowered their heads. “Explain,” Alex whispered, gritting his teeth.

Jun glanced at everyone around the table. He tried to avert his gaze from the small emo-looking girl in front of him. “I watched you guys go into the restaurant and saw that you were back here. I was backing up to get a better view until that Corvette pulled up.” He nodded towards the window beside Alex, where the black Corvette sat parked behind the Civic. “I looked in the mirrors. The guy didn’t get out. I thought maybe he was waiting for someone, but he never moved. He just kept staring at this table.”