Old Habits

I waited at a table in the dingy bar for nearly an hour before he showed up, but I knew better than to leave without speaking to him. Back at the diner in Shelby, I had experienced a moment of sheer panic after listening to my mother begging for Kip’s life, and I had called him and exposed everything to him, my location, what I had been doing (aside from the fact I was technically working for Harrison), all in hopes he would show up to help me.

  I was desperate.

  I was worse than desperate, if such a word even exists.

  I sipped my water and stared around the room, taking in the morning drinking crowd and trying not to judge them. It was barely nine in the morning, and there were at least eight people with assorted alcoholic beverages sitting in front of them.

  I wasn’t even sure the bar would be open at this hour, but apparently they served a mean Bloody Mary, so the morning crowd was larger than one might expect.

  The bartender walked past my table and asked if I would be ordering anything other than water, giving me a disgusted look when I said, “Not right now, but maybe later.”

  Nervously, I twiddled my thumbs under the table, equal parts afraid he might not show up and worried what would happen if he did.

  “It’s a little early to meet at a bar, don’t you think?” he asked, sitting down across from me. I jumped, not expecting him to come from behind me since I’d been facing the door, watching every person who walked past the building outside.

  “You scared me,” I said quietly, intimidated.

  “Good,” he said. “I’ve been watching from the back to make sure you didn’t have anyone else coming to ambush me. Lord knows underestimating you is something I’ll never do again.”

  Emmett O’Kelly, or Officer Jerk Off as I had once been so used to calling him, folded his hands together in front of him as if waiting for an explanation from me, though I had no idea where to start. Hours ago, the words had spilled from my mouth like vomit, but seeing him in person made me clam up worse than I ever had before.

  “I’m not sure where to start,” I said honestly.

  He eyed me, and even though he seemed angry, his face also showed a small amount of despair for me. He knew I was in deep shit, and had probably been more excited than he cared to admit when he got the call from me asking him to meet me in Chicago.

  After all this time, he would have a chance at capturing Jameson Brewer, the one that got away.

  “Well, let’s start with how intrigued I am you decided to call me, of all people. I have every right to arrest you right here and now,” he said. He was dressed in civilian clothing and was considerably balder than I remembered him being the last time I saw him. He had also lost a fair amount of weight, no longer sporting the hanging belly he had been notorious for back in Hastings.

  “You’re a little outside your jurisdiction, aren’t you?” I asked, immediately regretting how bold I sounded.

  “Don’t get cocky,” he warned. “I’m pretty sure Chicago P.D. would be more than willing to help me sort out the technicalities of arresting someone who’s been wanted for murder and drug-dealing for over a year. Not to mention the connection you likely have to that car bomb in California.”

  I stared at him blankly, shocked.

  “You made national news, Brewer,” he said.

  “That bomb was meant to kill me; I didn’t set it,” I said, angry.

  “It doesn’t matter; even if a jury didn’t convict you of anything concerning the bomb, you’ll be going away for a long, long time.”

  I nodded, acknowledging the fact he was probably right. As much as I hated to admit it, sitting there, speaking with Officer O’Kelly, it reminded me of being back in Hastings. I had once seen this man as an enemy, or at least someone who could put a stop to the illegal things I’d been doing, but now it was comforting to be able to confide in him. In some weird, twisted way, it felt like old times.

  And to think, he’d warned me about all this. He’d said spending too much time with Gabe was going to end up getting me in trouble.

  I hadn’t listened, even though I was fairly sure even he would never have guessed how far things would go.

  “You still don’t know the whole story,” I offered. “No one was ever meant to get hurt that day, especially not Airic.”

  He laughed, rolling his eyes. “What are you telling me, your best friend was collateral damage?”

  I thought back to Ford and how he had also been an innocent, unnecessary death, a form of collateral damage in the war between Harrison and me. No matter where I went, people died.

  “Nothing went the way it was supposed to back in Hastings or in California.”

  “Yeah, I know,” O’Kelly said. “You and Gabe were supposed to make out with a couple hundred thousand dollars and no one was supposed to get hurt. You can’t possibly tell me you were surprised when bodies started falling.”

  At the time I had been completely surprised, but after O’Kelly brought it up, I knew he was right. It shouldn’t be shocking when you become a teenage drug-dealer and people close to you start to die, but somehow it was.

  The bartender stopped by our table again, offering O’Kelly an opportunity to order a drink. O’Kelly said, “No thanks,” and the bartender once again walked away, mumbling under his breath.

  “Look,” I began, trying not to lose my patience, “I understand how you’re still angry about what happened, but I’m here to make it right.”

  “How could you possibly make it right?” he asked.

  I knew what he wanted; he wanted to take me into custody, and Gabe too if he could manage it, but I needed his help. My brother’s life depended on it.

  “I know you know who Harrison is, but what do you know about him?” I asked.

  O’Kelly rolled his eyes as if to tell me I was an idiot. “Harrison is one of the biggest drug lords in the country, maybe the world. But nobody can get their hands on him because he’s so good. He hides in plain sight as a businessman. Why?”

  “I work for him,” I blurted.

  “You’re lying.”

  “No.”

  “Prove it.”

  I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to do to prove it. As far as I could tell, Harrison was a ghost. He managed his drug dealings from an office in the city under the guise of being a legitimate businessman. He had to be completely untouchable, or else he would have been arrested long ago.

  I decided to recount everything that had happened since I left Hastings. I told O’Kelly how Gabe and I had traveled to California, met Fuchsia, and set up entirely fake lives to live while running the surf shop and selling weed from behind the counter. I explained how Harrison had caught up with us, and how Gabe’s brother had likely killed one of my only friends in an attempt to kill me. I explained all about fleeing Behler, getting caught, and basically being forced into slavery to pay back Harrison all the money he said we owed him.

  O’Kelly stared at me in both amazement and disgust. The last time he spoke to me, I had been a small town kid, afraid his pot-selling business partner was getting too dangerous. Now here I was, working for one of the most notorious drug kingpins in the world.

  I’d come a long way in only a year and a half.

  “You’ve explained a lot to me, but why am I here?” he asked. After everything, I still hadn’t told him about Kip.

  “Harrison has my brother,” I said.

  “He has Kip?”

  I was somewhat surprised to hear Officer O’Kelly calling my brother by his name. I wasn’t sure, but something told me he had been keeping an eye on my family since I left.

  “Yes,” I said. “Things went south here pretty fast, and I was told people I love are going to die. I called home to warn my family, but I was too late.”

  O’Kelly stared at the table in front of him, not knowing what to say or how to respond. He glared at me across the table and said, “You know you brought all of this down on the people you say you care about.”

  ?
??I know,” I said, not even trying to deny how much pain I had caused everyone in my life. “I’m not asking for forgiveness. I’m not asking you to turn a blind eye to the fact I basically just confessed to countless crimes. I just need your help getting my brother back.”

  “I’m going to arrest you,” he said.

  “I was counting on that,” I said. “But I need you to wait until Kip is safe.”

  “What do I need to do to rescue him?”

  “Gabe and I will be at Harrison’s office building tonight. If you show up, you can have all three of us. I can’t promise Gabe will come quietly, but I will.”

  O’Kelly thought the idea over, not sure how to turn it down. “You’re telling me you’ll show up at Harrison’s office tonight, and if I’m there, I get all of you?”

  “Yes,” I said. “But you have to make sure Kip gets away safely first. People are going to die tonight, and I only called you here to make sure Kip survives. Hell, I might not even survive, but it doesn’t matter as long as Kip lives.”

  O’Kelly knew the ideas was ludicrous, but how could he pass up being able to arrest someone like Harrison? He could easily take me into custody right then and there, but if he waited just twelve more hours, he would become the man who shut down an international drug trade.

  eHe would be a hero.

  “Okay,” he said, not smiling but obviously pleased with how this was playing out. “Tonight, I’ll save your brother, and you and Gabe come back to Indiana in handcuffs.” Despite the change in appearance, O’Kelly was still the same old Officer Jerk Off; he couldn’t resist an opportunity to look good.

  I nodded.

  He stood from the table and leaned over, whispering in my ear, “And if there’s any funny business, you’ll be the one getting shot this time.”

  He left the bar, and I sat there alone again. I considered leaving, but decided against it. The minute I left the bar, everything was going to change. I had only a few hours to convince Gabe we had to kill Harrison that night. As much as I knew O’Kelly wanted to arrest him, there was no way the man who kidnapped my brother was going to make it through this night alive.

  I might die, Gabe might die, but we’d be taking Harrison with us.

  I stopped the bartender as he walked past my table again. “I think I’ll take that drink now,” I said.

  (Minutes to Midnight)