Part of me was being nonchalant about all that was happening with me and how it would affect my parents because, as crazy as I was, they not only always loved me but expected, when it got down to the important shit, I’d do the right thing. And save for some lying and underage drinking and a few other things (okay, maybe not a few but nothing that was important), I did.
So I knew two things. The first was that whatever decision I made, if it wasn’t stupid, they’d back it (eventually). The second was that they knew they raised a woman who would not be stupid.
But hearing what Lee said sucked. And it pained me. Because I didn’t want to hurt or piss off my parents. And I’d done both.
So I needed to attend this meeting and see to sorting that out.
I drew in breath.
Then I let it out and nodded once again, mentally planning to send a text to Ren that was a lot less fun than the earlier ones to explain the change in plans for our evening.
Now, however, I had a job to do.
Therefore I asked Lee, “We ready?”
He stepped to the side for me to precede him, answering, “Let’s roll.”
I followed Lee out of the books and to the front.
Lee went to Indy.
I went to the door.
But as I did, I had eyes on my BFF.
She also had eyes on me and she mouthed, Be safe.
I mouthed back, Always.
Then I walked out the door.
* * * * *
I’d chosen locations wrongly.
This was because Lincoln’s had two rows of stationary tables down its front room, at the end there was a bar, an entrance at the front, a door to the smoking area at the back. That meant that there was no way to sit without your back to a door.
I picked facing to the front but turning my back to the wall so I had eyes either way.
I’d also clocked Tex sitting at the bar with a bottle of Bud in front of him. I didn’t look at him, but I clocked him. Then again, with his mass, that would be hard not to do.
Brian, I didn’t see and I didn’t look. I knew Brian enough, if he told Lee he was in place, he was.
I ordered a bottle of Fat Tire and waited, phone on the table by my beer, pepper spray in my back pocket.
At three seventeen, I was getting antsy.
It was then the front door opened and they came in.
I knew it was them right away. I knew this not because they looked like their mug shots (they didn’t), but because there were two of them and one was slight, wiry and looked as whiney and weasely as he sounded on the phone.
But the other one was big, brawny and I knew instantly he was not only the muscle, he was the brains.
And he was not to be messed with.
I also felt it. The prickle at the back of my neck and the charge of my adrenaline flowing.
They were not here to negotiate. I had no idea what they had planned but they offered deference in an attempt to outfox me and get my ass right where it was. This meant, regardless of any connections I had that they’d put together, they did not take me seriously.