Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 73311 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73311 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Aaron broke right into the discussion as if it was the most normal thing in the world to do.
“You know about the member of the Hollow Gang shooting the police officer, right?” he asked for confirmation.
“Yeah,” Dad’s voice was husky. “I was on shift the day it happened.”
Aaron’s hand tensed over my wound, and a wave of pain flashed through me before he was cursing and pulling away.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured.
I patted his hand. “I know.”
He shook his head before stepping back.
“After you.”
Dad scooted in and started to work as Aaron spoke.
“Kevin Turner—the shooter—seems to have started a movement for the Hollow Gang. Maybe it was the boost they needed, I don’t know.” He cracked his neck. “There were two main rival gangs in Mooresville. The Hollow Gang and The Eighth Street Gang. Both pretty toxic in their own right, but with them against each other its caused some sort of inner city gang war. They’re all trying to prove their worth,” he swallowed. “I’d complained about Kevin Turner selling drugs outside next to the kids’ playground—and he, according to him, had been tasked with killing the ‘pig’ who was trying to put a crimp in their hose.”
“What was that yesterday, then?” Dad asked as he rubbed orange colored antiseptic on my wound.
“Yesterday, according to the guy I shot in the shoulder, was an escalation. They pushed The Eighth Street Gang by showing in their territory—letting them know they weren’t afraid.” He laughed darkly. “The first person to flash the gang sign at them got shot.”
Dad growled in frustration, but didn’t stop as he injected the area surrounding my wound with lidocaine.
Aaron nodded his head.
“Apparently, the bottom three apartments are leased by three of the gang members. One of whom is Kevin Thomas,” Aaron continued. “Though we got a lot more out of Kevin’s little brother than we did out of anybody else.”
“Illegal,” Dad said. “Why the hell is that kid not a ward of the state?”
“Slipped through the cracks I guess,” Aaron replied. “I honestly thought the kid had a mom, but apparently she’s been missing for about a year now.”
“Odd,” I muttered. “They were here when I first arrived. She worked at the Dairy Queen.”
Aaron shrugged.
“I haven’t seen her here at all. Regardless, he’s now a ward of the state, and we have three quarters of The Hollow Gang in lock-up at the county jail.” He sighed. “Though it’s likely that they’re going to be released in the next forty-eight hours. They’ve all been given warnings that any further breaking of the law will be seen as a hostile threat to the police and appropriate action will be taken—whether it be a speeding ticket by one of them, or one of them flashes a gang sign at the rival gang and a police officer happens to see it. They fuck up, they’re going back in. Simple as that.”
Dad chuckled quietly as he threaded the first stitch.
“So my girls should be safe?” he asked carefully.
Aaron hesitated too long, and my dad latched on to the silence with both hands.
“Right.” He nodded his head. “They’ll be coming home with me. End of story.”
“Oh, boy,” I murmured. “Mom should freakin’ love that!”
***
Mom’s scream of outrage as Dad closed the door to his house had me wiping my hands down my face in embarrassment.
“My mom is normally a pretty laid back woman,” I informed him.
Aaron’s answering smile was enough to make my knees wobble.
“So…your parents?”
I burst out laughing.
“My parents…,” I smiled. “They’re definitely one of a kind.”
“So what happened to make them that way?” he asked as he offered me a helmet—a new one that’d appeared today. One that allowed me and him to talk through a microphone instead of having to scream into each other’s ears over the roar of the engine. I guess the ability to talk to me while riding was enough to make him wear a helmet.
“My dad didn’t thank my mom for cooking him dinner. According to the ‘discussion” that Sunny overheard,” I explained.
Aaron blinked.
“What?” he asked.
I nodded my head and mounted the bike behind him, breathing a sigh of relief when we pulled away from my parents’ curb.
“Exactly what I said. He forgot to thank her—one too many times, I might add—and she grew frustrated and left. He was too stubborn to go look for her, and it all degraded from there.”
“Jesus Christ.”
My smile overtook my face.
“Exactly,” I said. “They still have sex. He has her on his insurance. He pays for her car while Mom pays for his life insurance. Literally they share everything but a last name.”
He pulled onto the main highway that would lead us back to our apartments and let the bike open up.
The loud rumble of the pipes reverberated off of the underpass walls as we passed through.
Aaron just shook his head. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever…”