Page 25 of Torch

“Oh, my God! I already have over five hundred new followers on my business page!”

Christian smiled over at me. “Congratulations, beautiful.”

I cheered happily before leaning over the console, wrapping my arms around his neck. I kissed his cheek and saw him blush. “Thank you for tonight. Besides my grandmother and Kira, no one has supported my business like this.”

“I told you before, no thanks is needed, baby. I just want to see you happy and that beautiful smile on your face.”

Something stirred inside me at the intensity of his words. I knew he meant them wholeheartedly. The way Christian made me feel made me want to bottle this feeling up and carry it with me for the rest of my life. He was showing things that I was quickly getting comfortable having.

I was falling for him. Hard. And that scared me a little. We hadn’t known each other long, but he was quickly becoming my person. I looked forward to his good morning texts, his FaceTime calls, and his nightly visits to Kira’s apartment. I always said I wanted to experience that fairy-tale love. Now that it was possibly here, I couldn’t help but think something would come and pull the rug right out from under my feet.

Chapter Nine

TORCH

As I walked into Church, I couldn’t help the nerves twisting inside of me. Normally we only had Church on Saturday. For Viper to summon us in the middle of the week, I knew it wasn’t good. Right as I took my seat, Viper walked in with my sister, hand in hand. Once everyone was in attendance, he wasted no time bringing his gavel down.

“Alright, fellas, I’m sure you’re all wondering why I called Church this morning, so I’ll get right to it. Chief contacted me last week and said someone is selling fentanyl in town. In the past month, there have been over thirty overdoses.”

Curses went around the room. We all knew this could possibly lead to a war. We kept the streets as clean as we could. It’s the reason why Chief never bothered trying to run us out of town. We did what he couldn’t do legally. As much as people wanted to believe the justice system could handle everything, sometimes that wasn’t the case.

That’s where we would come in. If it was an entire organization behind these drugs, there would only be so much the chief could do with no evidence. He couldn’t just go around questioning people with no cause. That would be the quickest way for the state to get sued.

“If that isn’t bad enough, last night, three teenagers ended up in the hospital from this shit. Two of them died, and the third one is in a medically induced coma. And those kids go to the same school as ours,” Cara informed the group.

Everyone sat up straight with worried expressions. The kids attended a private school. The grades ranged from pre-K to twelfth. Knowing this thing was this close to home scared me. Although I had faith that Marco, Hannah, Cindy, and Colt wouldn’t do drugs, I also knew kids love to pressure their friends.

“Does Chief even have a clue as to who is selling this shit?” Big Red asked.

Viper shook his head. “No, but this morning Cara received a call from Crystal. Marco was friends with one of the boys who overdosed—Tim. He was only fourteen. She said the only thing Marco knew was that one of the boy’s, on the football team, older brother was telling them he could hook them up with what he called feel-good pills. Once Cara dug into him, we found out his brother’s name is Tyson and he’s twenty-two years old. We have his address. Every day I want somebody trailing him. Hopefully, he will lead us to the supplier. If not, we’ll take it up a notch and question him.”

I knew by “question” that meant we would beat the answer out of him if he didn’t comply. In no way were we about to take it easy on this asshole. He was an adult trying to sell drugs to children. Honestly, I felt like following him was going to be too easy. We should be tracking him down to take him out right now. Two kids were dead, and one was in a coma because of this guy.

Rambo offered to follow Tyson for the day. After that, guys started volunteering left and right. It was clear we all wanted this shit out of our town. Once we all established a schedule, Viper ended Church. I left the room, pulling out my phone to call Brit to see if she was done viewing the suite she was considering for clients.

As I rounded the corner of the common room, I bumped right into my mother. She stood there with a scowl on her beautiful face.

“Heeey, Mama,” I said in a nervous tone.

“Don’t hey me. Tell me why Kimberly called me this morning and told me how King said he almost got his head ripped off for coming on to your wife. Now you can imagine my shock because I thought I had made it clear that you needed to handle this.”

Before I could say a word, Cara walked past us, sending me a devilish smirk while snickering. Mama moved so fast I didn’t think Cara saw it coming either. She removed her sandal and popped Cara on the shoulder.

“Oww!” Cara cried. “What was that for?” She frowned, rubbing her shoulder.

“Now is not the time for your antics, little girl. Find you some business before I’m all over your ass next!” Mama hissed.

While my mother was facing Cara, I took the opportunity to stick my tongue out at her. Cara squinted her eyes while nodding slowly before walking away. Once my mother’s attention was back on me, I knew I needed to explain.

“Ma, that’s what I’m doing. I already looked into it, and I have a year to get an annulment. In the meantime, Brittney and I are taking the time to get to know one another.”

My mom raised a brow with a tiny smirk. “So, you like her?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Enough to stay married to her?”

“For the time being, yes.”