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“Your education was stunted?”
“That’s a nice way of putting it. I was lucky that my mother was teaching me things on the side. Reading for women was allowed, but only scripture.”
“The Bible?”
“No,scripture. The nut bag had his version of the bible, which was all about him being the Messiah. Want to know a secret?”
“Again, always.”
“Joseph was a conman, from start to finish. He never believed he was there to rescue people. He was there to prey upon them.”
“Aren’t most cult leaders that way?”
“To an extent, but I’m convinced Joseph started Joyous Wave to make money. He was a drug dealer before, during, and after Joyous Wave.”
Jin studied her for a long moment. Again, it was the same look she got from almost everyone when she talked about Joseph still being alive. According to the FBI, Joseph Watters was dead.
“So, back to your brother. He’s younger?”
“Yes, by about two years.”
As if on cue, her phone buzzed on the table. She knew without looking who it was.
Ian: I said not to do the interview, and you ignored me. WTH?!
She was positive he had some kind of tracker on her or her phone. How did he find things out so fast? It wouldn’t be the first time he did it, but it had been years. When she had been undercover as a DEA agent, Ian had been so overprotective. Even as he traipsed the world as a spy for the British government, he somehow kept track of her. After discovering Joseph was back on the islands, he started playing the mother hen again.
“Do you need to take that?”
“No.” It buzzed again, and she turned it over. He should know after all these years that he had no control over her. “What else do you want to know?”
She climbed the stairs to her apartment, dreading her showdown with Ian. The moment her foot hit the landing for her floor, two doors opened. Ian stepped out of her apartment, glowering in a way most women would find sexy. She did not.
The other door was Freddy’s. His wrinkled face probably came from his time in the sun and the drugs he had taken over the years. The truth was, she had no idea how old he was. Over the last eighteen months, though, she had formed a relationship with him. She paid him for news on the streets about new drugs or dealers.
He smiled at her, showing off his three missing teeth. From his facial features, she knew he was at least a quarter Asian, withdark hair that needed a good wash. He had a scar on his right jaw that looked like it was from a knife. He stood at least three inches shorter than her.
“Hey, pretty Autumn.”
“Hey, Freddy. Howzit?”
He frowned. “Not sure.”
That was a regular thing. Freddy was still using, and at this point in his life, she wasn’t sure he would ever be able to beat the addiction. He had a thing for crack, and it had left his brain mushy. She never knew when she might find him dead, but she knew that day was coming.
“Did you have something for me?”
“Other than that pretty boy giving you the look of death?”
She smiled. Freddy was gay and had a thing for Ian. He talked about her best friend/brother incessantly.
“Yeah, other than that. That I deserve, but don’t worry. I know how to handle him.”
“I could handle him, too.”
She barked out a laugh. “Stop that. You sure you haven’t heard anything?”
“Not anything yet, but there’s word about a new synthetic on the streets.”
