Page 42 of Smoke

It’s over between us. I need you to accept that. Or this isn’t going to end well.

Is that a threat, Cherry? Because two can play at that game.

No, Kane. Look, I’m sorry for everything I’ve put you through. Please just tell me how to fix this.

Meet me later tonight at the fair, behind the Gravitron. After you close up your booth. You let me take one more look at you and I’ll leave you alone forever. I’ll even delete everything I have. You owe me one last time.

I bite my lip to keep it from quivering. Is he telling the truth? Or is this just another one of his twisted games? I can’t risk not knowing if there’s a chance he could be ready to call a truce.

I’ll be there. But I need your word that this it. Promise me you’ll stay away from Level Up and Hawk’s warehouses. And I want to watch you delete all the pics and videos I sent you.

You give me one last little peek at what I used to have, and I promise you, my sweet Cherry pie, that you’ll never hear from me again. Oh, and come alone. I’ll be watching everything. If I see one of your little cocksuckers anywhere near the Gravitron, the deal’s off.

Now I have to figure out how I’m going to sneak away. Hawk, Scar, and Om haven’t left my side since this all started. At least one of them has always been guarding me. Especially after what Kane did to my bar last night, there’s no fucking way they’re gonna let me out of their sight.

But I need them to. Because this could be my only chance at getting Kane to back off. It’s in his best interest too as well. Eventually, they are going to catch him and kill him. And he has to know that. Hawk moved finding Kane to the top of his list of priorities.

I’m guessing Kane’s gonna skip town before they find him and he just wants one more fucking dig at me before he does. When you spiral this long with someone, it’s hard to break the cycle.

I’m soaked through in this heat. Summers in Crimson Valley are not for the weak. I got spoiled spending every night in my air-conditioned bar. Out here, even after the sun goes down, it’s sweltering.

The good news is I’m almost sold out of all my wine slushies and I’m down to just a couple cases of Lavender Heights ale. These funds will help go toward the damage. Insurance will cover most of it except for the pinball machines. With them being so old, they weren’t eligible to be insured.

But I can’t think about that right now. In just a few minutes, I have to find a way to sneak off and meet Kane behind the Gravitron. The guys have been watching me in shifts, swapping out to go handle their own affairs. Kane’s antics have caused chaos everywhere, but at least they know now that the mayhem wasn’t coming from inside their operation.

Hawk seems more concerned about a growing threat coming from Lavender Heights. Some kingpin called Canyon Reyes has been doing deals a little too close to the Crimson Valley county line.

I sent my old bestie, Roxy, a text asking if she could have her rich boyfriend do some digging on the guy. Punk Wilder used to be a famous skater, so he runs in different circles than we do.

Turns out, Canyon Reyes showed up in Lavender Heights just a few years ago and quickly swooped in on the territory. He’s got old family money and more than a few screws loose, so it didn’t take much for him to secure his hold on the city.

This new information has Hawk distracted and doling out new tasks for Scarrow and Omen. But it still feels impossible to get away.

“Hey, Cherry. Let me get a Lavender Heights ale and one of those pink girlie drinks for the missus.” Hal slaps a twenty dollar bill onto my booth. “And keep the change, darlin’.”

“You got it, Hal. Thanks for coming out and supporting Level Up.” I hand him his drinks and throw in a basket of fries. “On the house.”

“That’s mighty kind of ya. Tell your daddy we’ll see him at church on Sunday.”

“Will do.” I nod as they amble off. Dorothy’s face lights up when he hands her the rosé slushie and my famous extra-gooey cheese fries.

“How you holding up, mama?” Omen towers over me, tall, dark, and sexy as fuck in his all black suit. He dips his head, tilting it the side, and I get a whiff of amber musk, licorice, and leather.

“I’m just about ready to pack up and head home. Not too much to load though. I sold out of everything but one case of ale.” The day turned into night without me noticing. One minute the sun was shining, and now the sky is full of twinkling stars.

When I was a kid, my daddy used to let me go to the fair every weekend. It got me out of his hair, and there ain’t much else to do in this town anyway. In the fall, we have pumpkin patches and haunted corn mazes. And in the summer, we have this.

“All right. Scarrow and Hawk are running an errand. But he left me the truck. I’ll pull it around so we can load up and get the fuck out of here.” He fishes the keys out of his pocket and looks around, scanning the area. “You stay put until I get back.”

I nod but don’t give him a verbal response. I hum instead as I pretend to look busy cleaning up the booth. I bite the inside of my cheek to try and steady my racing pulse. Fuck, he’s gonna be so pissed. Why couldn’t it have been Scarrow here with me at the end tonight? He’d be less pissed at me I think.

Once Omen disappears down the center of the fairgrounds, between the colorful awnings of the game booths, I make a mad dash out of Restaurant Row. My heart is pounding as I half-walk, half-jog past the Ferris wheel, Tilt-a-whirl, and Zipper rides. The smells of popcorn, caramel apples, and cotton candy make me long for another era. A time when I wasn’t a murderer. When I wasn’t being blackmailed for it and forced to send filthy pictures of myself to a deranged stalker.

As I near the Gravitron, I realize why Kane picked it. It’s at the edge of the fair, near the fence. The ride is basically a giant metal spaceship that spins so fast it pins the riders to its walls. Which means it’s too dangerous to hang out close to it, and the people stumbling off of it are too dizzy to notice anyone anyway.

I duck behind the rope and slink around back to see Kane leaning up against the chain-link fence. “Hey, Cherry pie.”

His smug smirk makes my skin crawl. “Don’t call me that, Kane. I’m not a piece of dessert.”