His Secret Nest: Trapped by the Alpha Boss novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Bumper Dinner

Noel stood in that parking lot with the empty glove box open and the sun on his neck.

Fletcher came out barefoot, holding his side.

He looked at the punched lock.

He didn't swear. He breathed in once, through his nose, and turned his head toward the road.

"Two of them," he said. "Hours ago. One smoked."

"You can smell that?"

"I can smell that they stood right here while I was asleep." His jaw went tight. "While you were asleep on me."

"So they followed us."

"Or they knew where we'd stop."

Noel thought of the email. The vault. Fletcher's spare card in a desk on thirty-one.

"We still have the photos," he said. "Fenella has them."

"Photos of drums."

"Photos of your brother selling sixty-two drums to Youngstown."

"Photos of labels anybody could print." Fletcher said it gently. "The jar was the proof, Noel. A jar's chemistry. A photo's a story."

They drove home with the wind roaring through the missing back window.

Once, at a light in Beaver Falls, Fletcher reached over and put his hand on the back of Noel's neck.

Just rested it there, warm, where the collar used to be.

Noel didn't move away.

Fenella's bay was full when they pulled in.

Not full like four people at midnight.

Full.

The line went out the door, down the side of the building and around the dumpster.

People were sitting on the curb with their pill bottles in their laps.

"What happened?" Noel said.

"You happened." Fenella came out wiping her hands on her uniform pants. "The furnace happened. The woman with the turtleneck happened. She took off her collar in front of the whole pack, and now everybody who's been hiding wants to know if their pills are chalk too."

"How many?"

"Ninety-one since last night." She looked at Fletcher, who was standing very carefully by the truck. "What did he do?"

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