The Mystery Fighter III

The Mystery Fighter III (18)

Several of the men in the crew weren't happy about the way Pete had handled the confrontation with Brock and the rest of RL.

«We had them right there, and half of them looked scrawny and small anyway. Two minutes and we would have eliminated the problem altogether,» complained Sam as we neared the van, parked and ready to take us back to Goldhaven.

«Shut up, Sam. You're drunk,» muttered one of the guys, I didn't look up to see who it was. Instead, I was focusing on the vibration coming from my pocket.

«It is weird, though,» I heard Zeke mumble next to me. His voice then raised so that everyone could hear him. «Is there a reason why we're leaving so easily, Pete?»

«Cole's orders,» replied Pete.

The other guys had questions about what Cole's plans for them were. A few complained that they were never let in on what was going on, while others kept saying how sick and tired they were of having to follow this random guy's calling.

Sensing a chance to sneak away for a minute during the chaos, I brought the phone out of my pocket and noticed Rick was trying to call me.

I was surprised to hear Zayden's voice on the other side of the call hiss at me to explain why I had shown up in Range. I had almost cursed, shocked that he too was in Range right now.

But I didn't have time to explain, and I didn't have time to check in with his injuries. Moreover, I didn't want him to disturb my disguise. After having told him that I had made the decision to do this, and not Rick or Brock, I had hung up, but not before promising that I would stay back in Goldhaven and get the hell away from these people once I had the chance.

I returned to the group by the van, who all seemed to have settled down, or given up, on their discussion about Cole and the plan moving forward.

I didn't miss Pete's eyes glued on me as I entered the van behind Zeke, acting as if I didn't notice. It unnerved me.

My muscles relaxed a bit once we were on the road driving, Pete in the driver's seat and me in the very back of the van with Zeke and Ben. Our positioning seemed less threatening; his back to me and my eyes on him.

Half an hour into the drive back to Goldhaven, the van took a right at an intersection and parked on the curb of a street I had passed only a couple of times in my life. There were few people around, no surprise considering this was the vastly unpopular, run-down part of Range Lake's outskirts. It had a reputation for being a hotspot for gangs to meet up and drug deals to go down.

«Everybody out. Piss, have a smoke. I'm meeting with a group at that pub.»

He pointed at a pub entrance a short walk ahead.

I made sure to keep close to Zeke, who kept close to Pete as we made our way down the street. Some of the guys hung back by the van, clearly ready to get back to the city and away from the outskirts.

Ahead, the guys stopped walking as we reached the entrance of a pub. The few times I had driven past these streets on my journeys between Range Lake and Goldhaven, I always got a disturbing feeling, as the pavement was littered with empty beer cans, used syringes, half-smoked joints, and God knows what else.