EMERGENCY MEETING. 911.
The text had come from Quarry’s number, and now, as I left the dorms, my insides were churning with confusion and frustration.
First, I was frustrated because Quarry was once again busting my balls to show up at the gym during non-practice hours. It was bad enough that the guy had us sparring every day—not to mention the trouble he’d gotten me into because of his shady tactics. I wondered what this 911 meeting was all about. It could be anything from a new recruit needing to be tested, to Quarry wanting me to take Brooklyn out on another date.
I still couldn’t decide what I was going to do about Quarry and The Slaughterhouse. Ever since hanging out with Gil, I’d been mulling it over and I just couldn’t make up my mind.
But my frustrations went beyond the stuff with Quarry.
I’d really wanted to be alone with Lindsay, and as usual, it had gotten messed up by the ridiculous people she was hanging out with. Stupid, entitled, privileged college kids like that idiot Adam who didn’t know the first thing about life, but seemed to think he knew better than everyone else.
And he was so obviously into Lindsay. As if she would ever give that clown the time of day. Then again, maybe I shouldn’t have been so quick to assume that Lindsay wouldn’t hook up with Adam. After all, he lived in her world. He was smart, and well-educated, and he’d leave and go out to make six figures off the bat.
I, on the other hand, was involved with cops and FBI agents, friends with drug problems, maybe even a trip to a federal prison if things kept going this way.
Maybe a dude like Adam would start to look pretty awesome in comparison.
As I made my way to the gym, all I could think about was Lindsay. The feel of her lips on mine, the way her eyes looked into mine as if she trusted me totally and completely. No one had ever looked at me like that before.
The thing was, she surprised me when I finally started to tell her what was going on in my life, and she could actually handle it. It hadn’t really crossed my mind that Lindsay could be someone that I could talk to about the things that I was dealing with.
And yet, now I’d seen another side of her. It made me want to see more.
But somehow, I knew I’d fuck it up.
***
When I arrived at the gym, Z was standing at the door to greet me. He wasn’t his normal friendly self. Just past his shoulder, I could see the other guys milling around, talking and laughing, but the conversation was quieter than usual. Something was off.
“Hey,” I said, giving Z a pound.
He barely touched knuckles with me. His eyes were heavy lidded, unmoving.
“Get inside,” he said, his voice deep and without the normal friendly tone I was used to.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Quarry on the rampage?”
He didn’t smile. “Don’t know. I just know that motherfucker’s be straggling in late. Doesn’t anyone understand that 911 means emergency? Not take your sweet fucking time? And it don’t mean hang out and laugh like it’s nap time and we’re all in kindergarten?”
The rest of the guys inside heard Z raise his voice, and they quieted down.
I brushed past him, not exactly liking this new side of Z that I was seeing tonight.
Jimbo and Malcolm were standing next to each other, and I joined them.
“Hey,” Jimbo said, his normal humor noticeably absent.
“What’s going on?” I asked, keeping my voice low.
Malcolm shrugged. “Not sure, but people seem weird and edgy.”
Jimbo glanced at Z. “I’m starting to get sick of this shit. It never fucking ends around here.”
I nodded slightly, but didn’t say anything. There were too many people around, too many possible eavesdroppers to voice my agreement with his sentiment.
Quarry finally emerged from the locker rooms. He motioned to Z. “Hey, lock it up.”
“Not everyone’s here yet,” Z replied.
Quarry’s eyes grew cold. “That’s fine. I know who didn’t show. They’ll deal with me later.”
The door shut, but Z didn’t come inside. It seemed as though he was going to stand guard out front or something.
I looked around the room. Besides me, there were only about ten or eleven guys.
The wider group that came in and sparred and worked out at The Slaughterhouse weren’t here—whether it was because they hadn’t showed, or hadn’t been invited.
Either way, it just so happened that the guys that had shown up, were all the people I would have considered to be part of the inner circle. This was the core group that Quarry kept close to him.
I was the only guy who was new enough to not be considered an insider. I wasn’t truly part of The Slaughterhouse family yet.
Quarry was wearing jeans and a white t-shirt. He looked somehow ruffled, unsteady in a way that I wasn’t used to. He was smiling a little bit, which was unusual.
Quarry didn’t smile very much.
“Thanks for coming here on short notice,” he said, looking at each of us in turn.