Nightcrawler (Trackers #1)

Chapter Fourteen

MIGUEL

I would have hoped my day couldn’t get any stranger after being ambushed by Raven’s friends, and mine. But sure enough, as soon as I walked up to my floor and stepped through the fire door, I was met with my frowning landlord. He was standing in front of my door, knocking. When he heard footsteps, he turned and looked over at me. “What’s going on, Huerta? Are you going to pay your back rent?” Before I could reply, he went on. “I suppose it doesn’t matter. I’ll only take you to court and get a judgment but either way, you’re going to meet the sheriffs on the front lawn with all your stuff tomorrow.”

I frowned as I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, threatening to bring up the delicious dessert I’d eaten an hour ago. “Tomorrow? I got a demand for the back rent yesterday. I have ten days.”

“That was before I met the delivery guy from Amazon traipsing up the stairs carrying a box of cat litter this morning,” he said, smiling nastily. “You know pets ain’t allowed in the building.” He pointed to the large box of litter I’d had delivered and regretted using the free delivery service I received rather than simply picking some up at the market.

“I didn’t know pets weren’t allowed in the building.”

“Well, it’s in your lease. No pets! No exceptions! Immediate eviction. I’ve already notified the sheriff’s office. They’ll be here bright and early to throw your ass out on the grass.”

There wasn’t any grass. The front lawn consisted of sparse, brown stalks sticking up through mud when it rained in the winter and dying quick when the hot sun of Hollywood summers hit. “I assume grass is a metaphor?”

The short, stocky man pointed a gnarled finger at my face. “You know what I’m saying, Huerta. You’re always late with the rent and now you got you a cat. Well, I’m sick and tired of it. I came here as a courtesy to give you time to get your shit out before the sheriffs get here. You should be thanking me.”

I wanted to scream. Everything I owned was in that crappy apartment and I had no place to put it. “Fine. I guess I have no choice in the matter, so I’ll move. Let me call some friends to help me get my stuff out.”

“I’ll be back around ten to make sure the unit is empty.” With that, he turned on a heel and walked back down the hall, oblivious to the destruction he’d just wreaked in my life.

Hopelessness flooded me but the moment I opened the door, Stanley came running across the floor toward me, meowing loudly. I couldn’t help but smile as I picked up the kitten and buried my face in his soft gray and white fur. I felt tears threatening but choked them back. I wasn’t going to cry over that guy but I needed to think on my feet. I started running scenarios through my mind. In twelve hours I was going to be homeless. What was I going to do with Stan? I nuzzled the purring furball for another two minutes and then sat heavily in one of the thrift store chairs at my kitchen table, looking around the room, doing inventory. The mattress was a mess, full of Raven’s blood and should be replaced, not that I had the funds to do it. The rest of my furnishings were cheap crap I’d picked up here and there.

The only thing I owned of any real value was my footlocker which was pushed against the wall opposite the bed. Everything I genuinely cared about was packed inside. I didn’t have many clothes and no TV since I used my tablet for viewing my shows and reading. I pulled out my phone and hit speed dial. It rang twice before he picked up.

“Hey, buddy, what’s cookin’? I hope Raven’s okay,” Vonne said.

I smiled, feeling bad for burdening my friend with another problem. “Raven’s doing fine, Vonne. Actually, he’s great, but I have another problem, and honestly, I don’t know what to do about it.”

“Tell me.”

“I spent the morning at Raven’s place and then I had to get my truck from the tow yard and shit…it’s just been a rotten day all around.”

“It happens, my brother. What can I do? I’m at work but I can come over to your place after I get off at seven. You can tell me all about how you managed to get your truck towed, knucklehead.”

I hung my head, resting my cheek in my hand as I talked. “That’s…that’s not the problem. Raven helped me get it out of tow…but I promised to pay him back from proceeds from my next job,” I rushed to say. “The big problem now is that I came home tonight to find my landlord pounding on my door. He wants me out because he found out about Stanley. I was behind on my rent anyway, but there’s this job which will take care of everything. The problem is, the payday is a week away and I don’t have the time. I-I’m not asking for a loan, Vonne. I want to put that out here. I guess, I’m just asking you for your advice because I sure as hell don’t know what to do.”

A shrill whistle came through the phone, and I yanked it away from my ear. “Shit, Vonne,” I said, pressing the phone back to my head.

“Sorry, Trigg. You sounded like you were about to lose it there. What can I do? I’d have you come stay with me here but you know I can’t do the whole cat thing. My lady—you know she’s allergic.”

“I know.” I hesitated, the wheels turning in my head. “Listen, I gotta get out of here tonight. The sheriffs are coming in the morning to throw my shit on the lawn.” I reached up and ran a hand through my hair. “I think—I think I can go to Raven’s place. He’s got a house in the Hollywood Hills, and I was supposed to go there tonight for dinner anyway. He told me to bring the cat.”

Vonne let out a bark of laughter. “You’ve known the boy for a day and he’s askin’ you to move in? You must have a magical dong, my friend.”

I grinned, shaking my head. Vonne always made me feel better. “It’s not like that. Besides, what kind of a prick do you think I am? The guy’s just been shot. It’s not like I said, ‘hey, I know you have two extra holes in you…let me take the rest of ‘em out for a spin while you’re healin’.”

Vonne burst into laughter, and I smiled. His laugh always made me smile. It was so infectious. “Raven invited me for dinner tonight and he lives with his elderly grandma who likes cats.”

Vonne laughed harder. “He told you that? Come over for dinner…my granny likes cats? Man, it’s been way too long since you’ve dated if you can’t recognize when a guy likes you so much that he invites you…and your cat to dinner.”

I shook my head. Maybe I was a bit slow on the uptake but then again, it’d been a while since I’d thought about what guys wanted and such. Vonne was right. Raven had sure liked kissing me and the erection he’d been sporting when he’d pressed up against me, wasn’t something a guy could miss.

“I honestly never thought about it,” I said, sounding lame. Vonne chuckled again. “What can I say? Who the hell doesn’t like kittens?”

“Kittens…right. So…are you tellin’ me you didn’t even kiss him?”

“I… ah …I kissed him…a couple of times.”

Vonne chuckled. “Brother, I knew it!”

I smiled. “Yeah. I suppose… aw, hell, the man is just so nice.”

“Yeah, he really is. I’m happy for you, Trigg. I really am.”

“Anyway, maybe you’re right. At least for tonight, I can crash with him. He said as much. I’m gonna call him and ask if he’s sure it’s okay to crash in his spare bedroom…maybe even for a couple of nights. If he says it’s okay, I’ll need your help, though.” I thought about what I really needed to take with me. I couldn’t care less if the manager wanted to dump everything else.

“Whatever you need, brother.”

“I don’t have anything here I care about except Stanley, my clothes, and my footlocker. And, if I don’t want the landlord calling the cops, I’d better get the mattress to the dump. It’s soaked in blood. I can drag that down the stairs on my own, but I can’t carry my footlocker by myself.”

“I can be there in a couple of hours, Trigg…just as soon as I get off work, my man.”

“Thanks, brother. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” I hung up the phone, worried about calling Raven but knowing I didn’t have a choice in the matter. I couldn’t just show up with all my stuff in the bed of my truck. I dialed the number I’d saved in my contacts, and he picked up on the first ring, steeling myself for a humbling conversation. I could feel the blush on my face the second he answered.

“Hey, stranger,” he answered cheerily. “How’s it going? Are you running late?”

I looked at my watch. I should have been at his place by now. We didn’t live that far apart. “I… ah …this is really embarrassing.”

“What’s wrong? I can hear something in your voice. Is Stanley okay?”

Stanley? “Oh, yeah, my baby’s fine. That’s not it.”

“Okay.”

“Actually, my landlord found out about him because I stupidly ordered cat litter through Amazon and he saw it when it was delivered.”

“I guess that means you’re not allowed to have animals in your place. Was he really mad?”

I reached up and ran fingers through my hair. “He’s called the sheriffs. They’ll be here in the morning to put my stuff out front if I can’t get it out of here tonight.”

“What a bastard!” Raven said.

“It’s not only that,” I said, feeling really small. “The truth is…well, you know I’ve been having some money troubles, and I was counting on the Monroe job to be able to catch up on past rent.”

“Oh, man, Miguel. You mean he was going to—”

“Evict my ass in a week or so anyway, yeah.”

“Come here.”

For a second, I wasn’t sure I’d heard right. “N-now?”

“Yes, come here and stay. I told you I have a spare bedroom where you can crash and stay until you get back on your feet. My nana loves cats. I can clear a space in my garage for your furniture. I have the room.”

“Raven, I’m not sure,” I said, feeling butterflies in my stomach. “I hate taking charity from people. It’s just not in my DNA.”

He said nothing for a couple of beats, and I know I must have said something wrong. “Is the offer of friendship not in your DNA, Miguel?”

“I just don’t—”

“It’s not charity! It’s helping out a friend. I think you’d do it for me if our roles were reversed, right?”

I would. In a hot second. “Yes, of course. It’s just that you hardly know me.” I smiled, letting some humor creep into my voice. “What if I turned out to be a serial killer or something.”

He snorted and then laughed outright. “ Are you a serial killer, Miguel?”

“No.” I grinned, feeling like a million pounds had been lifted from my shoulders. “Okay, but it’s in no way a permanent thing. I hate imposing but I have—” I took a deep breath, blowing it out slowly before continuing. “I have no money for a motel, and Vonne’s girl is allergic to animals, and my other brothers are living far away or out on missions at the moment and—”

“Bring your stuff,” he said, interrupting. “I have room for everything, but I might need help clearing a space large enough.”

I sighed. “Vonne’s coming after he gets off at seven. I only have my clothes and my footlocker. I’m dumping the mattress because—”

“Because it looks like a serial killer owns it?” The smile in his voice was evident.

I nodded even though he couldn’t see me. “Yeah. Anyway, I only care about my footlocker and my clothes. You won’t even have to clear a space.”

“What about your furniture?”

“There’s nothing I care about, and the rest of it can be dumped by the landlord or the sheriffs. It’s all thrift store crap. When I get paid for this next job, I’ll have more than enough money to pick up some for a new apartment somewhere.” I paused before adding. “I promise, I won’t overstay my welcome. I swear it.”

“Let’s cross that bridge if and when we come to it, Miguel,” he said. I hadn’t finished processing that as he went on. “So, Vonne will be at your place after work?”

“Yeah, he gets off at seven, so we’ll probably be there by eight-thirty. I know I’m probably spoiling the nice dinner you have planned.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “I’m really sorry I fucked that up, Raven.”

“You didn’t fuck anything up. I’m making pasta and salad, and I can just start that later. It’s no big deal. Vonne should stay for dinner too.”

If we were in the same room, I would have hugged the man. Raven Mathis was honestly one of the nicest people I’d ever met. I’d totally misjudged him from the start. “That’s real nice of you. I don’t know what to say except thanks, Raven.”

“Like I said, we’re friends and you can always count on me. I hope that’ll be clear after this.”

“I…yeah, thank you, Raven. Stanley and I will be there a little bit later. Now, I gotta go pack up.”

“See you soon, Miguel.” He didn’t wait for a reply before hanging up. I sat there for a few seconds before standing up.

I headed downstairs and grabbed some boxes from the alley out back beside the dumpster. Until Amazon daily deliveries, I’d had to go out of my way to retrieve boxes from the grocery store, but since everyone and their brother ordered from the huge retailer, it was easy to find them in all shapes and sizes. Pickings were kind of thin today, but I managed to scrounge up several smaller ones I could fit my underwear and smaller bathroom items in. The rest of it would fit in the cab of my old truck. I thanked God for Raven. Had it not been for him, I wouldn’t have any way of getting my truck back or even having a roof over my head tonight. The very idea of Stanley out on the street where he could wander away if I fell asleep outside, was something I was too raw to contemplate.

I hauled the boxes back upstairs. After I’d packed a few dishes and a nice pot I really liked into them, along with the few settings of my mother’s silverware I still owned, I headed off to the main room. I took all my clothes out of the bureau and then the closet, putting them into boxes to be hauled out and probably ironed later since they’d end up being a mess after they’d had time to wrinkle. After that, I packed the two pairs of boots I had along with a pair of dress shoes and some sneakers which I’d gotten from the thrift store but loved because they fit my big feet and were almost new. The twenty bucks I’d paid for them felt like a lot at the time, but they worked well for me when having to take off after a fugitive.

After I’d boxed up my bathroom things, I headed for my footlocker, taking several worn paperbacks off it, and setting them on the bed. Squatting, I unlocked it and lifted the lid. On top was a triangular, folded flag set inside a frame under glass. Up close, it didn’t look like much, but it held great significance to me because it was all that was left of a man I’d fallen in love with many years ago. I stared at it for a few seconds and then set it aside, before looking at the other things inside.

It contained my fatigues—all except for the dress blues—which I kept immaculately pressed and zipped up in a garment bag in the closet, and a few souvenirs from my many missions across the globe. There were pictures of the guys in my unit, including those of John, which were the most precious of all.

I pulled those out and set them aside along with the clothes, reaching deeper for my most valuable possessions of all. I pulled out a faded pink scrapbook which had been my mother’s. She’d kept mementos of my childhood inside, from the baby bracelet which had been around my newborn wrist, to pictures of my father holding me hours after my birth. There were other pictures too…those of my older brother, Tomas, who’d been born five years before me, and died when he was six months old from spinal meningitis. I’d never known him but as I turned the yellowing pages of the album my mother had so meticulously kept up to date until the day she’d died, the story of his brief life was also there on display.

He’d fallen ill two days after Christmas, meaning that every one of my mother’s family—who’d been visiting from Mexico for the holidays—had been given a course of antibiotics after his diagnosis. He’d succumbed from his illness three days after diagnosis, and it had taken my mother another four years before trying again after swearing they’d never try to conceive. They’d both told me that deciding to have me had been the most difficult decision of their lives but after making it, they’d counted every day of my life a blessing. They’d never made me feel like a replacement for Tomas. I’d known they’d loved me until the day they died. I felt the tears threatening again, so I shut the album, and replaced everything.

While I waited for Vonne to arrive, I grabbed my tablet and sat down, going to my favorite site. I didn’t know when Nightcrawler had time to read or how he found all these ridiculous titles but wasn’t sure if I wanted to shake his hand or buy him a beer.

Book title: The Thunder Games

Author: Stephanie Wise

Publisher: Self-published

Genre: Teen, young-adult, fantasy

Review/rating by Nightcrawler: Two and a half stars, rounded down to two

Synopsis:

The fascinating story of an ordinary young mouse named Peter and his quest to save his starving kingdom by participating in a series of harrowing challenges. As he moves from one challenge to the next, they increase in difficulty. The starving hero of our story begins his quest, finally culminating in the one challenge which will save not only his life, but the rest of his kingdom.

My review:

Let me begin by saying that this book didn’t totally suck. Watching this brave mouse try to overcome one challenge after another was exciting…in a way. It begins with him finding his way through a vegetable patch without stealing so much as a strawberry to eat even though the author describes his hunger quite thoroughly. He even climbs trees to pick apples and throw them down to field mice farmers who collect them in baskets below as he ignores his own hunger…well you get the idea.

But whoever rigged these challenges, doesn’t know, and never will, how to set a mousetrap. Some of them were simple to overcome. I’ll give you an example. Peter—our mouse—has been running through the forest for an entire day with nothing to eat when he gets to a lake of liquid cheese. The challenge is to swim through it without licking even a drop off his lips. Honestly, reading about Peter’s bravery when faced with such a challenge was the only reason I gave this book two stars instead of one.

Peter, however, faces his greatest challenge just when the culmination of all his achievements is suddenly threatened…by rainfall. Yes, that’s right. You heard me. Peter’s very life is threatened by rainfall. We’re not talking about a hurricane here; we’re talking about rainfall. Our poor tired mouse hero is forced to slog through the sprinkling rain to find safety and finally, completely out of strength to go a single step more, he decides to keep dry under a mushroom.

The only reason I’m giving this book two stars instead of three, is because another mouse is already taking shelter under the same mushroom which is how Peter got the idea to begin with. Philosophically speaking, I felt like the mushroom represented not only safety and life to Peter, but a profound instinct to survive.

Reader beware. I promise I will not be reading any more of Stephanie Wise’s books. They’re way too exciting and I just don’t know if I should recommend them to anyone with a weak heart.

When a knock came at the door, I let my grinning friend into the apartment, and he swept me into a hug. He was still wearing his scrubs and my guilt at asking yet another favor of him returned in full force as he let me go. He looked around the apartment, noting the full extent of my possessions packed up in a pathetically small number of boxes.

“We should start with the mattress, huh ?” he asked.

“It’s dark, so I think yes, we should get it downstairs,” I said, feeling another thank you on the tip of my tongue but deciding to leave it until we were done.

“Good plan,” he said, walking over to the soaked mattress and looking down at it. “Didn’t realize he’d lost that much blood.” He looked over at me as I felt my face reddening. “He’s really okay? It’s kind of a miracle he didn’t need a transfusion or at the very least, IV fluids.”

I shrugged my shoulders, feeling another wave of guilt wash over me. Vonne must have seen it in my face because he closed the distance between us and looked up at me before clapping me on the shoulder. “It’s okay, really. If you think he’s okay, it’s good, right?”

“I mean, he seems like he’s fine and I think I’d know if he was trying to hide something that important from me.”

He didn’t say anything but when a smile slowly spread across his lips, he seemed to figure out something. He nodded slowly. “You know him that well by now, huh ?”

I frowned at him. “Enough. I mean, he came out to meet with some friends of mine about my next job.” I brushed past him, not really wanting to discuss the retrieval of the nasty meth head we were going to go after. I felt the weight of his stare on me as I bent and grabbed the mattress, pulling it off the bed and laying it on its side where it’d be easier to push out the door, down the hall, and to the stairs. I took the sheets with it. They were slightly stained and worth almost nothing, so I figured I might as well dispose of the whole lot of the bedding with the exception of the quilt my mother had sewn by hand. I’d already folded that and carefully packed it away.

The quilt had turned up among the belongings Cassidy and Mike had packed for me in the aftermath of that awful night when they’d returned to gather what they thought I might want from the house. Child Protective Services had come to the LAPD substation the night of their murders after I’d sobbed through a statement to the police, and I’d never gone back into the house. I hadn’t even realized that it had been Cassidy who’d initiated the packing of my belongings and the remnants of my parents’ lives until years later.

He’d seen to it that the house was packed up after he and Mike had picked through the few things they thought would hold sentimental value to me and put them in boxes. The men who’d robbed and killed my parents, had trashed most of the dining room, kitchen, and living areas, and stolen all my mother’s jewelry, so there wasn’t a whole lot to pack. I hadn’t gone through any of the boxes Cassidy had stored in his own garage until I’d gotten out of the group home, and I’d found the quilt, the silverware, and the photographs I loved. I thanked God for him and Mike every day.

“He went with you to meet friends for a job?” he asked, helping me wrestle the mattress out the door and down the hall.

“Yeah, Jamie has me going after a fugitive and since the fugitive is a big guy, I needed help.”

“Who’d you call?”

We struggled down the stairs to the parking garage, grunting as we went, and pushing it out the second door to the filthy subterranean level before I answered.

“Cassidy Ryan and Mike Williams.”

“They’re gonna help you take this guy down? They’re not gonna want to arrest him themselves?”

“No, they know I need the bounty and… ah …” I ran my hand through my hair. “It wasn’t exactly my idea. Raven called them when he figured out I was planning on going after him alone.” We were trudging back up the stairs together as Vonne laughed.

“That boy is good for you.”

I turned to him and smiled. “Yeah, I guess he is.”

We loaded boxes and clothes into my truck, along with Stanley, and drove to the dump to unload the mattress before I dropped him off back at my place with a huge thank you and a big hug. I took one more look around my barren apartment with only a few pieces of crappy furniture and left the key on the counter, before heading out to Raven’s place, thankful that I had a place to crash.