Page 142 of Off the Rails

“He is big on so-called clean living. Back to nature and all that.” I added.

“Maybe she went back, they found out she was hanging out with some sketchy dealer and kicked her out.” Blade posited.

Something was clicking for Nash. “She could’ve come back to town, met up with her supplier and gotten too much. Maybe she was extra depressed and needed a bigger hit.”

From what Nash had told me about DMT, the shit really messed with serotonin levels. Take it once and your whole system was depleted of it, leaving you depressed and anxious.

“Then how have we not found the source?” Blade asked as she headed for the warehouse door.

Cyrus looked over the warehouse. “I’m not sure. It’s always a possibility that Rubin is involved. But we need to be careful digging into him. Without evidence to prove it was him, any death will fall on us. We don’t have space for a fuck up.”

“Slow and steady.” Nash pushed open the warehouse door as I followed behind. “Blade’s favorite.”

“Gah. Please no.” She zipped ahead, too much pent up energy from hours of detailed work.

Cyrus turned on the Aston Martin from her keyfob. “Either way, The Messenger has lost a member of his flock. What he does in the coming weeks will tell us everything we need to know.”

Her face grew stern, darkness leaking from her eyes. “Once we crack open his tomb, we’ll have to deal with his sycophants too.”

That alone was a daunting task. From the gathering at the gazebo, it was clear that Rubin’s power was growing. People were scared, terrified of what Valemont had become — of what the world was becoming.

And if I knew anything about hyper-religious groups, it was that they didn’t take kindly to intruders or nonbelievers.

We all piled into the car, agreeing to pick up the Cadillac on the way back to Feverpoint.

But as I tried to resist the urge to fall asleep in Cyrus’ car, I couldn’t help but remember Fright Night was around the corner. And given everything I’d learned tonight, I needed to win my forty grand.

All of this was becoming a tangled web. And I needed to get my cut and run. Or at least have the option to.

76

TESS

Blade’s bootsteps were heavy outside my bedroom door.

She’d been pacing like that all day.

I was almost certain that there’d be a path etched into the polished concrete floors from the scrap of her shoes against the stone.

We’d all been like that since Cyrus told us what happened to Jane. And the days since had been agony, all of us anxious for more information.

Cyrus was happy to leave the house, constantly looking for a new thread to pull. But other than a shift at the club, I’d been pent up in the apartment for the last few days.

So far, all of our digging had gotten us absolutely nowhere. VMTV’s local news coverage had become the soundtrack to our lives. And we all spent most of our time refreshing news sites.

It was completely and utterly exhausting.

Knowing what happened to Jane was hard enough as it was, but knowing that Rubin may have had a hand in it was even worse.

He’d been mourning her death publicly, the woman who had been identified by the coroner as Jane Salazar. It had surprised all of us that her name was actually Jane — she hadn’t lied to us about everything.

But Rubin was making a big show of it, refusing to comment on her death but making a point to parade around Valemont in dirtier robes and comforting crying citizens.

He’d done such a good job finding the attention he was always desperate for that the news had been replaying a clip of him talking for days.

“It is with deep sadness that since a violent gang of lawless bikers took hold of Valemont, we are all being dragged into an unholy place that exists outside of law or order.” He shook his head, his head darting up to the sky. “He Watches.”

It sent shivers down my spine, just remembering it.