Lacey's Tale Part 2- The Reveal

“Do you think he knows?” Tink asked, her long thin legs were crossed Indian style on Lacey’s rug, and she bit her fingernails nervously

“I wouldn’t be surprised, but I can’t assume what he knows.” Lacey responded absent mindedly as she looked through the things in her closet, she had been pulling shoe boxes out and looking through them for the past 15 minutes,

“What are you looking for?” Trish asked

“Got it.” Lacey said coming out the closet with a card, she riffled for her phone then took a deep breath as she gathered herself to make the call she was about to make. She jumped scaring Trish and Tink when her phone started ringing in her hand

“Hello,” Lacey said

“I do know who you are,” Rome said, “In fact I know the call you were about to make, but me being a nice guy I wanted to have a talk before you dug your grave.”

“I need her help.” Lacey said

“Do what you gotta do but keep my name out your mouth.”

The call ended but she remembered the tone of his voice and it made Lacey’s hand tremble a bit, she couldn’t help but wonder how he knew so much.

“I have to get out of here tonight.” She said grabbing her bags and putting clothes in them

“I’m coming with you,” Tink said and ran to her room to get her things

“Where are you going?” Trish asked

“The less you know the better,” Lacey said throwing clothes in her bag

“You don’t trust me?”

“This ain’t about you and I don’t have time to coddle your feelings.” Lacey threw her bag over her shoulder and looked Trish in the eyes “You coming or what?”

“Of course.”

It was late morning the next day when they arrived at their destination, Lacey got out of the car alone and walked up to the entrance of Stiles Trucking she blew out an exasperated sigh and opened the door.

The person sitting behind the front desk hung up the phone when she saw her walk in

“Lacey?”

“Hi Sara, is Aunt Ros here?” Lacey asked hugging her big cousin

“Yeah, she’s back there.” Sara nodded her head toward her mother's office

“I need to see her but we will talk later okay?” Lacey said hugging her again and walking away

Lacey knocked and when she heard her aunt say it was okay to come in, she opened the door. When Rosalyn looked up she looked stressed at first but her expression changed when she saw her and Lacey smiled.

“Hey,” she said

“Bridge is here, What took you so long to come?” Rosalyn asked

“I tried to figure things out on my own.” Lacey shrugged and embraced her aunt in a hug, her mother and Rosalyn were cousins, but they treated each other as sisters. They lost touch but her mother never stopped telling them to find Rosalyn If anything ever happened to her. Lacey was old enough to remember her aunt and her cousins, her little sister Bridge was too young when they lost touch to remember them. Lacey was surprised that she still came and found them. A bit of guilt crept in because she didn’t try to find her little sister when she landed on her feet. Her lifestyle made her want to fade in the background.

“That’s the exact same thing your sister said.” Rosalyn informed her when they separated

“She can’t know I’m here,” Lacey said in a hush tone

“I already do.” Bridge said from the doorway, a hurt look flashed in her eyes before replaced with indifference. “Sara called me, I thought you were here to see me, my bad you take care of yourself big sis.” Bridge put emphasis on her last words and walked away

“I need to find my mama and Bridge can’t know, I’m trying to protect her.”

“Believe it or not, she doesn’t need your protection and your quickest way to find Bella B is through the girl that just walked out this door.”

Lacey let out a deep breath and before she could turn to follow her sister she was stopped, Lacey braced herself for what was to come

“Protect her from what?” Rosalyn asked

"I fucked up," Lacey broke down "I ran a con and the man found out who I was somehow and now he wants me to find my mother, or he will kill me."

"You did this by yourself?" Rosalyn asked

"No, my cousin and best friend helped. We've been running the same game for years and this is the first one that went left Aunty I swear."

"Where are they at?"

"In the car."

"Bring them in here." Rosalyn went back behind her desk drumming her nails across the table as she thought about everything Lacey told her

"Aunt Ros this is my best friend Trish and my cousin Tink." Lacey introduced and before they could smile and wave Rosalyn produced a Canik 9mm and shot Trish in her leg. Trish let out a cry and fell to the ground as Tink and Lacey screamed and jumped away

"How much did he offer you to betray your best friend?" She asked walking from around her desk, Rosalyn bent down and was eye level with her "Hmmm?"

"I didn't know, I swear I-" Trish stopped mid lie when Rosalyn brought the gun back up and put pressure on the wound "He told me it'd be enough for me to be set no more scams." Trish grunted through the pain

"Call him." Rosalyn demanded

"How'd you know?" Lacey asked still in shock

"Never underestimate someone's ability to have an Ulterior Motive," she schooled, "I took a guess and hoped blood was thicker than water." Rosalyn glanced at Tink and turned her attention back to Trish. When she heard the sound of the phone ringing, she took the phone and stood up.

"Did she come back out yet?" Rome asked

"Your biggest mistake was allowing her to come to me, come get your issue bitch ass nigga." Rosalyn spat into the phone then she put a bullet through Trish's head and hung up the call.

Both Lacey and Tink screamed again and began crying but Rosalyn wasn't fazed by their outbursts.

"Tell me everything you know." She said and sat down at her desk again