“So, that girl, what was her name? Olive? Chico I tell you, she was caliente!” Marco snickered reminiscing about earlier that day. “Is she your lady?”

Nole trekked alongside Tyrone silently as they grew closer to the complex. Although Asteria ordered them to make sure Nole had a safe trip back, Marco’s constant snickering was making sure their stroll was anything but inconspicuous. Even with the incessant blathering, Nole could only focus on the folder he carried. His inquisitive side wanted to pry the file open at that very instant, but he refrained from doing so.

Instead, he focused on the mutual friend Asteria had mentioned. Who could it be? The only people she may consider being my friends is everyone at the complex. Is it one of them? Does that mean this person is in the gang as well? His head buzzed with the possibilities as the sky turned a lavender color, signaling the impending sunrise.

“Sorry about earlier,” Tyrone said out of the blue. “Back at the diner, you got banged up right?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Nole shrugged, triggering a tinge of pain shooting down his spinal column.

“I got a little carried away. The boss said you were an unpredictable guy, and we were desperate to follow orders successfully. I thought you’d kill me on the spot too, so I panicked and went a little overboard, ya know?”

“Whatever,” Nole mumbled bitterly.

“Come on, Ty,” Marco chimed in, “you think he likes hearing you rub it in?” Before Nole could think of a smart reply, Marco continued. “Seriously though man, that girl, she yours?”

“We’re here,” Tyrone pointed out yards within the complex’s property.

“We’ll be in touch,” Marco informed Nole as he and Tyrone watched him approach the front entrance.

Guess I don’t have a say in that, Nole thought. He turned his head back at them as he pushed the door halfway open, but they were gone.

There was no one at the front desk. The clock on the wall read half-passed five, so he guessed they were all still in bed. Trudging up the stairway, he ambled to his room and turned the handle carefully.

Tossing the file on the bedside table between his and Suri’s beds, and noticed his sister sleeping peacefully in a loose fetal position. The remorse about how he’d spoken to her the previous morning hit him in that instant. I take their feelings for granted. He pulled the blanket over her and tucked the edges in before collapsing into his own bed.

***

It was silent when he woke up. The daylight cut through the thin sliver between the drawn curtains and he knew it was daytime. It felt so different to wake up without any stress. Although his situation was still complicated, Nole didn’t feel like his world was crumbling like he had during the past few days. It might have been the restful night’s sleep, but he was actually relaxed.

He sat up in bed and saw that Suri was no longer asleep. The wall clock informed him that it was a little passed ten, so he assumed she was eating breakfast downstairs. With a shallow grunt, he stretched his arms, reintroducing the soreness from yesterday’s events. The back pain was still there, but less noticeable than it had been the previous day.

His arm reached for the folder and rested it on his lap. What was her name? Aster? No, Asteria. Last night was still a little foggy in his mind, but it was coming back to him slowly. The Northeast Water Plant. Marco and Tyrone. Asteria. Gang leader. The concrete facts of the places and people he encountered were easy to remember, however the point of the entire meeting still escaped him.

Whatever the file held, Asteria had wanted him to share it with Betty. It was clear that Asteria had offered some sort of help, but her motives were still unclear. Another mutual friend, he thought to himself, trying to decipher the meaning in her words.

“Nole.” Valerie’s voice interrupted his contemplation. He hurried to his feet and slid the file in the pillowcase before approaching the door. Opening it to only a crack, he eyed her before speaking.

“What is it?”

“Betty asked me to get you. We have an errand today.”

The complex had made Nole feel so much at home that he nearly forgot the deal he’d made with Betty.

“I’ll be down in a minute,” he replied, shutting the door hastily.

Decided to share the file with Betty after the errand, Nole readied himself for the day. When he finally made his way to the kitchen, Betty was sitting at the table alone. Her scolding eyes seemed more serious than normal.

“Sit,” she ordered. Her sharp elbows rested on the table and her long, bony fingers were intertwined before her so that her mouth was hidden. The high ponytail her gray hair was styled in only intensified the stern expression and that was without being able to her scowl.

“Where’s everyone else? Am I doing this job alone?”

“Have a seat,” she ordered, ignoring his question.

"Okay,” he said confusedly. He began to wonder if she knew about where he went last night, and about the file. Betty unlaced her fingers and reached for something in her lap.

“I assume you haven’t seen this yet.” The unfurled paper was pushed in his direction and he saw the headline immediately, Number One Suspect Infiltrates Central Station. The brief subheading mentioned his alleged attempt to destroy all evidence of his guilt, even murder the cooperating witness.

“None of that’s true,” Nole stated flatly, knowing that Betty doubted the information as well.

“I know most of it is blatant fiction,” she said, pulling the paper to her side of the table, “but there is one part in the article itself that jumped out at me. At one point, Enforcers Maddox and Quinn report to have seen you with accomplices. Want to tell me what that’s all about?”

“The furthest thing from accomplices,” he scoffed. “I don’t know what they were doing, but they got me out of there alive somehow.” There was a pause in his retelling as he pondered how much to tell her. “From that point, I lost them in the crowds outside and came back here.” Admittedly, he didn’t like deceiving her, but his gut was telling him to read the file before showing it to her. Despite Asteria’s instructions, he had to be overly cautious.

“Very well,” she said, rising from the table.

“W-was that all?” he asked, surprised by her acquiescence.

“No, I wanted to talk about last night.” She rummaged through the cupboard and found a stuffed bag. Her tone actually sounded apologetic, but he couldn’t really be sure with Betty. “About Taro, I don’t want you to do anything reckless if you see him.”

“This again?” Nole rolled his eyes, quickly growing angry at her one-sidedness.

"Let me finish,” she instructed. Although her back was turned, he could tell she was occupied with the bag during the conversation. “Taro is a dangerous guy, almost on par with Zane. I’m surprised you got out of your little scuffle without an injury.”

“I can handle myself.”

“Even so, it was after you’d sustained your back injury, and he could have killed you if he’d wanted.”

“I had a knife,” Nole murmured, still trying to belittle his foe’s abilities. Still he couldn’t deny Taro’s unbelievable agility during their fight. He’d managed to defend himself without reciprocating a single attack.

“Besides that, when I told you that we needed to know more, it was only because that I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that he did not murder your friend.”

“You don’t even know why he left. Didn’t you say it was out of the blue two and a half months ago? He could have joined a gang in that time. He definitely has the fighting ability for it,” Nole contended.

“Everything you say is plausible from an outsiders view,” she defended, “but if you’ve known him as long as we have, you’d know it wasn’t true. You expect your brother to believe your innocence for the same reason, right?”

She had him there. Even though he didn’t want to admit it, she was right. “It just so happens that we have more faith in Taro than your brother does in you,” she finished.

The accuracy of her words deflated him. His brother had no faith in him at all; their interaction last night was proof of that. Nole risked his life to get Caden back, and he’d almost died because of his little brother’s distrust.

“Fine, I get it,” he admitted dejectedly.

“I won’t hang you out to dry though. I’m pretty sure you didn’t kill the doctor, so I won’t let you take the fall. We’ll just have to have faith in this degenerating city’s sorry excuse for law enforcement.”

He didn’t know what to say. For the first time while being at the complex, he actually thought he could trust Betty. What she said made sense, and there was no reason to lie. She didn’t seem to have an ulterior motive either. If she was being sincere, then he could actually share Asteria’s file without hesitation.

“Until then, we’ll work on one problem at a time.” She turned, revealing the crumpled papers she’d sifted through during their conversation. She set the clumps on the table and smoothed out a couple of sheets. “After you left last night, I had Olivia relay every detail of your little adventure. When she got to the part about your old place, she was able to tell me nearly everything that was there. Everything from your quaint futons to the bits of plaster on the ground.”

“And?” Nole asked, curious about where she was going.

“You could probably already tell that Olivia’s a fairly meticulous girl. When she goes into detail, she doesn’t skimp out on anything.” Nole could see the images and words becoming clearer on the wrinkled sheets before him. Although the stories appeared familiar visually, he couldn’t remember the exact content. “For instance,” Betty went on, holding the smoothed sheet up for him to see, “she told me there were scattered pages of old newspapers all over the ground of the rooftop, and that those pages contained lengthy, handwritten notes.”

He’d recognized it just before hearing her explanation. His eyes scrolled down the scribbles in the margins of the page’s article. “It’s a good thing I sent Zane out when I did, because all of this would have been washed away while you were out playing in the rain.”

Thank you to my good friend Sam for designing such a mesmerizing cover for Errand Runners. It's totally stunning! Check out her work @mintaftertaste and if you need a cover, I recommend her!