Red Hood (Book One)

Chapter Nine

When the doorbell rang, I grabbed my green purse and opened the front door. I stared at his gray t-shirt with a white stake on it. From the t-shirt to the faded blue jeans, he looked so...regular. He smirked down at me.

"You'll have time to check me out in the truck. Let's go, Candy."

I started walking down the stairs with him. "You're Hatchet?"

"The one and only, baby."

 We got into the green Ford right in front of the house. Hatchet drove down the street and Piggly Wiggly. My phone vibrated twice. I opened my purse and looked at the screen. Two messages from Brandon popped up on the screen.

Call me after you leave. 

We need to talk about your secret.

 What was he talking about? I didn't have a secret.  I scrolled through Twitter until Hatchet parked in front of a light brown apartment building. We both got out of the truck and went inside. Hatchet knocked on the the first door. Three minutes later, it slowly opened and Maula smiled at us.

 "Hey, Candy. Come in."

"Hi, girl. Your place looks cute," I said, walking into her apartment.

"Thank you. Beverley helped me decorate."

"No problem."

Hatchet put his shades on, and left the building. I rolled my eyes. The sun wasn't even shining that bright outside. Maula closed the door. We sat on the dark blue couch. There were two bottles on the black coffee table. I opened the one in front of me, and took a sip from it.

Maula stared at my red nails while she sipped her own tea. My phone vibrated three times, but I muted it. She looked away when she though I thought I didn't notice. Then, she turned the tv on. A stalker movie came on. As soon as she left the room, I checked my phone. I got three missed calls from an anonymous number.Of course, I blocked the number before Maula came back.

"Did I miss anything?"

"No. It's on commercial break," I answered, flipping my phone over on my lap.

"Good. I waited a week to see it."

She took a off her denim jacket, and stared intently at the tv. I glanced at her shirt. It was the same shirt Hatchet had on. Her phone rang on the coffee table. The number I just blocked was all up on her screen.

Maula snatched it up and tapped furiously on it. I looked straight at her in confusion. What the hell was that? She let out a breath and put the phone back on the table. I turned my attention back to the movie. Right at the scene where a blonde woman got watched from a surveillance camera. 

 A knock on the door made her pause the movie. She got up and cracked the door open. A couple minutes later, she was holding a white thick envelope. I glanced out the window at a person in a white trenchcoat, walking to a black Camry.

 I only looked away when they drove off. Just then, Maula came back and played the movie. I smiled when the blonde woman untied herself and escaped from a basement. In the next scene, she was at a wedding in a pink dress three years later.

"What was that about?" I asked.

She looked at me. "I just got a package. That's all."

"Was that dude your co-worker or something?"

"No. He was just delivering a package to me."

That didn't make any damn sense. No regular person would deliver anything in a trenchcoat. I've never seen anybody furiously text a delivery boy. But Maula just kept watching the movie, like all of that was normal. I didn't say anything, though. 

 My phone vibrated again, so I left the room. I stood by the bedroom, and checked it. A missed call from Axel showed up on the screen. When I looked up, I noticed the thick white envelope in the bedroom. It was open on the yellow bed. There was money inside. I knew something about that package was strange.