thin white lines | l. hemmings

31

"I just need to talk to Devlin for a few minutes, jackass," Luke grumbled, his phone to his ear as he paced his hotel room, doing his best to keep his voice at a minimal volume.

"That's awful rude considering you need something from me," the man spoke back to him. Luke rolled his eyes, practically picturing the man he was speaking to leaning back in his chair, satisfied with the knowledge of having an upper hand over Luke.

It was the same tall man who had come to their hotel to punish the band not long before the phone call. He was one of Devlin's right-hand men who was constantly sent to do his jobs. Despite that, Devlin always seemed to have some sort of soft spot for Luke who he rarely even saw or spoke directly to anymore. No one knew why, but it was an obvious bias in Luke's favour.

So, those who work directly under Devlin often give Luke a harder time when the opportunity presents itself (this phone call was a golden opportunity) because they didn't understand why he would get treated any different when they arguably put in more work and actually speak with Devlin daily.

Luke usually just took it, because he'd probably be annoyed if the roles were reversed, but he did not have the patience for it during this phone call.

"I don't need anything from you. I need to talk to Devlin, and you are in my fucking way," he explained, placing his hand over his eyes out of frustration.

"And I told you I'd get you to him right away as soon as you tell me what you need from him," the man spoke casually as if that was the standard procedure.

"I don't think that's your job."

"Listen, if you don't want to talk to him then don't waste my time." His nonchalant tone only angered Luke the more he heard it.

"Fuck off," he groaned as he straightened out his priorities in his head. "Fine. There's a girl. Her name is Willow Cohen. And...I just need to know if anything went down involving her."

His conversation with Quinn had got him thinking. All she did was mention Willow, but hearing it from someone other than Delaney really made him suspicious. Willow was Delaney's best friend and practically disappeared from Delaney's life without any warning or explanation at all.

"Cohen, yeah. I remember her. A past lover of yours, Hemmings?"

"No," he said firmly, not wanting to feed into the man's belittling tone. Even so, he still chuckled while Luke struggled to see what was funny about the situation, considering if the man knew about Willow he also knew very well how Luke knew her. "What do you know?"

"She was coming up to visit the girl you have and unfortunately was involved in a car accident. How sad," he said with the least amount of emotion in his voice possible.

Luke sighed, knowing what that meant. It meant something suspicious about her was brought to Devlin's attention, and it was enough to harm her. "What happened?" He breathed out.

"You seem so upset, you sure you've never hooked up with this one?"

"Positive. Now, what happened?"

"Yikes. Positive for what?"

"Just tell me what happened, asshole."

"She overheard something on the phone and found out too much. Had to be taken care of. Why? Is her friend suspicious?" he said casually. Luke chewed on his bottom lip as he processed what he had been told. It had been hard on Delaney thinking she had done something and didn't know, but knowing her best friend was 'taken care of' and she was hours away and completely unaware was somehow worse.