CRYPTO: Infidelity (Book 1)

CHAPTER 72: MIXUP

Rockie marched into the house. "What are you doing here?!" He raised his gun at me.

Birdie immediately stepped in front of me. "Rockie, calm down! He came over to see you, not me!"

"What do you want?" he asked me, still holding his gun up.

"I..." I couldn't think of what to say.

"He needs your help," Birdie covered for me.

"Yeah," I said.

"Help with what?" Rockie asked.

"Can you put your gun down?" I asked.

"No," he said. "You're trespassing."

"I thought we were friends."

"Are you gonna tell me why you're here or not?"

"He said it's Diesel," Birdie told him.

"Diesel?"

"Yes. Tell him, Crypto."

"Yeah, uh, there's been a bit of a mixup," I said. "Diesel seems to think I'm a traitor."

"If that were true, you'd be dead," he said, "and I would've heard about it."

"Diesel thinks you're in cahoots," Birdie said.

"What?"

"Well, you're Crypto's boss, aren't you?" she asked him.

"I would never betray the Family."

"Neither would I," I said.

Rockie finally lowered his gun. "What's the mixup about?"

"Diesel thinks I made Hal talk, but I didn't. I swear. I only talked to him so I could give him the poison just as you told me to do."

Rockie grabbed his phone.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm calling Diesel so I can straighten this out. We shouldn't waste time with matters like these." He called him and waited for him to pick up.

I couldn't hear Diesel's side of the conversation, but he was the first to speak.

"Yeah. How did you know?" Rockie asked. "Are you here?" He looked out the window.

"Can you put it on speaker?" I asked him.

Rockie shook his head. "That's what I said."

I knew if Diesel told Rockie about me and Birdie, we were both going to pay.

"Can I talk to him please?" I asked.

Rockie put a paw up to tell me to be quiet. "So we're all good then?" he asked. "Okay. Thanks, D." He hung up.

I was holding my breath. Rockie still had the gun in his paw. I didn't stand a chance if he decided to kill me.

"He was just messin' with you, Crypto," Rockie said.

"He was?" I asked, shocked.

"Yeah. He was just trying to intimidate you. He said if he wanted you dead, he would've killed you already."

"That's a relief," Birdie said. "You guys can play some pretty cruel tricks on each other."

"Ain't that the truth," Rockie said. "Well, I appreciate you coming to me for help, Crypto, but maybe call first next time."

"Yeah. I'll do that."

I headed out to my car more confused than ever. Why did Diesel cover for me? Why wouldn't he tell Rockie the truth about what he knew? Why didn't he want me dead if he knew I was a traitor? I had to know.

I drove back to the restaurant in hopes that Diesel would still be there. It hadn't been long, but I knew Diesel didn't like to waste time so it wouldn't have surprised me if he had already left.

I walked into the restaurant and went to our table. Diesel was still sitting there, enjoying his steak tacos.

"Welcome back," he said. "I saved your meal for you."

I sat down. "Please just tell me what you want. I know you don't like to waste time and neither do I, so just get to the point."

"This isn't a waste of my time," he said. "I'm having a good time. You're not having fun? Try the tacos. They're good!"

"In case you poisoned them, I will not."

"That's not my style, but suit yourself. More for me." He took my plate and began eating my tacos. "You're so predictable. You know that, right?"

"If you're going to waste my time, I'm gonna leave," I told him.

"You still haven't pieced it together? This is your final warning. If you try anything again, all this **** is gonna come out. We just want you to know that we're not ignorant about all your little shenanigans."

"Who's 'we'?"

He smirked. "The Boss set this meeting up for this very purpose."

"Date," I corrected.

"What?"

"The Boss called it a date, not a meeting."

Diesel frowned.

"He wanted me to distract you from work. He said you've been working too hard and you needed to relax more so he wanted me to go on a date with you."

"**** it! That ******* dinosaur! I bet he thinks he's so ******* funny!" Diesel shouted, disrupting the whole restaurant. "Pardon my French."

"What are you so upset about?" I asked.

"We started a bet this month that he couldn't distract me from work. He probably even bet Gavin millions of dollars that he could get me to go on a date with a guy."

"Are you gonna get back at him?" I asked.

"No. He's the Boss. I can't get back at him."

A white owl appeared out of nowhere, took a photo of us with the camera flash on, and then teleported away.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Gavin," Diesel growled. "It was him all along. He's been starting these rumors about me!"

"And now he has a picture to prove it..." I said.

He stood up. "Excuse me. I'm gonna get that camera."

"Can I help?" I asked.

He looked at me. "Sure. You can help by denying you were ever on a date with me."

"And if I don't?"

"Then I'll tell Rockie you've been canoodling with his girlfriend."

"Canoodling?"

He nodded.

"Fair enough."