Playing Criminal

17 - Hard Deals

“Ally Mr. Brighton wants you in his office. Now,” Mr. Berkeley pursed his lips at the note in his hands, holding it out for me to take.

“Does it say what for?” I asked apprehensively. I hadn’t done anything wrong had I? My thoughts drifted back to those brownies I shared with Jack and a blush involuntarily crept onto my cheeks.

“No,” He frowned, as he leaned back in his chair. “Whatever it is, I hope it’s over with quickly,” he muttered under his breath.

I raised an eyebrow. Why the hell would he need me here so badly? His daily interrogation period at the beginning of ‘class’ was over. All I’d been doing for the last ten minutes was take notes out of my bio book.

“Whatever,” I huffed as I pushed myself off the couch and began walking out of the room.

I opened the door to Mr. Brighton’s office to see his face tense with what looked to be anxiety.

“Is everything okay?” I mumbled timidly as I sat myself down in front of his desk.

“Yes, quite,” he muttered sharply. “Here, you have a call waiting. I’ll leave you your space.” Mr. Brighton’s lips twitched as he said this. Something told me Mr. Brighton wasn’t happy about letting me accept this call.

“Hello?” I squeaked into the receiver, unsure of who would even call me.

“Ally!”

“Caden!?” I felt my heart soaring out of my chest, “Oh my god – It’s so great to hear your voice. How are you? Are you okay?” I was speaking through a grin. Oh my god, I couldn’t believe this was happening. I forgot how much I’d missed just the simple sound of his deep cadence.

I hardly noticed that Caden remained relatively silent through all my excited questioning.

“Caden?” I questioned again, now a bit perplexed.

“Look Ally I really miss you and I wish I could talk to you forever, but I just don’t have that much time and I have something I really need to tell you first.”

“Okay…” I frowned, not liking the anxious tone of his voice.

Over the phone I could hear Caden sigh deeply, “There have been some problems with the gang since we left.”

“Problems?” My once soaring heart dropped down to the pit of my stomach. “What kind of problems?”

“There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you for awhile actually.  The gang, well, the gang’s gotten into some harder deals lately.”

“Harder deals?” My voice shot an octave higher.

“Chill. Now before you freak, know that I sure as hell wanted to tell you, but Aiden warned me off. He wanted you uninvolved so you wouldn’t get hurt.”