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Disclaimer: James Patterson owns. Not me.

Chapter 11

Fang's POV:

She called back. Wow. I thought as I ended the call. For a moment there I'd believed that her excuse to 'get back into her mother's good graces' had been an excuse to back out of our date. I mean, I did tend to antagonize her most times I opened my mouth around her.

But she shot right back. It was refreshing to have someone talk to me and not be influenced by my reputation.

"Hey Fang breaks over!" Nadia called. "You have a customer waiting at four and I can't pick it up!"

I didn't answer her; I usually don't do much of the 'talking' thing. I just slipped out of the back room and headed over to a table that a strangely familiar African American girl sat at. The girl from the mall with Max.

Nudge.

What the hell was she doing here?

I stood at the edge of the table, notepad and pen poised. Waiting.

"Hey Fang!" Nudge beamed. I nodded and she continued. "So I was in the neighborhood and I started craving something sweet and I remembered Max saying how awesome the milkshakes are here so I thought I'd come and see for myself. Then I remembered that Max said she'd seen you here so I thought 'hmm maybe I'll see Fang' but I didn't know you worked here. That's so cool because now I know where to find you if you ever hurt Max. Which you better not. Hurt Max that is." She ended on a completely serious note and had me blinking as I processed her dialog. She had just said more than I probably say in a week.

"I wouldn't hurt her." I said after a momentary lapse of silence.

"Good," she smiled and sat up straighter. "In that case I'll just have a chocolate milkshake!"

I didn't bother writing her order down as I walked back to the kitchen, my head spinning. That girl was probably scarier than half the guys I know because of her shear ability to disarm you with verbal spew. And her tone. She'd gone from prep girl conversational to threatening in about two point six seconds. I could see how she and Max were friends.

I got her milkshake and delivered it to her. She started talking before I could escape.

"Oh!" she exclaimed when I'd turned my back. "By the way! Can you tell me where you're taking Max?"

"Um, why?" I asked.

She gave me a disbelieving look.

"So I know whether or not to schedule a safety call!" she said in a 'duh' voice.

"A what?" Huh?

"Seriously?" She demanded, looking almost at a loss for words. Almost. "A safety call. You know, where a girl has a girlfriend call fifteen minutes into a date to give them an excuse to bail if the guys a dud."

How exactly did relationships work out on the other side of town?

"I need to know whether or not it will be necessary. Therefore I need to know where you are taking her so I can rest at ease that I can call the police on you if she's not home by an appointed hour." She sipped innocently at her shake.

Damn, what is this girl on? Is she just naturally this way? Is she bipolar? I asked myself. I quickly debated the chance of me getting out of this unscathed if I didn't tell her, and realized that it was slim to none. Like a .0023% chance of escaping her questions.

So I quietly slipped into the bench opposite her and outlined what I had planned for a date. It's not exactly conventional but, then again, neither is Max.

Nudge beamed by the end of it and nodded so much she looked like a bobble head toy.

"Oh, she'll love that." She agreed.

"Good. Now don't tell her anything." I warned. "I don't want her to judge me by my idea of a date."

"Trust me. Max doesn't pick guys easily. If she picked you than it's because there's something about you that she likes. Like, a lot. I really don't think much will screw that up." With that she tossed a five dollar bill onto the table and hurried out of the diner.

I wonder how Max would take the truth about me.

I got off work at ten and headed straight to the warehouse from there. I didn't have a lot of time to mill around there but I had to at least check in.

By the time I pulled up only a few beat up old cars were parked randomly around the parking lot. I was late, most everyone had already gone home, much like I wanted to.

I slid the old metal door back and stepped into the dimly lit hang out. It resembled a pool hall really.

People turned at the sound of the metal door scraping open and shut. Some nodded to me, others shouted hello before turning back to whatever had previously held their attention.

I headed straight back to Grey's office. I knocked twice on the old door before opening it without permission.

Grey looked up from his computer. His brown hair was ruffled and disorganized as was the rest of his appearance. He usually looked in top order but lately, with all the stress of implementing what he called 'Plan Flush Out' (a really stupid name in my opinion), he'd let himself go a bit, worrying less about primping his appearance and more about logistics.

"Fang! 'Sup man? Haven't seen you in a few days. Whatchea been up to?" he asked before turning back to his computer and typing away. The guy was attached to that thing, it was his prized possession. He though it made him look more official when we all knew he wasn't taking care of business on it, just playing online games.

"The usual." I said quietly. I had no time to be here, I had to go to school tomorrow, unlike him. He'd dropped out a year back.

"Yeah, playing goody-goody with society. Why you still bustin' your balls at that job and joke of an education center?" he demanded. "It's a waste of your time and skills, man."

I sighed. "Because I want to acquire new skills?" I offered up. He shrugged it off, not bothering to pay attention.

"Whatever. Well you've done what you came to do here. You checked in. Now go ahead and hurry home. Wouldn't want to be too tired for school tomorrow! Damn I'm glad I got over that shit." He muttered the last sentence more to himself than me.

I headed out quickly. I found it stupid that even though I was just a rank below him in this twisted family of ours he still treated me and everyone else like shit.

I headed home.

As I changed that night I caught a glimpse of my tattoo on my left shoulder blade. I was once again grateful that I'd chosen to ink myself somewhere where it wasn't visible all the time.

I wonder how Max would react if she knew I was second in command of the Shadows?

.. Well I hope that cleared up some questions and, more importantly, generated more! I wanna keep you guys reading! Let me know what you think! Review!

Peace!