Day in, day out, I’d watch every Jackal go about their business. I couldn’t find a motive to any of them. Maybe Jaxon had blackmailed one of them to get that note to me and that was all there was to it.

Once again I remembered that day. The only person that had gotten anywhere near me was Remy and Darcy. Darcy could have slipped the note into my pocket with her hug, but how could she risk losing her relationship with her children and Barge?

No. It wasn’t Darcy.

“Do you trust everyone here?” I’d asked Remy one night.

“I did,” he answered honestly. “Not anymore.”

“What changed?”

He was hiding something from me. I read him well now and knew him more than he realized. “I trust them as far as my life is concerned, but I can’t say they’d consider my interests before their own.”

I didn’t even try to pretend I understood what he was saying, but I nodded anyway. Sometimes Remy liked to think more than he liked to talk. Right now something was unsettling him, something that he wasn’t ready to open up about. He’d talk to me when he was ready.

Everything had been going great. Aside from the mole, I was happy with the Jackals. Even Prez was nice to me...sometimes. Life was finally smoothening out and I was accepting it…

Until fate decided to be a bitch again when Darcy threw a birthday party for her son, Jake, and my life crumbled once more.

It was at an open park that backed the forest. I helped her set up the tables and birthday decorations, blowing up balloons ‘til my head felt like it would float away. His friends from school were there, running around and playing. Crowded with parents and families, most of the Jackals joined, too, and stuck out like sore thumbs in their patched vests. Prez was seated in a comfortable picnic chair with a beer in his hand. The beer itself was being distributed by… wait for it… none other than Fritz.

Remy was standing absurdly far back next to Logan. They didn’t like kids. Every time one approached them, they stiffened at the spine and waited for the kid to pass on by. I teased Remy relentlessly, sending kids his way just for the fun of it.

“Here you go, Sara,” said Broom, handing me a paper plate. “They’re going to cut the cake soon.”

“Thanks,” I smiled.

He nodded and stood beside me holding a handful of paper plates in his hands. The guy was super awkward. His confidence was low, his body uncomfortably still in his surroundings. I wondered why he wanted to be a Jackal, and whether this awkwardness was due to the fact he was a low level prospect trying to earn his stripes.

“How old are you, Broom?” I asked curiously.

“Eighteen,” he answered and looked at me questionably. “Why?”

“Why do you want to be a Jackal?”

“My brother was one.”

“Really?”

He nodded once. “Yeah, in another chapter. He died. Shot in the chest after a… business arrangement went bad.” Business arrangement was code for: illegal shit you are not allowed to know about.

I patted his back. “Sorry to hear that.”

He shrugged. “Yeah, well, shit happens. He was my only family, and the Jackals came to me and offered me a place. So I said sure. Figured I’d get treated like shit for a while, but I’ll be equal to them one day.” He motioned to Remy and Logan.

Right on cue, Remy whistled at him. “Come here, Broom!”

Like a puppy, Broom obeyed. He speedily walked to him with his shoulders slumped and his head down. Awkward kid. Then he stopped in front of Remy and nodded at whatever he was saying.

I sighed warily when I caught Fritz making his way to me, already stinking drunk. He held out an unopened bottle of beer. “Take it, Sara. Drink up.”

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “Not going to be drinking at a kid’s birthday party, Fritz.”

“You haven’t been drinking in fucking ages,” he complained. “What kind of old lady does that?”

I didn’t reply. I hated being called an old lady, and Fritz did it all the time. It was as if he happily basked in the discomfort I felt.

“You happy bein’ Reaper’s old lady, Sara-bara?” Ugh, damn Logan for passing along that nickname. Everybody was using it on me now.

“Sure,” I answered tightly, looking over his shoulder.

“Do you even wanna be his old lady?”

I gave him a peculiar look. “What do you want, Fritz?”

“Just want an answer, Sara-bara.” Fritz looked at me, in his obnoxiously drunken state, seriously.

“Why don’t you go and harass some mother over there?”

“Because I don’t wanna.”

“Then I’ll let Remy know you’re bothering me.”

He chuckled. “You’re always hiding behind him. Remy’s been through a lot as it is. I hope you’re as serious with him as he is with you. None of us would like it if you aren’t, and we’d be really angry with you. You ever seen us angry, Sara-bara?”

I sighed. “Do me a favour, Fritz, and go drink somewhere else.”

His amusement faded. “I’m already neck deep in favours I owe, Sara-bara, and I don’t owe you shit.”

The solemnity in his face made me uncomfortable. I shrivelled away from him and continued to pretend to watch the kids play. He eventually stalked back, taking with him his alcoholic stench. The guy had some serious loose screws in that head of his.

Finally, after a long half hour, Darcy called everyone over. Jake was seated on a chair in front of a giant Iron Man cake. We crowded around him and sang Happy Birthday. When he blew the candles, we clapped and cheered. Darcy pointed to the mountain of presents and he grabbed the biggest he could find and tore it apart.

I watched, excited for Jake, with a smile on my face when I felt my shirt get tugged. I looked down at a dark haired little boy no older than six.

“I dropped something,” he said to me.

O…kay. “What did you drop?”

“My toy. Can you help me find it?”

“Um. Alright.”

He took my hand in his and steered me away from the crowd. I looked back and called for Remy. He was talking to Logan with a bored expression on his face and didn’t hear me amidst the noise as everyone centred their attention on the birthday boy.

“Did you come with your mom and dad?” I asked the little boy. He’d taken me a good distance away, until the voices were like whispers in the air. He could have asked the adult he came here with to get his damn toy, but on that damn note, how did his toy even get this far lost in the first place?