Infinite Fear Read Online Free Page A

and head back over to the warehouse district to pick
up Emmanuel. As per our usual plan, I park in a side street about a
block away and finish the trip on foot. When I arrive at the
warehouse, Emmanuel is standing at the rear door, waiting.
    He walks over and gives me a shoulder bump,
and barely recovers to an upright position. As I’m about to ask how
he managed to wreck himself so spectacularly, a shuffle breaks out
in the warehouse. Emmanuel turns to investigate in his intoxicated
stupor, when out of the corner of my eye, I catch sight of a blue
and red light reflected in one of the dust-coated windows
inside.
    “Shit!” I curse quietly, yanking Emmanuel
back and pulling him behind a rusted shipping container.
    “Get the fuck off me, man! I wanna see what
the hell’s going on!” he shouts, yanking his arm violently from my
grasp.
    “Cops!” I whisper. “We need to leave, now!”
This observation seems to sober Emmanuel up enough for us to try to
quietly make our escape.
    “I’m going to check the perimeter!” A loud
voice calls, increasing in volume as the speaker draws nearer to
the back door.
    “Go!” Emmanuel whisper-shouts, and I take
off. Only he wasn’t as sober as I had earlier given him credit for.
He loses his footing and slams hard into the shipping container. I
turn on my heel, encased in darkness, shielded from the cop’s
eyes.
    Emmanuel is not, however.
He rights himself as the cop yells, “Stop! Down on the ground!” I
can hear the cop’s gun cock. Emmanuel lays on the ground and stares
straight at me. I look at his wide eyes, imploring me to run the
hell away. I hesitate. Leaving him behind was not part of our
plan. But I do . I
slink into the alleyway beside me and take off like a bat out of
hell towards the Camaro.
    Running while looking over
your shoulder is a bitch . I exhale deeply
when I land in the driver’s seat of the Camaro and drive off. I’m
so racked with guilt right now, I can’t see straight. I should
never have fucking left, that was a dog move on my part. I grip the
steering wheel angrily.
    I drive the Camaro into the backyard once at
my house on the off chance that someone at the warehouse saw it
drive off. And then I lay awake. Downing whiskey after whiskey
after whiskey. Until eventually, I fall into a blissfully numb
sleep.
    I wake up to the shrill ring of my cell
phone. The sun is high in the sky and the glare sears my eyeballs.
I don’t recognize the number, but I answer anyway. Emmanuel’s low
and cautious voice greets me on the other end of the line.
    “Jay, it’s me,” he says quietly.
    What do I say? How do I reply? How do you
talk to your best friend when you abandoned him like that?
    “Don’t talk Jay, just listen. I’m locked up.
I need you to get to Eva and let her know,” he says pointedly. I
know what he means. He’s implying that I need to get the cash to
Julius before she spends it and Julius starts asking questions.
    “Do you know when you’ll be out?” I ask, my
voice raspy.
    “Not sure yet, you know how good the public
prosecution is. Jay, it’s alright, man,” Emmanuel answers.
    I nod into the phone. He means that I
shouldn’t feel guilty. But his words can’t change that. As I hang
up the phone, my bedroom door flies open and in marches a very
distressed-looking Jade.
    “Oh, thank God!” she yelps, gripping me in a
fierce hug. “I heard Emmanuel got locked up, and I thought you may
have been, too.”
    “I was there, I should have been,” I say,
the guilt of it all causing me to avert my eyes down.
    Jade whacks me solidly in the arm. “Are you
fucking crazy? You were not there, got it?” she scolds, glaring at
me angrily.
    “I feel like I sold Emmanuel out,” I
say.
    “Emmanuel is into way worse shit than you
are, and you know it,” Jade replies. “Anyway, what’s the sense in
both of you getting locked up? Don’t even pretend like Emmanuel
wouldn’t have done the same thing as you if he had the chance,”
Jade