Susan drove slowly to the address Leo had given her, and tried to figure out where her life was headed when she was making decisions like this. When she'd planned to move, this was the last thing she'd ever thought of doing, and yet here she was, making a delivery for Leo Spencer. She gripped the steering wheel, her knuckles white from the pressure. The hum of the engine seemed louder in the dead silence of her anxiety.
The address he'd given was a car wash. Something Susan found very weird, but as she thought about it she realized that it was actually a good cover. No one would expect that anything shady would be going on in a place like this, and with her being the delivery person, well, no one would suspect her either.
She glanced at the brown, sealed package next to her handbag on the passenger seat and looked away immediately. It just sat there, taunting her with its mysterious weight. Never in her entire life did she think that she'd one day be terrified of a damn box, but yet here she was. She wanted to know the contents of the box and yet she also didn't want to know. She'd spent the previous night thinking about it, and only managed to get an hour of sleep, which had left her grumpy the entire day. Thankfully, it was sealed so well that she couldn't open it without ripping the entire thing apart, and so she didn't have to make the decision of looking into it, but that didn't stop her from obsessing about it.
The place was forty minutes away, and she arrived at exactly 7:30 pm. The neon lights of the car wash flickered as she pulled up to the entrance, and her heart raced faster than the engine. She barely glanced at the sign offering basic washes and deluxe waxes—this place was about more than just cleaning cars.
She rolled the window down slightly, enough for the attendant to ask, "Which one?"
"Uh, the basic," Susan managed, her voice shaking. The man nodded, uninterested, and waved her forward.
The rollers of the car wash started to rumble, swallowing her car into the tunnel of foamy water and spinning brushes. For a few moments, she was engulfed in darkness, the sound of the rushing water a temporary reprieve from her thoughts. But as the rinse cycle began and her car emerged from the other side, her stomach twisted again. This wasn't just about delivering a package—this was about her brother, and the dangerous debt he'd gotten himself both into.
She parked the car near the vacuum stations, her eyes scanning the nearly empty lot. A few cars were lined up, but the place felt desolate in a way that made her skin crawl. She fidgeted in her seat, her pulse throbbing in her throat. And then she saw him. A man stepped out from behind a pillar, his figure shadowed in the dim light. Tall, broad-shouldered, with a leather jacket that seemed too heavy for the mild weather, and a face that looked like it had seen its share of fights. His eyes locked on her with unsettling calm as he approached.
Susan's breath caught in her chest. She quickly glanced at the box, wishing she could just turn the car back on and drive away. But she couldn't. Leo would know. And Leo didn't look like a man who forgave mistakes.
The man reached her window, and she forced it down halfway, the cool night air rushing in.
"You got something for me?" His voice was gravelly, with an edge that matched his appearance.
Susan swallowed, her fingers trembling as she grabbed the box from the seat. "Yeah…this is it," she said, passing it through the window. Her hand brushed against his as he took it, and she flinched, quickly pulling back.
The man didn't seem to notice—or care. He eyed the box briefly, then looked back at her with a slow, measuring glance. "Tell Leo we're even."
His words were cold, final. Susan nodded quickly, her heart pounding in her ears. She didn't know if they were truly "even," or if this was just another layer in the game Leo played, but she wasn't about to ask. It was none of her damn business…
The man turned and walked away, disappearing into the shadows as quickly as he had appeared.
Susan stared after him for a moment, then forced herself to take a breath. Her hands were still shaking as she rolled the window back up. For a moment, she just sat there, frozen, the engine humming softly beneath her.
With a shaky exhale, she put the car in gear and pulled away from the car wash, her mind spinning with questions she couldn't dare voice. What had she just delivered? And more importantly, what did it mean for her and Samuel? Was her neither) brother safe now? Did this delivery make things 'even' with Leo?
As the city lights blurred outside her window, she couldn't help but feel that her life was taking a huge turn… a horrible one at that… and she had no idea if she could stop it.
Once she was home, she took a moment to shower and then she called the number Leo had given her. She honestly expected it to someone else but not him, and she was a little surprised when he picked up and she heard his baritone voice say, 'Hello'.
Susan ignored the shivers that voice sent through her body, "Hi, it's Susan. Susan Jordan,"
There was a chuckle on the other end, "I know which Susan it is," he said, "I don't know a lot of 'Susans'. Please don't tell me you're calling because you missed the sound of my voice,"
Susan rolled her eyes. The nerve of the man! "No," she told him immediately," I'm just calling to let you know that your…package has been delivered. The man said to tell you that you are even… Whatever that means,"
"Oh yeah, I knew that already, Barbie," came his reply.
So he was never going to stop calling her that? Susan took a deep breath, "So we're… even too now, right?" she asked, "You'll leave my brother alone,"
This time, his laughter boomed from the other side of the phone, "Your brother owes me twenty five grand, Barbie. One delivery isn't going to cut it. You did a good job… But all you did was make a delivery. You gotta do a lot more before we can be 'even' regarding that amount of money. Don't worry. You will be hearing from me soon,"
He hung up before Susan could say anything, and honestly she couldn't because she was speechless. Her brother's debt to Leo was far from paid, and now she was involved in this too.