With Love from the Past by Lauren Smyth

Author:Lauren Smyth [Smyth, Lauren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Christian Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: Ambassador International
Published: 2022-01-30T00:00:00+00:00

“Ari, I want you and Calvin to go with Lucas and Katya tonight,” Ace ordered, stumbling into the wall. It was too early for him to be drunk, and Ari wondered what had him so excited.

“Where are we going?” she asked, trying to draw Ace’s attention away from his drink.

“The four of you are going to try something new.” Ace smiled mischievously, propping himself up against the wall. “There’s a crack house near here. Calvin found out that the owners are on vacation, and there won’t be anyone there. What do you think?”

Ari stifled a grin. Of all the jobs she’d expected when she started working in law enforcement, raiding a crack house on the side of the criminals was not one of them.

She looked around for her teammates, and the first she found was Calvin, sitting in front of the fire barrel. His eyes were invisible from her angle; but his shoulders were slumped, and his gaze was fixed in the distance. She yelled to him, but he didn’t respond.

“Ace says we’re going on a mission,” she shouted hoarsely into his ear.

“Okay.” He didn’t seem startled by her voice.

She crouched beside him. “Something’s going on with you,” she said. “You’re not acting like yourself. Not that I’ve known you for very long, but . . . you know what I mean.”

Silence, broken only by the background of drunken laughter. Calvin didn’t move.

“Ari?”

She whipped around, and there was Mikael.

“Ace wants you to leave as soon as possible.”

Ari glanced back at Calvin. “You coming?” He still didn’t move.

So she left him sitting there and went to find her other teammates.

“It’s the ace of spades,” she said to Katya, interrupting her magic trick. “I saw you flip them over.”

Katya rolled her eyes. “Hey! They haven’t seen this before, so could you keep it down?”

“No,” said Ari with a sly smile. “Ace wants us to leave now for a mission.”

“Oh, the crack house?” Katya perked up. “Just us two?”

“Lucas and Calvin are coming, too. Can you get Lucas . . . ?” Ari’s voice trailed off when she recognized the expression on Katya’s face. It was fierce anger, all directed at her little brother, who was dancing dangerously close to the fire.

“Lucas,” she roared, “I told you not to touch the booze!”

She snatched the bottle out of his hand and smashed it on the ground. It shattered like a gunshot. Even in his half-drunk state, Lucas looked appropriately scared. All conversation in the alley instantly stopped, and everybody stared at Katya. She had Lucas by the shoulders and shook him until Ari could see sober sense flood into his eyes.

“I said that over and over, and this is what you’re doing?” she shouted. “You’re going to try the drugs next, aren’t you?” Her voice was high-pitched with rage and a little shame. Her screams at her brother were the condemnations she wished somebody had screamed at her. Ari wondered why she hadn’t caught onto that before.

Lucas was shaking now, backing away from his sister until his back hit the brick wall behind him.

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