Bad Taste (Part I) // Colby Brock

149 - Colby

Rebecca had never seen Julian before and none of us had ever seen River. There was no way we could have known this information the whole time, yet somehow it seemed so obvious. Little details here and there, like how Julian was conducting his feeding business. We'd always known he had a feeding house that he shared with a clan, though we never knew who.

And now, with Rebecca looking at me curiously wondering why I'd gone completely silent, I knew there were so many more clues we could put together; so much more we could do.

We knew Julian. We knew his tactics and we knew his hangouts. This made capturing River so much easier because he was a person we'd captured before and let go. This time, we weren't going to let him go.

Looking at Rebecca, I spoke. "What else have you got?" Sam told me everything that was in the wallet. There was an ID—fake, of course—and a couple of passes for various clubs and venues. The piece of paper was more important than both of those things, however, because it was an initiation slip for the Crow Clan. That was who he was partnered with this whole time, as we'd suspected when they helped him hurt me.

"That's everything. Rebecca did great, dude," Sam finished.

"Yeah, yeah," I grumbled. A few of them laughed and I rolled my eyes, making Rebecca frown at me. I forgot she hadn't heard anything Sam told me, but that was okay because she could go down and see everything for herself soon enough.

Noticing she had my attention, she pulled off her jacket and started to speak. "So what's going on down there?" She asked.

"They went through everything. Turns out "River" is actually Julian."

Rebecca paused. "As in-" I nodded. "Oh, he is doubly dead," she growled, getting up and stomping to my bathroom. "I'm getting out of these disgusting clothes!" She yelled before slamming the door. I smiled to myself, shaking my head.

I went downstairs to join everyone else, who were passing the contents of the wallet around. As soon as I walked through the door, Jake, who had the wallet itself, threw it at me. I caught it and saw the ID, which clearly had Julian's face and name on it.

We should have figured it out sooner.

I moved to my chair, throwing the wallet to Elton since he looked like he wanted it. When I was seated, Tara twisted all the way around to look at me. "She didn't telepathically tell you why she was upset up there, did she?" She asked and I shook my head.

Angela frowned. "I don't know what happened. I saw her come downstairs perfectly fine and she left, then I went out to meet her. When I got to the car, she was just... still. She didn't say anything or look at me. I had to drive us back." Angela paused then threw her keys to me, as if she'd only just remembered. I shoved them into my pocket.

"Whatever it is, she seems to have gotten her attitude back, so we can't worry about it too much right now," Mike said as he passed the paper back to Sam. He flicked it so I could see the Crows' symbol in the corner.

I tried not to get annoyed that Mike said he didn't care too much for Rebecca. I didn't expect him to give a shit about her breakdown a few minutes ago. He didn't have to: she had plenty of people in the house who did give a shit, including her sister even if she didn't want that.

By the time Rebecca's loud boots were stomping through the house, everyone had seen just about everything. Knowing she had to see it too, Sam threw the items to me. It was just in time for Rebecca to walk through the door in a black skirt with chains and a belt, a black top with thin straps, and a red flannel shirt that looked suspiciously like it'd come from my closet.

My eyes narrowed at her but she just smiled innocently, sitting down on the arm of my chair. "You'll get it back, don't get pouty," she muttered and I shook my head. I handed her the stuff she'd taken from Julian so she could see it for herself. Her eyes moved over it quickly, though she paused on his face.

"It's definitely him," Angela said across the room, shifting uncomfortably next to Aryia. Rebecca slowly nodded. She was softly biting her lip in thought. "What's the significance of Julian, though? I don't know who he is."

"He's one of our enemies," Sam answered for me, "and he's staked Colby before—almost killed him with it." Sam lowered his voice so Rebecca couldn't hear. "Aryia, tell her that it's the first time we were sure Rebecca is Colby's-" I cleared my throat, but Aryia knew what Sam was saying anyway and told Angela. She immediately smiled at me. I focused on Rebecca instead; I didn't need this from them now.

"Have you guys been searching for Julian this whole time?" Rebecca asked, throwing the items over to Elton, who was motioning for them again.

"Not really," Reggie replied, "we stopped because we had... other issues to focus on."

"Right," Jake agreed, grinning at me. I ignored him.

"But you've had no luck? And yet Angela and I have accidentally found him in... a day?"

"We didn't think there'd be any strong correlation between him and the Crows. This actually changes a lot now and we're going to have to change up our play," Sam explained.

"Why?"

"Because the Crows are strong opposition for us. Seriously strong. There aren't any of them as strong as Colby, but he's just one of us. They have more who are powerful in their own rights. We've avoided getting involved as much as possible."

Rebecca thought about that for a little while in place. She looked like she was conflicted about something, but I didn't know what. Her eyes drifted as she thought until she found mine.

I watched her change. I watched the determination settle in.

Oh yeah, that's my girl, alright.