Free Boosted (In The Fast Lane) by Arya Cole Page A

better about the situation. In fact, he felt significantly worse. He
never thought he’d have to deal with something as serious as a war criminal.
And all so a couple Persian fat cats could have a few laughs at his expense. It
was a joke, alright. A big fucking joke. And the joke wasn’t on the colonel, it
was on him.

 
     
    TEN
    Picking Up The Pieces
     
    Hannah could barely sit through class the next day. She
considered it an accomplishment to have even made it there in the first place.
She had figured out the bus route to get to class in lieu of having her car. It
wasn’t a glamorous journey but it had gotten her there on time.
    She had managed to get some of her work done the night
before and felt at least somewhat prepared for class when she arrived. In a
further effort to repair what she had done the day before, Hannah reached out
to her friend Julia to help her pick up her car later that afternoon.
    As well as things were going, as soon as the lecture started
Hannah’s mind started to wander back toward Brody. He was the inescapable force
in her life now. She had left the detective work alone ever since she had
gathered the strength to get up from her floor. Now her brain was churning on
that subject once again.
    It was that lingering question of why. Why was he following
someone? The other surrounding questions mattered too. Who was he following?
How often did he do this sort of activity? What was he getting in return? But
it was “why” that was the central question, the one she truly yearned to know.
    She was beginning to put together more of the clues. He had
mentioned that he had done freelance work. This was probably true but it surely
didn’t tell the whole story. She hypothesized that this wasn’t completely his
idea. Someone had hired him to do it. She had no idea who and it was a question
that was far beyond her grasp at the moment.
    Hannah also had no concept of who the person he was
following could be. She tried not to get hung up on these questions. They were
certain to be dead ends at this stage. Better to concentrate on the things she
could deduce from her experiences with him.
    Brody told her that he was not a drug dealer and she
believed him. This seemed to go far beyond that anyway. At the same time she
was fairly sure that it didn’t go as far as him being a hit man. She was sure
that those only existed in the movies anyway. Besides, there was a soft side to
Brody. Though he might be willing to do certain illegal things, she was sure
that he wasn’t actually capable of hurting someone. At least she hoped that was
the case. Brody had already proved to have something of a dark side. It was
certainly possible that he had an even darker side lurking somewhere in his
being.
    After class she met Julia to go pick up her car. It was a
bit of a devil’s bargain as she was sure that there would be a constant stream
of invasive questions and passive aggressive comments about her situation. She
would just have to deal with it. The interrogation began as soon as she sat
down in the passenger’s seat.
    “So why did you leave your car there yesterday?” It was a
fair enough question on the surface. It was the tone that really bothered her.
    “I got another ride home from lunch.”
    “From who?” Hannah really didn’t want to answer. She thought
for a second about lying but that had never been one of her strong suits. Julia
would see right through it. When Hannah didn’t respond, Julia repeated the
question. “From who? Your boyfriend?”
    “He’s not my boyfriend,” Hannah said, as if she were in
sixth grade again.
    “But it was him though.”
    Hannah still didn’t want to admit to it. “Yeah,” she said
after a few moments. “It was him.”
    “So you’re still seeing him.” Julia said, with a smug
satisfaction like she’d been right about the two of them all along. Hannah
didn’t know where she got off talking like that. She then took a different line
of questioning, one that