Bloom by A.P. Kensey Page A

thing! He didn’t want anything except to meet you after you were released.”
    Colton frowned. “What do you mean, ‘meet me’?”
    “Exactly what I said. He wants to talk to you, in person. He said I could go, too. I think he might have some sort of business offer for us. Great timing, right?” Reece turned left at the next street but Colton kept walking toward the apartment building. “It’s this way,” said Reece.
    “He wants to meet now ?” said Colton.
    “That’s what he said. I had to agree before he handed over the briefcase.”
    Colton looked down the unfamiliar street.
    “This doesn’t feel right,” he said. “How does he even know who I am, or who you are?” Colton shook his head. “How did he know I was in jail in the first place?”
    Reece raised his eyebrows. “For a guy who just survived a few hours in the lion’s den with cutthroats and thieves, I would think you’d be a little less of a chicken.”
    “It doesn’t seem weird to you?” asked Colton.
    “It seems like this guy wants to talk to us, hopefully about how we can both make tons of money with minimal effort. Of course it doesn’t seem weird to me.” He pulled a wrinkled piece of paper out if his jeans pocket and squinted at a written address, then looked up at the street signs next to the road. “I was right. Not much farther,” he said, and started walking.
    Colton thought about it for a moment, then followed Reece down the dark street.
    “I’m not going to bail you out of trouble again,” said Colton. “That was a one-time thing.”
    Reece held up his hands. “Totally understandable. And again—thank you.”
    They walked the rest of the way in silence. Reece led them down quiet streets to a tall, unmarked building in University Heights. All of the windows were dark and the brick face was crumbling from age.
    “This is it,” said Reece.
    “He told you to come here ?”
    “Yeah. Spooky, right?”
    They walked up the small set of stairs that led to the front door.
    “I feel like I’m about to have my organs harvested,” said Colton.
    “Look, if you want, you can just say ‘thank you’ and then we’ll leave. We owe the guy that much at least. But there’s still the matter of all that potential cash…”
    Reece turned the handle and pushed open the old, wooden door to reveal a single large, dark room. The entire first floor of the building had been gutted except for a few structural pillars which propped up the ceiling. Debris from interior walls that had been torn down years ago was piled into small mounds throughout the room.
    A single, naked light bulb shined in the middle of the huge, cavernous space, hanging from a wire that ran up to the ceiling and over to an outlet on the wall. A man stood beneath the light, alone. He waited with his arms at his sides, feet planted on the ground in a wide stance. The man wore a long, dark coat over black clothes. His face was hidden by the shadows cast from the overhead light, but Colton could tell he was staring at them.
    “This guy really knows how to make an impression,” whispered Reece.
    “Is that him?” asked Colton.
    “Yeah. Come on.”
    They walked over to the edge of the light, their footsteps crunching on small chunks of debris and echoing loudly across the concrete floor. The man tilted up his head slightly and looked at them. His face was long and thin, with sunken cheek bones and deep-set eyes. His black, slicked-back hair glistened wetly in the light.
    Reece cleared his throat. “So, you already know me. This is Colton.”
    Colton took a step forward and looked into the shadow covering the man’s face. “Thank you for your help.”
    The man tilted his head down. “I am Alistair,” he said in a slight English accent. “You have a good friend here, to do such a thing without knowing who I am or what I really want.”
    Colton looked over at Reece. “If you say so.”
    Alistair squinted at him. “Perhaps you are wondering why it was done at