Chapter 41: Lexi - Show of Faith

Author’s Note: I took the liberty of moving the Northwestern game to a later time slot. It was actually an early kick off on this day in 2017. In our timeline this comes directly after Lexi and Ky toured the health club with Lauren in Chapter 38 and at the same time as the events taking place with Reed and Allie in Chapter 40. I used a summary of the phone conversation between the four main characters in this chapter, the full text is in 40.

Once we’d finished our tour of the club, Lauren headed for her house. She invited Ky and me to join her but we decided to walk around for a bit. We wanted to get a bit more of a sense of the neighborhood and Ky was trying to figure out a rough population to determine the potential customer base.

We had been walking for a few minutes when we noticed a guy trimming a hedge that separated two yards.

“Afternoon,” Ky said in a friendly tone and waved.

“Howdy,” the man said back. “Nice day, isn’t it?” The man appeared to be Hispanic but his accent suggested he’d grown up in the States. He wasn’t overly tall but he had a lean, athletic frame.

“Sure is, getting in a little yardwork?” Ky asked.

“Yeah, my esposa says that on Saturdays I need to get back to acting like a proper migrant and do landscaping,” the man said, smiling at the joke. “You folks new around here?”

“We might be soon, thinking about buying. We’re just checking out the neighborhood,” I said.

“So I don’t want to scare you off, but this is a very, shall we say, unique neighborhood,” the guy said.

“Yeah, we’ve learned a little bit about that. I’m guessing you’re not in this little boys’ club since you’re not off on this boondoggle down to Mississippi?” Ky asked. The man’s eyes widened just a tiny bit realizing that Ky knew about the Alphas. I thought back to last night and early this morning, I didn’t remember seeing any nonwhite members of the Alphas, but it had been dark or at least dim on both occasions.

“Pffft, of course not. Heard those idiots making a ridiculous racket this morning, Mississippi eh?” the man asked.

“Yeah, Ole Miss-A&M football game,” Ky explained.

“Ah, of course. That tracks. Make your own choices, but do it with eyes wide open my friends. It sounds like you know about them,” he said.

“We understand, we’re not recruits,” I said.

“Yes, I suppose if they were trying to entice you they would have insisted you join their little expedition,” the man said. “I just advise caution.”

“Thanks man. So Brevard County, that’s a pretty unique choice,” Ky said. I think he was talking about the man’s ball cap, which had a stylized manatee holding a baseball bat on it.

“Yeah, gone now sadly,” the man said.

“Yeah, kind of a bummer. Florida Fire Frogs does sound kind of badass though, doesn’t it?” Ky replied.

The man grinned at Ky, genuinely impressed. “You know a little bit about béisbol then my friend?”

Ky smiled back. “A little.”

That was possibly the understatement of the century. I had never questioned my choice in who I slept with more than when Ky showed me his Excel sheets of baseball prospects and literal books he had read in preparation for his fantasy baseball draft. Then came the rule explanations for the league - which sounded as arcane as the US tax code.

“Esteban Ochoa, nice to meet you,” he said, extending his hand. Ky shook it.

“Kyle Kinnick, this is my associate Lexi.”

“A pleasure,” Esteban said and we shook. His grip was firm yet gentle at the same time. His brown eyes radiated warmth and friendliness. He was making a great first impression.

Before the inevitable question about what an associate was came, the front door of the house opened. A woman emerged and began stalking towards us, her spike heels clacking on the driveway like shots from an air rifle. She was a stunningly attractive tall Hispanic woman with wild, curly black hair, a slim body and perfect skin. The heels and her perfectly done makeup were the only concessions to beauty - her outfit was skinny jeans and a baseball jersey.

“Stop bothering the gringos and get back to work, cabrón!” she barked at Esteban, but the smile and laughter in her eyes belied the harsh words.

“I apologize, it’s just impossible to find good help these days with all the damned illegals,” the woman said to Ky and me. Her accent was a mixture of the Bronx and Puerto Rico.

“Indeed! I recently had to fire my maid for not properly dusting my fine china,” I said, leaning into what I was pretty sure was the joke.

The woman’s face broke into a broad smile. Esteban grinned as well. “You two sound like you’re alright, not like those Alpha pendejos. Regina,” the woman said and extended her hand. Ky and I introduced ourselves and shook her hand. Regina’s grip was strong and confident without being performative.

“These two are considering buying in our strange little neighborhood,” Esteban explained to Regina.

“I must advise against this,” Regina said, her expressive brown eyes flitting between Ky and I. “These pathetic manchildren are most unpleasant.”

“I guess I don’t fully understand this, how can they dominate a neighborhood this way?” I asked, curious.

“Hermana, how long do you have?” Regina asked.

“Honestly, we were kind of at loose ends,” I admitted. This could be useful information for us.

Regina and Esteban exchanged a look - did the married couple nonverbal discussion thing and apparently came to a conclusion.

“There’s a sports bar we like to hang out at in Hendersonville, 10, 15-minute drive. It’s in a strip mall, but it’s divey enough not to feel too corporate. We normally go there on Saturday once my mandatory migrant laborer duties have been fulfilled,” Esteban said. “We could have a couple cervezas and give you the lowdown if you’re interested.”

“That sounds like a decent way to kill a few hours,” Ky said. I thought he did a good job of not sounding overeager. This could be really valuable.

“I need to shower and take care of some things,” Esteban said. He eyed Regina lecherously. She batted her eyes at him. “Perhaps meet there in an hour?”

“We’ll be there,” I said. We exchanged numbers and got the address for the place, then waved goodbye to our new friends.

“That was interesting,” I said to Ky once we were out of earshot.

“Indeed, but I get a good vibe from them. I don’t think they have an angle inviting us to hang out. My read is they genuinely just want to make sure we know what we’re getting into,” Ky said.

“I agree, logically they think we’re looking at buying a house. Probably think we don’t know the scale of the Alphas,” I said.

“You know it’s kind of honorable in a way they are willing to take time to give us the lowdown,” Ky said.

“Yeah, you’re right. I agree with your read on them,” I said.

“I wonder where the fuck Reed is,” Ky said, checking his phone.

“We need to work on him finding the balance between ignoring Allie and total won’t leave their room infatuation,” I joked.

Ky chuckled. “Ok, looks like he texted me a few minutes ago to see what we’re up to.” He began typing a reply, but before he could finish another text popped up. The message included an explanation, but the main feature was a very messy, very sexy nude of Allie. I noticed I’d been included on the chain and pulled out my phone. I wanted a closer look.

“Sending us an extremely explicit nude as a way to prove we can trust Allie might be the oddest, most Reed-coded thing ever,” Ky observed.

“You complaining? It’s a hot pic,” I pointed out.

“Not at all. So what do you think?” Ky asked.

“About telling Allie? My instinct is that we should give him the ok, but I sort of want to make sure this isn’t just him being reckless, y’know?” I said.

“Yeah, I know what you mean, I think we should just call him and see what’s going on,” Ky suggested. He dialed Reed and put him on speaker. We listened to Reed’s request to bring Allie into our inner circle then asked a couple questions. Once Reed had answered, Ky and I looked at each other and nodded that we both approved, then asked Reed put us on speaker with Allie.