I’d been to this part of Blackwell twice in my life, both times when I’d first started to drive and had gotten lost.
There were no open businesses here, not even biker bars or liquor stores, just rows of abandoned factory buildings, their brick facades crumbling, factory windows broken or boarded up. Some of the properties were surrounded by chain-link fencing with security warnings (This property is monitored by Blackwell Security), while others were completely forgotten, long past even the pretense of concern.
I assumed we were passing through this part of town on our way to somewhere else, somewhere… better.
Then Poe pointed to a towering brick building at the end of the street.
“That one.”
I slowed down as I approached the building. “This one?”
It looked like all the other old factory buildings: empty, abandoned.
“Yep.” A fresh flurry of nerves erupted in my stomach. Were the men known as the Butchers going to hold me prisoner in an abandoned building? “You can park next to the curb.”
“This is my sister’s car.” He couldn’t understand the significance, but no way was I leaving June’s car out in the open in this part of town.
“No one’s going to mess with your car here.”
There was certainty in his words — a vow — so I pulled next to the curb and turned off the car. Looking around, I thought he might be right about the car, if only because there didn’t seem to be anyone around at all.
“You’re not going to lock me up here for three months are you?” I asked, only half joking.
“Hardly,” he said. “We live here.”
He got out of the car.
“You live here?” I asked, stepping out of the driver’s seat.
“Yep. Pop the trunk.”
I walked around to the back of the car and used June’s key to open the trunk because her car was too old to have a key fob.
“I can get it,” I said when Poe reached for my bags.
“I know you can,” he said, picking up my suitcase and tote bag.
I shut the trunk and followed him across the cracked sidewalk to the brick building. Up close, I could see that it was in better shape than many of the buildings we’d passed on our way through the neighborhood: no crumbling brick, no broken or missing windows.
There was no entrance at the front of the building, and I followed him around to the side where a chain-link gate separated the sidewalk from a stretch of asphalt next to thebuilding. On the other side of the gate, a sleek red motorcycle was parked next to a matte black Humvee and an orange sports car that looked like it belonged on an F1 track.
“If the neighborhood’s so safe, why are those cars behind a security fence?”
“Just a precaution. I’ll give you a remote so you can park here too.” Poe set down my suitcase, reached for his phone, and tapped out a text. “Mine’s with my bike.”
I relaxed a little bit. A remote for the secure parking area meant I’d be able to leave.
The gate shuddered to life, rolling back with a creak and rattle. I followed him through and looked back as it started to close behind us.
We walked up a ramp and approached a green door. Next to it, two metal roll-up doors stood closed, the kind trucks pulled up to when they needed to load and unload cargo.
Poe pushed a series of buttons on the keypad, then opened the door.
We stepped into a vestibule with soaring ceilings and a concrete floor. A spiral staircase stood directly in front of us, a black metal snake coiling its way into the shadows above.
“After you,” Poe said.
I took a deep breath and started up the stairs, my stomach in knots. I felt like I was on a death march, being led to some unknown but almost certainly painful future.
