“See,” he started pointing at me with a shaky hand, like I had said something hilarious.“You’ve been saying that for the last two months. I warned you then I needed you to get me the money, but somehow each time I never seem to leave with much. And,” he shrugged his shoulders as if to say that we were on the same side and he was apologizing for what he was about to say, “you know what a bitch interest is.”
You would think between all the cokehe snorted it would have rotted his brain a little and made him forget what I owed. But of course not. He probably could have been a Fortune 500 accountant if he wasn’t such an addict. Why couldn’t I have gotten someone who didn’t have any brains left to snort away?
When I remained silent, he pushed back some stringy hair and looked up at the sky. “You know I’m a nice guy, but I can’t keep the collectors off you forever. We have a name to maintain. If a few people don’t pay us back, then everyone will stop paying us back.”
He stopped and shook his head as if he was trying to get an image out of his head. But his voice was firm when he spoke again. “I’ll be back this weekend. Have the money ready, or we’ll have tocollect.”
I rubbed at the rib just below my sweat stained bra. It’d just finished healing, butif I didn’t pay up,it lookedlikely to be re-brokenby steel tipped boots. I really needed to decide who I was going to take the money from if I didn’t want to wince in pain every time I took a deep breath.
Instead, I watched a couple trying to avoid theyellingwoman with the grocery cart. The couple’s biggest problems were likely whether or not they would get a higher year-end bonus. Whether or not they actually wanted to stay together and get married.
God, I would kill to be so blissfully unaware. To have the world seem so neutral. Had I ever been like that? Life had never felt this complicated before all this happened. Now, my life felt more similar to the woman with the grocery cart.
Out of my peripheral vision, I could see Ray watching me. What could be going through his mind was beyond me. Finally, he stood up and nodded at me meaningfully. I nodded back, but I had no idea what that meant. That I’d pay him back? I’d sure as hell try, but who the fuck knew anymore? My capacity to hold on to cash was as likely as a baby holding a bowling ball. And the only people who could get me out of this debt would just be leading me back into the life I’d run away from.Raystrode away, clutching at whatever was in his pocket until he disappeared down an alley.
Once he was out of view, I let the neutral expression slip off my face. I’d been so stupid to take that money from the loan sharks in the first place.
I slumped back against the bench and groaned while thinking of Ray’s parting words. He was right of course. Ray was always right about money, and he wasn’t the type to give an empty threat. Last time he’d threatened me with ‘collections’, he’d followed through.
I moved my finger over an indentionthree inches above my hip. The laceration had been a bitch to get to stop bleeding.
The beating from his men hadn’t been a fun experience, but I wasn’t concerned about being kicked around again. The question was: would this be the time it escalated beyond that?
When I had been checking up to make sure that I hadn’t recently been charged with any crimes, I’d also dug up these lowlife loan shark’s files. It appearedthey had connections in the police department, because no charges ever came out of the murders that they were obviously connected to. But the pictures were brutal, even by my standards. Limbs flung all over the ground. So much blood that skin was barely visible.
And according to the coroner’s report, thevictimshad been alive for the whole thing.
Chapter 6
After I could finally focus on something beyond theimpendingdeadline, I began checking Instagram. Leaning back onto the hard bench, I scrolled through images of people who’d tagged themselves in the vicinity.
When I came across a photo of a family smiling in front of a television set, I paused my scrolling. I zoomed in on the dusty cable box on top of a clunky wooden console. I was dying to watch some Grey’s, but I couldn’t exactly use some random person’s Hulu without them noticing the activity.
I clicked on their profile, and I smiled. An elementary aged girl was wearing oversizedmouseears that dwarfed her freckled face. Her father was holding her up in the air asprincessesmarched past them in a parade. The photo was posted today: they appeared to beat a theme park in Orlando.
Although that could be an old photo they just decided to post today. In incognito mode I clicked on their story from an hour ago. The little girl was hugginga green ogre. As she squeezedhis comically oversized arms,a huge smile appeared on her face that showed off two missing front teeth.
Bingo. I scrolled through photos of them at their house and made sure therewereno cameras. It was going to be more difficult getting into this house than the abandoned shacks I’d been living in previously. But I was dying for a hot shower, and the ability to do my laundry.
???
Two days later, I leaned back into a grey-and-yellowstripedcouch with small tufts of yellow fiber sticking out of it. A new medicalshowcalled The Intern had just started playing. It was no Grey’s Anatomy, but I couldn’t just flip to on-demand. I needed to leave this house exactly as I found it, and this family’s on-demand viewing seemed to revolve around Dora.
A firm knock sounded against the front door and rang throughout the house. I turned off the muted television, glancing around the house to make sure I’d left everything in its place.
It obviously wasn’t the family. Iwatchedtheir story fifteen minutes ago: the little kid was bouncing up and down whilea man in a sweaty superhero costumesigned her autograph book. Plus, no one knocks before entering their own house. Did they have a maid scheduled to come in? That didn’t make sense though. The dust bunnies looked older than their kid.
When I didn’t hear the telltale clicking of a key, I crept across the cream carpet and moved toward the peephole. I thought back to my hiding place in the master bedroom closet. I’d have to be silent, but I could make it thereif it lookedlike someone was about to enter.
I pressed my face to the door and peeked through the peephole. Sebastian’s arrogant face was smirking back at me, his grey eyes focused on the peephole like he knew I was behind the door watching him. Even his posture screamed cockiness.
What the fuck was he doing here?I paused for a moment, hoping he would leave. Instead he raised his hand again. Shit,I didn’t want the neighbors to call the cops.
Before his hand could hit the peeling oak door again, I opened the door and pulled him in by his black suit lapel. I carefully closed it, but the door still squeaked slightly. I locked the door and swung the deadbolt in place. Then I turned to glare at him.
“Are you fucking stupid?” I whispered to him.“Do you want the cops to come and arrest us for breaking and entering?”
“I don’t have to worry about them arresting me,” Of course, he wouldn’t. The cops wouldn’t dare touchthe Underbossof the Amatofamily. Since I’d abandoned my own family, I didn’t have the same luxury.
