We end the call, and I can’t get the whole thing out of my head.
So, he’s into trafficking now.
What if he has a plan to come find her, and somehow she ends up caught in that shit show? I would never forgive myself if I overlooked this possibility and didn’t do something about it before it happened.
This guy is worse than scum.
What kind of a father doesn’t even want at least the smallest confirmation that his kid is, ok? Like she’s still alive and happy? Can he really care so little?
The thought is the last straw, and it has me pushing back from my desk and grabbing my car keys. I think I need a little face-to-face with this guy.
It’s seven in the evening. Snow is falling, and tonight is particularly cold. I can feel it biting into my bones when I walk into the smoke-stained bar on Fifth Street downtown.
It stinks in here. It always stinks in these places. I adjust my jacket over my shoulders and roll my neck, hearing it crack once. My eyes drift over the faces. They look numb. Numb, empty, and hollow. No one in here has any soul left inside them.They are on autopilot. Draining their lives away, changing their karma for one more round of poker. They look dead inside.
Her father is sitting on a tall chair at the bar, leaning over it as though he’s already had too many drinks.
He picks up his beer and drains the last of it from the bottle. He looks dirty and dodgy.
“Harold!” he snaps at the barman, holding up the empty bottle.
“Your tab is at its limit, man,” the barman says, shaking his head.
“Oh, for fuck sakes, you know I’m good for it. Just one more,” Ricardo scoffs angrily.
“Not a fuck. And I actually don’t know if you’re good for it. You never pay. I always have to chase you down. I’m trying to run a business here, man, not a charity,” the barman says sternly.
“Fuck you then!” Ricardo snaps.
Someone shouts from the back of the bar. “He’s pissed cus he lost his last dollar on the game he just played.”
Cold laughter ripples through the place.
“Fuck all of you!” Ricardo stands up, shaking his fist at his so-called-friends.
“Calm down, man. It’s only the beginning of the month. Go home, go to bed. it aint our fault you gambled your whole earnings so fast.”
Ricardo mutters angrily as he shoves the chair aside, toppling it over.
I follow him out of the bar and into the alley behind the building. The cold bites harder at my skin.
“Ricardo,” I snarl as he staggers around looking for a place to piss.
“Who the…” he turns to look at me, and shock registers across his face.
“Hey, no way, we had a deal. My debt with you is settled!” he blurts out.
I step closer to him, towering over him with menace in my eyes.
“I came here to make sure you were sticking to that deal.”
“What the fuck, man, what do you want from me?” he stammers.
“I want to hear it from you—that you are honoring the deal. That you won’t come anywhere near Athena ever again.”
“I…I…” he mumbles, trying to take a step backward.
“Because if you do, I swear you know what I’m capable of? Right? The only reason I haven’t skinned you alive and hung your lifeless body from one of the streetlights is that you are her father. If you were anyone else, you’d be dead. Do you understand?”
