Page 23 of Dangerous Games

“Jesus Christ,” I gasp as I try to catch my breath. My hand moves over the left side of my chest in a poor attempt to calm my racing heart. “Make a sound next time, will you?”

“Sorry, I thought you heard me come in. I said hi to you and everything,” Nate says, looking at me with concern. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, why?” I rush to answer as I shift around uncomfortably.

Does he know what’s going on?

Nate makes a point of looking around the store. “You haven’t done much of anything. Not that I’m complaining. You work your ass off, and you’re always covering mine, but usually you have everything down to the register ready to go. You sure you’re okay?”

Shit.

He’s right. I haven’t done anything but turn on the lights in this place.

“I didn’t get much sleep last night. Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. This place takes like two seconds to open. It’s never made sense to me why we have to be here an hour before. Have a rough night?”

“Uh, no,” I lie as I turn on the register. “I got sucked into the world of video games.”

“Ah.” Nate nods his head with a smile. “A world that’s a blessing and a curse. There’s beauty in the escape, but madness in the time that lapses in the real world while you’re gone.”

He hit the nail on the head with that one. “That there is.”

The rest of the day passes by without anything else weird happening, but that didn’t stop me from looking over my shoulder every thirty seconds. Part of me kept expecting the man from The Drip to come waltzing into AFK like he owned the place, looking for me.

If he were able to find out my name, what else does he know about me?

I can’t shake the feeling that he’s out there somewhere, watching and waiting for me.

“Alright, this is the last time I’m going to ask, and then I’ll leave it alone,” Nate says as he approaches me. I’m standing at the front of the store, staring out onto the street. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’ve been staring out the window like you’re waiting for a treasure map to appear that will lead you to the best loot of your life.”

I force a small smile as I turn my attention to him to see the concern back on his face, not matching his lighthearted tone. “I think I just need to sleep. Would you care if I dip out early?”

“Go for it.” Nate waves his hand in the air. “I owe you.”

“Thanks, Nate.”

I hoped the walk home would clear my head and get me out of the funk my life has put me in, but it didn’t. If anything, it made it worse.

Even locked away inside my tiny studio apartment, I still don’t feel safe. I feel on edge, watching for the next knife to drop.

Chapter

Eight

GIO

“Ineed you to pay someone a visit.” Matteo taps his large finger on his cigar, letting the ash fall onto the tray.

“What’s this one about?”

“He owes us half a mil. He was supposed to give us ten percent to show good faith. Instead, he thought it was smart not to pay the ten percent and ask Enzo for another hundred thousand.”

“Jesus. What the fuck is he doing?” I ask. That’s ballsy for someone who can’t come up with ten percent.

“No clue, but whatever it is, it ends with us.”

“I’m on it,” I tell him as I stand up to leave his office.