Page 10 of Twisted Throne

I chuckled. “Guess he lied. I know you’ve been looking the other way on deliveries. You couldn’t have done it on your own. Who was helping?”

“N-nobody else,” he stammered and tried to stagger upright from where he lay on the floor.

I pulled out my gun and shot out his right kneecap, dropping him back down, screaming.

“Try again.”

“Jesus! Ted Everett and Craig Patterson! They handle forging the inspection documents! Please, I’ve got kids, please!” he squealed, unsuccessfully clutching at his shattered knee to try and staunch the blood now pooling on the concrete floor.

“When’s the next shipment coming in?”

“...augh…this Friday, ten PM…” he groaned. He was starting to drift off towards unconsciousness. But I had what I needed. I put a bullet through his head, then pulled out my phone.

“Ricky, I need you to pay a visit to a Craig Patterson and Ted Everett, both in Customs and working for Sabitino. A couple of broken bones should take care of it. And send someone to Leroy’s for transport and clean up,” I instructed.

Antonio Junior is gonna wake up to Joshua’s body dumped outside one of the storage containers that I had found out about tonight. If he wants a war, he’s going to get one.

Chapter Six

Gia

I’ve been stumbling through the last few days in a haze.

I didn’t think I slept more than two hours at a time, waking up at every noise.

I hadn’t seen the man again, but there had been a car parked across the street from my building the last couple of nights that looked way too fancy to be in this neighborhood. The windows were tinted so I couldn’t see anything that was inside. I was nothing more than a ball of nerves by the time the weekend hit.

Since my phone was still broken and there was no way I could afford to replace it right now, I stopped by the temp agency office on my way home to see if they have a new gig for me. Of course, they didn’t.

When I came home from the grocery store Saturday afternoon, I tensed up when I saw Steve lurking just inside the door. I’d finally caved and forced myself to venture out for some staples of ramen noodle packets and cheap coffee to get me through a few days while I waited on this last check to hit my bank account. He was lurking just inside the door when I entered the building, like he’d been waiting on me, and I nearly dropped my grocery bags on the filthy vestibule floor.

“Hey there, Miss Gia,” he said, leering at me.

“Sorry, I’ve got to run, I have someone waiting on me,” I said as I tried to keep moving forward toward my apartment door. He stepped in front of me, blocking my way. He was standing so close to me that I could see the spidery web of broken blood vessels that spread out across his nose, and his mop of oily, greasy gray hair. He smelled like cheap vodka and body odor.

“Well, I can understand that, but I’ve been waiting on your rent for almost two weeks now, honey,” he said, smiling at me with his yellowed teeth.

I glanced around, hoping that one of my other neighbors would appear so I wouldn’t be alone, but no such luck.

“I’ll have it to you in just a couple days, promise. I’ve really got to go right now, sorry.”

I dodged around him before he could get any closer to me. I felt slimy just talking to him.

“If you can’t, just stop by my office and we can have a chat. See if we can maybe figure something we could do to help you out,” he called out after me.

Ignoring him, I slipped into my apartment. I had to figure out what to do about the rent soon, but what, I didn’t know. I’d been counting on that missing gig to make it to the end of the month.

Going to Angelo still felt like I was betraying Mom in some way.

I don’t want to bring a child up in your world.

Her feelings were perfectly clear. But by keeping the letter, she had ultimately left the choice up to me.

Maybe instead of going to check on work at the agency on Monday, I should go downtown and see Angelo again instead. He’d said that family was the most important thing to him. What would it be like to be a part of that?

It’d be a fairy tale, that was what. And I didn’t trust fairy tales. No matter what the movies said, most fairy tales and fables had dark roots if you looked hard enough.

I flipped on the radio and started singing along to Taylor Swift’s newest to try and distract myself for a little bit. Although I hadn’t danced formally anywhere for several years, I was still in decent shape, and tried to keep up with at least the basic exercises. The beat of the song soon pulled me in and my body began moving along with it out of instinct. I kept on singing as I bounced around my living room, caroling along to something about diamonds and how nice I polished up.