Page 8 of Twisted Throne

I summoned all of my courage and strode ahead, trying to push past him.

The man behind me spoke up for the first time as he stepped forward and grabbed ahold of my shoulder.

“But I think you do.”

His half smile revealed yellow, nicotine-stained teeth and the smell of cheap cologne and sweat rolled off of him.

While I had never had any self-defense, all of those years of ballet classes had made me nimble. I spun around and ducked under his arm, knocking his hand loose. I turned to run but stumbled into the second guy.

“Calm down now, nobody here wants to hurt you. But I think we can… help you out.”

Over his shoulder I saw Ronnie, now alone, look over at us, his eyes narrowed.

While I had some doubts that he would interfere with someone simply harassing me, I knew for a fact how he dealt with other dealers trying to slip into the neighborhood. So I did the only thing I could think of.

“I don’t want any of your drugs! Leave me the fuckalone!” I pitched my voice clear and carrying, like I was projecting to the nosebleed seats at the Met.

The men were startled enough by my outburst that I was able to dodge past them and take off running toward my building. But they weren’t the ones whose attention I was trying to get.

“Hey! Who the fuck are you?”

My phone fell out of my hand and when I paused to scoop it up off of the payment I saw Ronnie take off across the street toward the two men, his hand reaching down to the waistband of his jeans. One way or another, I’d bought some time.

I sprinted the rest of the way to my building. When I reached the door, I stole another glance down the street and saw that the two men in the suits had vanished, leaving only Ronnie scowling and muttering to himself.

I threw open the door to the lobby and rushed inside. But I stopped in my tracks when I saw my landlord, Steve, leaning up against the wall beside my door. He was wearing his standard uniform—filthy jeans and a holey t-shirt. He straightened up and leered at me.

“Awfully late getting in tonight, huh?” he said with a smile that showed his yellow, tobacco-stained teeth.

“Today is not the day, Steve. I’ve already dealt with enough shit.”

I threw another glance over my shoulder to make sure that the men hadn’t somehow followed me to the actual building. I whipped back around to face Steve when I felt the fleshy weight of his hand on my shoulder.

“Yeah, but your rent still aint been paid yet,” he said as he squeezed my shoulder. “Just wanted to let ya know that if you’re running short that I might be able to… help you out a little.”

“Don’t touch me! I’ll have it soon, okay?” I yelped, jerking away from him.

“Fine, fine!” he said, stepping back and holding his hands up. “Just something to think about.”

As soon as he had moved a safe distance down the hallway, I hurled myself at the door. When I went to unlock the deadbolt, I froze. The wood on the door and doorframe was scratched up and splintered like someone had been trying to pop the lock open with a screwdriver or something. The door opened smoothly, and nothing was missing, so thankfully they hadn’t succeeded. Still, it was an unnerving reminder of just how vulnerable I was.

Once inside I slammed the door shut behind me and relocked it. I checked the entirety of the apartment just in case, and then I shoved my ancient, but solid, loveseat in front of the door. It was droopy and covered in cigarette burns and rips from the previous owners, but it was solid and heavier than the chair and made me feel a little bit more secure at least.

When I peered through my blinds down at the street below I saw no one there but Ronnie, back at his corner. But my uneasiness had only grown.

The thought of eating made me feel nauseous, so I shoved the take-out that I’d somehow hung on to through all of this in the fridge.

Flopping down on my bed I pulled out my phone.Shit.The screen must have shattered when I dropped it on the steps. It wouldn’t even power on.

Tossing it across the bed, I pulled the blanket up to my chin, tears rolling down my face.

Chapter Five

Paul

Everything that the girl said today checked out. I had talked to our computer guy, John, and he had run a full background check on both her and the mother. Everything lined up with what the girl had said. If there had been anything suspicious, he would have found it.

I had almost been hoping that it wouldn’t and we could send her back to Sabitino or wherever the hell she had come from and be done with her. But no, all of the facts lined up. There was little to no doubt that she was Angelo’s daughter. Things were still up in the air as far as how involved with Angelo and the family she was going to be. Although Angelo didn’t outright say so, it was obvious to me that he wanted her in his life. He’s planning on asking her to join the family for dinner this weekend. So I volunteered to escort her. I want to find out more about her. Everything with Sabitino is about to completely boil over and the last thing we need is Angelo distracted by some long-lost daughter. There’s still time for her to take off.