by Lewis, R. J.
“Bit better?”
“Yeah.”
For the first time since he let me in, I actually looked at him now with clear eyes. He looked tired, rubbing his nose every few seconds. He smelled of sweat too, and a little bit of alcohol.
“Where’s your Uncle? I don’t want to wake him up if he’s asleep –”
“Forget about all that,” he interrupted. “He’s not here, so don’t worry. Now tell me what’s going on.”
“Ryker showed up in front of the house with all these men,” I explained. “They threw bottles at the house to get our attention. And then when we were out…he fired gunshots up into the air, like he was possessed, and he was screaming at Heath. He said he… he’s been robbing from them. Taking down their cash houses. All the other guys had guns in their hands, and all the while Ryker was threatening to kill him, Matt, right in front of me! After they took him, Marko took me to Mom’s house and then left me without a care in the world! I’m sure he’s probably forgotten all about it!”
I was angry. I knew I was venting about Marko, but he really didn’t spare any time to see if we were settled in the house. He’d just turned around and taken off, furthering my suspicion about him. No matter what that guy did to prove his friendship and loyalty to Heath, that strange feeling inside of me never lessened with time. It just sat there.
Matt’s face darkened. “Jesus Christ, Allie, that’s fucked up.”
“Yeah, I know. I saw your car when he dropped me off, and I wanted to know if you could help me. If you could just… I don’t know, make some calls and ask if anyone knows what’s going on. I mean, surely you know people from that gang, right? You know everybody!”
He thought about it, resting his elbows on his knees. He stared off into space. I watched him nervously. I hoped to God he might know the answers.
“Yeah, I might have a person I can call up,” he muttered. “Fuckin’ hell, Ryker. He’s such an asshole, isn’t he? He never changes.”
I shook my head. “Never.”
I felt like an idiot for thinking he had come out of prison a different man. Most prisoners don’t. In fact, most wind up back in jail, and my bet was his day was coming.
“Always having to hassle Heath,” Matt went on. “That guy had his fuckin’ throat cut by fuckin’ trench coat wearing druggies. And what’s Ryker’s excuse for being a shit? Because he saw some fucking baby half-dead under a bed? Ridiculous.”
Matt’s anger over Ryker was startling.
But what was most startling… were his words. My nod slowed down, and I stared at him with a peculiar look, wondering just how far drunk he was to say something like that. He noticed my look, and instantly his body tensed and he sat up straight.
“I’m going to make that call,” he told me. He turned away and pulled out his phone. He dialled a few numbers and disappeared into the kitchen. I held my breath and tried listening in, but my brain was too occupied by what he’d just said.
That guy had his fuckin’ throat cut by fuckin’ trench coat wearing druggies…
How did he know they wore trench coats? Had I said that to him? I didn’t think I did. When Heath went out searching for those men, he never described the coats to anyone.
And what’s Ryker’s excuse for being a shit? Because he saw some fucking baby half-dead under a bed?
Now that… How in the hell did he know about that?
I turned my head in the direction of the kitchen just as he began talking. I couldn’t hear what he was saying. My body felt all wrong, though. I didn’t feel safe anymore. My vision blurred and I shook my head and edged off the couch.
Being here wasn’t a good idea.
Matt knew too much.
And he knew too much for a reason.
A reason that was literally smacking me in the face.
“You’ve been sitting there for five minutes and you’re looking freaked the fuck out,” he said from behind me.
I jumped at the sound of his voice. Five minutes? I’d been sitting here for five minutes? It felt like five seconds…
“I said something stupid to you before I left, and I want you to completely rid it from your memory, Allie.”
I nodded just to please him. I knew inside I couldn’t.
“I’ll do that,” I whispered hesitantly. I looked towards the hallway. I needed to get out of here.
“You’re lying,” he stated, and then he exhaled slowly. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
“I’m not lying,” I responded. “I swear –”
“I’m fuckin’ drunk right now and I’ve just told you something I shouldn’t have.”
I began to tremble. He was acknowledging it. He was admitting he was a part of something, and I didn’t want to hear anymore.
“Allie,” he said softly.
“I need to go.” I stood up and nearly stumbled over my legs from the nerves. All the while, he just watched me by the entrance of the kitchen with this look of sadness and exhaustion. He put his hand behind his back and grabbed at something.
“You’re not going just yet,” he told me.
My eyes connected to the gun he produced, and I froze. I stared up at him in shock, but I felt betrayal most of all. “What… What is this, Matt? I came for help –”
“I’m not helping a pair of Lawson pricks,” he interrupted sharply. “They’ve done nothing but turn this fucking town apart!”
I shook my head. “No, Matt, the town was already torn apart by that gang.”
“The Syndicate started out helping people,” he shot back. “They loaned out money for the people in need! They never did the drug shit until my father died and he came in!”
I was confused. So damn confused. “What’re you talking about, Matt? Your father?”
“My father started it from the ground up, Allie. Got his head blown apart by some druggies that robbed him blind. Druggies that were actually about to pay a premium and didn’t care it meant killing somebody innocent for the dough. And what did my Uncle do? He decided there was too little demand and there was room in town for a drug cartel.” Matt shook his head in disbelief. “I was five fucking years old, Allie, and all he saw when his brother passed on were dollar signs!”
“Your Uncle? He’s… he’s the boss?””
“Yeah,” he answered quietly. “What kind of fucked up man calls himself Boss, anyway?”
I looked around the room. “All this time, he’s been living here?” Here, in a shitty house half a block from my own?
“He’s kept his identity under wraps. Forced me out of the gang that belongs to my father.” Anger rose in him. “Fuck, I did everything in my power to prove I was worth it to lead. To take his place. Instead, he made me into some spy bitch, and who the fuck gets the cream of the glory? Fuckin’ Ryker. Some pussy little bitch that bitched about pulling a trigger on anybody.”
I was shaking hard. I had to hold onto the arm of the couch to steady myself.
“Ryker never killed anyone?” I found myself asking. I’d genuinely thought he’d taken it that far if he was being considered to lead.
“He did,” he growled out, rubbing his nose again. He was high too, I realized. “But he didn’t want to. He relied on fucking Ricardo to do most of the dirty work, and only when it involved some abused fuckin’ kid did Ryker take care of it. It was bullshit. Ricardo had enough of him, and I fucking wanted to see him fall. You can’t tell me he doesn’t deserve it after what he did to you! I saw the way Ryker treated you, Allie, and fucked other chicks behind your back. Ricardo told me how he used to glare at my Uncle and avoid listening to the rules. Ryker was irresponsible. He wasn’t meant to lead. No. That’s why I put him away. I needed that time to gain my Uncle’s trust. I’m sick of being everyone else’s bitch, Allie. So sick of being taken advantage of. But you know how that feels, right? You can relate.”
“You put him away?”
“I only tipped the police off. I didn’t think he’d get five fucking years.” Matt shrugged like it was nothing to him. “
It was Ricardo’s idea. I can’t take full credit for it.”
“And your Uncle… didn’t know?”
“He’d have skinned me alive if he’d known. Like he’d skin me alive if he found out I sent Ricardo to get money from Heath. I didn’t think the fucker had it in him to kill him. Heath was the dangerous one all along.”
This guy was crazy. Fully insane-in-the-membrane kind of crazy.
“Why would you put us through that?” I said, completely perplexed. “We went through hell, Matt –”
“The money was Ricardo’s idea. He’d been pumping money from the side out of people who were related to debtors of ours. He thought because Heath fought, we could get some money up to buy the gang off if we needed to. Ricardo was fully prepared to kill Heath, though. That’s why he gave him such an impossible timeframe to get the money. I didn’t want that at the time, but he said it would cause Ryker to turn against the gang if he thought they did him over like that. Instead, that fucking boyfriend of yours robbed us blind. I knew it was him when you called me. When you asked me where he was and told me he’d been coming back late with a bit of cash in his hands. I followed him, and I saw him robbing a house clean, and then I knew. I knew it was him all along, and I knew he’d killed Ricardo and found that notebook filled with the addresses. If I’d known he was capable of that – capable of killing my friend –”
“He didn’t want to kill anybody!” I snapped. “Ricardo is the one that wanted to send him to his death! He was ready to shoot him in the head, Matt. He threatened to kill me too!”
“Ricardo made threats like that to everyone he messed with, Allie. I never would have actually let him. And anyways, if Heath actually cared enough for you, he’d have taken you out of town and kept you away from all this. You shouldn’t hate on Ricardo so much.”
Shouldn’t hate on Ricardo so much? Was this guy insane? “Why do you keep defending him?”
“We grew up together, and my uncle took him into the gang because he proved his worth. And I learned to live with that because Ricardo let me in on everything inside the gang. He wasn’t so bad.”
“He was and you know it!”
This was madness. I’d spent so much time suspecting Marko of evil when all along the evil had come from the one friend I’d counted on. How had my instincts been so wrong all along?
“I just don’t get it,” I said, shaking my head. “You sent the men after Heath. You had his throat cut, and he suffered for it, and you knew what that would have meant for Kayden and me. We’d have been broken, and you didn’t care about anybody but yourself!”
I saw the guilt overshadow his face. He swallowed hard and nodded. “I know, but it wasn’t personal. I needed to win my Uncle back, Allie. I needed him to see that I’d caught the guy that’d been doing us over. I wanted that kudos. I wanted him to finally be proud of me. I would have helped you out with Kayden myself had it gone to fruition. I swear to God, I’d have provided everything for you so you never went without. Don’t think for one second you hadn’t crossed my mind.
“But then he survived and the money had been moved and I didn’t know where. I had to lay low. Marko was searching for the man responsible, and I couldn’t protect myself if he found out it was me. My Uncle would never have taken me in knowing what I did and failed at. I had no money to buy anybody off to help me. Ricardo was dead. Those men disappeared out of thin air. I had to remain undercover. And I… I can’t kill someone. I can’t take a person’s life away with my own bare hands. So I waited. That’s the honest fucking truth.”
Jesus Christ.
I stared at him and back to the hallway again. I really needed to go. Matt was unloading all this information, and I knew too much at this point to walk away unscathed. Because once you knew a thing or two you weren’t supposed to, you became a target. I was becoming one right now, and he was letting it happen. He was going to hurt me after this.
“You’re not leaving,” he said sternly, as if reading my mind. He took a step toward me with that gun still by his side. His eyes were red and dilated, and his chest rose and fell rapidly. “I can’t have you leave, Allie. Not after this.”
“I won’t say anything to anybody, Matt –”
“That’s bullshit and you know it.”
I raised my hand out to him, pleadingly. “Please, Matt. Just think about what you’re doing. This isn’t you. I trust you, right? I trust you. And you trust me. You’ve always trusted me. So trust me when I tell you I won’t say anything.”
He kept shaking his head, muttering no. I couldn’t stick around another second. Not when he looked the way he did with that gun in his hand.
So I bolted, and he screamed to stop behind me. I made it down the hallway when a gunshot sounded out. Searing pain tore through my arm and I fell forward, landing hard on my front. I screamed and clutched onto my arm.
My heartbeats pounded in my ears. For a few seconds, I didn’t hear him talking to me. I didn’t hear anything over the throbbing pain that seemed to spread all over my body.
“Goddammit!” his blurred voice sounded from around me. “I didn’t want to do this, Allie! Fuck, fuck! I’m sorry, but fuck!”
A hand grabbed at my other arm and he turned me over. I tried to wriggle from him and ended up kicking. He screamed to stop when I kicked him in the balls. He collapsed on my lower body, cursing in pain. I tried to shove him off but his weight pinned me down, pressing onto my wound and causing me to sob out loud. I clawed at his face and neck and he panted and raised his fist to me. I saw the look of rage and fear in his eyes as he brought it down, smashing it against my eye. My head fell back, smacking onto the hardwood floor.
I screamed again, but it wasn’t as loud as before. I saw stars everywhere and my vision swam. I blinked and the room spun.
“Fuck,” he groaned over me. “Fuck, I didn’t want this, Allie! You were my friend! You were always my friend! I’m sorry!”
Despite the pounding in my brain and eye, and the horrible searing agony in my arm, I still tried to fight. I fought until he raised his fist again and all went black when it connected to my face.
Eighteen
Allie
I felt sick and nauseous and… wet.
I opened my eyes slowly and groaned. My body screamed and my arm wouldn’t move. My hands were bound behind my back, my mouth was covered in tape and my eyes were cloaked. I was on a hard, cold floor that stank of dust and mould. My body was on its side – on its good side – but the palpable pain in my other arm made breathing a chore no matter the position.
I knew what the wetness was. My blood. Coating my thin top. The copper smell invaded my nose and I cried. Tears streamed down my face endlessly as I wondered where in the hell I was.
Loud screams bellowed out and I startled.
What the fuck was happening?
A door opened and closed and footsteps sounded out from nearby.
“What in the fuck is this, boy?” growled a man.
“She knows everything,” Matt said. “I had to bring her here.”
“She knows everything or did you tell her everything?”
No response from Matt.
“You fucking screw up,” the man cursed in anger. “You come in here with her bound up and hurt, and you give yourself away! What use are you to me now? Huh, boy? You were meant to stay undercover. To be my eyes and ears around this town –”
“I don’t wanna stay undercover,” Matt interrupted harshly. “I don’t deserve it! And you shouldn’t fucking put Ryker on a throne, either! I knew it was Heath all along! I’m the one responsible for his attack, Garrett –”
“Don’t you fucking say my name, you dumb little shit!” he roared. “And on that note, you can’t even hire the right men to get a man killed? What stopped you from coming to me first, huh?”
“I wanted to do it on my own. I wanted to impress you, Uncle. And when it didn’t work out the way it was meant to, I knew you’d be disappointed. But I’ve been keeping tabs on him. I’ve b
een following him. I know all about where they’re putting their money!”
“Ryker and his man have already beaten that out of him, you useless fuck,” he retorted. “He’s about to get his head blown off, and now you’ve brought his woman to the mix. That kid of theirs is going to grow up a fuckin’ orphan. God, you’re pathetic.”
It was silent for a few moments. I heard him exhale and tsk under his breath.
“I’m sorry,” Matt apologized, his voice thick with emotions. “I’m sorry. I try so hard.”
“Shut up, Matt. Just… shut the fuck up, alright?”
Matt refused to shut the fuck up. “Where is everybody?”
The man sighed. “There was a call about another cash house being raided right this second. I sent the men out to get it checked.”
“Who’s left?”
“Ryker, some guy he says is good at torturin’ people, and that Lawson boy is in the next room. And now of course you’ve had to complicate shit and make your presence known. They all fuckin’ heard you. So pick the girl up and take her into the room too. Might as well die together. Ain’t that the romance nowadays? Be together, die together? Some stupid fucking shit like that.” He mumbled under his breath as he walked off.
I was breathing heavily, completely absorbed by their conversation. When a hand grabbed at my arm, I groaned and tried moving away.
“Come on, Allie,” Matt’s guilt-ridden voice said. “Please, hon.”
I shook my head and continued trying to wriggle from his grip, but he was stronger than me. He forced me up, and my head pounded even harder. Muffled, I cried from the dizzying pain as he pulled me to him and led us somewhere.
A door opened and the sounds from within grew louder.
“What the fuck is this!” I heard Heath scream in a pained voice. “This is fucked up, Ryker. No, no, this is fucked up. What the fuck is Allie doing here?!”
“You’ll have to excuse my nephew,” said the man. “He fucked things up on a whole new level by bringing her here. Apparently, my nephew has been a real shit behind my back. He’ll get punished for this.”
