“What about this?” Charity’s chirpy voice interrupted my thoughts and I turned to her with a deathly pallor on my face, like I had seen a ghost. When she looked at me, she knew immediately what I’d been thinking about and she came rushing towards me.
“Ava, you don’t have to worry. You know you can stay here with me as long as you need to,” she said, in her most affectionate voice and I nodded my head, battling back the hot tears that pricked the back of my eyelids. It was sweet of her to offer, and I appreciated her generosity, but I wasn’t going to accept any more hand outs from anyone.
I hadn’t realized that was what I was doing all those years with Blaine, and therefore he had so much control over me.
“Thanks, I found something else,” I smiled at Charity and pulled out a white shirt from one of the boxes and started putting it on. She watched me in silence and I could see the sympathy return to her eyes. I forced a smile on my face and stood up. No way was I going to let anyone feel sorry for me.
“Gotta go,” I said, as cheerfully as I could and I left for the interview.
Chapter 3
Commando
Girth and King were with me when we entered Mr. Hill’s pawn shop. Over the years, our MC had formed a perfectly peaceful working relationship with most of the local businesses. They gave us money and we provided them with protection.
“Commando!” Mr. Hill was behind the counter, polishing a pocket watch which definitely didn’t look vintage. He had his glasses on the bridge of his nose, and pulled them off when I walked towards him.
“Mr. Hill,” I said and placed my hands on the glass counter, peering down to look at his latest wares. The kinds of things people pawned for cash was fucking nuts.
“You have the cash?” Girth spoke up. He had no patience for small talk and Mr. Hill nodded his head vigorously.
“How is business?” I asked him instead, as he wiped his grimy hands on a rag before walking around to his desk, where we all knew there was a secret compartment he used to stash money.
“I can’t complain about business, but the Black Skulls are something else,” Mr. Hill replied, stuffing dollar bills into a plastic bag. King was going to count them when he handed it over to us.
“What are those numbskulls up to?” I asked with a laugh, and I heard King and Girth give out a little laugh behind me as well. Mr. Hill however, didn’t appreciate my use of that choice word.
“They’ve visited me twice this past week,” he said, with a sour expression on his face as he handed over the thick wad of cash to King, who started counting it.
“This isn’t their territory,” I snapped and Mr. Hill sighed.
“They scared my shopgirl shitless yesterday,” he said and I was surprised to hear him use that word. I’d always considered Mr. Hill to be a gentleman.
“Lancey, over at Mahoney’s pub told me the same thing. The Black Skulls paid them a visit recently as well,” Girth said and I turned to him with narrowed eyes.
“They’ve been trying to shake down a lot of us in the area,” Mr. Hill complained and when I looked at him, I could see that he was more than just annoyed.
“What did they do?” I asked him and I noticed how he was refusing to meet my eye.
“They took some stuff,” he replied in a smaller voice and my fists banged down on his glass counter instinctively. The fact that the Black Skulls were on my territory, harassing our businesses; was not something I was going to tolerate.
“Why didn’t you get in touch with me?” I barked at Mr. Hill and he seemed to cower and I cleared my throat.
“We’ll keep an eye on this street,” I added in a gruff voice and he nodded his head.
“I wasn’t sure what to do,” he replied and I reached over the counter and grabbed his shoulder and gave it a shake.
“Girth will stick around and watch over the shop,” I said to him and he nodded his head again.
“It’s all there,” King told me. He was done counting the cash and I gave Mr. Hill a quick nod.
“You don’t have to worry about the Black Skulls,” I reassured him again and then turned around and walked out of the shop with Girth and King behind me.
Outside, I slipped a cigarette out of the box and stuck it to my lips. King brought out his zippo and presented the burning flame to me which I used to light up. I took in a deep drag, allowing the smoke to fill my lungs.
“Fuck em,” I said, while King lit Girth’s cigarette and then his own.
“What gave them the balls to start doing this shit?” Girth said, pulling on the smoke of his own cigarette. I flicked ash from mine onto the pavement and shook my head.