Mind racing, sweat dotting every inch of my skin, I thought back over the last few days. I’d put something in the box last Thursday. Friday I’d been with Danny. Could he have found them? No, he’d never been in the bathroom at all. What else had happened on Friday?
I’d woken up out of sorts, hot, cranky because...
“The AC was out.”
I got up on shaky legs and went back into the living room, glancing at the unit. After I complained about it to anyone who would listen, Ca
rmen had come into the club with a work order, but now I realized Richie hadn’t been in the club Friday morning. I wasn’t sure I’d seen him all day. Where had the work order come from?
Frantically I glanced around my apartment, trying to see it with fresh eyes. Everything looked exactly as it always did. The books in their neat color-coded rows. The DVDs arranged on the shelves by genre. My desk holding the laptop and stapler and notepads. I ran back to the bedroom, flung open the drawers and the closet door, and studied everything. It appeared nothing had been touched. Yet I knew someone had ransacked everything. Someone had violated my privacy and stolen my possessions, but I was going to pay the price. It was just a matter of when and how.
“That son of a bitch.”
I jerked when someone pounded on my door. Swallowing hard, I ran my hands over my face to remove tearstains and then down my shorts to remove the sweat. I suddenly felt faint, and every dream I’d had in the last five years simply vanished like a puff of smoke.
“Open the goddamned door, Hannah,” Butch shouted. “Richie wants to see you.”
Richie, the stealer of dreams, the magic man who could take away hope, happiness, and ambition with a sweep of his manicured hand over a work order.
Oh yes. I was going to pay. The knock on the door had signaled the when. Now it was just a matter of how.
Chapter Four: Richie
“Come in.”
Butch stepped into the room and stood to the side of the opened door. My sister strode in, giving Butch a wide berth, chin up, shoulders back, not at all the meek little mouse I’d counted on. Well, that shit stopped now because this little tigress needed to know who ran this zoo. I waved her to a chair. Butch closed the door and stood against it. Hannah gave him a side-glance and then parked her ass in the chair like a good little girl.
“I’m disappointed in you, Hannah.”
“What’s this about, Richie? I have a busy day tomorrow, and I need to get to bed. It’s almost midnight.”
“Oh, yes, I can imagine your busy day...what with all the secrets and lies and things going on behind my back.”
She flinched for a split second, but to give her credit, she rallied well. Her face went back to stone.
I opened my drawer, scooped out the flash drives, and dumped them on my desk.
“Care to explain?”
“I assume you already know what they are,” she snapped.
“I do.”
“So why am I sitting here?” She leaned forward. “It’s coursework. I’m trying to better myself.”
“You don’t need to better yourself. I take care of you.”
“Did you expect me to just manage this club until it was time to throw me into a home like Nana?”
“How is Nana?” I asked with a tight smile.
She leapt up. Butch moved from the door, but I waved him back as Hannah stabbed her finger toward my face.
“Shut the fuck up,” Hannah snarled, and then she began to pace. “You don’t care, and you have no right to even talk about her.”
“You’re right. I don’t care, and talking about her bores me. Let’s forget about that old woman. I’ll assume she’s still alive and send next month’s check.”
She whirled around and pointed to the flash drives. “Those are mine, and I want them back.”