by Sophia Gray
“You totally pussed out,” Seb repeated. We walked to the elevator bank, Pepper straining at the leash. “I remember you used to be knee-deep in pussy and booze by the time five in the afternoon rolled around. What happened to that guy?” Seb grinned at me, but I didn’t return the smile. “You used to be fun.”
“And then some psycho kidnapped my secretary and ruined my business,” I countered. “And I decided maybe I didn’t give a shit about being crazy anymore.”
“You’re missing out,” Seb said with a grin. “I tell you, you’re gonna miss that life someday. You’re not old yet, man. You’re what, twenty-nine? Thirty? That’s way too young to think about settling down.”
We got into the elevator, and I pressed the button for the first floor. A feeling of dread and anxiety was washing over me, and I realized there was nothing I could do about it. In a way, I felt ashamed. I felt ashamed of myself for acting exactly like Seb for most of my life and not caring what other people thought of me.
Ever since I’d been a kid, hell, ever since Cindy, I’d never let anyone walk all over me again. I’d always thought that I’d done the right thing, the strong thing, the manly thing. But now I was starting to realize that I’d barely done anything at all. I’d been a cad and an asshole to almost every woman I’d ever met. Thinking of all the women I’d fucked and dumped made me want to cringe. I couldn’t believe that I’d ever thought it acceptable to be so damn callous.
“I’ve changed, Seb. And I don’t think I’ll ever go back to the way I was before.”
Seb grinned again, still unaware of everything rushing around in my head. “You’ll regret it.” He winked. “Just trust me on that.”
I don’t think I will, I thought. I think I just got the wake-up call of a lifetime.
Chapter 7
I didn’t have the first idea of where to start looking for weapons. Thankfully, Seb was one step ahead of me.
“Where are we going?” We were in a black car with Pepper, and as far as I could tell, we were driving out of the city. “Indiana?”
Seb shook his head. “Somewhere better. Trust me.”
I shrunk back into the leather seats and watched the scenery pass as the driver cruised down Lakeshore Drive into the southern part of the city. It was a stark change—the magnificent, well-kept architecture of the Loop faded away quickly and was replaced by dilapidated warehouse buildings and veritable shacks on the side of the road. I watched as we passed by increasingly apocalyptic landscape: a field burning off oil, a torn-apart old factory, a lot of ancient-looking abandoned school buses.
“This is too much,” I said, turning to Seb. “How the hell are you even familiar with a place that looks like this?”
Seb had wraparound sunglasses on, and he looked impenetrable. “Does it matter?” He smirked at me over the tops of his shades. “I mean, I don’t really think it does, Enzo. I don’t think you actually give a shit where we’re going, as long as we get the weapons.”
I shrugged. “I don’t want to finance any gang activity,” I said ominously as the car cruised past an old factory covered in spray paint tags and unreadable gang signs. “This is a dangerous part of the city.”
Seb threw his head back and laughed. “You are such a pussy, Lennox,” he said with a scowl. “Where’s this heart coming from? You never cared who buttered your bread before.” He lowered his shades and glanced at me over the tops of the glasses. “I mean, that’s practically how LennoxCo was built. It’s not as though you used to have ethics. Why the change?”
Seb rapped on the partition and instructed the driver to take the next exit, pulling off the highway and onto a little ramshackle road. As the car bounced from fresh pavement to a road covered in potholes, I closed my eyes and wished that nothing would happen. I can’t die right now. Audrey needs me. Please don’t let this be a bad deal, please.
When I opened my eyes, Seb was smirking. “Pussy,” he said again, shaking his head and winking at me.
I rolled my eyes. “You have to admit, Seb, it would defeat the purpose of our coming here if we’re attacked before we even have the chance to get out.”
“Shut up,” Seb said carelessly. “You have the cash?”
I opened my attaché case and peered inside. Before we’d left town, we’d stopped at a bank, and I’d pulled out a few thousand dollars in cash. I pulled out a wad of bills and waved it at Seb’s face.
“Right here,” I said, my tone smug.
Seb craned his neck and looked down into my lap. “That should be enough,” he said. The car was bumping over the road so hard that once or twice, my ass left the seat, and my head slammed against the roof.
Seb rapped on the partition window. “Goddamn it!” he yelled at the driver. “Can’t you drive any slower? We don’t want to bust a fucking tire out here!”
The car slowed, and I settled into my seat, jostling and bouncing along as we drove further and further away from any recognizable civilization.
Finally, the car slowed as we passed a ramshackle house. “Right here.” Seb rapped on the partition with his knuckles, and the driver screeched to a stop. “Come on,” Seb said to me. He jerked his head to the side and climbed out of the back seat of the car.
Outside it was freezing cold, and even windier than it felt in downtown Chicago. I craned my neck and looked up at the darkening sky. “Where the hell are we?” I looked around, trying to get my bearings. We were so far off the highway that I couldn’t even hear the roar of traffic. “What the hell are we doing out here?”
Seb frowned. “What the fuck do you think we’re doing out here, asshole?” He pulled his coat tight around his muscular body and set off for the house. I was surprised—when we walked up, I could tell that it was clearly not in terrible shape. Rather, it was designed to look abandoned, but there was actually a lot of insulation.
“Is this a decoy?” I frowned as Seb knocked on the door.
He shrugged and rolled his eyes. “Who the hell cares? As long as we get what we came here for, I don’t give a shit.”
The door swung open, and a heavyset, middle-aged woman stepped out. Her face was lined with deep creases and her hair, or what was left of it, perched on her skull like cotton fuzz. She stared at Seb, taking in his tailored appearance. She even sniffed the air, and I shuddered as I thought about what she would smell like.
“We’re here for the items. Let us in,” Seb said.
I pulled his arm back. “Hey,” I said in a low voice. “Maybe try not being so rude for once?”
Seb rolled his eyes again, but the woman stepped aside and let us pass.
Inside, I was surprised again. The interior was well-built to keep the cold out, and there was a fire going in one corner. There were two long tables set up, with black duffel bags on the floor. A man smoking a cigarette leaned close to the fire, then threw the butt of his smoke on the floor and crushed it with the heel of his boot.
When he walked over to us, I was startled at the resemblance between him and the older woman who had answered the door. They both had flat blue eyes and dull features, almost like they’d been blurred with the passing of time.
“Hi,” I said, trying to keep my voice strong and confident. “We need to buy some guns.”
The man let out a laugh. “I know what you’re here for, son,” he said, spitting on the floor. He shoved his hands in the pockets of his worn jeans and strutted over to one of the tables. “How much did you bring?”
Seb grabbed the attaché case from my arms and threw it on the table. Wads of cash went flying out. I half expected the old couple to scramble for the bills, but instead, they stared at the money, coolly appraising.
“And what kind of items are we talking about?” The old woman peered into Seb’s face, obviously having taken him for the leader. I didn’t mind. There was something about this old couple that gave me the creeps. For starters, how the hell did they even get out here? We were so far off the grid that I thought I might hear banjos playing in the distance.
“Something semi-automatic.” Seb looked at me. “Lennox, what kind of shit do you need?”
I thought about it. I barely knew anything about guns—I had one in my condo, but I’d rarely used it. When I first bought it, I’d taken it faithfully to the range every other weekend to practice shooting. Ironically, I’d bought it right after my first almost deadly brush with Hodges. After he was arrested and taken down, I’d worried that he’d get out on bail and storm my apartment. Thankfully, he never did. I wondered if I was still a good shot.
“Something small,” I said, being decisive. “It needs to fit in here.” I tapped the right pocket of my overcoat. “We’re going back into the city, and we can’t attract a lot of attention.”
The woman nodded. She took some of the bills out of the case and counted. “We’ll take five,” she said, putting the rest back into the leather fold and handing it over to Seb. “You boys wait here for a minute.”
Seb and I exchanged uneasy glances as she puttered around the cabin. Finally, she pointed to her male companion and had him heft one of the big bags up onto the tables. When I looked at her face, I realized the tip of her tongue was sticking out of her dry lips. I shuddered. It was a powerful visual, if only because it reminded me so much of Audrey.
“This should do it,” the woman said. She dumped the contents of the bag out across the table with a deafening clack bang thump. I gaped at the pile of guns as big as my body. The woman spread them out and began rifling through the collection with a practiced eye. Finally, she held up two small black handguns that looked like something out of a spy movie.
“What are they?” I picked one up and frowned. It was light—I couldn’t believe that it would actually do some kind of damage.
“Does it matter?” The woman cackled as her blue eyes met my own. “They come with two clips of twenty rounds. Does that serve your purpose?”
I punched Seb in the shoulder, and he handed over another stack of bills.
“Give us four clips each,” I said to the woman.
She raised her eyebrows and whistled. “You boys aren’t planning to rob a bank, are you?”
I shook my head. “Nothing like that. I just need to take back what’s mine.”
Ten minutes later, Seb and I were back in the car, heading back towards Chicago. Pepper seemed to sense distress—she was curled up on the floor of the car, resting her snout in her paws. Every few minutes, she’d look up at me and whine until I began to pet her.
“You’ve gone soft,” Seb said again.
I didn’t reply. We were close enough to the city that I could see the skyline, rising up like gray hunks of metal out of the earth. The driver sped up, and I closed my eyes and rested my forehead against the window. Audrey, hold on, I thought silently. I’m coming. I swear I’m coming soon.
Chapter 8
By the time the driver had us in front of RH Shoes, it was almost dark outside. I knew that I didn’t have much time. Seb and I loaded our guns and tucked them inside our coats as we slipped out of the car. On second thought, I reached back in and stared at the driver.
“You take care of this dog back here,” I said sharply. “I know a certain woman who’s going to be over the moon to see her dog again. You understand?”
The driver frowned. I knew that having a pet in a company car was a breach of protocol. But who gave a fuck? After all, I was the goddamn CEO. I should have been able to fill the whole back seat with dogs if I wanted.
“Don’t let anything happen to her,” I warned again. “Or I’ll make sure you won’t be able to get another job in this city until you’re eighty years old.”
The driver nodded and gulped. Satisfied, I rapped on the window and snuck into an alley where Seb was waiting.
The storefront of RH Shoes was dark, and I wondered if anyone was inside.
“So, boss,” Seb said with an ironic grin on his face. I had to roll my eyes. For all his talk about not wanting to get arrested or involved with anything shady once more, he was doing a great fucking job at being a hired villain. “What’s the plan?”
“We break in from the back, then scout for Hodges and Audrey,” I said. The store was connected to a warehouse with all of the windows painted black. “She could be anywhere inside, and she’s small, so remember to check everywhere you can find.”
Seb nodded. He shook his head and grinned. “I never thought I’d be saying this, but this is kind of exciting, isn’t it?”
I rolled my eyes. “Seb, this is dangerous. Hodges is a fucking lunatic. Just shoot him if you see him, okay?”
Seb nodded. I mouthed, “One, two three,” and then slammed my body against the back alley door with all of my might. The metal creaked and groaned but didn’t give. Then Seb and I counted down once more, and both body slammed the door at the same time. It worked. The door creaked open, sagging on one of its hinges.
“Bingo,” Seb said. He held his gun in his hands and darted inside. A second later, I darted in right behind him.
The store was dark and seemingly empty. I frowned as I stepped through the piles of shoeboxes. Lone shoes were scattered on the floor, making it look like a tornado had whirled through the store.
“What the hell?” Seb whispered. We were creeping alongside one of the walls with our guns held high. “Looks like we’re not the first people to break in here today. Did the cops already check this place out?”
I frowned and shook my head. Remembering that Seb couldn’t see me in the dark, I spoke. “No,” I murmured. “No, they haven’t been here. Look at this dust.” I pointed down at the floor. Our feet were disturbing a fine, thin layer of gray—it almost looked like ash, like a volcano had exploded and then settled over everything inside. Our movements, though slight, were stirring up some of the dust and I felt an insane itch begin to build up in my sinuses.
“Shit,” I mumbled as I buried my face in the crook of my arm and sneezed. Seb let out a muffled laugh, and I glared at him.
As we made our way to the front of the store, I tried to look for anything unusual, but the problem was everything looked unusual. If I didn’t know that Richard had Audrey locked away somewhere, I would have guessed that he was trying to leave the country or make a hasty getaway.
My heart sank when we got to the front of the store. The registers and computers were gone, and I could tell that someone had been here very recently judging by the large footprints in the dust that looked almost as fresh as my own. I swallowed.
“She’s not here,” I said to Seb over my shoulder. “We need to check the warehouse.”
He nodded, and we turned, then ran in the other direction. The back of the store was dark and made it hard to see where the door was. I ran my hand along the wall, searching for a partition or a material that didn’t feel like drywall. Finally, I noticed a smooth, almost imperceptible groove.
“Here,” I whispered excitedly. “Here, we just have to break this open.”
Seb joined me, and together, we started pushing and knocking on the wall. But after a few minutes, we’d made no progress, and I was starting to feel panicked. The sun was almost all the way down—I could barely see the street through the distant front windows of the store.
“Shoot it,” Seb said. He clapped me on the shoulder. Sighing, I raised my gun and fired it at the partition in the wall. Sure enough, the force of the bullet pushed the partition back just far enough for me to stick my fingers in and shove with all my might. As the wall gave way, I held my breath. Irrationally, I was terrified of what I’d find behind the wall. Audrey’s dead body? A team of thugs waiting for me? Hodges himself?
Moving the wall kicked up a lot of dust, and Seb and I were coughing and sneezing as we waited for our eyes to adjust. It was still pitch-black when I opened my eyes, so I took my cell phone out and turned on the flashlight. Sweeping it across the floor of the warehouse, my jaw dropped.
“Holy shit,” I said to Seb. “It’s dark as fuck in here. You see this shit?”
Seb cleared his throat and
coughed once more. Then he stood next to me, peering into the darkness. The beam of my cell phone’s flashlight held suspended particles of dust, and as I moved the beam to the floor, I gaped.
“Look at this,” I said, pointing. “Look, it’s the same statements I had printed out and gave to that cop.”
Seb shook his head. “This doesn’t mean anything.” He stepped inside the warehouse. The partition seemed firmly wedged open behind us, but part of me was afraid that, somehow, we’d wind up trapped. “All it means is that he knows he fucked up, and somehow he managed to leave the evidence behind.”
“Shit,” I muttered. “That’s no good.”
“Damn right it’s no good,” Seb replied. “Come on. Let’s keep looking.”
Cautiously, we stepped forward, holding our guns high. When the dust began to settle, I realized with a sinking feeling that the warehouse had been accessed much more recently than the store.
“He’s been here,” I said in a low voice. “He was here recently.” The warehouse was huge—I couldn’t even see the other end of the inside. “Look,” I said, gesturing at the ground. There was a sheaf of papers improbably fluttering even though there was no breeze in the building. “He must have been here, trying to clear out his tracks.” I picked up one of the papers and held my cell phone flashlight up, trying to read it. For the second time, I felt a sense of foreboding and dread. “Look, Seb, he was trying to get rid of the evidence.” The names and addresses on the paper had been covered with white-out and hastily typed over. I could still read snippets of the original, but it was clear that the file had been tampered with. “He was trying to lie about where all of the money came from.”
“He’s on to us,” Seb said, his voice a tone darker. “We need to get out of here, he may even have it rigged somehow.”
“That’s fucking ridiculous,” I snapped, crumpling the paper into a ball and tossing it on the floor. “We have to search the rest of the warehouse.”