I waited in the afternoon light with Mason’s whiskey sitting in my stomach and flowing through my veins. Suspicion brewed in the back of my mind. I was suspicious of both of the men in my life, and it was starting to get old already. I looked up and down the alley between the apartment building and the parking garage.

 

I felt like I should have gone with Mason. I should have forced his hand. It was the only way I knew I could ensure neither one of them would fuck me over. It would have been a good way to make sure I didn’t screw either one of them over, too.

 

Of course, I could screw both of them over right now, I thought. I looked around at the buildings surrounding me. Everything was so close right here. I could almost touch the concrete walls of the parking deck from the back door of the apartment building. The next building over stood just as close, leaving enough room for one-way traffic down the alleyways.

 

I could have taken a page out of my homeless friend’s playbook and just disappeared right then and there. I could have ditched my phone in the dumpster, stopped at the nearest ATM to grab enough cash to get me up the road, and just walked off into the dying light. It wasn’t an idea that occurred to me often, but there were times when I fantasized about ditching my current life and going off to find something new. At times like this, when I was faced with a no-win situation, when I suspected I was going to get screwed either way I went, it just seemed easier to walk away.

 

It wouldn’t have been hard to keep my head down until I got somewhere safe. Then, thanks to the internet, no one had to know where I was when I transferred the money out of my bank account electronically.

 

“What are you thinking, Clara?” I asked myself under my breath. “Thinking about running?” I owed both men for their kindness and their help, but both of them had used me to some extent. Then again, I had used them, as well.

 

My eyes darted back and forth, torn between waiting for Skull’s car and watching out in case I decided to make a run for it.

 

“If you’re going to run, now’s the time to do it,” the homeless man called out to me.

 

I jumped at the sound of his scratchy voice. I laughed. “It’s that obvious, huh?” I asked.

 

“Yep, but if you’re going to do it, it’s best to stop thinking about it and just go,” he added.

 

“Is that what you did?” I asked him.

 

“Not quite. I got booted out of my life,” he told me. “I landed here the hard way, but whenever I want to go now, I just walk. Nothing’s tying me down, lady. You got something tying you down? I mean, besides what you’re thinking about running from?”

 

I glanced over in his direction, but I couldn’t see him. He was talking to me from his camouflaged hiding place in the boxes and papers. I didn’t know how to answer him. I had one man who wouldn’t let me go very easily. He was my boss and probably thought of himself as my father. The other one thought of me as either his lover or a threat to his business.

 

Before I could formulate an answer, I heard the car pulling up. It was a shiny black sedan with blacked out windows. It was the same car from the park. The old man had been right. I should have run.

 

Three men got out. It looked like the same three men from the attack at the park, but I knew two of them had taken shots to the head. Whoever hired them just had a knack for finding guys who fit that particular mold.

 

I reached for the gun in the waistband of my jeans.

 

“I wouldn’t do that, Clara,” one of the men said, approaching me slowly, carefully, with one hand out and the other tucked into his black suit jacket.

 

I looked around. I could feel myself starting to panic. I looked for an escape route.

 

For the last five years, I’d been able to get out of any jam I got myself into. I’d been able to steal from every crime boss in the city—and there were many. But in the last couple of weeks, I’d been caught three times now.

 

“Your boyfriend isn’t going to save you this time,” a second one said.

 

The third one grabbed my arms.

 

“Fuck it,” I said under my breath. I was pretty sure Skull had sent these guys this time. I kicked myself for not listening to Mason when he tried to convince me he’d sent the others.

 

I shifted my weight and threw Number Three over my shoulder. He landed on his side in front of me, forcing the other two to step aside. They looked down at their fallen comrade and then back at me. Through their dark sunglasses, I could only imagine what their eyes must have looked like, probably just as expressionless as their square jaws and tight lips.

 

These men were programmed like robots not to show any emotions. They were probably going to take me, but I was going to get some emotion out of them first.

 

I stepped back and lowered my center of gravity. They were all taller and wider than I was. They had very square bodies with thin, broad shoulders and long arms and legs. They all had black hair cut short and brushed back. They were easy targets, as they hadn’t expected me to fight back.

 

Number One pulled out his gun, and I quickly disarmed him with a kick to his hand. The gun hit the ground and slid underneath the car. While he stepped back and grabbed his hand, Number Three tried to dive under the car to get the gun, but a couple of kicks to his head left him at least unconscious if not worse.

 

That was when Number Two grabbed me from behind and found his face slammed against the front driver side window. He backed away, stunned.

 

That left Number One again. I turned to face him and reached behind my back for my gun—it wasn’t there.

 

“Looking for this?” he asked, holding up the gun.

 

“How in the hell?” I blurted out.

 

He shrugged and pointed the gun at me. “It doesn’t matter, because if you don’t calm down and get in the car, well, I’m sure you can guess what’s going to happen.”

 

Numbers Two and Three stepped to either side of me.

 

“Glad to see I didn’t hurt you too much,” I offered condolences to Number Three.

 

“Better than what we’re going to do to you,” he threatened. He tossed the gun he’d pulled out from under the car to Number One.

 

I saw my opportunity when Number One looked away to holster his gun. I knew very well that if I weren’t successful in fighting these assholes off, it could have been my last stand. What they didn’t seem to realize, was that I was pretty sure Skull had sent them. If that were, indeed, the case, there was only so much they could do before they got in trouble with him. He wouldn’t have accepted my dead body. And anything short of that was fine by me, so it didn’t matter.

 

Using my skills as a thief in the night, I shoved myself against Number One and grabbed his hand, bringing his arm around in front of me until the gun was aimed at Number Two. His reflexes kicked in, and he squeezed the trigger. Number Two’s chest erupted in a red spray, and he fell back against the car.

 

Number Three watched his comrade fall to the ground and dove down to his side to help him out, but it was pretty obvious it was too late.

 

I jerked Number One’s arm down, bending it the wrong way and forcing him to drop the gun. I quickly spun away from him and grabbed the gun. My back against the car, I aimed at One, then at Three.

 

“I’m leaving,” I told them. “Either one of you tries to stop me, you’re going to be on the ground like your buddy there. Got it?”

 

One raised his hands up, showing me he was unarmed. Three stayed on the ground with Two, who wasn’t responding to anything, much less to my threat. I started to back away from them, sliding myself along the back of the sedan until I was past the rear bumper.

 

I had no choice but to run. By taking out one of Skull’s men, there wasn’t a safe place to hide in this town. I had to leave. I had to get the hell out of Dodge, but I froze. I could have turned right then. I could have high-tailed it out of there. I could have run across the alleyway, jumped the low wall of the parking garage, and I could have disappeared into the darkness. But I also knew that turning my back on those two men would have been a deadly mistake.

 

“Take out your guns,” I told both of them, assuming they both had guns under their coats. I knew Number One did.

 

They both slid their hands into their coats and pulled out their handguns, holding them up in the air over their heads.

 

“All right, good,” I said. “Now, drop them and kick them over here towards me.” I wasn’t used to being involved in standoffs like this. It felt like I was on TV or something.

 

They obeyed, just like the bad guys on TV did. Men who worked for my boss were the bad guys. What did that make my boss?

 

I bent down, keeping my eyes on them as I reached for the guns with my free hand. I grabbed one, stuffed it in the waist of my jeans, and then reached for the other.

 

“You forgot something,” Number One said.

 

“What do you mean?” I stopped what I was doing and put both hands on the gun as I stood back up. “What did I forget?” I asked again.

 

“You forgot one of us,” Number Three said.

 

I looked at One, Three, and Two lying on the ground. Then, I glanced at the car. The driver side door stood open. How did I miss that? I stepped away from the car, turning to point my gun at the open door while keeping the two men in my sight.

 

“Where the fuck is your driver?” I asked them.

 

“Right here,” a voice said behind me, and as I turned around, something hit me. I didn’t know what it was, but there was a bright white light in my vision, and everything went hazy after that.

 

I didn’t go out immediately. I felt a couple of strong arms catch me as I fell. They went under my shoulders and wrapped around in front of me to hold me up, not letting me fall completely.

 

I couldn’t see. I blinked a couple of times, but my eyes didn’t want to open back up. I closed them against the blurry world around me. I tried to listen as the men who had me talked, but their voices were muffled. I heard someone laugh. Then I heard the doors closing around me. It sounded like there were too many doors for the car.

 

Then, I started falling, except I was falling sideways, and the darkness washed over me as I realized we must have been driving away from the apartment building.

 

I’m sorry, Mason, I thought as I finally lost the fight and gave in to the darkness behind my eyelids.