Erika
She recognized the voice immediately. It had haunted some of her nightmares after she’d first heard it.
“No, I’m sorry, Harden isn’t here right now. But someone else will be there. And shortly.”
Erika hung up as fast as she could and threw the phone across the room, curling up onto the couch into a little ball.
They had Harden. That was the only explanation, the only way that they could have gotten the phone off of him. On top of that, they knew that she had still been in contact with him. What should she do?
“Erika?”
She turned to see Kelly staring at her. Kelly. Oh no.
“You need to go. Now.”
“What? Why?”
“Because I said so. Come on.” She stood up and took Kelly’s wrist, hauling her friend to her feet. “You need to get out. Go. Go home!” she yelled, pushing Kelly toward the door.
“What the hell is going on?” Kelly almost shouted, but Erika waved her off.
“There’s no time. I’m sorry. Go home, and I’ll call you to let you know what’s going on as soon as I can, okay? I promise! But you can’t be here any longer. They know that I’ve been in touch with Harden. They’re not going to hurt me, but they’re going to probably come, trash the place, and tell me to get out on the streets.”
“I’m staying with you then!” Kelly protested. “You can’t do this alone.”
Erika growled and pushed her friend toward her shoes once more. “Don’t you see?” she asked. “If you stay, they’ll punish you simply for being friends with me. But if you go, then you’ll be okay, and I can come be that annoying person who lives on your couch for months longer than you want them to.”
Kelly frowned. “How can you joke at a time like this?”
“I don’t know. But please!” she pleaded. “Kelly, please go. You can’t help me out, and all you can do is risk getting yourself into even more trouble.”
Her friend gave her a concerned look, but finally relented. “You’re sure they’re not going to hurt you?”
“Positive,” she lied. “They told me so last time.”
Kelly gave her a look that could only be interpreted as “You’re full of shit,” but she didn’t argue.
“If you don’t call me within an hour, I’m coming back,” she said forcefully.
“Done,” Erika said. “Now go! I have no idea how fast they’ll get here.”
Kelly seemed like she was going to argue once more, but in the end she left. Erika closed the door immediately, feeling weak with relief that she’d at least managed to get her friend out of danger.
Now if she could only do something about herself. She began to pace up and down the length of her unit, trying to come up with something. Running away wouldn’t do anything. They’d probably just hurt Harden worse if she wasn’t there. The man had said he didn’t intend to kill her, but there were plenty of things he could do to her that wouldn’t kill her.
Erika’s hands curled protectively over her stomach as fear surged through her system unchecked. What were they going to demand of her? Scenarios ran through her head, none of them positive, all of them terrifying. She jumped at every noise, every creak in the house.
She was wound so tight that when the knock at the door finally came she screamed and nearly fell to the ground. There was a pause, and then the door simply opened.
You idiot. How the hell could you forget something as simple as locking the door?
The first person to enter was the bald-headed shifter, the one Harden had said was Angelo. He eyed the door, then looked up at her. “Did you leave the door unlocked to make our lives easier?” he asked, sounding surprised.
“Yeah right,” she shot back, her mouth taking over from there. “I just forgot it wasn’t locked. Big, dumb, shifters storming into our houses isn’t something we often have to worry about, you know? Usually they’re polite and wait for us to answer after knocking.”
Angelo shot her a bemused look. “Funny, I don’t recall you having so much bark last time I was here.” He approached and she stood her ground. “But I don’t think you have much in the way of bite.” A hand grabbed her shoulder and threw her onto the couch. She bounced roughly and cried out, curling up around her stomach as pain in her back tightened muscles everywhere.
“I didn’t think so.”
He paced back and forth around her apartment for a bit longer. “We warned you,” he said. “We told you what would happen if you continued to talk to him. And what do you do, both times? You keep talking to him!”
“You aren’t the authorities, and he’s not a criminal,” she hissed through the pain. “You’re just a trumped-up prick who thinks that he’s king shit.”
Angelo eyed her, his brown eyes hard.
“Yes, I’m glad we’re done wasting money on you. Money that rightfully belongs to us,” he said angrily.
Erika rolled her eyes. “Seriously? All the funds that were given to support us were from donations, you ignorant piece of dickcheese. How dumb do you have to be to believe it was yours?”
Angelo snarled, flecks of spittle flying from his mouth. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. That money should have stayed in Cadia, it should have gone to other projects.”
“You mean your parents or whoever wanted it so that they could take their cut as bribes and other forms of corruption,” she shot back, taking a wild stab.
His eyes blazed with a crazed light, but he said nothing, and she knew she was right.
“You’re pathetic, Angelo. Just pathetic.”
“Trash it,” he said sullenly, motioning to the two others who had followed him inside.
The other two shifters, one Harden’s size, the other a great beast of a man, began to walk through her apartment, breaking all her meager possessions while she watched.
They broke the furniture into kindling, dumping her off the couch to do so. Smashed her cupboards and wrecked her fridge, dumping food everywhere. Cushions were ripped open, the bed torn apart, the walls cracked and holes punched through them. It didn’t take long—there wasn’t much—but they were very thorough.
As they were finishing up there was a knock on the door.
AGAIN?! She almost shrieked, but her eyes were drawn to the clock on the wall, one of the few things they hadn’t destroyed. It read almost an hour since the first phone call.
Oh no. Kelly…
“Erika! Erika open up! It’s been an hour and you haven’t called. Open the door or I’m calling the police!”
She darted for the door, but she was too slow. Angelo caught her easily, twisting both arms behind her neck and clamping a hand over her mouth. She struggled, but his arms felt like steel.
The big shifter moved to the door and opened it while the third man reached out and brought Kelly inside with casual ease, his hand also clamped over her mouth so that she couldn’t scream. It was too much for Kelly. She saw Erika being held up, and she fainted.
Angelo sighed in frustration, then jerked his head at the remains of the couch. They put her friend on it.
By this point Erika was beyond scared; she was terrified. What should she do? She realized they were going to put the both of them out on the streets now as Angelo told his thugs to search Kelly for ID. Thankfully they came up with nothing.
“Who is she?” Angelo asked, passing her off to one of his goons to hold.
She tried to bite down on fingers, but earned nothing more than a strained neck as compensation.
“I said, who is she!” The big shifter’s hand clamped over her mouth and nose, so that she couldn’t breathe.
Erika’s eyes went wide and she began to struggle, kicking out violently, but it was like fighting a brick wall. She wasn’t making any progress.
Just when she thought she was about to faint, the hand let go.
“Answer my question.” Angelo said.
“Go fuck your lapdog over there,” she said, jerking her head in the direction of the third shifter standing near Kelly.
Angelo sighed and moved into the kitchen, removing a knife from among the remnants of it. Then he went over and held it to Kelly’s throat.
Before he could speak though, the door shook with pounding once more.
“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!” she screamed, flying into an incoherent rage. She was done with door-knocking. Just fucking done. No more. She couldn’t handle it, and began to scream bloody murder.