I have never been so scared in my entire fucking life. He sat there, calmly waiting as we filed in and took our seats. I sat on the couch like I was instructed. D and Mr. Rogers sat on either side of me. It was a small couch, more of a loveseat, really, and our thighs touched, we were so cramped. The Whistler took up his position next to the man at the big desk against the far wall. I couldn’t stop my legs from trembling from the nerves, and I hated that my legs were touching the two men next to me, because surely they could feel how afraid I was. I knew what this was about. The fucking bag of money Melody had taken off with.

The man at the desk was clearly in charge, his entire aura screamed bad man. He was a handsome man, but in a clean cut ordinary way. He had dark wavy hair and a strong jawline. His burgundy dress shirt was open at the neck, and I could see several thin gold chains hanging there. Appropriate crime boss accessories. There was nothing about him that stuck out as particularly intimidating except for his eyes. They were expressionless, cold, and hard. Those were dead eyes. The eyes of a sociopath.

He just sat there silently, not saying a word. The silence became so uncomfortable I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could, he uttered his first words.

“Why was Bernard screaming in the hallway?” he asked softly. There was no anger in his voice, but I saw Whistler’s posture straighten and he looked nervously at the door like he was getting in trouble for allowing the noise to disturb the master in his office. It was D who spoke first.

“Your boy put his hands on the merchandise. She didn’t like it so she dropped him.”

He rubbed his finger against his mouth in apparent thought and inhaled deeply, then exhaled and rolled his head from side to side, cracking his neck in the process. “Bernard should know better than to put his hands on anything of mine,” he said, and the words chilled me to my bones. He was calling me his like I was a thing. Property. An inanimate object without the means to think or speak. Knowing that was terrifying.

“Do you know why you are here?” He looked at me and nodded, like he was giving me permission to speak. Words are something I am normally never short on, but this time they seemed to be failing me, because I opened my mouth but nothing would come out. I was too afraid. A sharp elbow hit me in my ribs on the left hand side. Mr. Fucking Handsome jabbed me to get me to talk and the breath left my lungs in a whoosh.

“I think I’m here because I saw something I shouldn’t have.” The words came out with a wheeze. I shot Sexy lips bad man a glare but he refused to look at me. He would only look ahead at the man behind the desk. Everyone in the room was looking at him.

“Oh, Angel, if only that were the case. You see, you didn’t just see something you shouldn’t have, you interrupted something you shouldn’t have.” The man drummed his fingers on the top of the desk for a moment, then pinned me with an icy stare. “Do you know who I am?”

My legs were trembling violently now. I was afraid to answer. I had no idea who he was but for some reason I was terrified to give the wrong answer. Like my survival depended on whether or not I knew the name of the man sitting in front of me.

“My name is Chaz Malone, it’s nice to meet you, Angel.”

Dear God, I was going to die in this warehouse. Chaz Malone was as close to mafia as we got out here in the Glass City. We weren’t a big enough metropolis to have syndicates or anything, but we were right on the banks of Lake Erie, one of the five great lakes of the US of A. A lot of stuff came in and out of our harbor, and brought some nefarious shit around. One common denominator through all of that, though, was Chaz Malone. I only knew the name, not what he looked like. I had always pictured him as a tubby crime boss with a receding hairline and a mustache. This younger than middle-aged man in front of me with the expressionless eyes was somehow more terrifying.

“He was hurting her.” To be fair, Melody and her boyfriend, who I assume was working for Chaz, were having one hell of an argument in the alley, and it seemed like there was some equal opportunity slapping around going on, but still. I knew Melody from work. I didn’t know her know her, but she had always been nice to me. The only thing I knew about her boyfriend was his name. And that he had it out for me after I knocked him on his ass when he was going to take a swing at Melody. It wasn’t like I could act like I didn’t see them. I had just got done playing a gig. I would have to walk right through them and their bitch session to get to my car, carrying my equipment all the way.

“Ah, yes, a domestic altercation.” Chaz nodded thoughtfully. “See, here’s the thing, Angel, I don’t do domestic. It’s bad for business. You getting involved in domestic, is bad for my business. What exactly did you think was going on in that alley?”

It was a deceptively easy conversation, and I found myself forgetting to be on guard as I told my side of the story. No one had asked for what I saw, only assumed that I knew things that I didn’t know. The only reason that I knew there was money involved was that Melody’s boyfriend Ron screamed it at me as he chased after her. “Great job, you bitch!” he’d yelled as she’d gotten into her car and taken off at a breakneck pace. “She’s got all the money. Fuck. I’m a dead man. Fuck you, bitch, this is your fault.” I didn’t even know Melody was missing until she stopped showing up to work her shift at Nasta’s. Jesse had called me to see if I had heard from her. Apparently she no call no showed too many days in a row and got fired.

I guess if I skipped town with a bunch of cash I wouldn’t bother to call off work either, especially if I wasn’t planning on coming back. She must not have cared too much for her boyfriend, though, because she peeled out of that parking lot and left his ass in a cloud of dust. I told Chaz the whole story, thinking surely he would see the folly. I couldn’t have had anything to do with his missing money. I wasn’t even involved.

“All I did was break up a couple fighting in an alley. Anyone would have done the same,” I said as I finished my story. Chaz had been listening attentively, never interrupting me once. He waited until I was completely done talking before he spoke again.

“Maybe someone else might have, Angel, but that isn’t the case. You did, and the money that my associate was supposed to bring back to me is now gone. I want my money.”

“Then why don’t you ask Ron where she might have gone?” That seemed the obvious answer, and the question earned me another jab in the ribs from sexy lips on my left.

“You are a mouthy one, aren’t you?” Chaz asked with a grin. It wasn’t a nice grin, not friendly at all. It was an oily smile, a smile that said he was thinking bad things and couldn’t wait to tell me about them. “The truth is that Ron really is the one responsible for the loss of the money, but unfortunately, he is also missing now. He came back to tell me that she had taken the money and that it was your fault, and then he was gone. I never took him to be a flight risk, but I am assuming he skipped town to either A – be with his girlfriend or B – to avoid punishment. Regardless, he is not here. Do you even know what they were arguing about?”

I had no freaking clue. I just knew that there were swinging arms, and Ron was pulling on Melody, trying to drag a bag off her shoulder.

“Melody was trying to steal my money. Money from a deal Ron had carried out, and that was supposed to be brought directly to me. Instead, you interrupted that and enabled her to get away—with my five hundred thousand dollars.”

Holy fucking shit that was a lot of money.

“What the hell kind of business deal goes down that requires a bag full of that kind of cash?” I couldn’t take the question back. I wish I had never asked it. “Please don’t tell me,” I mumbled to myself and squeezed my eyes shut.

“Look at me, Angel,” he demanded, and gone was the quiet and icy demeanor. Now there was a fire-breathing dragon behind the desk. The careful mask of calm he had been wearing was cracking and the flames of his anger were heating up the air. I felt sweat start beading up on the back of my neck and trickling down my spine. Something bad was going to happen to me, I knew it.

“I am out an employee and my money, and there is no one here to take the blame but you,” he thundered, smashing his hand down on the desk in his first physical expression of anger. No one else in the room moved and I had nowhere to go, sandwiched between the two men on the sofa as I was.

“Now, I could just kill you as punishment because I am so very fucking angry,” Chaz continued, more calmly, now that he had let off some steam. “But that won’t get my money back. I could send out some men to track down Ron and Melody, and I am sure they could be found, but that could take days, and that means expending more resources for that payoff.” Chaz got up from the desk and walked in front of it, slowly making his way to stand in front of me. I pushed as far back into the cushions as I could go, but there was no escape. He reached up with one hand and grasped my chin, turning my head from side to side and gauging me like he was judging horseflesh.

“I don’t know why I should exert all that extra effort, when you are right here, Angel. I can get that money from you.” I didn’t know what he was talking about. I did okay for myself, but there was no way I could come up with that kind of cash.

“I don’t have that kind of money,” I whispered through lips as dry as a dessert. He still had a hold of my chin and I had no choice but to look him in the eye even though my entire body was screaming for me to look anywhere else but at him.

“Oh, I know you don’t.” He laughed like I had made a joke. “But your buyer will. I can make my money back in a minute with you. Did you know there is a whole fetish for your body type? Those curves will make my money back in no time.”

“Please don’t give me to that walking dead man in the hallway.” I didn’t care that I was begging, I couldn’t handle it if he put his foul hands on me again. I couldn’t.

“Bernard? He can’t afford you. Oh Angel, you are so funny. I wasn’t kidding when I said I want my money back. You will go to the highest bidder. There’s a market for your kind.”

Bile welled up in my throat and my stomach lurched at his words. He finally let go of my chin and stepped away. “Sell me to whom? For what? What would they do with me?” Panic was setting in and my words came out fast and high-pitched. Chaz didn’t even turn around.

“It isn’t my business what they do with you after I have my money. Transaction complete. Maybe they do snuff porn, sex torture, maybe you will be resold several times over. I don’t know and I don’t care.” Chaz pulled his phone out of his pocket and started walking towards the door. “Come with me, D, I have other things I want to discuss. Eddie, Gordon, tie her back up. Leave her here until I figure out where I want her moved to.”

I was frozen in fear, even as the redhead, who I assumed was Eddie, held my hands in front of me this time and wound more duct tape around my wrists. I didn’t fight him, I was too afraid. Then he got my ankles, but at least I was still sitting on the couch and not scrunched across laps in the backseat of the car, so thank goodness for small miracles. It wasn’t until the bag was placed over my head, and I heard D talking to Chaz as they walked out the door that I found my voice.

“I think I might know a buyer,” D said in that smooth and unaffected voice of his as the door was shut behind them.

Then the bag was placed over my head again and the lights were turned out. I heard the door shut again as Eddie and Gordon left the room and a lock clicked. That’s when I screamed. And screamed and screamed. There was no answer. I was truly alone.