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The door opened to a somewhat nice looking guy with friendly brown eyes. Stephen was taken aback at his undress state, but he pushed past him grumbling about wanting to speak to Jode before the man could stop him. He was looking for a fight to relieve the stress building up inside of him, and this man was five inches shorter than him. Stocky, but as much steel Stephen lifted a day, he was positive he could take this guy.
"Jode is busy, can I say who's here to see her?" the man asked only a bit upset at his rudeness.
"Stephen Heart."
The man's demeanor immediately changed and Stephen was positive the man knew exactly who he was.
In his most menacing tone, Stephen stepped up to the man, "Go ahead and hit me, I'm just looking to hurt someone."
"I'm not a fighter, but I won't let you hurt Jode."
He only sneered repulsed at this man's caring for Jode. Moving away, he went towards the front room. The double wooden doors were closed, but he burst through them and stopped at the doorway.
Jode sat up gasping. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Minding my own business," he mocked her.
She stood up not caring about her undressed state. "You're in my house, Stefan, so I suggest you leave."
"Or what? You'll call the police. Tell him to get his hands off of me now!" he ordered Jode.
"Is the police necessary, Jode?" her gentleman asked at the doorway.
She saw his hands on Stephen's shoulder. "Go up to the bedroom Kevin, please." She looked at her friend and when he didn't move, she said, "I'll scream if I need assistance."
Kevin moved his arm away, snatched up his shirt, and warned, "I'll be listening out."
When he left, Stephen slammed the doors behind him and turned back to Jode. "Did I interrupt you?"
"That's none of your business."
He dropped the diary down on the coffee table. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Tell you what?"
"She was going to Chicago."
"There was nothing to tell. She came to me for help." Jode picked up the diary. "That's why I gave her the money."
He passed her a receipt. "She bought a car with it."
"A car? Jode didn't have a driver's license."
This time he frowned. "How the hell could she purchase a car?"
"If you have the money, you can do anything you want." She snatched the receipt away from him careful not to touch his hand and picked up her clothes from the floor. "She only spent four hundred on the car and seventy-five on the tow. There's still about two hundred and something not accounted for."
"What did she need a tow? Why would she buy a broken down car? What sense would that make?"
\
"Were these for me?" she asked about the receipt and the diary.
"Somewhat. You wanted answers and since you don't believe me, I thought you'd believe Kasey."
She gathered the diary and the receipt and placed them above her fireplace. He'd followed right behind her, so close she could feel his breath on her shoulder and closed her eyes hoping he would just leave.
"I..." His voice trailed off.
Jode held her breath, hoping and praying he would just leave. The silence held more tension than any words could ever muster.
"The diary was insightful. She's kept it since you left after..." His hands moved to her sides and she allowed him to pull her to him and wrap his arms around her waist. "Who is he, Jode?"
It was hard to swallow with his proximity affecting her. "A friend."
"How close?" he asked his lips brushed her ear. "Should I stop?"
Why was he tormenting her like this? Biting hard on her lip, she was in a frenzy not knowing how to answer his question.
He turned her around to face him. "One word, Jode. That's all I need. Should I stop?"
To find out more, be on the look out for Red Heart at this author's Lulu.com site (http://lulu.com/SylviaHubbard) by August 2005, or go to paypal and transfer $13.00 (price includes shipping and handling) to hubbooks@yahoo.com to order your book early
Next up: Nothing to Lose (starting at the end of this week)
She froze hearing his voice and the menacing tone that filled the air. Turning slowly, she faced Stephen bravely pushing away the childhood chill that always surfaced when he came around. "Minding my own business."
"In Kasey's place? How did you get in here?" he asked suspiciously.
The boxes in his hands indicated he was there to clean the place up. "Kasey gave me a key the last time I saw her. She said with Pete dead she didn't like being the only one with the key. How did you get yours?"
Out the box he pulled a female's purse and her heart raced a little. Kasey's purse?
"How did you get her purse?" she had to ask.
"That's none of your business," he sneered and moved past her to the picture she had just placed back on the mantel. "Why are you here?" he demanded to know.
"I was looking around. She was my friend. I wanted to know what happened. I have a right to know."
"You have a right to leave out before I forget I was reformed and finish what was started a long time ago, woman," he growled.
"I don't scare as easily."
He stepped so close, she could smell the cologne he wore sending her senses into a flurry. "You sure about that?"
"All I want is the truth, Stefan-"
His arm shot out so fast, she didn't register his moves until his mouth was covering hers drawing her response just as quickly and when he moved away cursing, she was left catching her breathe. "Leave before..." his voice was strained as he had his back to her.
She gathered her equilibrium. "I wanted to help you-"
"LEAVE!"
Jode grabbed her purse and went out the door only pausing at the doorway to look at his stiff back as he clutched the mantel for support as if it was holding him from doing what he really wanted to do. She was almost tempted to stay to see what he would do to her, but Jode knew she'd be crazy to test him like that.
What was it about her that seemed to make him lose control? She wondered as she drove to one of Kasey's familiar spots. And how, after so long away from each other, she still had that affect on him?
Before going inside, she unfolded the piece of papers after tucking the small silver key some place safe in her car. On the first piece of paper was hard to read handwriting - chicken scratch of several phone numbers and then the initials AT and beside it was 411. This was confusing in itself, but the second sheet of paper was exactly what she was looking for all day. Kasey's list.
1. Pack items needed for trip
2. Inform Hessa about decision
3. Go to clinic
4. Leave letter for Jaye and deliver to Pam
5. Deliver rest of Pete's stuff back.
6. Go to AT to make sure stuff is there.
7. Tell Jode where property is. She'll know what to do!!!
8. Be free!!!
It was Kasey's writing and Jode was positive this was the last thing to do list Kasey had made for herself. Why would Kasey need to hide it from everyone and why was a piece of paper with this list? The only thing it had in common was the letters AT. What they had in common was a mystery to Jode.
She went into the hangout and upon asking Kasey's party friends about Pete, they were able to let her know what happened to Pete.
He was a drug runner for Alphonso Knight, a big time drug dealer of heroin on the Westside of Detroit. Alphonso had been trying to ease into the eastside, but Dwight Montgomery, another high rolling dealer who owned the big money spots on the eastside didn’t like sharing the limelight.
For years, Montgomery and Knight have taken pot shots at each other and it seemed a losing battle for Knight until he received some political backing. Since then, Knight began to slowly wipe out Montgomery's territory one block at a time.
According to the story, Pete had a large responsibility to get three quarters of a million dollars over to Knight by midnight from doing pickups all weekend long. Somehow, Montgomery's men found out about the pickup and stuck Pete up for the money. Pete gave them something better - the next hit on Montgomery, but when he gave the money over to Knight a quarter of the money was missing. Pete said Montgomery's men took it. Those men were dead in less than twenty-four hours, but Montgomery was able to avoid the sting.
Andrea Parker who was pregnant by one of Montgomery's men went to Knight to let him know Pete told about the hit and Pete also took the money for himself.
For three days Pete was tortured slowly to confess. Alphonso wanted his money, but Pete kept to his story that Montgomery's men took it and beat him down about the tip.
They made a tape of Pete's death and sent it to Kasey, but no one else saw the tape except Kasey because the tape mysterious disappeared according to Kasey.
Jode remembered Kasey's first phone call and it had to have been around the time Kasey saw the tape.
Alphonso killed her for the money? That wouldn't be a reason to kill someone in Alphonso's nature when he could make more money by having them work to pay it off with interest.
It wasn't hard to forget Alphonso Knight from the past. He used to hang out with Stephen in high school before Stephen was sent away.
Stephen use to deal drugs in a gang called the Knight Brother's headed by Alphonso. They worked most with dime bags hitting the downtown and suburb clubs. Once Stephen got out of military school, he still served five years in prison for being the driver in a vehicle of a drive by. The judge dealt harshly with him because who Stephen’s father was and also Stephen wouldn't admit who the shooter in the car was, but everyone suspected it had to be Alphonso.
Alphonso always thought it amusing at how Stephen went out of his way to pester Jode.
# # #
While pondering the past, Kevin Allen, a very good friend of Jode from college came by her home to see if she was okay. He was also the CEO of her Internet Company and while she was away he pulled rank in running the business.
After going over the company's business he questioned her about what was troubling her.
Kevin, with his connected low cut beard and moustache, had been a trusted friend since college. They'd dated very briefly, but enjoyed their friendship so much and decided to put that part of their relation on the back burner.
He had a nice natural friendly face, with a soft brawny body of 5'8. He was more of a mental man cut for the office with a manicure every week to match his beautiful hands. He worked out a bit, but he wasn't cut like Stephen.
Why she was making comparisons against that jerk to Kevin? Kevin was sweet, thoughtful, smart, and he cared a lot for her. He wouldn't hurt her. He was safe to be around. Kevin was everything that Stephen was not.
Jode told him the gist of everything, delighted to pour out her troubles to him.
He knew this was very important to her. "Find that tape and you have something on Knight, won't you?" he asked
"Find the tape with Pete's confession and I could blackmail Montgomery to help me out too. Both men would want it."
"Who do you want to give it too?"
She shrugged. "I'm finding out much too much stuff at once, with nothing to do with it."
"What about the money you gave Kasey? You think she actually bought drugs?"
"No. Kase was serious in her need to go away, but there are no receipts around the house. No proof of any kind. It's as if someone didn't want me or anyone else to know about what happened to her or what she was doing."
"You said something about her leaving a list?"
She took out the paper and showed it to him, explaining, "Kase always made things to do. Ever since I've know her. She may have changed over the years, but whenever she had tasks or appointments, she would write down what she had to do in order to complete the job."
He studied the papers. "No idea what those initials could be?"
"Nope."
"Who is Hess?"
"From her friends, Pete's mother and someone told me that she would probably know about Pam and Jay. Hess knew a lot about what her son did, but she was crippled and could never stop him from his life of crime."
"So you think Stephen could be apart of Kasey's death?"
"He had the purse and he wouldn't tell me where he got it from. I think I have a right to know these things."
"But it was in bad taste to accuse him of being apart of her death."
"If you knew Stephen like I knew Stephen, then it wouldn't be in bad taste. All fingers point to him, Kev."
Her frustration concerned him and he decided to change the subject for a moment. "What did you cook, Jode?"
She warmed them up the broccoli and chicken she had made yesterday. They laid out on the comfortable white rug in front of the fire in the front room. Most times they spent all night together talking about nothing. Their relationship was platonic and they didn't want more from each other.
"So what about this brother? I sense a lot of hostility coming from you when you speak of him."
"What about him? He's a big horrible bully and I believe he had something to do with Kasey's murder, but I don't have definite proof.”
"Her own brother, Jode? I know you harbor some animosity for this guy that you don't want to discuss, but to go so far to say he did this-"
"My judgment of people does not affect my justice," she said heatedly.
Kevin snorted. "You forget you can't give me a load of bullshit." He poured two glasses of wine. "Keep it simple and start from the beginning so I can understand."
She'd never talked about the past events with Stephen. Not even to Kasey - although Kasey sensed something was not right and that Jode was terrified of him. Recounting the past now seemed almost embarrassing because she had let it go so far, but Kevin listened with an open mind and heart as he always had in the past.
Looking at the paper again for the correct directions, he put the car in park not believing where he was - in the middle of a very nice townhouse area of Southfield, a suburb just outside of Detroit. He walked pass the blue Mercedes parked in the driveway and ran his hand along the perfect corners of the vehicle.
In all his life, he had never known anyone who could just walk into a car lot and pay for a car, but he remembered Kasey telling him how Jode strode in some dealer and pointed out the blue Mercedes. When the salesman asked if she would be leasing the vehicle, Jode had promptly wrote a check out for the full amount of the car and drove it out the showroom the same day. Kasey thought it was hilarious, but he thought Jode was being a showoff.
She opened the door before he knocked. Today, she was dressed rather casual in some khaki's and a Detroit Tigers shirt. Her ear length hair was pulled up in a loose wrap with ringlets of curls coming out around the edges. He could feel those deep grey/green eyes examining him just as he was examining her.
Was she still scared of him? He wondered. Jode had grown into a beautiful woman from the skinny mouthful of braces pimply knock-knee stick. He remembered by her last year of junior high she had acne so bad, she looked more red than brown, but as he looked at the heart shaped face now, he could not find one blotchy flaw on her smooth light caramel skin. Along with a beautiful face, she had a nice fit body to match and she was not so short anymore. At five foot eight, she had a nice tight figure that his eyes were definitely drawn to.
"Did you have trouble finding the place?" she asked.
The hint of berries touched his nostrils and his mind swirled at what she was wearing underneath those clothes. "No, you gave pretty good instructions."
She moved out the way stiffly, "Welcome to my casa, Stephen."
He smirked to himself. Jode was the only one who called him Stephen. She had a lisp when she was younger and after three years of speech therapy it had disappeared, but she still continued to call him Stefan (with the f clearing pronounced) while everyone else called him Stephen or "Red," which was his nickname. "Pretty nice, for a Popsicle stick, Jode." He turned around to face her after she let him in.
When she faced him after closing the door, again she looked ill at eased and even inched around him.
'She still feared him,' he surmised.
Guiding him into the front room, she already had the coffee hot and ready for them and offered him a cup. He refused and sat down on the pastel looking couch. "What do you want, Jode, that you didn't want to discuss over the phone?"
"I didn't because I felt it was something I needed to discuss in person. When was the last time you spoke with Kasey?"
"Before she committed suicide? Two days before. She seemed distant and she was shaking. I figured she was just pheening." As if he were defending himself, he said, "I told her several times to stay away from that shit, but you know Kasey did whatever she thought was cool and fun. I just figured she needed a hit and she asked me for several dollars, but of course I told her to bug off. I wasn't going to contribute to her habit."
Jode frowned. "Why would she need money when I loaned her seven hundred a week ago?"
"You gave her that amount of money?"
"Why wouldn't I?"
"Are you crazy? She was a drug addict, Jode. I think any fool would know where that money went."
Jode didn’t show the hurt she felt for his cruel words, but Stephan was always opening his mouth without caring what it did to the other person. "She didn't use it for drugs,” Jode defended. “She must have used it for something else, but what else could she have used it for?"
The question was rhetorical by the way her eyes were drifting beyond him to nowhere, yet he was still stuck on the fact that she had given his sister some money. "You wanted to help her, but giving her money wasn't helping her. You're probably the one who helped her buy that large dose. Do you know how much crack you can buy on the street for seven hundred?"
"For your information, she wasn't pheening for crack, she was addicted to heroin."
"Well you should know since you helped her keep the habit."
She shot to her feet angrily. "You can take your accusations and stick them where the sun don't shine, Stefen. I won't have you blaming me for what happened to her especially since I don't think she did it."
"And who do you think did this?"
"Someone else. Someone she was close to."
He could read the accusation in her eyes. "Kasey wasn't close to a lot of people. Who are you saying?"
Jode sat down. "I just want to find out the real truth. Kasey was checking herself in a clinic to get better." She handed him some documents with his sister's handwriting on it. "We went together to get her checked in, but she said she had to take care of some things for Peter. She was terrified and she wanted to get off the drugs right away."
"Why didn't she come to me?" He knew this was Kasey's handwriting and the grief look on his face as to why his sister had not come to him, was too real.
Jode excused herself from his presence when her phone rung. He watched her leave and wondered what else did Jode know?
# # #
Jode put the receiver down. Some people had great timing, but what did she expect when they thought they were God. Sometimes it felt like it.
Returning to the front room, Stephen had moved to the large picture window with a coffee cup and was staring out to nowhere. His grief seemed real when she had shown him the papers and now she almost doubted he was apart of what she had found out, yet she would not tell him everything - not yet. He had fooled her before in the past with false concern only to hurt her more. She didn't want to be fooled again.
Having him in her home was too unnerving. Jode felt like a fool because she was so worried he would pinch her arm or take out a lighter and try to burn her hair. It didn't matter if he was older, that little girl fear of him hurting her like he use to still made her terrified of him.
Yet, she couldn’t help notice from the back the broad shoulders, burliness of a very well fit body, firm butt, long legs, and well-groomed head of hair.
Taking a deep breath, she cleared her throat to let him know she had rejoined him.
Stephen turned around to face her. Upon the last time they had seen each other, she had been thirteen and he was two years her senior in tenth grade. The only things changed about himself was he was much more buff, with tighter muscles, and he had grown taller, about four more inches making him a nice six feet.
"What else do you know about Kasey?" he asked.
She approached arms length of him, to fearful to get any closer. "I should be asking you. I hadn't spoken to her and when I began to get worried, I couldn't reach her. She had her phone cut off, and she sold the cell phone she used. I tried to go to her old hangouts and they said they hadn't seen her. I figured if she needed help close by you would be the person she would go to."
"Unless she didn't trust me?" he guessed.
She nodded. "Which is why I have to wonder about your involvement with her problem? How much did you know about it?"
His burnt camel eyes narrowed to slits and a chill went down her back. "You think I would hurt my sister?"
"Can you explain why she wouldn't come to you?"
"How the fuck do I know that, Jode? I was there for her. I never refused her anything as long as it was reasonable. You think I had something to do with her problem?"
Bravely, she said, "I think you had something to do with her the night she died, Stefan."
He hurled the cup in his hand across the room against the wall. "Fuck you and this high and mighty shit. You think you can just pop up in our lives again, make your accusations and then think nobody will fuck you up for it." Stephen stepped forward as if to hurt her, but she didn't back down although there was fear in her eyes, but her body stayed put. "You were so stupid then and you're still stupid now, Jode," he seethed through clenched teeth before he stalked out purposely bumping her shoulder and slamming the door.
Jode closed her eyes to compose herself. Again she had not gotten what she wanted out of him. It took a few seconds to clean up the mess Stephen made. The more she thought about her fear of him, the more peeved she became with herself. His bullying days were over. They were two grown adults and she had never backed down from a fight in her adult life, yet… This was Stephen. They had a history. He knew her when she was little and vulnerable. He knew her weaknesses like no other man.
Afterwards she went to her office in the back of her house. Opening up a file, she put on her reading glasses and read the location of Stephen's workplace. He had been working for Dale Steel Company out in Dearborn for the past five years. She could imagine how he remained so buff because hauling all that steel around was a hard job. Packing up her purse, she jotted the address down and went to her car.
First she would stop in the office to do a few hours of work, and then she would stop by the medical examiner’s office. They would tell her if the articles she was trying to locate were released to Stephen.
To her surprise the coroner office still had the articles. Dawning on some rubber gloves, she picked through the jacket, shirt and pants, yet did not find the item she was looking for. "Are you positive this is everything? She didn't have a purse or satchel?" she questioned the assistant who had dug out the package.
"That's what came in with the body and that's what I put in the bag. Maybe she dropped it. You could request a sweep of the scene."
Jode had no doubt forensics had already swept the scene very well and there was nothing to report. Biting her lip out of habit, she wondered how could she find out where Kasey could have gone before "ending it all" in the middle of a dead end alley. The first clue to a mystery was that Kasey usually hung out in downtown or eastside. She never went on the Westside unless there was some kind of big party, but she always went with a group. Could there have been a group she'd overlooked?
She thought about Kasey's last words to her, "I just have to take care of a few things before I stay, Jode. Things Pete would need me to close up and things I have to put to rest."
'What things, Kase?' she had wanted to ask, but didn't want to press her luck in getting Kasey off her addiction. If she was willing to take it this far, then she shouldn't have had to push.
Pete's business. She had to take care of something Pete needed her to do.
That was it! Jode would have to find out what had killed Pete in order to solve Kasey's mysterious death. Going back to Kasey's place, she was glad it was still intact and decided to search around for anything of Pete's. There was a picture of Kasey and Pete on the mantel.
Kasey had the same burnt orange/brown eyes like her brother, but she didn't have the reddish brown hair like Stephen. Her long shoulder length black hair was naturally curly.
Jode took a good look at Pete. Blotched red eyes, swollen nose, and dark circles under the eyes are all that stood out to Jode. What Kasey saw in him was a mystery to her?
Lifting the picture, it felt heavy for the cheap frame around it and she flipped it to open the back. Inside were two sheets of paper and wrapped up in them was a key. Placing the back in place, after putting the items in her pocket she heard a door open behind her.
"What the hell are you doing here?" a deep sneer behind her came.
The room was somber as a soloist stood to sing "Amazing Grace." The only family member at the funeral sat in front with no expression on his face. His sister lay in the coffin dead. Since she'd killed herself with a bullet to the face, the casket had to be closed.
His best friend, Jackson, nudged him with an elbow indicating someone had come in that definitely deserved his attention.
"Jode," was all Jackson said, but that was all he needed to know and his own heart began to race. He didn't turn around to see where she was, but he had a feeling she was sitting in the back. Everyone was getting ready to leave after the solo was over to take the casket to the cemetery. What kind of best friend doesn’t show up until the last minute? He had to wonder.
Just as the solo was ending, he could smell the sweetest berries on his nostrils as a black suit past him. She didn't stop until she was at the coffin where she placed her head down and did what seemed like deep pray.
An usher was about to go to her, but he put his hand up to stop the usher and stood up. Jackson grabbed his arm, "She could be still crazy, you know."
He rolled his eyes heavenwards and gathered himself. He hadn't spoken to her in years and seeing her now brought back "things" inside of him that he could never explain. Yes, she was Kasey's best friend, but he'd been there for a while before his stepfather sent him to military school.
Gently, he touched her arm and was surprised to see her jerk away from his touch as if he were poison. "You knew she had a problem, why didn't you stop her sooner?" she seethed, glaring at him with her beautiful light grey-greenish eyes.
"Weren't you her friend?" he threw back at her.
"I was her support system only. She listened to her big brother. But you were never one to give a damn about anyone but yourself, were you Stephen?"
He started to speak, but she turned her back to him.
Her tone wasn't so vicious anymore. "I blame myself too."
He felt like an ass. Jode was the kindest, caring person he had ever met. She had always been like that.
"Was it instant?" she questioned not meeting his eyes again. "Did she suffer?"
"No, the drugs she took before taking her life made it painless," he said repeating what the investigator’s had assumed.
A sobbed racked her body. He wanted to throw his arms around her, but everybody knew that wasn't in Stephen's nature. Jode was different though. She made him want to do things he would never imagine doing.
He knew this was a tense moment for the entire room. They were all waiting to see what the two of them would say to each other.
"Are you coming to the dinner afterward?" he questioned.
"Why? None of these people were my friends."
"I'd like to talk more."
Her eyes were filled with tears when she turned around the casket. "We have nothing to talk about." As quickly as she had come in, she left.
Jackson stood beside him. "She's not even staying for the full service?"
Stephen shook his head and sat down. Damn Jode Price. Every time she came around him he could not think rationally.
# # #
Jode made it to her blue Mercedes Benz before she completely broke down to cry. The news had shocked her completely. Just a week ago Kasey had promised to check herself into a rehabilitation clinic. Jode had gone with her to fill out the paperwork.
"I just have to take care of a few things before I stay, Jode. Things Pete would need me to close up and things I have to put to rest, then when I get out, I swear I'll tell you what made me come to this entire decision. I need to get a clear head and mind before I can even speak about what happened."
Those were her exact words and Jode was in deep confusion about what had scared her friend so much that she made a decision to stop doing the drugs she had been doing for so long.
Driving over to Kasey's apartment, she used the back up key to access the place. The apartment was oddly neat and Jode was positive someone had cleaned up. Kasey was never a neat person, but she wasn't sloppy either. This place was too spotless for Kasey's style.
Going into the bedroom, she saw Kasey had pulled out some old suitcases. The dust film still clinging to the surfaces, yet they had not been opened, meant Kasey had not started her packing procedures. Had she somehow changed her mind, like everyone believed she had?
Jode refused to believe that. Kasey had sounded too sincere. They had been friends since they were in kindergarten walking to school together and knowing each other all too well.
If Kasey had not changed her mind, Jode started to look for something that would be in Kasey's style, yet she never found it and her worries grew. Kasey was not a cry wolf kind of person, especially to Jode. Maybe Kasey would have taken it with her. It could be one of the articles found on her body.
Unfortunately Stephen would know where those items were and Jode would have to speak with him again.
A chill went down her spine at the thought of actually trying to be civilized with that childhood bully. A lot of people, even Kasey said, Stephen had changed since coming out the military, but Jode still had nightmares about the bullying he had done to her when she was a child, that she could not tell anyone about. Not even Kasey.
Yet, Jode had to know what had gone wrong. Why would Kasey all of a sudden go out of her way to stop her drug habit to only die of an overdose? It did not add up and Jode would not stop until she found out the truth.
Prologue
In a dimly lit alley, a woman in her mid-twenties ran terrified for her life gasping for air. Constantly looking back and even though she didn’t see them, she knew they were coming.
She came to a street and briefly stopped, but instead of running down the street she felt she had a better chance going down the alley in front of her.
The alley veered and she has to stop in her run. It turned out to be a dead end and she turned to go back, but three mannish shaped figures appeared in front of her.
The one in the middle stepped forward, trying to assure her panic state. "There's no where to go. I don't want to hurt you, baby girl. I want what's best for us."
"What's best for you is to leave me the hell alone!" she screamed, grabbing a steel rod off the ground and swung it around her wildly to keep everyone at a distance.
One could tell she was terrified, but she had a right to be since one of these figures was a very powerful heroin dealer on the Westside of Detroit. He had connections so high in the city; her life meant absolutely nothing to him.
"Why don't you just assure my associate you'll keep your mouth closed?" the second guy said calmly.
"You killed Pete and now you're going to kill me. I don't know nothing. I don't know nothing I swear!" She was crying hysterically.
"Baby girl, why would I hurt you?"
She shook her head so very confused with a wild look in her eyes. Although the night was warm, she felt like she was freezing to death, yet she was also hot as well because she was perspiring all over.
"Let me get you a line. Look at you, you're shaking." He pulled out a gold case and waved it in front of her eyes.
She looked down at her hands. He was right, but that was the last thing she needed. "I can't, not since Pete, I can't." Her voice was strained and desperate. "Leave me be. I didn't say nothing to nobody, I swear."
The second man looked back at the third man who stood even farther away from them, but when the third man shook his head, the woman knew they weren't going to let her live. She swiped at the second man, slashing his side with the sharp end of the rod.
The bullet struck the dead center of her forehead and the woman fell back.
The second guy cursed looking back at the first figure, who still had the smoking gun with gloved hands. He knelt down to the woman and pulled out a full syringe, which they had intended to use on her, and injected the serum into her arm.
"You shouldn't have done that. It just makes my job harder." The second cursed under his breath and looked back at the third man, but he had already walked away. Most likely to get as far away from this as possible.