“Who is this?” I asked.
“You dumb bitch. Settin’ Chavez and Nightingale on us, what the f**k?”
I knew this voice. I wasn’t sure which but it was either Donny or Marty Balducci.
Blooming heck.
Those crazy Balducci Brothers!
Why?
Why, why, why, why, why?
Someone please tell me, what did I do?
He kept talking. “You’re gonna pay, you bitch, you’re gonna f**kin’ pay.”
Disconnect.
I stood there in the dark, cell to my ear and I could feel my heart beating in my throat.
Then I flipped my phone shut and ran out of my room, across the hall and right to Ralphie and Buddy’s closed door.
I lifted my hand to knock and stopped.
It had to be after midnight. I couldn’t wake them. They both had to work the next day. They had jobs, lives, they’d already seen me through a rape and an attempted kidnapping, what kind of friend would lay a middle-of-the-night threatening phone call on their door even if the call did include the c-word (twice!)?
If I kept dragging them into my mess, I was going to use them up. I couldn’t use them up.
I already owed them…
I closed my eyes and shook my head.
I owed them too much to ever repay, I couldn’t use more.
I stepped away from the door and kept backing up until I hit the opposite wall. I slid down, my knees coming up until my bottom hit the floor. Then I wrapped my arms around my legs, pressed my cheek against my knees and took in deep breaths.
I could do this. I could get through this all by myself. I’d just calm down and go to sleep. I’d be okay. I was always okay.
Well, if not okay-okay than at least okay…ish.
My phone rang in my hand, I jerked back and my phone went sailing in the air.
I scrambled to catch it but it dropped to my side. My hands went to the floor and searched blindly in the dark until my fingers hit the phone.
I snatched it up, flipped it open and put it to my ear. “Leave me alone!” I hissed.
“Sadie.”
It was Hector.
I closed my eyes tight and swallowed my heart which was lodged in my throat.
“Hang tight, mamita,” he told me. “I’ll be there in ten.”
I blinked into the darkness. “What?”
But he’d already disconnected.