a navy blue suit who is short and bald with an abundance of muscle, making him look like he has no neck.
“What is this?” the fat guy in the chair asks, waving a hand toward me.
You’d think the boobs would have given him a clue.
“She knows what happened to Jimmy. You know, the guy you swore was as loyal as they come,” the devil beside me tells him with a sneer.
Interesting. When he spoke about his boss before, there was a tone to his voice that for a second showed respect, but this guy here seems to have nothing but the devil’s annoyance and scorn.
“Jimmy is family; he’s my sister’s boy.” Not once does he mention he’s trustworthy, though.
I breathe slowly and deeply, keeping my body loose in case I need to strike out or run. I can’t afford to overreact, so I stay focused on the three potential targets in front of me, not counting the devil at my side.
“Speak, tell us what you saw,” the leprechaun barks at me.
“Not so fast, Jasper,” the devil snaps before calling to an unseen person. “Bring him out.”
A door on the side of the room opens, spilling a little bright white light before it’s snuffed out when the door slams shut.
A man who looks like he lives under a bridge and eats billy goats for breakfast drags out the guy from last night. His head rolls from side to side before he’s dumped in the chair that the devil drags over into the center of the room.
“What is the meaning of this?” the Jasper guy roars. I clench my fingers into fists, mentally preparing myself for whatever is coming next.
“I want Jimmy here to retell his story once more. That shouldn’t be too difficult to share, should it?”
“I told you what happened,” Jimmy, aka the lying bastard, groans from the chair.
“Tell me again,” the devil orders, his voice dripping with contempt.
“I was making a drop-off and I got jumped by a group of assholes. I blacked out after that. When I woke up, the product was gone, and I was lying in a pool of my own blood.”
“And yet there doesn’t seem to be a single bruise on you,” the devil muses. He turns to look down at me, his eyes hard and unyielding.
“Now tell me what really happened,” he orders.
I have two choices. I could lie and back up this asshole’s story by claiming I never saw a thing, or I could tell him the truth.
What’s it gonna be, V, brave or stupid?
I close my eyes for a moment and take a deep breath before blowing it out. Stupid it is.
“He was trying to rape a kid. I stopped him,” I tell the devil, something he likely already figured out. A flash of approval sparks in his eyes before he hides it and turns to face Jasper.
“Oh, come on, you can’t believe this street rat got the jump on Jimmy,” Jasper scoffs, making the goon beside him in the ill-fitted suit laugh.
“How did you stop him, Cherry?” the devil asks, surprising me with the name. I look up at him and frown.
“I stabbed him twice, then when he was down, I left.” His lips twitch, aware I left out the part of taking Megan with me, but he doesn’t call me on it.
“And the product?” he coaxes, but I genuinely don’t have the answer to that.
“Oh, come on, you can’t actually believe this bullshit?” Jasper roars, quickly shutting up when the devil pulls a gun out of nowhere and aims it at his head.
When he says nothing more, the devil turns his head to face me, but he keeps his gun pointing at Jasper.
I shrug, my breath speeding up as my fight-or-flight response kicks in.
“I don’t even know what this product is. I’m assuming it’s drugs, but even so, it could be a nuclear weapon for all I know because I didn’t take it.”
“Show me your arms,” he orders.
I bristle at his words, but I do as he asks, showing him my arms are free from the track marks left by injecting heroin, and whatever the fuck else a lot of transients like me succumb to.
“Now show me yours.” He turns to face Jimmy, who is breathing heavily with sweat rolling down his face. Jimmy looks like he might pass out any minute.
“No, how dare you come into my place of business and disrespect me, disrespect my family. And you,” Jasper growls, standing and pointing at me, “give me one good