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CHAPTERONE
Maria
“Sometimes, I feel like if you treated me with a little more love, I’d be out of your hair, Maria.”
I looked down at the old man on the bed. He smiled innocently at me with his front teeth missing. “Sometimes, I feel if you stopped looking forward to the sponge baths you get here, you’d actually fully recover and off this machine.”
His smile went even wider. “I get bathed every day by beautiful women! Why would I want to leave? This is paradise!”
I ignored the man and finished checking on the dialysis machine next to him. He had been at Stan Merriweather Hospital for the last seven months and seemed to be getting worse by the day. I was amazed that he could keep a cheerful spirit, one that could even bring a smile to my gloomy heart. I finished with him and left the room, looking down at my watch. It was a few minutes until I completed my shift.
“Maria!” A voice at the end of the corridor called out to me. It was the head nurse, Vanessa Valeska. A woman whose sole purpose was to work me to the bone. I considered ignoring the woman and just walking away—my shift was over; I could just go home. Whatever it is I was needed for now, I would have to deal with it the next day. “Maria Doyle, down the hall. I’m speaking to you!”
I whipped my red hair around to face her with a glum smile. “Sorry, I was distracted.”
“Well, snap out of it. A few patients along wing E have not gotten any attention. I have to head up to give a report to management, and the other nurses are busy in the south wing. If you have a minute, help me check on them and sort their reports, okay?”
I looked at my watch again and began to speak, “My shift ends—”
“I know, but are you really going to risk the lives of people because your shift is over?” I lowered my head. “I thought so.”
I picked up my pad and went through the rooms, checking on the patients. I had no choice but to do so, regardless of how much it annoyed me. If I refused to check on them, Valeska would ensure that my schedule the next day was packed with activities that served as some sort of sick punishment.
By the time I had finished, it was a full half-hour after the time I was supposed to head home. I had missed the bus which would have carried me to my stop, and now I would have to take a taxi. I hung up my lab coat and picked up my jacket, heading out into the streets outside. The frigid evening air struck me, reminding me why exactly I had worn the jacket to work. The flash of lightning above told of the impending rain.
Vanessa drove out of the parking lot in her car and looked over at me standing on the side of the building, waiting for a taxi. Without a word, the woman drove off.
“Bitch,” I said out loud. As much as I knew it wasn’t going to happen, a small part of me wished that Vanessa would grow a heart and offer me a ride, or maybe just offer me some kind words. But the woman was nothing of the sort and did everything she could to make sure people who ranked under her were reminded of their lower status in the hospital.
I considered the train station for a moment, as it would drop me off only a few blocks from my place, but from the hospital to the nearest station was too far for me to walk, and I was feeling exhausted. A taxi to my house would just cost too much, and I did not have much money. I sighed as I considered just walking home. I did not have work the next day, but it would probably take me until well past eleven to get home.
I would be able to see the city at night, take a stroll to clear my head, but the thought of stalkers and raping serial killers made me think otherwise. I walked towards the central street where I would have higher chances of finding a taxi. I pulled out my phone and considered calling my neighbor, Owen, to come to pick me up. He had a car, but he also had a girlfriend, and I was certain that they had had the talk more than a few times. I had even overheard her telling Owen that he was doing way too much for me. I had used his help more than enough times, so I decided I would have to make it home all by myself. I put the phone back in my purse as lightning illuminated the sky above me for a second.
The clouds gave out, and it began raining heavily. I swore, wondering if the world could not be any more against me. I was working a minimum wage job, trying to pay off my college debt and credit card debt, caring for my sick mother, struggling to make ends meet, and the weather decided to just take me out of it. I looked around for an open shop or an alcove where I could run into and hide, but all the stores around were closed and had boarded up their entrances to ward off robbers.
I spotted a taxi heading by and raised a hand to hail the vehicle to stop, but it drove by quickly, splashing water from the puddle which had formed in front of me, all over my already wet body. A cold shiver ran through me. The taxi had someone in it, and I could swear that Vanessa had probably sent it that way, just to spite me. I ran my fingers through my hair, tying it into a knot behind my head, trying to get it out of the way.
I heard the sound of a vehicle approaching, and I turned to see that it was not another taxi like I had expected. However, I did not notice that the vehicle had swerved up on the sidewalk that I was standing on. I turned just in time to see the headlights as the car slammed into me, knocking me onto the windshield of the vehicle before I bounced off and landed in a heap on the sidewalk. I groaned in pain as I felt my body going numb from the crash. I couldn’t feel my hand, and when I put some weight on it, I was hit with sharp pain.
The car drove off the sidewalk and got back on the road hastily. I managed to look up at the vehicle, watching as its driver gunned the car down the road, heading off. Just before the pain and exhaustion caused me to go unconscious, I managed to catch the number plate, saying it over and over in my head as the taillights receded. My photographic memory was one of the few things I was proud of, and it was time to put it to good use. I had to remember the plate’s number when I woke up… I just had to.
“Control one...control one...control...”
* * *
Angelo
Two cars arrived at the warehouse, with two others already parked and waiting. Many people liked to think that most of their dealings went on in abandoned or old warehouses, but there were only so many a city could have. I made it a rule to use warehouses that were still operational, just closed for the time I wanted to use it. I got out of the car and looked around, with lightning flashing overhead. I knew what I had come to do, and I was certain it was going to be a huge waste of time, but I was there because it is what my father would have wanted.
I adjusted the collar of my Armani suit as the lights of the Cadillac blinked twice behind me, locking shut. The son of Michael Preston, the former head of the south side mafia. But with only a few weeks since the man's passing, I was forced to take up the mantle of my father and fill shoes which I had been groomed to fit since I was born. I had come to meet with Pete Vasquez, a longtime rival of my father, and a man who would do anything to take over the territories which I had gotten.
Vasquez was the head of the east side mafia, a ruthless gang that cared less about those under its jurisdiction and more about the territory which it controlled. Since the word got out that Michael was dead, Vasquez had moved quickly, sending his men to try to take out the competition. But I knew that he would be coming, and he had already made moves to secure their investments. Obviously, Vasquez had denied any involvement in the attacks, and claimed to be a part of the larger mafia family that ran the city. But everyone knew what he wanted.
“Look, I don’t want you to be here either, but this is tradition and it’s what your dad would want. It's what he would do, so let's just get in there and talk things over, how about it?”
I looked over at Benny—the man has been best friends with me since high school. Both our parents had been close, with his father being the personal physician of Michael. Benny was around for a lot of things, and in the end, he had become one of the first people that I had gotten on my crew. As time passed, Benny turned out to be my right-hand man, knowing it all and helping out with everything.
“How many men do we have here?”
