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In a few moments, the doors to the elevator opened on my floor, and Maria Doyle walked into my home.
CHAPTEREIGHT
Maria
I marched up the stairs, not caring that I was almost running. I felt total rage in my veins.How dare he!Angelo had come into my life and had become hell-bent on ruining it. I did not care who the man thought he was. He would not get away with any of the things that he had done to me. Once I got home, I threw down my things, without stopping to explain why I had come home so early to my mother. I had to hurry and go find answers, in the one place I could find them: Johnny.
I knocked on his door heavily, the sound of heavy metal music coming from inside. It would obviously take him a moment before he heard my knocking, so I increased the power of my pounding before he opened the door. The music was the first thing I noticed, and the sound absolutely ripped at my ears. I put my hands over them and yelled at him to turn it off. He apologized, grabbed a remote that was hanging out of his waistband, and turned off the music.
“How have the neighbors not called the cops on you?”
Johnny smiled and then twitched suddenly, rubbing the back of his palm against his nostrils as he sniffled. He was on something. “Well, they don’t like the cops they would be calling, ‘cause if they do come and bust me, they’ll probably take everyone in the building for good measure. So, what’s up, girl? I saw you called. I was going to call you back, but I lost my phone, you know, and—”
I pushed past him and walked into the house. It was a mess, just like always. No wonder he had lost his phone, “Johnny, you have to tell me who he is.”
“Who?”
“Angelo! The one who hit me with hisfuckingcar!”
“Shit, how do you know his name? I thought I told you not to go after him. Fuck, Maria!”
“Well, I didn’t go after him!” I replied, dropping onto a chair full of clothes. “He came looking forme, said he wanted to apologize. I accepted the apology, sort of, and now he wants to ruin my life! Hell, he already has! I just lost my damn job!”
“What? How?”
“I don’t know. He must have gone down to the hospital to see Archie. He did something. I know it, because when Archie fired me, he gave me Angelo’s card and said to call him, and Angelo has been trying to get me to see him since the day we met.”
Johnny recoiled. “Well, why didn’t you go see him?”
“Are you fucking nuts? He ran me over with his car. Why would I want to see him? He's lucky I didn’t take his ass to the police, and now he’s doing this? He has no idea who he is messing with.”
Johnny grabbed my shoulders and moved me to the side, sitting next to me. He was trying his best not to show that he was being taken over by whatever drug was in his system. “Trust me, Maria, just drop this one. It’s not worth you getting in all this trouble for. Maybe if you play nice, you’ll get your job back, just don’t threaten the guy. He is used to getting whatever he wants, and when he doesn’t get it, he will go to extreme measures to get it. You won’t be able to win against that.”
“But I’m what he wants. Hewantsme, Johnny, and I can’t give that to him.”
Johnny looked away for a second, trying to regain his focus. “I have no idea what you want me to tell you.”
“You can start by telling me who he is. That’s what I’m here to know. There is nothing about him on any public record. EveryAngelo PrestonI could find was definitely not him, all thirty of them. You are the only one I know who knows who he is. So, tell me.”
“That manyPrestons, huh? Well, I guess it’s a pretty common name....”
“Johnny,” I snapped my fingers in his face. “Focus. Who is he?”
“Fuck, he’s theboss, thekingof the south side: leader of the family that runs everything from the park and all the way across the bridge.”
“Runs it how? I know for a fact he’s no mayor.”
“No, but some argue that he’s got more power than the mayor. He’s the boss of the south side family; they are called theMayansby the press.”
“He’s a mafia boss?” I asked, a little surprised.
“Yeah, and he is from a family that does not play nice. So, when I tell you to leave him be, you leave him be.”
I shook my head. If he was a criminal, I could fight against him. “I have to tell the cops. Officer Kensington will be able to help now that I have a lead. We will go after him and arrest him. Even if we fail, we might be able to get him off my back. I can’t just sit back and do nothing.”
Johnny shook his head again. I could tell that he feared the man, but I had met him and seen the men he went around with. They were scary, sure, but it didn’t mean that I could not defend myself against them. I just had to play the right cards; I could get my job back, or even better, sue the damn hospital and get enough money to set me up for life.
“If he hasn’t come back to you with a lead yet, he is on the payroll,” John began.
