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"Shoot, the fuck are you..." he started as he came out of the back, but his face fell as he looked at me. "No..."
"Yeah," I agreed, hands clenching and un-clenching at my sides, itching for something to do, but having nothing.
"Out!" he barked at the women who immediately dropped the portfolio and rushed to the door. We followed, moving out onto the street. "How long?"
"Five, ten minutes," I said, reaching for my phone as it rang.
"Shoot," Lo's voice said in my ear. "Everyone's on it. I need details so I need you to get your head in the game."
"I went out for syrup around the corner. Got back, went in, kitchen was a mess."
"The door, was it broken?"
"No she must not have locked it."
"What about your outside door? That has a lock too."
I hadn't even looked at it to be honest. I had no reason to on the way up. I rounded the corner of my building again. "Nothing, Lo. If it was fucked with, it was picked."
"Okay. There's a camera at the shop next door..."
"On it," I said, turning back and charging into the pawn shop. "Need your video footage for the camera outside," I barked at the hulk of a man behind the counter who moved to scoff at me. And, well, I didn't have time for his shit. I pulled the gun out of the waistband of my pants, cocked, and aimed. "Right fucking now," I demanded and he nodded and waved us into the back.
"Shooter, breathe," Lo said calmly into my ear. "We're going to find her. She's going to be fine."
"She's not like you, Lo," I said, closing my eyes as the shop owner screwed around with his computer. "Or Janie or Alex. She put on a good show, but she's not a hardass."
"Much as I like that description of me and the girls, Shoot, I'm sure she's stronger than you think. And she's only been gone a couple of minutes."
"Lo... it only takes a couple minutes to cause serious damage," I said, my stomach turning sour.
"Don't go there. Not yet."
"Right about fuckin' now, buddy," Paine said to the shop owner, his smooth voice sounding threatening.
The shop owner hit a button and pushed his chair back so we could look. Paine reached out and rewound the footage until I saw something that made my world feel like it was falling apart. Three men moved out from behind my building, one of them being Luis who walked ahead of the others. The other two, who were unknown to me, had a struggling Amelia by the arms, her legs kicking out as they lifted her off the ground to remove her leverage to struggle away. "Fuck..."
"Yeah," Lo agreed. "Janie just brought up the footage over here."
"Already?" despite myself, I felt a surge of amusement at how fast they got shit done.
"It's a pawn shop, not the CIA," Lo said. "Okay so that's Luis. The other two I don't know but Janie will ferret out who they are. Doesn't look like we got a car. Where the fuck did he park?"
"Down the side street," I said as I watched them disappear from the camera view. "There's no cameras down there. Half of it is abandoned."
"Getting Alex on the traffic lights. Any idea what he drove down in Alabama?"
"Mercedes," I said automatically. "Black. New. That's all I got."
"Narrows it down," she said, calm as ever while I felt like everything inside was splintering apart.
"Cash, Wolf, Reign, and Repo got the call. They're on their bikes looking around. But my guts say we need to figure out where they're taking her. Too much traffic around here to find them on the streets."
"Half of this part of town is fuckin' abandoned, sugar," I said, knowing they could be anywhere.
"Yeah but they wouldn't know that," she said. "Not until they got here anyway and they couldn't have been here for long. Maybe ask Paine about the guys down in..."
My head whipped in Paine's direction and he straightened. "Where do the Third Street guys get their heroin, Paine?" I asked and his eyes closed as he exhaled, his head tipping up to the ceiling for a second. "Don't want to ask it of you, man," I said, shrugging.
Paine ran a hand down his face and nodded tightly, moving out of the back room and I followed. " 'Preciate the concern, Shoot," he said, getting back onto the street and throwing himself into his Challenger. I got into the passenger because, one, I needed something to do, and two, someone needed to be with Paine where he was going. "But it was bound to happen eventually. Couldn't expect to stay away forever."
"Got yourself any guns in here?"
"Glove," he said and I flipped it open, checking the clip, then handing it to him. One of his hands was at twelve on the wheel, the knuckles light from holding it so hard as we left the industrial part of town behind and steadily made our way into the part that made any decent person do a quick K-turn and get the fuck back out again. It wasn't even a part of town I felt all that comfortable driving around, but it was a part of town that Paine used to walk, used to help run.
We pulled across the street from a half-dilapidated apartment building, a few guys perched on the front steps. Down the block, a few girls were standing around, fanning themselves in the heat. Didn't take much for me to know that the girls belonged to the guys. And by 'belonged' I meant worked for. By 'worked for' I meant 'turned tricks for'. Fuckin' Third Street Gang and their whores and smack. Some things never changed.
Paine unfolded himself from his seat as I rounded the front of his car. The guys on the stoop looked at me oddly but seemed to dismiss me until Paine got onto the street, gun shining in the hand at his side. Then they were on their feet, one running inside the building, the others attempting to make themselves look bigger. It might have been years and faces may have changed 'round those parts, but everyone knew Paine. Everyone also knew that Paine was out; he was straight; he had to do some horrible shit to get that way. So him being back, well, they knew that wasn't good news.
