AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Here,” I whisper. I put it on the coffee table, hit play, and turn it towards them.
On the screen, it’s dark. But then I know it’s the part where I stick the phone out from the closet where I was hiding. The memories come flooding back at sound of the big scary guy’s voice: me taking my break at the club from serving drinks. Then heading into the back room for my phone. The sound of the argument in the hallway, then the man getting shoved into the room. I remember ducking into the small closet and closing the door almost all the way. I can almost viscerally remember the threats and the sound of a gun being cocked.
“Last chance,” the scary guy says in a grunting voice. My hand was shaking, so the video is jiggling but I know what it shows, even if I can’t bear to look at it. On screen, the man on his knees pleads.
“Oh fuck this, enough already.”
Another man steps onto the screen. He pulls out a gun with a silencer on it and presses it to the guy on the floor’s forehead. “How’s this for settling things.” He pulls the trigger. That I’ll remember forever.
The phone jerks, because when I was filming, I was clamping a hand over my mouth to stop from screaming. The dead man falls to the ground, and the shooter shrugs.
“There. Now that’s cleaned up.” He turns, and I remember thinking he was looking right at me as his eyes swept the room.
“Holy fuck,” Bishop grunts quietly.
On the screen, the shooter is facing the camera. In his uniform, with his star badge that says, “Santa Marina Chief of Police”.
He turns back to the cartel guys and holsters the gun. “So, that’s done with. Can we move on to the drop now?”
The other guy chuckles.
“Yeah, we can.” He shakes his head. “You’re a cold motherfucker, Millbrook.”
“Oh fuck me,” Bishop hisses. “What the fuck is this?”
“Holy shit, man,” Tanner echoes, shaking his head.
“This deal means a lot to me,” the Chief of Police grunts. “And we both have too much to lose if this asshole flapped his mouth.”
“Agreed. So, you can move what we agreed on?”
The chief nods. “Of course. It’s why I asked for it. And the Mejia Family can deliver?”
“The meth and the fentanyl? That’s a lot of product.”
“Give me a week.”
The guy shrugs. “Then yeah. I can speak for Carlos and the others. They’re good if you can make good on this.”
“It’s done.”
They shake hands, and everyone files out of the room through a side door to the alley behind the cocktail lounge. A few stay behind to wrap the body up in the tarp and do a sweep. Then I’m alone. The camera is still on, and you can hear my shaking breath and my tears as I stagger out of the closet towards the door.
But just then is when the alley door opens again. My phone is still filming my legs and the floor when I look up. I lock eyes with the big guy and the Chief of Police.
“Get her!” The voice booms on the small phone speakers. I scream. Then the video cuts out when I start to run.
The living room is silent. Bishop and Tanner are speechless, glancing at each other, then at me.
“When was this taken?” Tanner growls gently.
“Last night,” I whisper. “In San Fran.”
Bishop blinks. “This is huge. You understand that, right”
I nod.
“You know who that was?”
