AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“How much does he owe you? Hundred bucks?”
Boss laughed. It was a hoarse sound filled with a mirthless joy. “I said I wasn’t going to send you after the small stuff. He owes me ten grand.”
Miles choked on the little beer that was still in his mouth. “A quarter of that is—“
“Yes Miles, I know how much a quarter of ten grand is.”
“So I get him to pay you…”
“However you want. Use your imagination. Get creative. Show me you can do this.”
“Twenty-five hundred,” Miles whispered to himself.
That was two month’s pay at any of the other pathetic places he’d worked at, and here he could earn it in one night. Maybe the alcohol was kicking in, or maybe he was just so desperate to do right by Saundra and finally bring home any real amount of money, but his fear was fading by the minute.
“So, you in?” Boss asked.
“Yeah,” Miles said, and down the rest of his beer. “Hell yeah.”
“Good, because we’re here. Another reason I wanted to start with this one: he’s closest to the bar.” He gave a chuckle, but Miles knew there was no humor in that sound.
He and Boss went up the two flights to the man’s apartment. Boss had Miles stand to the side of the door so that the guy wouldn’t be able to see him through the peep hole. When the guy answered, he put on a big smile for Boss, and Miles lost it. A pent up frustrated anger that he didn’t realize was there exploded out of him. This man stood between him and payday.
Miles burst from the side of the door, grabbed the man by the shirt, and threw him back into the apartment. The guy was big, but caught off guard. Two other guys were sitting in the living room. It looked like they were all hanging out, eating nachos and watching the game. Had Miles been a bit more aware of the situation, he would’ve assessed the environment before starting a fight, made a plan. Too late now.
The two guys were on their feet in a second. Reacting purely on instinct borne of years of fighting for survival, Miles grabbed up a beer bottle and smashed it into the face of the guy to his left. Then, bending down, he picked up a small TV dinner tray by the legs an smashed it into the head of the other guy. The TV dinner tray was light, the legs made out of glorified tin or something.
At first the guy was annoyed, but Miles just kept beating him with it, over and over. As the guy put up his arms to defend himself, the cheap metal bars bent, and in doing so, bypassed his arms, still hitting him in the head. By the time he went down, Miles laid in a few kicks to put him out of commission, and then turned back to the first guy. Boss was laughing from behind him and clapped slowly.
“Bravo! I am impressed.”
“His money,” Miles said, panting. He couldn’t see straight he was so furious. “Get it now.”
“Y-yeah,” the guy said, glancing to his friends quickly, then hurried down the hall.
“I’d follow him,” Boss said. “You don’t want to risk that he’s going for a gun.”
Miles sprinted down the hall after the man without a moment’s thought. Fortunately, the guy wasn’t going for a gun. He stood up from the closet holding a leather satchel filled with cash.
“Here, take it, that’s all of it. I swear.”
Miles grabbed the man by the hair on the back of his head and ushered him back down the hall toward Boss. Throwing him to the floor, Miles was still reading to beat someone to death. He hadn’t felt this kind of fear driven anger in a long time, and now that it was there, he was both afraid and grateful for the familiarity of it. It wasn’t a good place to be back to, but if it could save him just one more time, he’d welcome it.
Boss looked through the bills for a moment, then gave the man a pat on the head. “There you go. I knew you’d do the right thing. You be sure and tell your friends about me, and what happens if you plan to cross me. Next time, I’ll have my man here throw you off the roof.”
Boss gave Miles a nod of the head and they left the apartment. It was an exhilarating and agonizingly slow ten minutes as Boss insisted on counting out the money right there in the car. The guy could’ve called the cops, anything, but Boss seemed confident that wasn’t going to happen.
He placed what seemed like a mountainous stack of cash on Miles’ lap. “Twenty-five hundred, as agreed.”
Miles’ hands shook as he picked up a stack and ran his thumb over the tips of the bills. He’d never felt more satisfied or joyful in his life. The savior of all of his problems was in his hands, literally in between the skin of his palms. Everything was going to be okay now.
“So what do you say, Miles? You want more?”
Miles squeezed the stack in his hands. He could buy her a new car, pay off all their bills. They could save, maybe buy house. He could pay off all that child support without Saundra even knowing about it. He could save his own life. It was about time he put everything terrible about his childhood to good use, instead of letting it get in the way of him having a decent life. If this was what he was good at, he had to embrace that.
“Hell yeah,” he said.
Boss gave him a satisfied smirk and threw the car into drive. It was going to be a long night.
