Recalled (Death Escorts #1)(27)
Author: Cambria Hebert

The truth was I hadn’t thought once about anything I left behind. I didn’t miss it here and having to come back only reminded me why I so desperately wanted out.

I came to an abandoned brick building, a building probably considered condemned by the city. For the people here on the street, it was a refuge. A refuge from the harsh temperatures Alaska was famous for.

I flicked my gaze around the sidewalk in front of the building and looked across the street. No one seemed to care what I was doing so I ducked into the building through two loosened boards that were hammered over a broken window.

It was dark on the very bottom floor of the building, completely stripped of whatever it used to be. Bare concrete floors, empty cracked, yellowed walls, and crumpled trash made up the inside of this refuge. It wasn’t much, but there weren’t many windows so most of the snow and wind didn’t make it in. There was a room in the center that was pretty much what most of us considered a suite because it blocked out all the elements and housed a small heater that ran on batteries. But most of us were never permitted entrance.

No, it belonged to a guy who staked his claim on this street years ago. He was essentially the boss around here. Nothing happened without him knowing about it, and the bigger deals that would bring in the most cash were always run by him. If you tried to run a big deal without him knowing he killed you, plain and simple.

I’d run a few deals, earned a few dollars, but mostly I tried to stay out of his way. He was the kind of guy who lived by his own rules and expected you to live by them too. When one of his rules inconvenienced him, he changed it and that left the other person out in the cold. Literally.

But he was the guy who would get me what I wanted. And he would get it now.

As I approached the room in the center of the building, someone came out to meet me. A very big someone. I knew he would. Joey Malone, AKA The Bouncer was the boss’s right-hand man. He did exactly what his name implied—bounced people that weren’t supposed to be around.

“Who the hell are you?” he said, narrowing his eyes.

I pulled my hands slowly out of my pockets and dropped them to my sides. “I heard this was the place to come when you needed something fast,” I said.

“Yeah? Where’d you hear that?”

I shrugged, keeping my cool. “Around.”

“I’ve never seen you around,” The Bouncer said.

“That’s because you wouldn’t see me unless I wanted you to,” I replied, injecting enough attitude for him to know I wasn’t a stranger to the streets and he wouldn’t intimidate me.

He made a grunting sound and said, “Wait here.”

I stood there, appearing casual but really ready for any kind of fight. I just hoped this new body had reflexes and skills like my old one did because if not, Mr. Burns might not like the condition in which this body is returned to him.

The Bouncer appeared and gestured for me to follow him. He led me into the room we all used to covet. Now, as I looked around, all I saw was a place in the middle of the ghetto that was no better than the rooms I’d just walked through, except maybe it was warmer.

The little heater was running and there were two metal chairs set up in the center. Off to the right there was a bare mattress pushed up against the wall with a blanket that was rumpled and dirty.

“What’s a guy like you doing in this part of town?” the boss asked, looking me over.

I guess my beat-up jeans and Converse sneakers weren’t enough to give the new me a street approved look. “I want something. I heard you can get it.”

The boss lifted an eyebrow and proceeded to light a cigarette. “Yeah? What do you want?”

“Nightshade,” I said, trying not to make a face at the smoke. Smoking was one thing I never did. It was nasty.

He coughed a little and then squinted up at me through the smoke. “Nightshade?”

“Yeah.” I didn’t bother to define it further. He knew full well it was a poison. Insulting his knowledge of lethal substances would only tell him I didn’t belong on the streets. But I did. He might usually deal the hard stuff, but I knew he could get this. Anyone who could get kilos of cocaine could get me a little bag of nightshade.

“What do you want that for?”

“Does it matter?” I retorted.

“Are you a narc?” he asked, and I wanted to laugh. He thought I was a narc? I was the furthest thing from a tattletale he would ever see.

“If I was a narc I wouldn’t be trying to get nightshade from you,” I replied, flat.

“I don’t have any.”

I reached into my pocket, noting how The Bouncer stiffened, expecting me to pull out a weapon, and pulled out a fat wad of cash. “I got something here that says you do.”

The boss ground out his cigarette on the floor and then stood. I counted out quite a few crisp hundred-dollar bills and held them out. “How about you suddenly find some?”

He took the money and it disappeared in his pocket. “I’ll be back.” He stepped around me. “Watch him, Joey.”

We stood in the tiny room, with the battery-operated heater working overtime, for endless minutes that dragged into an hour. During that time a girl with greasy dark hair came into the room and collapsed onto the mattress. I recognized her. We hung out a couple times in the alley and one time I got her some food. She was young, probably no more than sixteen, and the streets hadn’t been kind. She was the kind of person that the streets would eat for dinner if she didn’t find a way to survive. I tried to convince her to go back home once, months ago. A few weeks later I didn’t see her around anymore and I thought maybe she’d listened.

I guess she hadn’t.

And now, from the way The Bouncer acted like seeing her here was nothing new, I’d guess her way of surviving was getting involved with the boss.

I must’ve stared at her too long because she turned her head to look at me. “What?” she demanded.

I looked away.

The Bouncer shoved me in the shoulder. “Eye’s off,” he warned.

After that I just stared at the floor.

The boss finally came back with a little bag in his hand and he held it out to me. “You didn’t get this here.”

I took it, nodding, and barely glanced at the dark berries in the sack. I shoved it into my pocket and left. I breathed a sigh of relief when I was out of the room and walking away. From out in the hall, I heard the raised voice of the boss and then a sharp slap followed by a light cry.