I woke up the next morning to a flurry of commotion.
“Are you sure, I mean they didn’t follow me.”
“Vida, if you are sure you saw one of them, they are just waiting for the rest to come or they are going to be here any minute. We have to get out of here as soon as possible.” Mikki grabbed a few things and was already packing light bags for them.
“Going somewhere?” I asked groggily from the couch.
Angel came over to me and hugged me around my neck. “Mikki says we have to go, the bad guys are coming again.” My eyes darted up to Mikki’s and I could see the fear again, the little girl was right. They were running. I sat up quickly, careful not to knock the little girl down.
“What the shit, are you fucking kidding me right now? Were you not going to tell me something was happening?”
“Alex, this isn’t your fight. You have done so much for us already”
The excuses were just flying out of her mouth.
“Mikayla! Were you not going to tell me that something was happening?”
She let out a sigh, “I don’t know, I wanted to I just… I don’t know!” She dragged her hands through her chocolate brown hair.
I walked over to her and grabbed her hand. I placed it over my galloping heart. This always seemed to work for her. I didn’t know why but I didn’t have time to question it. “What does it feel like is the right thing to do, what is your gut telling you?” I glared down at her.
She felt my chest and looked back up to my eyes. After a second she nodded her head once.
“You’ve got us. Ok. What’s next?” She moved back and grabbed the two girls.
“Tell me exactly what’s happening right now.” I looked from Mikki to Vida. I knew the explanation was going to be coming from that way.
“I just went to the store to pick up some more coffee.” She shrugged a bit and continued, “He must have been looking for us because he caught me coming out of the store, he even had to put the car in reverse to cut me off. If I had just walked out a few seconds later he wouldn’t have seen me.”
“Are you saying this person followed you here?”
“I don’t know, I just ran. I didn’t look back.”
“How long ago was this?”
“Fifteen minutes.” Mikki said.
“Pack up, were leaving. I’ll take you back to my apartment, then I want the whole story. I want to know who the fuck you’re running from, how many people and what you could have done to cause them to come after you. Don’t leave anything out.”
“You got it.”
Angel walked over to me and held her arms up for me to carry her. My stomach still hurt but not enough that I would tell this little girl no.
I had them pack only the essentials and we were out of there.
Chapter 8
We made it back to the bar with no real hiccups. I looked around every so often, trying to stay cautious for them but I didn’t see anyone following us.
Devin turned when he saw me walking in. It looked like he might cry just at the sight of me.
“Man, what the fuck! I damn near called the cops... again! You held up a liquor store? What the fuck is going on?” He walked up to me and even though he was screaming at me, he wrapped me up in a deep hug. The little fucker was worried.
“How’d you know about the liquor store?”
“Zed took a statement from the man you held up, that paperwork mysteriously never made it to the station.”
Zed was Devin’s brother and a police officer. He helped out as much possible but I still didn’t trust the pigs.
“Yeah, I’m going to make that right soon but first I have a favor to ask.” I reached in my pocket and peeled off the rent that I owed him from the stack of cash I had. It was already starting to run low.
He looked at the money and then finally he saw the girls behind me. “Um, who the hell is that?”
“These are some friends of mine and they need to stay with me for a bit. The studio is good for me, but I think it would be a little cramped for all four of us. Can we take the two bedroom?” Devin looked at me like I was out of my mind.
“The two bedroom is where I live.”
“I know, I am proposing a switch just for the time being.”
“Get the fuck out of here.” He tried to turn around.
“Devin, I may not be in the life anymore but we both know that I can get a lot more business to come your way when I get my shit together. Think of this as an investment.”
He squinted his eyes at me and then looked behind me to the women waiting for me. I smiled the very second he sighed. I won.
“Fucking hell, your place is a mess! I better be rolling in the customers when you get yourself together!”
I clapped him on his back once and pulled the girls towards the stairs.
The apartment was still small but at least there were two beds and a separate small living room area and the bathroom had a tub instead of just a shower.
“Is this for us?” Angel asked as she turned around in my arms.
“For now, just for now, but when everything is settled I will make sure you have the best. I promise.”
The little girl looked into my eyes gave me a bright smile and shimmied down. Vida and Angel ran into the room, laughing all the way.
I turned away, the tears were back. I didn’t know why or if I could get this shit to stop. I had never
