12–When the Devil Saved Her

GUSTAVO

At five pm I receive a call from Gary Diego.

“Gustavo Silver.”

Gary Diego is an evil man. He hides it by putting on a friendly façade, so when people meet him, they think he’s the most upstanding businessman. So, the furious tone in his voice tells me I’m not going to like whatever he says next.

“Gary.”

“Let me tell you about what just happened,” he hisses. “My son, James, was on the way to a client meeting. Imagine my surprise when he almost took a bullet to the head.”

Well, then. Eduardo must’ve decided the man we tortured snitched about his plans—which he did—and promptly decided to change them.

“That’s unfortunate. What happened to the shooter?”

“Your men took him out, of course.”

Gary and James Diego have ‘security guards.’ They’re men from our mob, but we set up an LLC to make it look like a legitimate business. Our men are better than any security guard company on the market.

“I’d expect them to,” I say.

“Take care of this Eduardo situation immediately. I can’t have things like this going on in the press. What the fuck am I supposed to say?” Gary is the ultimate liar. This must have him seeing red if he can’t even think of a lie to cover the attempted murder of his son. I can think about five on the spot.

“Bounty for taking him out?”

“I just—oh my god. Maryjane. I haven’t even called her. What if they have someone on her right now? Fuck, I need to go.”

“I know where she is.” I interject before he can hang up the phone.

“I’ll get her.”

“How do you know where my daughter is?”

“She takes the trolley to work and walks by our building every day. More importantly, you told me to keep an eye on her.”

I’m glad I have that as a cover up. If I knew where Gary Diego’s daughter was with no explanation, I would be in deep trouble.

“Get her. Now. And she will be in your care until further notice.”

“You do realize you’ll have to tell her about the other side of the business?”

He exhales over the phone. “I don’t have much of a choice.”

“Alright. I’m leaving now.”

I stab the end button on my phone, and a nasty feeling of dread fills my stomach. What if someone gets to her before I can? I’ll kill them. I’ll spend the rest of my life hunting them and their family down.

If she’s alive, I have to drop a bomb on her, and I’m not sure if she’ll be able to handle it. She has no idea about her father’s illegitimate business practices.

I rush by Tony as I leave. “Maryjane will not pass by today,” I say.

Tony says something but I don’t hear it. I’m too busy ripping my car door open and pressing the push button start.

The drive to the trolley station is less than a half mile away, but it feels like an eternity. I’m relatively sure she got on the trolley safely because it stops directly in front of her work. But what if she’s already gotten off, and Eduardo has sent someone for her? I pull into the station and jump out of my car. It’s 5:20, so she shouldn’t be here left unless she left early, which she rarely does.

I scan the station for suspicious characters as I wait for her. There aren’t many people around—mostly everything at this stop is industrial—but the few that are are workers. The men chat amongst themselves, laughing about their bosses and other coworkers.

One person is out of place. He sits quietly on the bench, and I’ve never seen his uniform around here. This isn’t good. I put on my sunglasses and hood to my jacket to make sure he doesn’t notice The Devil is after him.

I get as close as possible while waiting for Maryjane. He’s wearing a bulky jacket, so if he has a gun, I can’t see it. It unnerves me.

I about scream in relief when the trolley pulls up. Maryjane hops out a couple cars away, and two of the men walking on cat call her, and she turns bright red. If I wasn’t busy making sure this man isn’t trying to kill her, I’d knock their skulls together. They shouldn’t be checking out what’s mine.

I don’t call for her attention yet. I’m focused on this guy wearing the jacket as I walk towards her. My hand rests on my gun that’s tucked in the back of my pants, ready to draw it at any moment.

Maryjane sees me right as the man pulls his gun. In an instant I put a bullet through his head, and she lets out a blood curdling scream as his brain matter sprays across the concrete. His gun slides towards Maryjane, who’s now frozen in place.

“Time to go, Sweetheart.” I grab her by the waist and drag her to the car.

She’s too scared to say anything and is frozen as I hold her. The girl would make an easy kidnapping victim. I shove her in my passenger seat and drive off before anyone else sees. I’m not worried about the workers. Most of them are ex-cons themselves, and they know exactly who Gustavo is.

“You ok?” I ask.

Maryjane has gone completely white. She is slightly hunched over and has her hands wrapped around her knees.