AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He looked over at me and shook his head. The printer on the far end of the table buzzed, and he walked over to it, grabbing the sheet of paper that had come out of the machine. He looked through it first and then handed it to me. I looked at the document's title and realized that it was a letter, and in big block letters, the title read “Termination Decision.”
I felt my heart sink as he explained how the hospital had been undergoing budget cuts, and that they needed to make room for other costs. Everything seemed to fade in and out of focus as I realized that I had just lost my job. I looked at the document to make sure that the name on it belonged to me, and then I returned my gaze to him. The one hope I had to solve my housing problem had just been taken from me.
“I am truly sorry… I hope you understand. I did have someone come by, asking for me to give you this.”
He handed me a card that had a number on it. The card was high-quality paper, and I could tell it was very well made. But the only thing on it was a number. Archie continued, “The owner said you might be looking for work after what happened here today, and he has an offer that you won't be able to resist. It may not be my place, but I think you should call him.”
“Who is it?” I asked, wondering who could have known that I would get fired.
“I don’t really know, but he said you two met over a car accident, or something like that.”
I felt my heart skip a bit as I realized who was behind this. Somehow Angelo had swooped in, looking for a way to get me to come to him. I looked down at the letter in my hand, hoping that it would catch on fire right there. How did he know that I was about to lose my job? What was he looking to gain by doing such a thing to me? He was a man who held power, and he was using my life to play his games. I felt like flipping over the table in front of me.
“Maria?” Archie called out. “Maria, can you hear me?”
“Was he here?” I asked, looking around the room. “He came here, didn’t he! To ask about me…”
“I’m sure you know that’s not relevant right now. As much as it saddens me to say it, your time here with us is over. You have until the end of the week. You will be compensated for the few days you are yet to be paid. I thank you for your service here. The hospital will always remain home to you.”
“A home? You justfiredme! How is that a home?”
“I’m sorry,” Archie replied and turned back to his laptop. “I wish I could help you more. Really, I do.”
I got up and walked out of the office, slamming the door as hard as I could. On the way out, I saw Vanessa standing in a corner with a sly smile on her face. A small part of me felt like she was behind it, somehow. But,no, she could not have gotten me fired. It had to be Angelo. Somehow, someway, he had something to do with it.
Seeing him again was not an option. I knew what he wanted, and I would not give in to him. I had to make sure I knew where I was walking, and the best way to do that would be to talk to the one person who had told me what I first needed to know about Angelo Preston. The man had come into my life and was ruining it from the start. First, he had run me over, and now he had taken my job my from.
I rushed into a closet and pulled out my phone, scrolling down until I found Johnny’s number. I had to call him, to make sure he could tell me what I was up against. If Angelo was going to come after me, I was going to hit back twice as hard and he wouldnotsee me coming. I would hit him with everything I had. The line clicked and Johnny picked up, the sound of heavy metal music in the background made his voice near impossible to hear. He screamed something, but I could not make it out.
But that was all I needed to know that he was home.
CHAPTERSEVEN
Angelo
“Who is she?” Mike, one of the boys who worked for me, asked Benny. I watched as he scoffed and gestured Mike away. Benny did not want to deal with anything that had to do with Maria, but I had still sent him on a few errands that concerned her, and while he had done it, it was with a lot of resistance. I watched as they walked to the side of the shooting range to continue their conversation.
The man who I had come to speak with walked in beside me. He was the police captain for the division stationed in my jurisdiction. He had called earlier to talk about some of the dealings which were going on in the city. I was certain that it had a lot to do with Vasquez and his hits all over the place. Obviously, someone had called law enforcement, and now it was all being tied back to me. But the captain was a smart man, and he knew who to come to for the answers he needed to get.
“Captain Derek,” I began, loading the Colt .45 pistol, which was placed out on the table beside me.
“Angelo, you look good,” he replied, picking up a gun of his own. Before I could completely assemble mine, he was done and aimed at the targets, his police training evident through his skills. He fired at the targets in the range.
“I heard you’re having problems with your guys,” Derek asked, peering down at the sight of his gun. I watched as his hand swayed a bit and then stabilized.
“No, not mine. My people are fine. It's more of an… extended family issue, the kind that you don’t want to have, but that always seems to come up anyhow.”
Derek sighed as he reloaded his gun and then stopped midway. “Look, Angelo. I know how things are around here, but if there is a problem on the other side of that river, give me a name and a face, and I’ll take care of it.”
“If you really know how we work, then you know that I won’t tell you anything, at least not until we need you and your people to make some noise for me. We’re going to deal with this matter privately, and as always, I would appreciate it if you could hold back your guys and let us work, okay?”
“There’s only so much I can do. I mean, I can pull all my weight and get a bunch of people to slow down progress on the investigations, but I can only do that if the whole thing is wrapped up quickly. I need that from you, at least.”
I lifted my gun to the target and fired off eight rounds at the head of the shadowed paper target. Out of the eight of them, seven seemed to hit the figure's head, each of them in basically the same spot, and the last one hit the heart perfectly. I put the gun down and turned back to Derek, who seemed stunned by my shooting prowess. “Look, we have worked together for a while, and you were there when my dad was in charge of all of this. I have given you my orders. Let's get it done and make sure that we don’t run into any problems along the way, okay?”
As I walked away from him, I knew that I had earned his respect and shocked him with how good of a shot I was. With the captain dealt with, I had to focus on the main thing my mind was on: Maria. I was going to have her, and I did not care what I had to do to succeed at this. Our first stop would be at the hospital where she worked, which was her main source of income, and that would be our primary target to force her to come my way.
Benny joined me as I walked out of the rain and escorted me to the car, holding the door open for me. He was being his moody self again, but I would not let him ruinmymood.
