Page 35 of Zero

“Let's take him,” the woman said. “Come on girls, let’s get you back to your families.”

“Please don’t hurt them,” Ally said. “They have suffered enough.”

The woman studied Ally so long that I thought she might kill her.

“We might run a crime syndicate, but I can assure you we don’t sell or trade women or children,” she said. “They will get home.”

The girls looked at Ally and she nodded at them. They hugged each other before the girls walked to the woman.

“Wait,” Boogie said. “Can we give you our number and if you can, call her and tell her you're ok?”

He was already scribbling on a notepad and giving it to the girls.

“Are you staying?” One of the twins asked Ally. “It might take us a few days but I’m sure we could reunite you with your family.”

This is what I had been dreading. I didn’t look at her, I didn’t want to influence her decision because if she wanted to go home, we would let her.

“I… I don’t know if I could go back to the life I had before,” she said. “I’m different and I don’t think I would be able to survive in a normal life. If it's alright with you, I’d like to stay with Boogie and King.”

I turned around, giving her the biggest smile.She chose us.

“We could give you their information, if you ever got curious,” the other twin said.

“Can I think about it? Or is this a choose now situation?”

“Take your time, the boys know how to get a hold of us,” the woman said. “Would it be possible to have you run Christmas town while I figure out what to do and find out what happened to Nic. Just the front end.”

“I could run the front and the back end,” Ally said. “Kris had me running a lot of both in the last year. I watched the women packaged the product, who we distributed to and when our shipments came in.”

The woman gave Ally a small smile.

“Run it and I’ll be back in a week,” she said, looking at Boogie and I. “I expect you to be back to running your own town.”

“Are we ordered to stay away?” I asked, knowing no matter what she said I wasn’t going to stay away.

The twins snorted and one of them said, “Even if we said to stay away, no one would believe you would.”

“Keep business separate and for the love of god, please don’t go into the other towns,” the woman said. “I don’t want to kill you, it would be a sad waste of talent.”

“We have everything we need here,” Boogie said.

“Good, I’ll see you in a week Ally,” she said before leaving. “Come on Sor and Gray.”

“You got this Ally and don’t take shit from these two,” a twin said, picking up the dead girl before the other twin lifted up Kris’ right hand like he weighed nothing.

Something was odd about the woman and the twins.

Boogie and I turned to Ally.

“You’re free,” we said together.

“I am.” She smiled, stepping close to us. “I don’t have anywhere to be.”

She looked like my wet dream orourwet dream.

“I don’t think you should get used to it,” Boogie said, bringing down his mask below his chin.

“Nope, I’ve won it and there's nothing you can do about it,” she said with a glint in her eyes.

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