Page 7 of Medusa's Revenge

“Oh no. Oh no. He’s back in town.” I thought Tommy moved away a few years ago. I heard from one of my sources that Tommy's son is running the operations here. I don’t even know his name. My heart starts racing, my hands are sweaty, and my breathing is coming faster. I know this is a panic attack. I look for my phone and send an S.O.S. text to Bubbles and Smitty with the home emoji. I’m sitting on the floor, rocking back and forth. It’s bringing up so much from that time.

“Why did Daddy die?” Michelle cries as she snuggles closer to me in my twin bed. She’s been sleeping with me since that night. TJ is sleeping on an air mattress, blocking the door to protect us. He’s worried Dad’s killer is coming back to get us. Mom has been in her room moaning Tommy’s name most nights. It’s disgusting, and Michelle is too young to understand what’s going on, but TJ knows. After school, I always grab the mail as Mom is usually sleeping or fucking one of DeMarco's men. It’s how she’s paying the bills. I grab the mail from the mailboxes in the lobby of our building. I flip through them; a lot of them are condolences for the death of Dad, bills that I don’t touch, but there’s one addressed to me. It’s a brown envelope with my name, Amelia Baxter, written across it. I open it in my room after walking up the stairs. Mom isn’t home, which surprises me, but I ignore it. She’s probably out doing someone DeMarco wants or needs information from. Sitting on my bed, I pull out the paper in it.

Hello Bella, I’m watching you. I know you know, so you better keep your mouth shut, or little brother gets what your dad got.

I grab the letter and run out of the building to find Smitty. He’ll know what to do, which is all I can think of for myself. The corner store is busy with kids from school buying things to drink or snack on before their parents find out they stole money or hustled it from someone. I move to get behind the counter so Smitty can see me. He looks at me and closes his register, telling the other worker he’ll be right back.

“What’s wrong?” He places his hands on my shoulders so I can look into his eyes. My hands shake, and the paper crinkles. He looks down and takes the paper with his left hand but leaves his right hand on my shoulder. He was trying to keep me in the here and now. “He knows you saw him.” He whispers. I nod.

“I don’t know what to do.” I begin to cry. He pulls me into his arms, hugging me tight.

“Don’t let him know what’s going on. Please don’t give it away, you know. I know you’re scared, but don’t let him get to you.” He tells me in his stern tone. I nod.

“Kid, it’s going to be okay. I promise you. I won’t let anything happen to you or your siblings.”

The doorbell rings, bringing me out of my evil thoughts. I stand to answer, but Bubbles walks in with Smitty on her heels.

“Did you two come together?” I ask.

“No, we just arrived at the same time.” Smitty pulls me into a hug. “You’re shaking. What’s going on?” I handed him the note. “Mother fucker. Not again.” Bubbles reads over his shoulder and curses, too.

“Is he back in town? I haven’t heard anything about it.” Bubbles asks no one in particular. I sigh, shaking my head. “Our sources would’ve told us, right?” I stare at Smitty. It was a friend of his who was the source of our information. My stomach growls again.

“Let’s get you something to eat.” Bubbles leads me to the kitchen. “Is Michelle home?”

“No. She’s with Lucas.” Smitty sits down at the counter in my kitchen. Bubbles, who loves to cook when she is stressing about something, starts to look through my cupboards, fridge, and freezer. She asks about my lack of food. “I need to go grocery shopping. I’m never here long enough to eat a gourmet meal. Plus, you know I can’t boil water. I never had anyone teach me to cook.” I stick my tongue out at her.

Chapter Six

Noah

It’s my first day at the mechanic’s shop. My mom is happy I’m starting a job working with cars. I’m so glad to be able to do something I’m passionate about. Pulling into the parking lot, I find an employee sign, so I park there. I’m wearing a T-shirt and jeans. I forgot to ask if there was a dress code. My steel-toe work boots crunch on the loose gravel around the back as I walk toward the front of the building. There’s only a truck here, and I'm not sure who it belongs to, worker or customer. I tried the door, and it was open.

“Hello?” I yell. There’s some rock music coming from the bay, and I head in that direction. I banged on the door, trying not to spook the person who was not paying attention. I hear toys drop, and someone say mother fucker. It's not a good start with the boss.

“Yeah?”

“Sorry to interrupt. I didn’t know where to go.”

“Noah. I forgot you were coming in early. We got this car in last night at closing. I wanted to get a jumpstart on it.”

“No problem, man. If you need me to do something else while you finish the car, that’s fine.”

“I want you to get familiar with our computer system and how we do inventory and talk to customers so they can get to know you. Tomorrow, you will be working on vehicles coming in, and if I get too busy today, I will pull you in. I’m the only mechanic besides Ruby, but she hates it most of the time. I try to keep her out front as much as I can.” TJ wipes his hands before walking me through the basics of inventory. “We also call the local auto parts stores around town to get parts. Our customers know we don’t keep many parts on hand, so it takes longer than normal depending on what is in stock.”

“You have a great system set up. Looking at this computer, you will see that you have a lot of loyal customers. I can make payments, charge their accounts, or pay now. Is that right?”

“Yeah. This area went through a rough patch about almost ten years ago. The main plant went on strike, but their spouses still needed to work. I grew up with a lot of these people. I made notes in the section about whether they can make the payment. I got screwed over by a few people.” He tells me as he types in a name to show me how it’s written so I know. He also showed me how the inventory works. He pulls out his cell phone, “Ruby will be late. She has some club business to do.”

“Club business?” I tilt my head as I keep my eyes on the computer screen, clicking through things.

“She’s a part of my sister’s motorcycle club, The Valkyries. We do a lot of business with them.”

“A motorcycle club? Like a bunch of people riding bikes?” The only ones I know about are Sons of Anarchy, the Mayans, and what I read online about Hell’s Angels. TJ laughs.

“No. They own a few businesses around here, do toy drives twice a year, and tend to do things that are not so legal to protect others. They are a great bunch of girls. If you disrespect them in any way, I will boot your ass, and I don’t care if you’re good at your job.”

“I was raised to respect women. My mom would kick my ass. What people do in their own time is their business. Not mine to judge.”

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