Page 9 of Ride with the Devil

But you know what hedidknow? Where to find the old video store on the West Side.

He laughed when I mentioned that I heard Springfield still had a place to rent videos around here. Maybe if I’d visited a good fifteen years earlier, the Blockbuster might have still beenopen, though the empty remains of the big store were still there on the edge of downtown Springfield where the hookers and the druggies and the homeless rule the abandoned, rundown quarter.

Dressed like this, I’ll stick out like a sore thumb. With a few alterations, my club outfit might help me pass as a prostitute, but I’d rather not attractthatkind of attention while tracking a target. Instead, I pull my hair back into a messy ponytail, trade my sweater for a pain black t-shirt, and stick with my boots, jeans, and leather jacket. I clean off the face full of evening make-up, going barefaced to sell my ‘college student who took a wrong turn’ in case the empty side of the city isn’t as empty as I expect it to be.

Close to an hour after getting my first lead in weeks, I’m hopping into the ride-share car that I ordered when I was on my way up to my hotel room.

Poor Ronnie. I left my nearly half-full drink on the table, asking him if he wouldn’t mind watching it for me while I, ahem, freshened up in the club’s bathroom. The way he smacked his lips made it obvious he expected the two of us to head on out somewhere more private after I came back. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s still sitting there, waiting for ‘Beth’ to return.

Nope. The Hummingbird has taken flight, and if all goes well, I’ll be migrating out of Springfield by the end of the night.

For now, I book a ride from the hotel out to Mama Maria’s, an Italian restaurant in the nicer part of the downtown. They’re open until midnight, which would explain my ten o’clock ‘reservation’, and even better, it’s only a straight twelve-block walk away—plus one cross street over—from the area where Vice Mayor Collins is supposed to have his late-night meeting with Lincoln Crewes.

I pay my driver, giving just enough of a tip that he won’t remember me for being too cheap or too generous, then skipover to the front door of the restaurant. Once the black car disappears down the street, I take a turn and start heading further downtown.

Within the first six blocks of my walk, bitching into the winter wind as it slaps me in the face, I notice a difference. The traffic all seems to turn off to a street behind me. It’s quiet. None of the buildings I’m passing are open, and by the eighth block, they’re all obviously closed-down or abandoned.

I start to pass some of the unhoused population. Curled up in the empty nooks, buried under blankets to ward off the December chill, none of them peek their heads up to watch me walk by. A pair of sex workers glare at each other from opposite corners, waiting for a john to drive by that doesn’t come; at least, not while I’m here.

The redhead on my side loses her sneer as I head past, hands shoved into my jacket pockets.

“You look lost, sweetheart. Don’t think this part of Springfield is made for the likes of you.”

I give her a grin. “Taking a shortcut to a friend’s house,” I tell her.

“Shitty friend. They could’ve picked you up. Met you halfway.”

“I’ll make sure to tell him that.”

She tugs her faux fur jacket closer. Considering how short her black dress is, it’s probably the only warmth she has. “Him? Cut your losses there, babe. A real gentleman never would’ve let you walk through Skid Row at this hour. Stay safe, you hear me?”

I think of the knife in my boot, plus the poison in my pocket. “I will. And good luck tonight.”

“It’s colder than a witch’s tit out,” she mutters, more to herself than to me. “At this point, I’ll suck a dick for ten bucks just to get into a warm car.”

I don’t blame her. It’s fuckingfreezing. Only the rush of adrenaline I get when I’m stalking a target has my blood pumping otherwise I’d be just as cold. For now, the hunt has me fired up, but I mimic her gesture, pulling my jacket closed, and continue on my way to see my ‘friend’.

Fingers crossed I find him.

FOUR

BANG

LUCA

Vice Mayor Collins should’ve known better than to expect mercy from the Devil of Springfield.

He did, however, know that there was no way to refuse an outright summons from the head of the Sinners Syndicate. When Devil told him to come down to the old Blockbuster, and to comealone, the vice mayor listened. The same as how he was ordered to park a street over, leave his phone on the front seat of his car, then meet Devil behind the abandoned, dilapidated video store.

He showed up ten minutes ago. I pulled up outside the Blockbuster closer to twenty, the only car on this stretch of the road. Devil told me to wait, and that’s what I’ve been doing while the boss… based on the first howl of pain I heard shortly after the vice mayor strolled back there, the boss is doing exactly what he’s known for.

Devil became a father last summer. Clair is four months old now, and there have been a few rumors that say he’s lost his edge since his daughter was born. Yeah, right. He just doesn’t put himself into situations where his kid could grow up withouta dad. If he thinks anyone is a threat to him… to Springfield… to the Sinners… to Ava and Claire… there is nothing he won’t do to put down any threat.

Take Dave Sanders, for example. A fellow Sinner who sold out Cross to Winter and his men, when Cross gave me the heads up that he was working for Winter, I passed the message along to the boss.

When Devil was done with him, Rolls had three garbage bags in the car’s trunk, and I used my last liner to keep the bodily fluids from leaking out onto the interior.

You don’t betray Devil. Simple as that. You don’t threaten his family, and you don’t betray the Sinners when you have a devil inked on your skin.

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