Page 24 of Slayer

I'd have to tell her I don't know where Mum is. She'd call me stupid. Stupid for not waiting. I can’t leave with this collar on, it probably has a tracker built in. I can't go back to the one place he knows where to find me. I don't want to. So far, I am innocent in this whole drug situation. The minute I go down there to my sister, I give Knox a reason to hate me, and I really don't want to do that.

If this is a test, I'm going to pass with flying colours.

“Hey there. Everything OK?” Freddie calls from a distance, his hands raised in a way that suggests he knew I was going to jump sky high at his words.

“Yes. I'm fine.”

“You're standing next to a locked door, kid. Are you sure you're OK? You've been there a while.”

“Is it the basement?”

“No. I don't know what is behind that door because I've never seen it open, but I can tell you it definitely isn’t the basement.”

“Oh.” The truth in his voice surprises me.

“Did you want it to be the basement?”

“No,” I snap quickly. “Gladys gave me the key, but I'm worried it's the basement.”

“Gladys cleans all the rooms, that's why she has a key. But I doubt she even knows about the basement.”

“Ok.” I suck in a deep breath and turn the key in the lock.

The next door opens into something more amazing than a pool. An entire wall of mirrors, a padded floor, and a pole in the middle. Someone in Knox's past liked to dance. Maybe he has a thing for strippers and that's why I'm still here.

“Huh. Didn't expect that.” Freddie leans over my shoulder, shrugging his disappointment. “Never saw Mr Thayer as a dancer.”

“Could you see him as a watcher?”

“If it was you, sure.”

If it was me. Knox would want to watch me dance.

“Can I go in?”

“If it floats your boat, kid. You're the one with the key.”

I step inside, Freddie closes the door on me and I'm alone in the room of my dreams. The walls are mirrors, a rail attached to one long length of wall. Walking barefoot across the padded floor brings back so many memories. I grew up with classes like these. The dance instructor wanted me to lift all the girls, but I wanted to dance like them. After a month of trying, it was clear I couldn't dance like them; I wasn't graceful and I never managed to walk on tiptoes. But I couldn't dance like the other boys either. I wasn't strong in the right places. When I discovered the pole, I found my calling.

Stretching my body on the pole, one leg balances on the beam as I lower to the floor. Improvising stretches on tables isn't the same.

When I'm fully stretched out, I do a few cartwheels and flips across the room. This room makes me feel carefree, and young. Not that anyone would accuse me of being old, but right here, right now, I have no responsibilities in the world. If only this feeling could last forever

Finally, I can't resist the pole any longer. The downside of the pole is the friction. Dancing naked and oiled up is the best way to grip the pole. Or make love to it as my dance instructor called it. All I have to do is run back to the pool room and borrow the bottle of baby oil. Stripping to my underpants is enough, there aren't any windows to worry about in here.

I've missed being able to dance without the cheer of other men, without having to make sure I look good for them. I can just do what I want and to hell with how it looks.

eighteen

Knox

Mycityisinlockdown. None of my merch is moving. Everyone is paranoid and second guessing everyone around them. I don't need to say a word.

Now I have a warehouse full of everyone who's been fingered as disloyal or unreliable. Caeo is doing an excellent job of questioning everyone for me. I'm only playing with the guilty ones.

Five men kneel before me, none of them guilty of helping Tiffany, but all guilty of something else. I'm not going to lose five men tonight; just one will do. Two new drug runners who have been skimming a couple of baggies for personal use with their friends. They can learn from this; I don't mind freebies as they lead to new clients, but it all goes through the books. The guy in the middle is a nobody, he wouldn't be missed if he vanished. The last two work in the cutting factory, where my bricks become dose sized baggies. Neither of their sins are drug related, both stealing money. But which one of them will die? I can't decide.

“You and you. Stand up.” I point with my gun at the terrified runners before me. “No one steals drugs from me. If you want freebies, you need to ask. I give, you don't take.”

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