Page 112 of Working for the Mob

I tore after the man, with Lucy on my heels. The drifter set a quick pace ahead of us, shoving his way through the people waiting to board the train. He hopped over a couple’s suitcase and flattened the wife to the ground without turning around.

“Sorry,” I yelled at the wife, but I kept running. I would need to find them after I got my eight hundred dollars back and buy them a new suitcase. But maybe not a nice one. The wife looked bundled enough that her fall was probably padded anyway.

“Stop that man!” I shouted at the people around us, but no one did. Instead, the sea of people parted to let him through.

The thief hopped off the platform and took off on the ground. I threw myself to the wooden floor to lower myself down but it took too much time. Although Lucy was a few seconds behind, the drifter tore away in a sprint in the parking lot without the crowd to slow him down. I needed to reach him before he could get away in his car.

“I’m getting so much mud on my shoes,” Lucy shrieked behind me in the grass.

I stepped into the parking lot and my foot slipped on the loose gravel. I regained my balance, but I lost another step on him! I shook my head and pursued the drifter between the rows of parked cars.

After I passed the first line of cars and ran into the throughway, a car’s brakes squealed to stop from hitting me. I didn’t spare them a glance––he was getting away!

I entered the next aisle between cars and a car door swung open in front of me. I forced myself to stop and still almost ran into the door. How could this have happened now?

I tried to keep an eye on the drifter––he had stopped just past the car’s hood––but my attention was stolen by the man stepping out of the car.

The new man towered over me and I panicked once I recognized him. Beneath his sandy blonde hair, his glacier blue eyes fixated on me. My stomach seized in terror. I felt doused by a bucket of cold water. Clutch forgotten, fear gripped me more strongly than I ever knew. Even more than last night, because Art wasn’t here to protect me.

“I … uhh,” I said, as I backed out of the aisle.

“Hello, Genevieve,” he purred, his voice reverberating with a dangerous foreboding. This was no random run-in. He knew my name! My heart beat faster as he spoke, and I prepared to run.

I backed into someone sturdy and I swung around to face a grim-faced man in a trench coat. I was trapped. Cars on either side of me, a goon behind and a mob boss ahead. How was I going to get out of this?

“Today’s a nice day for a ride, isn’t it, Genny?” Lawrence Valuncia said, a smirk playing on his mouth.

“Lucy!” I finally found my voice. I scanned the parking lot behind me. “Help! “

Maybe Lucy could get away––run and get someone. I knew if I let myself be dragged into that car, that would be the end for me.

“Lucy!”

“Got her right here, boss,” a snippy voice behind me said.

My heart plummeted when another trench coated goon had Lucy by the arm, with a hand clasped over her mouth. Her eyes shot daggers of venom at him.

“Get her in the car, and give the cashier a ‘thank you’ for the tip,” Valuncia said.

And it clicked.

“Wait, the guy from the ticket booth sold me out?” I asked. He must have called the Valuncias and let them know I was here. And the Valuncias sent …

“And good job, Lem.”

I gasped at the miserable excuse for a man, with blonde hair and a patched coat, that stepped up to Valuncia’s side.

“Looking for this?” the drifter asked, in a thin, reedy voice. He wiggled a purple Sears clutch at me.

“My clutch!”

Rage coursed through every fiber of my body. I’d been set up. The same low-life who stole my life savings just sold me out to the most dangerous man in Lannington. And now he was rubbing it in.

Valuncia lifted a revolver, waist height, and fixed it on me.

“Now, how about you be a good little girl and get in the car. You’re about to win me a war.”

Chapter 34 – Art

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