19. SUTTON

I threw a bunch of crumpled dollar bills on the table before throwing my laptop and gear back into my bag, including the unopened bag of chips.

The theft had happened seconds ago. And whoever it was had left through back.

Chasing every instinct in my gut, I went through the small kitchenette in the back, seeing the exit door swing open. I raced to it and out onto the alley.

There were two exits, but no movement at either side.

Whoever had stolen from me was a professional. Either that, or they were good at hiding.

Seconds away from crumbling to my knees and sobbing, I heard a bottle clink and roll out from under a dumpster.

"Hey," I called out, trying my best to deepen my voice. "Hey."

Movement caught my eye. I turned on a foot.

It was a shadow.

I looked around, not wanting to move from my spot in the middle of the alley in case they were still here. My eyes scaled the walls. There was no way they were able to climb either wall, not unless they were some fictional web-slinging superhero.

Another glass bottle rolled out, and a mumble cussed out.

Without another word, I slowly stepped toward the dumpster.

There was a gap behind it, but not big enough for a person to fit.

"Hello," I whispered, pushing it. The wheeled of the can buckled as it moved forward. And in the space it left, there was a cat, its tail pushing against the glass milk bottles it had as a wall. "Oh. Hello." The cat hissed. I backed away. "Well fuck you too then."

A deep hum of laughter came from behind. "What are you doing?"

I knew that voice anywhere. "Lazer," I said, without even turning to see his smug face. "I guessed it was you."

"This?" he asked.

I sucked in and turned to him. "Listen," I said. "I need that. I'm trying my hardest not to get killed. And if I don't get to see what's on that drive, then I'm pretty much dead."

"Maura asked me, specifically to come and get this from you," he said. "I don't know what's on it. But it must be important if she's asking for it."

I gave him a once over, wondering why he hadn't already left to go give it to her. "Do you know what's on it?"

"No," he said.

"It's the keys to a crypto wallet," I told him. "And I've got the passcode for it. How about, you give it back to me, I'll unload the wallet, split the profit, and you can give her that drive?"

"No deal. Maura has done so much for me," he said. "I won't spit in her face like you did."

My jaw clenched, trying not to get dragged into another repressed memory. "What else did she ask you to do?"

"She mentioned how you've been trying to get into the back doors of some of Santi's security logs," he said. "And you know he's got a special job; you can't be going through his shit like he's still hacking underground."

"You don't know what you're talking about," I said. "Everything we've ever been told by that woman was bullshit. She was using us, and she still is. Look at you. You're doing her bidding for a thumb drive. I'm not doing anything to hurt anyone. And I—I—I only went digging into Santi's shit because someone is setting me up for something I didn't do."

My friendship with Lazer had spanned years, but in that moment, it seemed like neither of us knew who the other was anymore. I wasn't the same Sutton, I'd grown to think for myself, and forced to be my own moral compass. Lazer continued to rely on Maura to tell him what to do, and what was right and wrong.

"You know, when you left, Maura created stricter rules," he said.

I figured as much. Getting back into that place seemed like going through several rings of Hell. "I asked you to leave with me, if it was me, you and Star, we could've done our own thing. You were both too chickenshit to do anything."

Lazer spat on the ground. "Maura took us all in when nobody else would. But you know she treated you differently. You know that for the rest of us we had to do everything so much better, so much cleaner for an ounce of recognition. In fact, when she was asking for people to come and do this, I fucking jumped at the chance to finally take something from you."

I thew my hands up. "What the fuck have I ever taken away from you?"

Visibly upset, I couldn't blame him for the reaction either. "You stole any chance we ever had at getting free," he said, rolling his sleeve. He revealed a small metal bracelet with an almost glowing red light. "These were introduced the day after you left. She—she—she told us they were monitoring our vitals. Now, they won't come off."

"No." I refused to believe that. "Why would she?"

"You don't know anything," he said, spitting once more, hitting my shoe. "The work we did. The work we were doing. She's been selling us off. And there's not a thing we can do." He tugged at the bracelet gently. "These things can't be hacked."

Information overload. "I—I—"

"So, no, I'm not giving you this back. I'm doing my job, and I'm taking this. Then I'll have a grace period of being in her good books where she stops threatening to sell me off. Three. Three people have been sold this month. Nobody knows where. Or who to. But it's all your fault."

"Why wasn't I told when I was taken in?" I asked. Squinting in thought to try and recall seeing more of those wristbands.

"Not worth our lives," he said, holding the thumb drive in the air. "I bet she's watching my vitals right now, seeing my heartrate rise, probably even tracking where I am. You're so fucking lucky."

I wasn't letting him make me feel bad. "No," I told him. "I'm out. If this is all some ploy to get me to come back again, forget it." I had to be smart. There were people after me. And I knew better than anyone how connected Maura was, alongside her greed. I knew there was bound to be a bounty on my head, and she would come and collect it at the first sight of me.

"Take the drive," I told him. "You're signing my death warrant. I need that money."

"If I don't, mine is as good as signed," he said. "And don't think I'll put your life before mine."

That was true, although I'd half-hoped I wouldn't have to feel sympathy for him, but that he would feel sympathy for me instead. It was toxic, but I also had never been in a situation where I was about to be killed either.

Between us, the backdoor from the cafe swung open.

Two well-dressed men in suits appeared.

"Fuck." I looked passed them at Lazer.

"Are they with you?" he asked.

"Sutton?" they asked, in thick Russian accents, glancing from me to Lazer.

Lazer immediately pointed at me. "That's him," he said.

Pulling their black leather gloves tight between their fingers, they looked ready to deal damaged.

"We'll take both of you," the bald, taller man grumbled.

Frozen between wanting to run away and wanting to rush Lazer and grab the USB, I stood completely still until it was too late.

The softness of a cloth hit my face. I breathed in and as I breathed out, my eyes rolled back and the world around me spun into a black oblivion. The loud screech of tires came and went. A hum. A vibration. And nothing more.

As my eyes struggled to open, I felt a tightness in my chest. I was slumped on my side in the back of a car. There wasn't anything I could do. But I knew I was in trouble.

Russian accented voices chattered around me, pulling me from the numb emptiness of my blacked-out state. I didn't know where I was, or what was going on around me, nothing would snap together, or make any sense. It hurt to think.

It reminded me of the tea that Maura had given me. It knocked me right out.

Flashes of memory came to the front of my mind.

The men were Russian.

This had to have been who I was running from earlier. It made no sense otherwise. Although little was making sense currently. I didn't know which way was up, or how to formulate a thought in my mind when all that was there had been flashes of images, sharp, and piercing like hot pokers to the back of my head.

"He's waking," I heard clearly before the numb came and took over again.

I didn't wake again until a sharp nipping came at my wrists and my entire body was upright against something hard. My head unable to stay still on my head, rolling around, forward, and as I pushed back, it whacked against the hard surface.

"Sutton," my name was muffled in my ear. "Sutton. Wake up."

"Iba—Ima—I'm—" the back of my head thumped against the surface, knocking some lucidity in me. "I—"

"Wake up."

The smell hit me first. Chemicals burned in the tip of my nose. I coughed phlegm in my throat. It dribbled out the side of my mouth. "Lazer," I grumbled, seeing him in the corner of my one squinting eye.

"You've got some explaining to do," he said. "I wanna know what the fuck is going on."

Trying to move my hands, they were numb and aching behind my back. "What's—what's—"

"Come on," he shouted. "Where are we?"

The vision behind my eyes continued to blur as I picked my head up and looked ahead. It looked like some type of cellar. Grungy dull yellow walls and stained tiles with a drain in the center. This wasn't just a basement. This was a room people saw before they died.

"Fuck," I grumbled, hacking more phlegm from my throat.

The sound of a door creaking open shattered through me like nails on a chalkboard. I grit my teeth. My jaw clenching in pain.

Lazer was questioning everything around him. He was much more lucid than me. I couldn't blame him for anything that was happening. I knew who these guys were, or at least whose family they worked for. It had been a matter of time before they caught me, and since they came through the cafe, they would've spotted me eventually.

"Relax," I grumbled to him, trying to keep my head on my shoulders. I looked to him, panicked. "They're not gonna do anything to you. This is all for me."

"My bracelet," he said.

"If I can—I—if I can—"

"What?"

The Russian voices grew louder followed by the stomp of footsteps.

"I need to activate the emergency setting," he whispered.

"Then do it."

"My hands are tied."

Right. That pain from my wrists was coming from some tight cuffs.

"Oh, what do we have here?" a voice boomed before I saw who it belonged to. Covered in a fur coat, swishing from side-to-side, I hadn't seen him before. "Two of them. Two. Ivan. I didn't ask for two. I asked for the one. The one who stole from me."

"That's him," Lazer blurted, once more throwing me under the bus.

I pushed my head back against the surface, looking at the man. My eyelids were heavy, trying to figure out how to get out of this one. And that was growing difficult since my biggest asset, my brain, was currently compromised.

"Huh," the man grumbled, dipping to a squat, the fur coat around his shoulders floating with him. "You, small, boy." He pushed his thumb under my chin. "I guess you're the one that Danya is fucking huh?"

"Off me," I grumbled, but there was nowhere for me to push myself away to. "I never took your money."

"That might fly with my comrades upstairs in the house, but in the pit, yes," he hummed to himself, smiling. "I like to think of this as a pit. Because it is a pit, of despair, or no hope." He let out a single solitary laugh. "It's so unfortunate that you will probably die here."

The door seemingly above slammed shut. "No," Danya's voice, he was coming to my rescue. "I'm doing what you asked. You have to leave him alone."

The man stood and turned. The two men who'd captured us were standing in front of him. "That was not a promise, or even an agreement I made. You're marrying my sister, Danya, you must know the sacrifice you're making. A wedding gift. Relax," he snorted. "I'll let you keep the head in a box."

Lazer immediately burst into tears.

I froze. Nothing made sense. My brain didn't want any of it to make sense.

"Sutton didn't take your money, and he's not being let free," Danya said. I still couldn't see him.

For a moment, I wondered if he would show his face.

And then he did.

Dressed in a suit, looking sharp. He was about to get married off to pay this debt.

If I'd eaten much at all today, it would've been making an appearance on the ground. But I was surprisingly holding up well. Not like Lazer, who hadn't stopped his whimpering since I was threatened with death. Not him. He would probably get a slap on the wrist.

"I'll make you a deal," the man said.

Danya glanced at me then looked away, almost disappointed. "The deal that Sutton and—his friend goes free. And I marry your sister. Debt wiped. Ok?"

He reached out and shook Danya's hand.

Weirdly. My entire world was crushed.