“Looks like someone beat us to it,” Ricardo, the sadistic little prick, said.

“Y-you… you said we were only going to scare him,” I whispered, my voice wavering. “You ne-never said anything about killing–”

“When someone owes us a debt, princess, we don’t give them ten million chances to repay. You get one opportunity. Why do you think nobody fucks with us?”

I didn’t respond.

“Fuck, man, open your pretty little eyes. Stop being a baby. This is what you do now.”

“If it’s done, I don’t need to look!”

He chuckled sardonically. “If someone took care of our hit, princess Ryker, then that means we got some competition goin’ on here.”

I’d only ever seen the beatings of men that had wronged them somehow, but never this. I opened my eyes and slowly walked into the room. I tried to detach myself from the sight, but my stomach churned. I swallowed back the vomit that was burning its way up my throat and rubbed my nose again. The sight before me was wretched. Something out of a fucking horror film.

Two bodies. One man and one woman in barely any clothing at all. I shuddered and looked away, pretending to look closely at other random shit in the room. Ricardo, on the other hand, circled around the bodies, leaning in and inspecting the wounds like he was some homicide detective.

“They’ve been dead for more than twenty four hours,” he said. “Fuckin’ smell like they been in a sauna all day.”

“Thought you said they took out the bin tonight.”

“Well, somebody did.”

“Why?”

“Probably to make the house look less conspicuous, I don’t fucking know. It’s clear these bastards were looking for something. Most likely money. The heroine baggies here are empty, and they ain’t from us. Looks like poor Chuck was also in debt with another crew and it got him clipped before we got to him.” He actually frowned at this, as though he would have preferred to have done it himself. “They got their heads blown off execution style, and it was unexpected. They were on this bed fucking like rabbits when they ate their bullets. Look how barely clothed she is. Unlucky bitch.”

I winced at his words. He said it in such an impersonal way, as though none of this was affecting him in the slightest. I knew it wasn’t. He was used to this kind of crazy. Gotta turn into his kind of crazy to make it in this life, Ryker.

“So he was the target, and she… she was what?”

He smirked. “She was at the wrong place, wrong time.”

I didn’t respond to that. I was hardly breathing and trying with every passing second to stop my stomach from twisting because, shit, it felt like there was a serpent running loose in there. Every second after that felt like a haze to me. I was dizzy from lack of oxygen, sick from witnessing something this messed up, and itching for another hit of some coke because I was starting to feel human again.

“We got ourselves an investigation,” he went on excitedly. “Time to start talkin’ to some of late Chuckie’s pals and find out who he’s been buying this shit from. Because chances are that provider’s stealing more of our business, and that shit ain’t on.”

I nodded like a robot, but I was barely digesting his words. I didn’t have to. I already understood what he was getting at. This was going to be yet another street war. He’ll find out the person(s) Chuck was buying from and then put them in the ground. Sending out the message that Hedley’s streets were already owned by the Syndicate, and you best not mess with that power.

“Alright, time to split, princess. We got lots to report to Boss, and then we got ourselves some good action…”

He carried on with his words when a noise caught my attention. I couldn’t figure out what it was until I put my hand out in front of him. He instantly shut up and watched me as I eyed the room cautiously.

It was a tiny noise at first. Like a quiet grunt that you’d never have heard had you paid attention to Ricardo’s yammering. As the silence filled every corner of the room, the sound came at me again, this time louder.

Little grunts. Barely audible whimpers you’d have to strain to hear. I moved over the rubbish on the ground and went toward it. Drawing nearer to the ground beside the bed, I bent down and pushed aside some drawers. More whimpers. Little, helpless cries that instantly raised the hairs on the back of my neck. If I thought I felt sick before, I had another thing coming. It was the cold taste of reality, and when I finally pushed aside everything that’d been in the way, I came face to face with it.

A bassinet was poking out from under the bed, halfway visible. I saw movements coming from within, of a blanket being kicked. My heart rate took off. Moving like a rocket, I rushed to it and pulled it out from under the bed. My breath caught in my throat just then, and tears burned the back of my eyes.

A baby.

A fucking baby.

In this mess. In this shithole of a drug nest.

Her mouth and eyes were open, but she could barely make a sound. In full panic, I glanced up at Ricardo. He’d blanched some, but his composure was still better than mine. He frowned and shook his head. “Don’t even think about it,” he said. But it was too late. I’d already picked up the tiny, frail body. Christ, how young was she? Her head fit in the palm of my hand, and she looked like she was swimming in her pink onesie.

“You put that thing back where it came from,” he demanded angrily. “We don’t snatch babies out of their beds, Ryker!”

“She’s half dead,” I retorted. “She would have been completely dead if we hadn’t come in here –”

“That’s not our problem.”

“Like hell it isn’t!”

The grave look on his face might have intimidated me ten seconds ago, but now I had a purpose, and like hell was he going to interfere with it. He took a step forward and pointed at the baby barely moving in my arms. “That’s not something we do. Put her down.”

“No.” I clutched the tiny body to my chest and turned away from him. I needed to get out of here now. I needed to get to a hospital –

“You’re a dead man if you think you can walk out of here with that baby in your hands, Ryker. We’ve walked in on a murder scene. What’re you gonna do with that baby? Someone’s gonna know you have it –”

“Take her to the hospital –”