Chapter 6 🫦

"Great job. Corky, will you do us a favor and stay in your apartment until it's time for your shift?"

"Why do you think the little bastard is out there waiting on me or something?"

"Or something?" Dude-drop says.

Adams looks at his partner, then looks at me. "There are tons of reporters standing on the corner just waiting for one if you girls come around so they could swarm you with questions."

"Well, fuck me." I whisper. "Well, I'm not staying in the damn apartment while my friend is fighting for her life. So, fuck the reporters and fuck you two. Now leave so I can go to the hospital with my friend that you don't seem to care about."

"Yes, I guess you're right dude-drop says rolling his eyes at Adams. "Go straight to the hospital. He tells me like I would think of going anywhere else."

"No shit fuck wade." I tell him then shew them out of my apartment.

"Why do you always have to be such a bitch to us, Corky? We are here just to help you." Deputy Dewey says.

I don't have time for this shit. I have to get to the hospital to be with Layla. "Are you two done with me now?" Dude-drop rolls his eyes. "Yes, Corky, we are done.

"Good, now get out so I can change clothes and get to the hospital." I tell them, pushing them out the door because they aren't taking the damn hit.

Once the cops are out of my apartment, I head into my room and change into a little better suited clothes to go to the hospital in. I don't think they would look too kindly on me if I went into the hospital with jeans that barely covered me up from all the holes, and my shirt wasn't much better. I head out of the apartment once I get my clothes changed. Once I'm outside, I see what the cops were telling me. There are reporters everywhere, so I sneak around the corner out of sight of them. I make it around the building without them seeing me, then I head to the parking garage that's around the corner for my car. I don't drive it often, but today seems to be one of the days that requires it.

Once in my car, I head toward the hospital. As I'm approaching the hospital, I call Martin to let him know he will be two prostitutes, short for a day or two and I didn't know how long Layla would be out. If she made it through this ordeal.

Of course Martin is being Martin. "Why the fuck do you have to be at the hospital, Corky? You being there will not help Layla. So you have the day to make sure Layla's ass makes it through this shit then you get your ass back on the streets tonight. Do I make myself clear, Corky?"

"Yea, loud and clear Martine." When I hung up on him, I sat in my car and just yelled at nobody. It's so frustrating that Martin can't just understand what's going on and be a normal guy for once in his pathetic life.

I shake the thoughts that are in my head off and get out of the car and walk into the hospital. When I get in there, I walk up to the desk and tell the lady I'm here to see the condition of Layla Smith.

"Are you family?" Nurse Judy asks me."

Crap, I should have none. That would be her first question, but being that Layla has no family that gives a shit me lying and saying I'm her sister won't hurt a thing now will it. "Yes, I'm her sister." I tell the nurse, and she does something on her computer, then tells me a doctor will be out to talk to me soon. So I walk over to the little waiting area and wait for the doctor to come out. He takes an hour to come out from the back.

"Hi Mr. Smith?" The doctor asks, coming up to stand in front of me.

Smith? Oh right, Layla's last name. "Yes, that's me I say, standing up and taking his outstretched hand to shake it. "Ms. Smith, your sister has a long recovery ahead of her. She sustained major injuries to her body. Mainly her face. When and if she wakes up, she will have to go through many surgeries to fix the fracture in her face. For now, I have her in an induced coma for her safety. This will help her heal some on her own without feeling all the pain. Once I think it is safe in a week or two, we will start bringing her out of the coma." The doctor is explaining to me.

Poor Layla. I hope the bastard that did this to her gets what's coming to him, and soon.

"Can I see her?" I ask the doctor.

"Yes, I will take you back to see her. Now far warning she has tubes coming out of her and her face is so very swollen and unrecognizable." The doctor is telling me as we are walking back to the ICU area. Once I get into Laylas room, I break down. She looks so bad. Her face is swollen ten times its size, and the doctor is right. If I didn't know it was her, I wouldn't be able to tell it was her.

I walk over to where Layla is lying in her hospital bed and sit down beside her. I picked up her hand and put it in my. "Can she hear me?" I ask the doctor. "We could never know for sure, but it's always worth talking to your loved ones. It gives you peace of mind.

The doctor leaves the room then, and I turn back to Layla. "Be okay, Layla, baby. I can't do this fucked up world without you. Besides, who's going to tell me on a daily basis that I need to get my GED and carry my ass to college. So wake your ass up."

💋

The next couple of weeks are really hard. I have to juggle working the corner, the bar, and staying at the hospital with Layla. She woke up a week earlier than she was expected to, which is awesome, but then she had to go through many surgeries. But now she is finally getting to go home. I am moving in with her to make sure she's taking care of herself and to protect her from any danger..

"Layla, are you ready to head home?" I ask her, coming into her room with a wheelchair.

"Hell yes, I am Corky girl. Yes, I am." We make our way down to the car and I help her in. Then we head to Layla's house. She is still pretty weak so when I get her into the house I set her up onto the sofa. "Do you want anything? A drink, food, tv?" I ask her.

"You can relax." She tells me. She's right, I have been on edge this whole week. It's just so hard being in someone else's house. I've been on my own since I was 16 and now I'm living in someone else's house with them. Don't get me wrong, it's a wonderful house, and big enough for the both of us. Hell, I don't know what my problem is, really.

"Okay, well, if you need nothing right now I'm going to go to the apartment and get the rest of my stuff then I have a bar tonight. Are you going to be okay on your own?" I ask her. "I will be fine, Corky girl. Now go do what you need to do."

💋

The bar is a fucking mess tonight we have broken up fight after fight. I guess this is what it's like on the weekends at this hellhole. Adams shows up after about the third fight that broke out tonight and throws the guys out on their asses. "My hero." Once he has them out, and the bar settles back down, he makes his way over to the bar and sits down on one of the bar stools, then waits on me to make my way down to him.

"What'll it be, soldier?" I ask Adams once I can finally get to him. He just cocks an eyebrow at me. "You asked me to come here Cocky, so what's so damn important that you would text me on my personal phone? By the way, how did you get my personal number?"

"I took a card." I tell him with a shrug. "Anyway, you want to get right to business. I can dig that. I texted you to meet me here because one of my um- colleagues." I say, looking around the bar for eyes, but nobody is paying us any attention. She has gone missing, I think. She was supposed to meet Layla and me for drinks a couple days ago, but she never showed up, and she hasn't been on her- I pause and look around again. Her corner." I told him.

"So, what do you think happened to her?" Adams asks me.

"I think she has fallen victim to the night killer."

"So, you think the guy has struck again so soon?" Adams asks me.

"Yes, I do, and I think Boston may be a victim of a crime, and I would like you to look into it for me. It's the least you can do to help me."

"Corky, I don't owe you a fucking thing." Newsflash girl, I helped you get this job in the bar and off the streets for one night a week at least. So you should be grateful instead of thinking someone owes you all the time.

"Newsflash asshole, you put my ass in danger of being killed is what you did. So, yes, you fucking owe my ass." Adams gets up off his stool just then... then turns and looks at me. "By the way, next time you check yourself in the mirror to adjust your girls, make sure your pendant isn't on. All the guys at the station got a show."

"You jealous baby?"

"Not over a whore when I can just walk outside and pay for another, just like you."

Low blow. "Fuck off, I tell him," and he walks out the door without another word, and I hate how his words kind of wounded me. I finish my shift at the bar. Then go home. Well, Layla's home. It's still hard to claim it as mine. But first I want to check the corner first. I have a bad feeling.

I make it to the street corner I work on. Once I get there there is an enormous crowd around something, so I walk over toward the crowd. Once I get closer, one of the women that's standing there recognizes me and takes me by my arm to hall me backwards. "Sweetie, you don't want to see what she tells me."

"Who is it I ask her?" And when she looks at me with pained eyes, my worst fear comes crashing down on me.

"Boston!"

I walk over to where the crowd is... sure enough, crowded around a body and I push my way forward. When I get in front of everyone and look down at the person who's laying on the ground, I know it's Boston because of the tattoo on her left arm. All of us girls went and got a tattoo together a few months back, so that's the first thing I see when I make my way to the front. When I made my way to the front, I regret looking at my friend because I noticed that someone had slashed Boston's throat from ear to ear.. Once again, there is a note beside her body addressed to me.

"Hello, little whorey. Have you figured out who it is yet? Two down, three to go. Can you guess who the next person is? Keep your enemies close and your friends closer."

Your enemies close and your friends closer? Who could this be? Who would we consider our friend enough to let them that close to us? In my haze of thoughts, I hear someone telling the crowd to back the fuck up and give them some room. When I look up, I see the boys in blue on the scene. Right behind them is deputy dude-drop and fucking deputy dickhead- Dewey. I get up and walk over to where they are standing and slap Adam's right on the face. "You were supposed to have looked for her, not let her end up dead on the street for everyone to gawk at her. You are a fucking worthless piss of shit cop." I yell at him, and he just raises his hand up for one of the uniformed officers to come over. "Hey, officer Elliot, can you handcuff Mrs. Sullivan and take her into headquarters for me, man."

"Yes, sir."

"What the fuck am I being arrested for?" I yell at him.

"Assaulting an officer Deputy dude-drop pipes in."

"Are you fucking serious, you pansy ass momma's boy?" I yell at Adams as the officer is carting me off to his car.

"Now just hang on their boys, I hear a male voice saying from behind me." Now it makes since Adams saw Martin coming. "You want to explain why you are arresting one of my girls after finding another one dead on the side of the concrete?"

"Your girl assaulted an officer. She will spend a night in the city jail, then she will go in front of a judge and be out by midday tomorrow." Dude-drop informs Martin. "Oh, and don't bother trying to get her out, or calling your higher up buddies, because she's not getting out tonight."

"Well Corky, make sure you get your ass some sleep in that cell tonight for work tomorrow, because there isn't anything I can do for you tonight." Fuckin' dumbass girls. I hear Martin say as he's walking away.

And I'm supposed to be the dumb one. He can't even speak proper English. I look over to where Adams is standing by my friend Boston's body, and the asshole is looking at me. "Well, fuck him."

When we make it down to the station, the officer takes me into booking and takes my fingerprints and photo for my profile. I'm sure I have a thick book from over the years. "Mrs. Sullivan, I'm going to need you to follow officer Bridges to the changing room so she can strip you down and make sure you have nothing on you. Then give you your jumpsuit."

"Actually, she is going to come with me," Adams says from out of nowhere.

"Um- no, I think I'll just go with officer Bridges." I tell them, then walk, but of course the asshole isn't having any of that, and pulls me back by my cuffs. He walks me out of the booking area and into a conference room. "Are you going to really interrogate me?" I ask him.

"Damnit Corky, why can't you just shut the fuck up sometimes?" He yells at me, then practically throws me into the room.

I sorrel around on him. "What the fuck is your problem? First you arrest me for slapping you, and now you are throwing me in a damn room."

Adams just walks over to me and handcuffs me. "Are you okay?" he asks me in a gruff voice?

Am I okay? Fuck, I really don't know how to answer that question. The only two genuine friends I've ever had in this messed up world are dead. "I will be." I told him.

"Don't play your tough girl bullshit with me, Corky."

"What do you want with me, Dean Adams?" He looks at me with something strange in his eyes, then he lunges at me, throwing me up against the wall, arms on either side of my head. "Listen to me... and listen good, Corky. Go out that door, hop on a bus, and get as far away from this state as you can."

"I can't do that, Dean. I have no money. Anything I make 90% of it goes to Martin. Besides, this is my home. Why would I want to leave it?"

"Because you dumb- stubborn ass girl. Your people are getting killed on a daily, and that fucking note said you were next. Do you want to die, Corky? Because this sick fuck will find you and he will kill you?"

"Well then, I guess it's a good thing I'm not working the streets anymore. Martin has me in the bar full time now, and he said I will start doing other work for him soon. Isn't that what you, I point my finger in his chest, wanted?"