I spat the blood from my mouth as I looked up at my attackers. The leader, Kenith, crouched down near my face and asked the question again: “Where did you take the drugs?” I only stared at him. My face jerked to the side, stinging as he backhanded me. More blood flowed into my mouth as I struggled to breath. I heard the leader sigh, “Anna, I really don’t like doing this to you.”

My lungs hurt as I drew in another breath, my broken ribs piercing my lungs. “I told you,” I slurred around the blood pooled in my mouth, “I delivered them to the drop zone, then left.” I had. I had no need for those drugs or the money they would bring me. I wasn’t that stupid to cross the mob which I worked for.

“So,” Kenith said slowly, “you’re claiming that $5,000,000 worth of goods suddenly vanished? That you,” he poked me hard in the chest, causing a gasp of pain from my mouth as he hit a broken rib, “the last person to have seen it had nothing to do with it?” I nodded slowly, each breath becoming an effort. Kenith stood up, “I don’t believe you.”

A scraping sound came from in front of me. I slowly lifted my head, my eyes struggling to focus on the scene in front of me. Three more thugs came in, one shorter than the other two. No, it was two thugs dragging a third. The third, they threw on the ground in front of us. Before I could even think of moving, two thugs grabbed me from behind, forcing my arms behind my back and my head up.

Kenith walked over to the other man and pulled the hood off his head. “No!” I screamed, for the first time all night, I started fighting back as I laid eyes on my big brother. “Kenith! He is nothing to do with this! This is between me and the mob!”

“Anna?” My brother, Daniel, stared at me, at the two men holding me. He tried to get up, to help me, but the thugs hit him with the butt of their guns, causing him to fall back to his knees. They quickly zip-tied his hands and feet together, immobilizing him. He groaned as he dragged his eyes back towards me.

“Daniel,” I cried as the thugs forced me to my knees as well. I knew what was about to happen, I have seen it before.

“Anna,” Kenith said as he stood between us, “care to explain to your dear brother who you are?”

With blood leaking out of my mouth, I spilled my story to my beloved brother. How I started running messages for the mob so we could afford food. How it had escalated to more riskier moves and more important merchandise. I could hardly look at the devastation on his face. I knew what he must have been thinking. He was the one who was supposed to protect me, to provide for me. And he had failed.

After I was done, my breath heaving out of me, Kenith spoke again to Daniel, “And now your traitorous sister stole from us. After all the help we have given your family and protection afforded by the mob, she betrayed us.”

“I didn’t,” I hissed, my teeth clamped shut to avoid more blood coming out of my mouth.

Kenith turned towards me, “I’ll ask one more time, Anna.” He withdrew his gun and pointed it at Daniel’s head. “Where. Are. The. Drugs?!”

The tears which I had so carefully held back broke over my eyes, spilling down my cheeks and flowing along my chin into my shirt. “I- I didn’t t-take them,” I sobbed. “P-p-please Kenith, he he has nothing t-t-to do with this.”

“Orders are orders, Anna,” was his only response. I gave out a silent scream as he made his way around to behind my brother.

“Now stop your crying,” a voice started to sing. My head jerked up. “It’ll- it’ll be alright.” Daniel sang the song from Tarzan, what he used to sing to me before I fell asleep. “Just take my hand,” his voice grew stronger with every word, filling the warehouse. “Hold it tight. I will protect you,” Daniel stared into my eyes as Kenith stopped behind him, “from all around you.” The gun was raised. “I will be her-”

The gunshot exploded through my brother’s head. I screamed hanging my head. “Don’t you cry,” I finished as I felt a cold mussel on the back of my head.