Mercer

Charlie is dead.

Such a thought is jarring and yet it’s the only thought that weaves constantly around my mind in between the dull throb of my jaw from a punch as I escaped.

Charlie is dead.

Every droplet of rain cascades around me as I huddle behind this dumpster and suck in trembling breaths, chants those words at me over and over. It’s as deafening as it is heartbreaking. I stare down at my hands as rain pours over them, but all I see is the blood of my friend. Even as I scrub my palms together, the crimson doesn’t shift. It stains me, marking me because I couldn’t do anything to save him.

Charlie is dead.

My best friend and business partner, co-owner of Lodestar Skylines, is dead on the floor of my office, murdered by Senator Wade Ruttercliffe, and my life is over.

“It’s over, Wade,” Charlie barks with renewed confidence. “All of it, it’s over!”

“No,” Wade smirks dangerously. “You’re delusional as all hell, Charlie, if you think this will ever be over. I own you, Charlie, don’t you remember? There’s no coming back from the things you have done for me.”

“Shut up! Whatever happens,” I bark, “we’ll face it. We’ll liquidate everything we have to settle Charlie’s debts and once that’s done, every single nugget of twisted, shady business under your feet will be exposed to the world.”

Wade simply laughs, a cold sound like heels scraping along the gravel. “This isn’t the sort of thing you walk away from, Charlie boy. When I told you I owned you, I meant it.”

“Your bullshit will get you nowhere. We called you here as a courtesy, to try and save yourself,” I spat. “One chance to stop and walk away because this time we hold all the cards.”

“You’re not on top this time, Wade.” Charlie’s voice wavers but he fights through it. “I can prove everything. Every single thing.”

Wade frowns, a dangerous darkness flooding his beady eyes. He whips out a gun quicker than anyone can react and opens fire. Charlie flinches violently like he’s been punched in the gut. I launch myself forward trying to reach him, but one of the guards loops an arm around my abdomen and throws me backward. I crash through the door and Charlie chokes wetly, the gun fires one more—

I flinch back to reality as lightning cracks overhead and press both trembling hands to my mouth. The grief is so intense that I can do nothing but stare at the river of water running past me, watching the trickles as they weave a path past every stone and dip in the ground. Numbness constricts around my chest like a rubber band and I lean into it.

I know I should go to the cops but Wade owns the cops. He owns everyone, and his threats of what he would do to me as I fled for my life still ring loud in my ears. There’s no one I can turn to and the flash of red and blue lights would be nothing but a life sentence for murder.

Wade will ensure I get buried in the system and Charlie’s murderer will walk free, terrorizing anyone else that gets in his way.

I push into the numbness. If I focus hard enough then maybe I can trick myself just for a moment and it won’t be real. Maybe this is just some terrible bad dream and I’ll wake up safe in my bed with twenty texts from Charlie cursing me out for missing an important shareholder meeting.

He is my… was my best friend. Ever since we met in business school and put our heads together over two dollar ramen, he’s been a fixture in my life. We built up from nothing and shared almost everything together. I was there for him through every relationship and subsequent breakup, every bounce back, and enthusiastic business decision. We were a team and I had thought nothing could hurt more than learning that he had betrayed me.

He had been siphoning out of our multi-billion dollar business to fund the gambling debts that had put him right under the cruel heel of Senator Ruttercliffe. A man who was supposed to be keeping the people of New York City safe. Instead he was catching them all in cruel deals and fixed gambling to secure a noose around the neck of anyone he could milk.

But we had a plan. A plan to confront him with what evidence Charlie had kept on him. We were going to make him back down, to leave Charlie alone so we could fix things and get him the help he needed.

Never had I imagined Wade would kill him. He’s a fucking senator and he shot Charlie without a care—

The evidence.

That nugget catches in my mind and all other thoughts fade away. Charlie had said he had evidence on Wade that we could use against him. Evidence that would put him away for good. It was the one piece of ammo we had against a man like that. Only Wade had arrived earlier than expected and Charlie never got a chance to show me what he had. The only information he gave me was assurance that it would be in the office.

I need to get it. Whatever it is, it’s the only thing that can tie a man like Wade to this and get him put away for Charlie’s murder and so much more.

The rain continues to pour and as I come to a decision, the cold from my soaked trousers makes itself known. I’d been sitting in this alley for too long and had become completely drenched through. I lower my hands and still the crimson stains peer back at me.

The blood on my hands from not being able to save Charlie.

Bracing myself on the dumpster, I climb to my feet and slide one hand through my waterlogged black hair.

Focus on the evidence. It’s the only thought that brings me any sort of stability.

Yet as I trudge out of the alley into the dark street where only a few sparse cars race past in the storm, the prospect of returning to that office churns my stomach. Acid scrapes its way up my gullet and suddenly I’m doubled over, spewing up the empty contents of my stomach onto the rain-soaked pavement. I gasp for breath as I hurl and I stumble to the left, reaching out for the nearest wall for balance.

Every muscle inside me ripples upward but I have nothing else to give. My throat burns and my eyes water from unshed tears while the rain washes away all evidence and I’m left with nothing but a deeper pit of despair down in my gut.

I have to go back… but will Charlie’s body still be there? I don’t know if men as evil as Wade deal with leaving bodies at crime scenes or if he will have swept the whole thing away, used his money and power to act as if nothing happened and I’ll have no crime to prove.

I tip my head backward and open my mouth, closing my eyes and letting the water flood into me. Each ice droplet chills my face, but the cold is almost soothing against the blossoming bruise on my jaw. Rainwater gathered, I swirl it around my mouth and spit it off to the side, then I start walking.

How I feel doesn’t matter right now.

Getting that evidence and avenging Charlie is the only matter of importance.

As I stride through puddles, each step growing stronger than the last, another thought flickers in my mind.

That woman.

The one that had been lingering in the hallway when I’d been thrown through the door.

I’d half thought she was some sort of dream at first, a beautiful angel here to whisk Charlie away to the afterlife. Then I’d wondered if she were one of Wade’s people; it wouldn’t surprise me that he has beautiful women on the payroll.

Until she’d turned in terror and sprinted away, disappearing into the darkness of the stairwell as I scrambled for my own life.

Her beautiful face fills my mind, her warm hazel eyes wide and filled with terror as she looked past me to the horror unfolding. She had to have seen what was happening. There was no way she couldn’t have. Could she be another chance brought to me by a pure twist of fate?

A witness to Charlie’s murder could prove there was a crime regardless of any effort Wade makes to hide this.

The thought fuels each step as I break into a sprint across the road.

Evidence first, mystery woman second.