Taken (Part III)

Taken (Part III)
3/23/10
By: Mia L. Hazlett

I drove around the block and came back around to perfectly position the car in an alley down the street from The Spot. The Lottery Ticket appeared to still be knocked out. The last thing I was gonna deal with was some screamin’ kid. I was supposed to drop her off and be done. But I didn’t think that drink concoction would last much longer

The last cop car pulled off…maybe. But that van didn’t sit right in this neighborhood. I had never seen it before. Maybe I was just being paranoid. I needed to call Voz. He went back in the house about twenty minutes ago. I knew he saw me drive by, but I needed some sort of sign from him that I could make the drop. I decided to leave Lottery in the back and make my way to the little package store. I just needed some cigarettes and a chance to give Voz a call.

Voz didn’t answer the three times I tried. I walked around the corner, cigarette hanging from my mouth, drink shoved under my pit as I struggled to get my keys to the car. I took a couple more puffs before I got back into the car. I opened my nip of vodka and settled in for the wait.

FUCK! Where the fuck was Lottery? She was gone! Na, na, na. This couldn’t be happening. I wasn’t in the store for more then like ten freakin’ minutes. She was freakin’ knocked out with the stuff. She hadn’t moved the whole damn time I drove. I started the car and decided to drive around to see if I could find her. She couldn’t have gotten that far bein’ small and drugged. She had to be be close. She fuckin’ had to be close. I slammed my hand on the steering wheel, all the while cursing The Ticket out.

I knew Voz said we couldn’t kill her until we got the money at The Drop. But what difference did it make? Now or later? These people weren’t about to get their kid back. Kev didn’t get his kid back, why should they? All I was sayin’ was I want to kill this kid. As soon as I found her, I was gonna break her little neck.

Finding her wasn’t looking good. I drove around the block lookin’ for her tiny little frame wrapped in a white sweater. Why didn’t I make her change into that outfit? She was going to stand out in her uniform in this neighborhood. Man I fucked up. I gotta find this kid. If I didn’t, both of us would catch a bullet.

After about forty-five minutes of nothing, my phone rang. Voz. Shit. “Yeah,” I answered.
“Bring it now,” he hung up.

I figured The Spot was safe if he was telling me to come. Two sets of eyes would be better than one. I pulled up to the house to pick him up, popped up the steps and was in the house within five minutes of Voz’s call.

“What are you doing? Where’s the kid? Why the hell are you parking in front of the damn house? Put the damn car in the back. Do you want to fuck this up?” Voz hammered out before I even got the door closed.
“Okay, there’s a problem. I lost the kid. I was…”
“Get out! GET THE HELL OUT!” Voz screamed.

I turned to leave, and then was jerked to the floor by my ponytail. Voz was on top of me with his glock between my eyes.