I quickly hopped out of bed trying not to make too much noise. I threw on a t-shirt and slipped on some shoes. The loud noises coming from below, it sounded like my shit was getting broke… Before going down the stairs I grabbed my pistol from my nightstand. I didn’t dash all the way down the stairs because in between crashes I could hear talking. I stopped at the foot of the stairs just before making myself known to listen, “You were supposed to deliver the goods to Consuelo at the party last night, not stick your dick in it.” said the other man.

“I told Consuelo everything we knew and delivering her to him wouldn’t have made the situation better. We’re close and he knows that.” Replied Charlie. I shook my head creeping behind my stairwell overhearing the conversation. Charlie still lied to me… Consuelo wanted me ‘delivered’? What the fuck am I, a Grub Hub order?

“That wasn’t your call, Charlie boy… You were giving direct orders. He wanted to speak to her himself to see what she knew and you took that from him. You fucked up, going rogue like that over some pussy. Was she any good?” Consuelo’s henchman laughed. “No worries, I’ll see for myself…”

Charlie lounged at the man throwing a punch but he moved out of the way, “Fuck you, Francis!”

Francis pushed Charlie to the floor then kicked him while he was down. “No fuck you Charlie! Now be a good little boy and do what you’re told.”

I heard enough… I walked out of the shadow cocking my pistol back making it ready to fire. Francis saw me first before Charlie. He slowly raised his hands in the air smiling at me. “Who the fuck are you and why are you in my place?” I said boldly pointing my gun at his head.

“Whoa! Feisty… I see why he likes you.” Francis looked me up and down like he was amused by what I was wearing. He had on an all black suit on with a thick gold braided chain. He was bald on top with hair only on the sides. This Francis looked like a stereotypical mobster. The shiny black church shoes and thick gold rings on almost every finger… the works. “I love it, girlfriend. T-shirt and your panties on.” He sang in a low tone while laughing. He closed his right hand and pointed his index finger in the air. He shook his finger side to side saying, “No, no… May I?” Francis walked over to my control panel and pressed the button for the shades to the windows to go back up. How did he know to do that? Have ‘they’ being watching me along? He then pointed out of the large glass windows towards the building next door across the street. Both Charlie and I looked out the direction he was pointing. Two seconds later a red dot from a sniper rifle was on Charlie’s chest as he stood to his feet. “I wouldn’t if I were you… Say hello to Victor.” Francis looked around shaking his head, “This is a really nice place by the way. How much do you pay a month?”

“You were always such a pussy Francis…” Charlie huffed as he turned towards the large windows then nodded his head. I tried to see where this ‘Victor’ was stationed but could see nothing.

“Insurance, Charlie boy. You kill me my brother kills you…,” said an overly confident Francis.

“So, what now Consuelo wants me dead because I didn’t introduce Ally to him? Come on! You can do better than that.” He snapped. Charlie and I both knew what Francis was saying wasn’t the whole story.

“Ok… you’re right. Consuelo has received information the BK5 family has found a way to overthrow the Syndicate. See we have eyes everywhere and watch over everything… We know about your cleverness of implanting the virus into Douglas’ computer with that special USB. It had Jason’s signature all over it. He was able to break into encrypted files we could not. So instead of interfering between you and Jason we decided to see where it would take us. Low and behold it led us exactly where what we needed to know.”

I stepped from behind Charlie and walked closer to Francis. The red dot moved from Charlie’s chest to mines. I stopped when I looked down and saw the laser light. “Did you hurt Jason? Please tell me you didn’t kill him?” I was worried what his answer was going to be.

“I didn’t hurt a hair on your Cambodian friend. Jason is an asset to the Syndicate as well, he just forgot who he was loyal to. It’s now or never you love birds… If we don’t act on something we can kiss any hope of keeping this organization together. If the girl comes peacefully then we won’t have any problems, ok.”

I had to pause for a minute… I had to gather my thoughts together trying to process what was going on. I had a mobster in my living room telling me there’s a sniper stationed on the roof of the neighboring building, found out Charlie was in fact lying about why we left the party and everything went to shit with Jason. Oh, and I’m still super hungover. As much as I wanted to pop both of them with lead by shooting them in their ass, this was my chance to advocate for myself. I was taking a risk but what else did I have to loose?

“What would Consuelo gain by meeting me in person? You got what you needed. The information that Jason obviously was something…” Bold I’d admit but I needed to stand my ground.

“Fierce and ballsy… The information we received requires you to act on the behalf of your father. Consuelo knows you can help him keep his throne. There may be more for you in store than you realize. He can make anything possible…” Francis liked to hear himself talk. The guy went on and on about Consuelo like he was some god something.

I shook my head carefully thinking of my next play, “The way I see it is if Consuelo wants my help, he has to help me first.”

Francis nearly coughed on his spit in laughter, “You are in no position to negotiate!”

“I think I am… tell Consuelo to call his puppy Bernard and have him drop all the charges against me. You and everyone else knows that shit isn’t going to stick, so take it away.” I spoke with confidence as I stared into Francis’ eyes.

At first, he didn’t do anything but after a few seconds he nodded his head agreeing. “Ok done…”

“How can I take your word for it?! I don’t know you…” I quickly snapped. My ‘would be Goodfella’s mobster’ didn’t take my questioning or demanding too nicely.

Francis walked over and nearly got in my face. “You’re going to take my word for it or I’ll remind you just who you’re fucking with. I will kill everyone you love starting with Charlie boy right here. I’ll make you watch his brains get splattered all over your pretty walls. Then I’ll kill your bestie, what’s her name? Amber… pretty Amber. Take my word for it, sweetheart.” He made a gun with his hand pointing his index finger directly at Charlie and closing one eye like he was going to take a shot.

Charlie got nervous and took a step back scared, “Calm down, Francis… She takes your word for it.” When I saw Charlie’s reaction to Francis’ pointed index finger, everything began to dawn on me. Now I remember why this situation seemed familiar. Why he seemed familiar… In the news a year back, there’s a report of two twin brothers who made a real name for themselves as hired hitmen. One would cause the diversion seeking out the target while the other stationed on the nearby roof top. Eye witnesses reporting seeing a well dressed man pointing his index point at the victim before he was shot. The witness didn’t think anything of it until he pretended like he was shooting at the victim then moments later, he was shot dead. There were other similar reports of certain sketchy individuals dying the same way. So many were popping up back-to-back they earned the name the ‘Point and Shoot Killers’. Lame, I know but the news coined the phase causing a lot of copycats. There was mass panic among people pretending to shoot others with their index finger. Crazy but it happened… I have the infamous Francis and Victor Capua in my home and looking into my home... I did not know they were Syndicate…

He dropped his pretend hand gun into a pretend sleeve on his belt under his jacket. “Okie, dokie! Y’all ready to go now?” Francis spoke in a horrible country accent. “Cause my patience is running thin and I just might kill ya…”

As we walked to towards the elevator, I realized I didn’t really have on any clothes. “Can I put on some pants at least before we go?”

Francis turned around annoyed as he looked at me from head to toe again, “Quickly and leave the gun on the floor.” Charlie walked over and did the same. Picking up pieces of his clothing from around the living we left from the night before.

I turned around and walked upstairs to my bedroom. I was still trying my hardest to scope out this Victor next door. As I slipped on some jeans and put on a bra, I could hear Francis and Charlie talking some more. “How did you get in here by the way?” Charlie asked.

“Oh, do you like the new doorman? One of ours… the manager of the building couldn’t refuse our replacement after his staff suddenly all quit. His name Ramon, he’s nice but a little weird to me.” Francis laughed amusing himself with the scheme. Charlie didn’t say anything back. He just stood there waiting for me to come back down. I peeked down over my railing looking at him before grabbing everything I thought I’d need.

As soon as I could, I texted Jason asking him if he was ok. No response. I put my head down and took a deep breath. I slowly walked past Charlie without looking at him this time. I got focused on where I’m about to go and who I was about to see. Together we walked towards the elevator when all of sudden Francis stopped mid step. He made both me and Charlie abruptly stop with him. Francis stuck his finger in his ear then stirred around like he was confused by something. “Victor! What in the hell is all that noise?! It’s killing the inside of my ear!” He screamed. That’s when I realized he communicated with his brother through a ear piece. Like the kind the covert operatives would wear in the field, some straight hard to come by, spy shit… “Victor answer me dammit!” Francis turned around and stormed towards the windows. He looked up at the building next door. “Victor? What the fuck?”

Charlie slowly grabbed my arm startling me and pulled me towards the kitchen. “We have to get out of here.” He whispered in my ear. We turned our attention back towards Francis before tip toeing away.

He began screaming and swinging his arms in the air, “What? What did you say? Victor isn’t here anymore… Do you know who you’re fucking with?! If you did something to my brother, I will fucking kill you piece of shit! Fuck you!”

Seconds later, a bullet went through the windows hitting Francis in the forehead. His blood splattered all over my wooden floors to the carpet. The back of his head was completely blown out in pieces oozing brains and skull matter in the pool of blood coming from his body. Charlie and I quickly dashed into the kitchen and hid behind the island counter. There were two small rectangular windows in my kitchen and one led to the fire escape. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go straight there without being picked off by this new mystery assassin.

Getting to that fire escape was our hope of surviving this… The sniper took aimless shots through the kitchen trying to hit us on blindly. The opening to the kitchen faced the windows however the countertops were high enough for us to closer to the refrigerator. “If we can get the refrigerator door opened, we might have a chance to reach the window.” I explained. “The thing is how are we going to get it opened?”

Charlie quickly peeked over the side and returned back to me. There was a pause in the shooting and this could be our opportunity to make a move. “I’ll be the distraction while you get to the fire escape.” At first, I didn’t agree but he interrupted saying, “Don’t argue with me, you need to get out alive. I’m sorry for lying to you about Consuelo but I wasn’t going to let him hurt you.”

I tried to get something out, “Charlie, I…” but it was too late. He crawled around the corner making himself barely visible if the sniper was paying attention. He kept teasing the idea of being a clear shot while I crawled to the refrigerator to open one of the doors. Every time Charlie moved around the kitchen, I was expecting the sniper to take a shot but he never did. Maybe the sniper gave up on trying to blindly kill us… It couldn’t be that easy.

After I managed to get the door opened from kneeling on the floor. I dashed the window, unlocked it and stepped on the metal stairs. I made it down to the second floor before looking up to see if Charlie was coming. He was just climbing out of the window one leg at a time. It seemed like we were actually going to escape from the third, I mean fourth, attempt on our lives when all of sudden BOOM! My apartment exploded just over our heads. I held on to the rails as tightly as I could but the force of the blast was too strong. Then another blast went off again, BOOM! Glass flew all over us knocking me off the stairs down to a pile of garbage bags. That shit hurt like hell…

I rolled over the garbage bags on the ground of the ally way. I pulled out pieces of glass from my arm and right side. Charlie came dashing down the stairs then quickly ran to me. I groaned a few more times before screaming out, “What the fuck just happened?!” I started sobbing, tears rolling down the side of my face as I watched my home get engulfed in flames. “My place, my stuff… I have truly lost everything.”

Charlie picked me up from the ground and threw my arm around his neck. “Not everything… you’re still alive, right? And you have me. It was fucking RPG… as I was escaping, I could see the motherfucker standing up to position himself. That’s why I damn near throw myself down the stairs.”

We looked at one another then up my burning loft. Again we heard fire trucks coming our way and had to make an exit. When we reached the end of the ally way a man dressed in all black with a mask came from behind us and punched Charlie in face with the butt of the gun. It knocked him instantly… I stood there looking down at him shocked then slowly turned my attention back to masked man. He held up a pair of handcuffs and said, “Put these on.” I wasn’t moving fast enough so he pointed the gun at me and said it again, “Put on the damn handcuffs.” The fire trucks were coming down the road when I grabbed the handcuffs and cuffed them to my wrists. The masked man grabbed my arm and escorted me to a small beat up car.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked but he didn’t say anything. He slowly started to drive away as I looked down at Charlie who was laid out on the sidewalk. “Answer me asshole! You won’t get away with this!”

He took off his mask and looked at me in the rear view mirror. At first, I didn’t recognize him until we went under a streetlight and I could see his whole face. It was Sean Wayne, my father’s ex partner. My father’s murderer… “We’ll see about that.”