Chapter Five

          PARTICIPATING IN ANOTHER CRIME WAS SOMETHING SHE HAD REFUSED TO DO AND INSTEAD SHE HAD GONE TO WORK. Lucy always picked up an extra few hours here and there when she wanted to avoid something without a valid excuse, work seemed like a good one. Lucy felt bad enough about the robbery as is, so robbing an innocent elderly lady to get enough cash to pay back the gang didn't sit right with her. 

Perhaps she deserved to get murdered by them for having committed such a crime.

"It's Boomer's grandmother." said Annie over the phone as Lucy entered her apartment building around ten. 

"And that makes it better?" wondered the brunette as she pulled at the skin around her thumb while making her way up the steps that lead to the third floor. "There must be some other way we can fix this?"

"There is no other way." sighed the blonde on the other end of the line. "It's either this or our imminent death tomorrow."

"Fine." muttered Lucy as she walked passed her neighbours front door, lowering her voice as she went up the last pair of stairs. "I'll see if I can get my pay check two weeks early, but I will not be involved in this."

"Yeah, yeah, goody two shoes. Just meet us as Beth's tomorrow." dismissed Annie as she ended the call.

"Fucking bitch." Was all she said as she fished her keys from her pocket.

Lucy lowered her brows when she went to put her keys in the lock and the door swayed open ever so slightly, as if it had never been locked at all. The first thing Lucy did was glance behind her, expecting to get pushed inside by god knows who, but she was alone. 

The woman gave the door a slight nudge with her foot and it creaked open but she did not enter.

The lights were off and it was dead silent. Lucy slid her key through her knuckles like she did when she had to take the bus at night and flicked on the light besides the door. Her heart was hammering against her ribcage as she glanced around the apartment, but nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary.

There was no vandalism, no furniture moved but Lucy felt uneasy as she took a single step inside.

"I have a gun," she called, glancing towards her darkened hallway. "and I won't hesitate to shoot."

It was quiet for another moment and Lucy lowered her bag to the ground as she stood in her open doorway with her scrubs on. Her thumb hovered over her call button as she contemplated calling one of her friends, but they wouldn't be able to reach her in time.

There was no answer and she took a few more steps into her apartment to peer into the hallway. It took her a good twenty minutes to scope out every room but it was empty apart from herself. Lucy locked her front door and slid a chair in front of it, just in case. Nothing was stolen, not even the hundred and twenty five grand she had hidden away. 

The only thing that had been different was the fact there was another letter near her coffee table, as if someone had forcefully slid it underneath her door. 

The brunette crouched down to grab it, closing her eyes in frustration. She'd get one or two a month and she hadn't read one for quite some time. The words on paper were creeping her out, and as long as she ignored them they didn't exist. The sentences were always vile and explicit. Lucy ripped the note in pieces as she sat on the floor.

Yeah, she definitely needed to get the hell out of there as quickly as she could. He had been in her apartment, she just knew it. He had been in her apartment before, but only when she was at home and he had claimed he needed to fix something. She had let him, he was her landlord after all, but this? This made her feel dirty.

The letters never had any threats to them, so the cops didn't do anything but warn him. The first thing she was going to do the next day was get her locks changed.

✧✧✧✧✧

         THE WOMAN HAD BARELY CLOSED HER EYES DURING THE NIGHT, LISTENING TO EVERY SINGLE SOUND THAT ECHOED THROUGH THE APARTMENT COMPLEX. Nothing happened, no one was at her door and her locks got changed at nine am. Lucy had sat in her car, a few houses down from where Beth lived with a hundred and twenty-five grand in the passenger seat. 

The woman hadn't wanted to enter and meet what could be her own death, but the closer it got their arrival time she found that she had no choice. It was either get it over with or have them find her when she wouldn't be expecting it.

Which is why she now leaned against the wall in her friends home as the man with the little bird tattoo underneath his eye counted all the cash on the table.

Her eyes followed his movements but he counted too fast for her to do the same, even if Annie had reassured her that they had covered the rest of what they owed. Her eyes flicked towards him and she immediately averted her gaze when she noticed that his eyes were already on her.

Lucy took a slow and deep breath through her nose while crossing her arms over her chest. The man who had counted the money looked back at him and shook his head once. 

He pursed his lips and cocked his head to the side before sauntering towards the table where the three woman sat. He didn't glance at Lucy this time, who stood only a few feet away from them. "You're short."

"No, we're not." said Annie.

"Yeah, you are."

"Actually ... we're over." The blonde leaned down and got an old shoe box from the ground, placing it on the table in front of them as she opened it. "See, these are super rare collectibles."

Fucking idiots.

"Treasures." added Beth as her sister placed four figurines from the box on the table. Annie hummed in agreement at that and said, "That's a better word for these, because these are super rare treasures and they go for ten to fifteen G's on eBay. How much leg work is there, right? But the truth is, it's very little. Because we have done the lions's share of the work for you. Ruby?"

The mother of two slid a piece of paper towards him and said, "These are the usernames and passwords for our eBay accounts. Plus auction tips to maximise your profits."

Lucy had her brows furrowed and it was then that he looked at her again, seeing the utter confusion on her face but she wouldn't meet his gaze. "You want me to sell your dolls?"

"Tell him about Hans." said Beth.

"Ooh, our little drummer boy. The pride of Hamburg." grinned Annie, grabbing the figurine and sliding it towards him. He leaned forwards, resting his elbows on the table as he grabbed it, grey hood of his hoodie sliding lower. He looked at Annie with mock interest as she continued to explain. "You see, Hans here, is one of only twelve in the entire -"

Lucy almost bumped her head against the wall in fright as he grabbed the doll and smashed it to pieces on the table. He took a slow breath before covering his mouth with his hand in anger. "This some kind of joke to you? I'm done playing with you guys."

The brunette completely pressed herself against the wall as the three men he brought began to vandalise the home. Glass flew through the room, cabinets were broken and all they could do was watch. The sound made her flinch and she half expected to get thrown through the room too but one of them simply walked passed her to break something else.

"What are they doing?" panicked Annie, eyes wide as she leaned into Ruby. "They're breaking everything."

The man with the eagle tattoo leaned against the back of the couch, on his phone and unbothered.

"Making it look like a home invasion." cried Ruby, following them around with her eyes.

"So they can kills us?" Beth flinched as more glass broke.

"Wait!" cried Annie desperately. "Please, wait! We can get you the money! I swear! We can still get it!"

Lucy watched the man who had counted the money slide a silencer on his silver gun. There was no point in begging and she felt her heart sink to her gut. Tears formed beneath her eyes and if she blinked they would drip down onto her cheeks. Her gaze slid towards the man on his phone as the gun was pressed against her temple. 

Annie shrieked in fear, Beth was shaking in her seat and Ruby was crying as she held onto the youngest of them. "Please don't!"

He never look up and the room fell silent, apart from the sound of her friends crying. Lucy kept her head held high and her gaze never averted from his frame. 

"Do it." she muttered, voice barely audible and she didn't even know if he had heard her. "Do it and see what happens."

He kept texting.

"Blow our brains out." continued Lucy, feeling the coldness of the weapon on her skin. "That's how it works, right? Someone shorts you and they get tossed out like trash? No one cares. No one even notices. But have you seen this neighbourhood? Have you seen the people that live here? You won't be able to clean this up."

He lifted his head and met her gaze as a tear fell down her cheek.

"When bad things happen here, everyone will go crazy." she said, clenching her jaw as his lips quirked upwards. "All over the news. They'll never stop looking for you. If you want to invite that kind of attention over a few grand, be my guest. Not such a smart business man I guess." 

He narrowed his eyes ever so slightly, but she could see the amusement swimming behind them. He barely moved as he looked towards the man holding the gun and shook his head once.

Once the metal lifted from her skin, Lucy managed to release a breath in relief but she kept her gaze on him nonetheless.

"Oh my god." cried Annie as she closed her eyes.

He shot her a barely noticeable grin and got to his feet, leaving through the front door with his three men in tow. All Lucy could do was watch them leave with her heart thundering against her chest.

"What the fuck just happened?" sniffed Beth, snapping her gaze up toward her friend.

and another chapter done, hope you enjoyed this one. i'm going to focus it more and rio and lucy from now on and hope i'll do it justice.  I'll still follow the rest of the first season but i am not really going to focus it on the journey of the girls but more lucy's own journey. thanks for the votes and comments so far <3