Barely Legal

42

Ollie the Ox reached the top floor. He was pissed, and Carlo was nervous. It was not good to piss off Ollie the Ox.

“Which door?” Ollie said.

“There’s only one,” Carlo said.

“There’s two.”

“One is the front door, one is the kitchen door.”

“Not hungry,” Ollie said. He went to the front door and rang the bell.

Yvette had barely gotten off the phone with the front desk when the doorbell rang. How could Donnie be so fast? The doorman must have sent him up while he was calling. She would have to ask Herbie to speak to him about that. He should wait for approval before sending anyone up.

She flung the door open, stopped, and gasped.

Two goons stood in the doorway. They looked as startled to see her as she was to see them.

The big one just said, “Huh?” but the other one registered recognition.

“Hey, it’s her!” Carlo said.

Ollie the Ox said, “Oh.” It took a few moments for his brain to wrap itself around the concept. He reached under his coat, pulled out a pistol.

Yvette gawked.

The silencer screwed onto the barrel made it look as long as a blowpipe, so at first she didn’t realize what it was. It was only at the last second, before the shot fired, that her face registered fear. Within seconds her eyes rolled back, she sank to the floor, and everything went dark.