Tears of the Dragon by Kaitlyn O'Connor

Chapter One
    Lennie nudged his partner. “That’s her,
comin’ down the steps.”
    “ Which one?” Tony peered through the
gathering gloom.
    Lennie glared at him. “The dame, ya
moron.”
    “ My eyes ain’t so good after dark,”
Tony said sulkily. “An’ anyway, she was behind the hulking giant
there. I thought you was talkin’ ‘bout one of them dames over there
by the sidewalk.”
    “ Them’s workin’ girls, numb nuts. Just
get the damned trunk open,” Lennie growled, crawling out of the car
as the petite redhead reached the sidewalk, bid the man who was
with her good evening and turned in their direction.
    She was a pretty little thing, Lennie
thought as she came closer and he was able to make out her features
… delicate … like one of them china dolls, but with curves in all
the right places. It was a pure waste to whack a dame that looked
that good. He didn’t like doing dames anyway. It offended him,
almost as bad as having to whack a kid. He wondered what she’d done
to tick his boss off.
    Shrugging it off, he stepped away from
the car when she came abreast of him. “S’cuse me, ma’am? I wonder
if you could point me in the direction of
110 th street?”
    The woman paused, looked him over
curiously. “This is 110 th ,”
she said in surprise.
    He looked around, saw no one was looking in
their direction and grabbed her, covering her mouth with his hand
as he hauled her off her feet and moved to the trunk of the car,
which was open and waiting, Tony nervously fingering the lid.
    The woman, Lennie noticed, had gone limp in
his arms the moment he’d grabbed her. He wasn’t falling for that
one though. Dropping her into the trunk, he stuffed a gag in her
mouth, tied it with quick efficiency, and trussed her like a
Thanksgiving turkey. The whole job took less than five minutes, but
Tony looked like he was going to pee on himself as he danced around
the rear of the car.
    “ You need to take a leak, or what?”
Lennie snarled as he slammed the trunk lid.
    “ I don’t like grabbin’ her right here
in the street. No tellin’ who might’ve seen it. We shoulda waited,
like I said, till she was close to an alley.”
    Lennie gave him a look. “Get in the car,
moron. She don’t walk by no alley. She catches a cab at the corner
and hits for home. I been watchin’ her for a week.”
    “ What’er we gonna do now?” Tony asked
nervously, once they were settled in the car again.
    “ We go to the docks. Where
else?”
    “ What ya got in mind?”
    “ Somethin’ quiet. I figured we could
tie a brick to her or somethin’ and pitch her over the side. Boss
didn’t say to get rid of the body, but he likes things tidy, so I
figure he’ll be happier if we don’t leave it layin’
around.”
    “ She sure is pretty,” Tony said
wistfully.
    “ Yeah? And how would you know? You
didn’t even know which dame I was talkin’ about.”
    “ Think we got time to get a little
honey before we snuff her?”
    Lennie gave him a look. “Hey! She’s a lady.
Didn’t your mudder teach you no manners? You don’t get fresh with
ladies.”
    Tony gaped at him. “But … but … we’re gonna
snuff the dame!”
    “ That’s different. It ain’t personal.
We’re just doin’ our job here. An’ our job ain’t about rapin’ and
pilagin’. It’s about makin’ the boss’s problems disappear. Besides,
foolin’ around is dangerous.” He shook his head. “We off her. We
tie an anchor to her and we ditch her.”
    * * * *
    Khalia Peterson couldn’t decide whether the
discussion, which was perfectly audible to her in the trunk, was
intended to scare her or if they didn’t realize, or didn’t care,
that she could hear them.
    She was irritated, regardless.
She was a lady. They had no
business manhandling her in such a way. They’d ruined her coiffure!
Her suit was probably ruined, as well, and she’d just bought it the
week before. The trunk stank of chemicals and the lord only knew
what else.
    What really