Road to Darkness by Tim Miller

enjoy it,” he said as he walked toward the bedroom. The past night’s events almost seemed a distant haze at this point. The fact that he’d killed two police officers in cold blood and Benito’s man, it felt like some weird dream. As distressing as it was at the time, it was barely an afterthought by now.
         “Where are you going? We need to talk about this!”
         “I’m going to bed. It was a long night.”
     

Chapter 14
     
         Tony arrived at Ramos the following morning. Kim was already at work and had taken Taylor to daycare by the time he woke up. Slade was there when he came into the office. Domingo was standing next to him.
         “So what’s going on?” Tony asked.
         “So despite all that chaos the other night, you did a good job. I know I wasn’t happy about you killing Benito’s guy. Not thrilled about you killing two cops for that matter, it was all over the news.”
         A lump settled in Tony’s stomach. He was so worked up and exhausted the other night, it hadn’t even registered to him they’d be on a manhunt for a cop killer. That was sure one title he never thought would apply to him.
         “Do they have any suspects?”
         “Doesn’t sound like it. You did good, took the camera and everything.”
         “Yeah, it all happened so fast. I just didn’t want to go to prison ,” Tony said.
         “That’s good,” Slade said. “It’s that desire to stay alive and stay out of jail that will take you far in this business.”
         “I don’t want to go far in this business. I just want to make enough to take care of my family.”
         Slade began to laugh and stood.
         “You’ll make plenty. You have already. I called you here because I had a proposal for you. As you know, Jose is gone. He is the one who ratted you to the cops, and he’s been taken care of. Domingo will be helping me run things from here for the time being. You did so well on that run, you’re going to help me step up our operation.”
         “Step up how?”
         “Instead of one run a week, we’re going to do three a week. There’s a bit of a situation, and we need to make up some ground. It has nothing to do with you, you’ve done great. But you’re going to help me get things back on track.”
         “Three runs a week? The agreement was one ,” Tony said.
         “I’m changing the agreement. And you’re not gonna fight you way out of this one. Its three runs a week. Unfortunately the pay stays the same for now.”
         “What do you mean pay stays the same?”
         “It’s still twenty grand a week, but you’ll be doing three runs instead of one. Right now I can’t pay you any more, especially after the other night. It will cost a ton to clean all this shit up and keep the old man out of it.”
         “That sounds like your problem, not mine ,” Tony said.
         “Something you are going to learn really quickly man, is my problems are your problems. You got it? If the cops are messing with me, that is a problem for you. If the boss is unhappy with me, he’s unhappy with you. If the boss is unhappy, people get hurt. People you care about, and I don’t think you want that.”
         Tony considered this for a moment. Once again he was left without much choice. It was hard to believe just over a week ago he was answering phones in a call center. In that time he’d killed three men and was at the center of an elaborate human trafficking operation. The only good thing he could say was that it paid well.
         “I guess I don’t have much choice.”
         “Good.”
         “Tell Benito there will be no retaliation, retribution or so much as a word said about my last visit. I don’t want him or any of his goons to so much as lay a hand on me this time.”
         “You got it. Anything else?”
         “Nope, that’s it I guess.”
         “Good. Your first