Gangland

Maya's feet hurt. She was sweaty, starving, and sore. The day from hell could finally be over and she couldn't wait.

Opening the door to her third floor apartment she smiled at the sound of nails scraping against her floors as her beautiful lab/boxer mix, Maxine, came barreling in to meet her mother.

"Maxie!" Maya squealed about to allow herself some much needed puppy hugs when she remembered the blood still on her. She turned her body as Maxine tried to jump up for a hug and avoided Max's excited welcome as she made a run for the bathroom. She felt bad shutting the door in Max's face, especially when Max let out a loud bark causing Maya to briskly say her name. Max quieted down but sat sniffing and whinging at the door.

"I'm sorry baby, just give me a minute." Maya stripped down and jumped in the shower. She usually enjoyed some music while in the shower but tonight she could barely summon the strength to wash herself.

When she felt she had rubbed her skin almost raw in the sweltering water she jumped out of the shower and declined clothes in favor of a towel.

The air conditioning was working in her unit now but there was no promise it would remain on through the night, and nothing was worse than waking up in the middle of the night covered in sweat.

Maya pulled two grape uncrustables from her fridge and scarfed them down in front of the fridge. She made sure Max was fed and had fresh water and a few good ear scratches for good measure. Then she went to her room and passed out seconds after hitting the pillow.

----------

The next morning Maya walked Max and smoked a fat blunt trying to put the craziness of yesterday out of her head before walking the 10 blocks to work. She worked in a bar called McKinney's which sat on the edge of downtown. It wasn't much to look at from the outside, but the worn wooden floors, the spots where the bar had been rundown due to the continuous stream of glass, hands, feet, who knows what else, as well as the faint green glitter that could never quite be cleaned all the way up from the yearly St. Patrick's day parties were all familiar, and familiar was a comfort. The strip the bar sat in was rundown and cold. It looked and felt almost industrial. Lots of brick and shale. Only two buildings where not white, the paint store on the other end, which was a deep blue, and the bar, which was a brown and red brick.

The wind threw trash left behind by other pedestrians and did its best to wrestle her hair from the bun that sat at the top of her head. Her dark-wash blue jeans, black shirt with the word slacker across the chest in white, and black Nikes blended in perfectly with the crowd of people shuffling past.

She had a no name cross body bag slung across her front. She kept her hand on it and the knife it contained. It wasn't that Maya lived in a bad neighborhood, it was more that the entire city was a giant cesspool that was corrupt down the the very foundations. There was no good or bad neighborhood in Jackson, there was only "you may make it out alive" and "oh God why would you ever go there? Are you out of your mind?" Maya's apartment sort of straddled the area in between the two areas. There were no real neutral territories in this gang run city, but this area came as close as they ever got. It was more expensive due to this. But more expensive does not mean better kept. She was lucky if something in her apartment didn't break every other week. Luckier if what was broken got fixed within the same month.

"Hiya, Sal." Maya called out to the big man standing behind the bar. McKinney's was open from 11 AM till 2 AM. While there was another bartender for nights, aside from Maya, Sal was the only one Maya had ever known to work in the mornings.

Maya stowed her bag in her designated locker in the employee section. She also let her hair down scrunching her hair to reform her curl and fluffing it it out so that she had big loose ringlets falling around her face and down her back. She used the hair tie to tie her tank around her back causing it to go from fairly loose to form fitting allowing mighty fine cleavage, if she did say so herself. What could Maya say? Her best tippers were men. She knew she was a pretty girl and she was not above using that.

After relieving Sal, Maya wiped down the counter she knew he already had. Wiping it down signified the start of her night and had been part of her ritual since getting the job three years ago.

There were a few people nursing drinks but at six it was still relatively early. The after work crowd would begin to roll in soon and that's when her work would really begin.

Maya sensed someone sitting at the bar in front of him. Catching a whiff of his cologne she leaned over a bit more than needed and arched her back so he could get a better look at the girls and get to see a peek of the round curve of her ass over her shoulder. She continued to wipe down the bar waiting for him to speak so she could act surprised and snap up so he didn't think she had been showing off the goodies on purpose.

"Nice tits."

Maya drooped in disappointment and looked up. Lenny. She used to go to him for weed, till she realized he had a nasty habit of lacing her stash with some of the harder stuff, unasked and unwanted. It made for a real nasty surprise. Last Maya had saw Lenny he'd been rolling on the ground right outside this bar when he tried to get rough with her for letting him she wouldn't be buying from him anymore. She'd kicked in the balls so hard it knocked her off balance and she ended up on the ground too. She'd taken the opportunity to hit him in the head with her bag and kick him in the head as she got up. One thing she knew was how to take care of some low level schmuck. He hadn't been back since, and that was six months ago.

"What?" Maya spit through her teeth

Lenny leered at her. "Anyway to speak to a paying customer?"

"You've never bought a single thing here in the entire time I've known you. Why are you here? It can't be for me. You know how that went. You better not be doing business here. Marco won't have it."

Marco was the owner of the bar. He had bought it from an Irish couple, hence the name and glitter, that had wanted to go back to Ireland. Marco kept a lot of the original traditions to keep established customers happy but make no mistake. Marco was very much Italian, and the mob reached very far. No, Marco wouldn't like Lenny doing Business, of any kind anywhere near his turf, let alone his own bar.

“Calm down, don't get your panties in a twist. Although I would like to see that.” Maya rolled her eyes as the leering got stronger. “And look, as a show of good faith, I'll even buy something. A beer. Whatevers on tap.”

“That'll be 10 dollars.” Maya deadpanned.

Lenny's leering quickly changed to a glare. “Bit steep wouldn't you say?”

“Well what can I say, we gotta make a living.”

Lenny's glare lasted the entire time he pulled the 10 from his wallet. He watched as she deposited 3.50 into the register and pocketed the rest. She set his drink in front of him and winked.

“Thanks for the tip,” she said before seeing to customers down the bar. For five hours she worked the bar until she finally was able to breath a sigh of relief as the crush died down. Maya kept a watchful eye on people to make sure they were enjoying the drinks. There were few things Maya took seriously, alcohol was one of them.

Maya realized that Lenny still sat in the same seat at the bar as he had five hours ago and was still nursing the same drink. Maya watched as he grimaced taking a small sip of the now warm beer. What small drinks must he have been taking in order for it to last this long. What was the point?

Maya narrowed her eyes and approached him. “Alright Lenny what the hell are you doing here? Why have you been sitting here for hours?”

Lenny smirked. “What's it too you? I'm a paying customer. How fast I drink or where I sit should mean nothing to you.”

Maya just barley kept herself from growling. “Look, I've had the worst past day. My car got repossessed, rent's due, and I'm pretty sure my dog has fleas. Not to mention the fact that some guy was shot and killed in front of me yesterday leaving me a murder suspect and without a reliable plug. The last bit of weed I smoked was this morning and now I'm a little irritated So do me a solid, and say whatever the fuck it is you came to say and go away.”

Lenny's smirk remained. “Heard about that. Real shame about Petey. His stash was never up to par but can't throw the whole man away for that.”

“His was better than yours. And he delivered.”

The smirk became brittle. “Word is it was hit. I mean it's a bit strange a run of the mill weed man would be shot through the back of the head like that.”

“Could've been a drive by or something. Anyway I don't know his life. He could've been into harder stuff.”

“Trust me, he wasn't. And a drive by? Please. Anyone else get shot? You even hear any other shots?”

Maya waved and inpatient hand, “Your point being?”

“Where do you think he got is stash? Weed man's gotta have a weed man right?”

Maya felt a chill go down her back. “What do you mean?”

Lenny's smirk stretched into a smile as he leaned forward on the bar in order to be heard by her and only her. “Word is Bambi's been having some trouble behind closed doors, creating a need to clean house. Starting with your weed man.”

The shiver turned into a full on shudder. Bambi. Leader of Los Pecadores, one of the gags running this town. He was not a man to trifled with f the rumors were true, and more often then not they are. She just wasn't sure what any of this had to do with her.

“What's this got to do with me?”

“Didn't think it was strange when the police gave you your drugs back?”

“How did you-”

“Or that they let you go at all?”

“What do you-”

“I mean it's all right there in front of you. You're just too dumb to see it.”

Maya reached across the bar and grabbed Lenny's shirt pulling him further over the bar than she would have been able to had he not already been leaning over it. As it was Maya had grabbed his shirt in such a way that it was constricting around his neck and chocking him out. He had been surprised by the move so it took him a second to get his bearings and smack her hand away. Maya waved away James, the security guy, who sat just inside the door. Maya knew he was a cousin of Marco's and she doubted he had come through any agency. She needed Lenny to talk not have his throat crushed under a size 15 shoe.

“Stop talking in circles Lenny and just spit it out.”

Lenny glared and growled out, “alright bitch,” he said rubbing his throat, “they got you out of jail and gave you all your crap back because they're making the whole situation disappear. Which means you gotta disappear. No drugs, no you in jail, no trace. Now they just gotta get rid of the last piece. You. And you, you dumb bitch, just go to work like nothing happened.”

Maya swallowed. “Why are you telling me this.”

He chuckled harshly. “Just wanted to see the look on your face when you realized you're about to die. They're coming for you and they will kill you, if they don't have some fun with you first. You've been marked.” He backed away from the bar toward the door. “Thanks for the drink.” He said winking at her she had done him. He went out the doors and Maya watched him through the windows until he disappeared.

Maya heard someone down the bar calling for her attention but she didn't so much as glance over. Maya knew last night was weird, but she had grown up here. She knew better than to ask questions or make a fuss. She thought she had followed the rules to a t, but she was playing a new game now. It still didn't make sense. Why sit and nurse one beer for five hours? Maya wasn't even sure he had gotten up to pee once. What would be the point . . . to watch her. To make sure she was where, whomever, needed her to be at the right time. Starting to panic Maya snapped out of it to look around frantically for the threat she now knew was as close as the clothes on her body.

She glanced outside again just in time to see the passenger and back passenger windows roll down on a black SUV, She had just enough time to register 'gun' before they opened fire on the bar.