loyalty | s. scola

- SEVEN

DOWES APARTMENT BUILDING.
APARTMENT 306.
OCTOBER 4TH, 2019
3:46PM.

Her leg is shaking.

It has been since she got the text this morning. Even standing still, it's moving at the speed of light, noticeable enough that the man sharing the elevator with her keeps glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, she runs a hand through her hair, feeling more out of place than she has in a long time. In a dingy neighborhood, the complex was sandwiched between a convenience store and a deli, and despite having been there more than a handful of times over the years, she feels like a foreigner. A stranger in a strange land.

The door open up and she's grateful that the man next to her wasn't also getting out at this stop. She ducks out of the elevator, rolling her shoulders and blowing out a breath. She doesn't know why she's so nervous; it's just Riley. She's known Riley for years. She stops in front of his door, her hand poised to knock, but just before her fists could make contact with the door, it swings open, revealing Riley standing there, a joint between his teeth, a drink in one hand, and a grin on his face.

"Bella!" He greeted. "It's good to see you."

Isa hums, stepping into the room. They're the only two there, so she takes a seat on the couch, trying her best not to seem as nervous as she feels. In all the years they've known each other, in all the years that they've been working together, there's never been an instance where she's lost what she's been carrying. Riley takes a draw of the joint, "How is my favorite girl?"

He extended the joint to her, drowning the rest of his drink, and she took it, bring it to her lips and taking a draw. "I'm your only girl, Riley."

"Ouch," he laughed, taking a seat on the arm of the chair. She crossed her leg over her other one, "What did you need to see me about?"

Her first thought had been that he knew, but there's no way that he knew. She hadn't seen anyone yet, and she'd gone straight to her sister when she got to town. Still, the entire phone call this morning had made her paranoid.

Riley shrugs, thin lips curling into a mean grin. Riley is tall and lanky, with pitch black hair and pale skin, dark eyes and a mean disposition. He's a scumbag, someone who, had she not known him, would give her the creeps. He's the type of person that her sister would want nowhere near her, and it's that fact that brought them together. It had mostly been Isa's decision, to befriend him out of spite for her sister.

He shrugs, standing and walking over to the kitchen. He takes two beers out of the fridge, twists the caps off, and leaves them on the stained counter top. He glances over his shoulder, and finds Isa occupied with his cat, and he takes a small baggie out of his pocket. He drops the pill inside of it into her beer and waits for it to dissolve, before he takes it and turns back to her. He holds the beer out for her, and Isa looks at it, hesitating.

Alarm bells are ringing in her head, and her sister's voice is telling her to stand up and leave. Something is off; sure, she's known Riley for years, and they're friends, but not the type of friends that hang out. Isa doesn't know what it is, but her stomach churns with nerves as she takes the beer out of his hand slowly.

"What, I can't just want to see you?"

"Not usually, no."

She doesn't drink any of it yet, just keeps the cold bottle on her knee. The condensation is running down the glass and staining a circle onto her black jeans. Riley sits down next to her, "You know, Isa, I heard the funniest story the other night."

"Yeah?" Bile rises in the back of her throat. "What was it?"

"An old buddy of mine came to me and told me that you," he taps her arm with his bottle, an edge to both his voice and the look in his eyes, "lost all of the product that I gave you."

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, she thinks. Despite the churning in her stomach and the panic building in her head, she shrugs, head tilting as she took a swig from the bottle, putting out the finished joint in the ashtray on the coffee table in front of her. "That so?"

He nods, "Yeah, it is." He moves from the arm of the chair to the spot next to her, and says, "I didn't believe him, you know why?" she turns to him slightly, biting the inside of her cheek as he uses his bottle to brush the hair out of her face.

"Why?" she whispers, voice feather light and wavering. Something nasty blooms in his gaze and she knows that it doesn't matter what lie she tries to spin, he already knows what happened that night.

"Because," he said, "Isabella Reyes is my best girl. She's never let me down."

Something visceral curls in her stomach as he leans even closer. She searches the room, looking for anything that she can use should she need to get out of here in a hurry. She eyes the ashtray on the table, leaning back when she feels the condensation of his beer bottle against her next. There's not other sound in the room other than the hushed audio of whatever game show is playing on the television. Roughly, he grips her chin, turning her face so that he can look at the black eye hidden poorly under her makeup. It's healing, but it's still visible.

She swallows roughly, "Well, he, uh," she wets her lips, face going soft as she looked at him, "He lied."

It's a lie. He knows that it's a lie, and she knows that he knows it is.

"Did he?"

She nodded, hand coming up to touch his shirt. She tries not to let the fear curdling the blood in her veins show as she said, "You know me, Riles. I'd never do that to you."

Riley nods, eyes flying all over her face. He relaxes, leaning back, for a beat, she thinks that he believes her. She blinks, her mouth dry. She coughs slightly, confused as the voices on the television fade as if she were underwater. She glances over at the thing, but she finds that she can't see more than a few inches in front of her. The room is blurry, and the feel of the bottle in her hands loosen. She glances back to Riley, her stomach sinking when she realizes that he drugged her.

"Riley?" she asks, quiet and scared. "What did-?"

With a cut off choking sound, Riley's spindly hand encloses around her throat. The bottle falls from her hand, spilling its contents on the hardwood floor. He puts his beer on the table, kneeling over her with a malicious look in his eyes. Isa's hands fly to his chest, but she misses her mark, her palm slamming down onto his shoulder.

He tilts her head back, leaning her back as he looks her up and down with a low laugh. "I didn't believe him," he said, watching her eyes flutter and her hands flail, trying to grab onto anything she can get purchase on, "Until he showed me the video of the product that you lost. Specifically, a video of someone from Ten's crew stealing it out of your car."

Isabella's nails scrape against the back of his hand, tearing the skin and drawing blood as he choked her. Her fighting slowly, the drug in her system running its course.

Riley hummed, "Maybe that wouldn't have been your fault if you had told me right away. Instead, you waited a week! Said you sold it all."

Under him, her eyes flutter shut, her fighting stopping completely. He leans back, letting go of her neck. He frowns, gently pushing her hair of her face. Riley might be a criminal, but he is also human. He's known Isa for years, and he's sweet on her. He doesn't want to do this, but he has business to run, and even his best girl will not get in the way of that. He gently ran his knuckles along her chin.

"Oh, Isa. You're my best girl," he whispers, leaning down to press a kiss to her forehead. "Why did you have to lie?"