Learning to Live, Again

Chapter Thirty-three

???

"She's what?"

"I- in c-custody, s-sir." Jeremy cowered to the ground, his heart racing in his chest. The Boss smiled at his fear, reveling in it. Everyone, strong or weak, cowered to him eventually.

The man.. The Boss, as he was called, sat up in his chair, his jaw clenched with anger. "Well.. looks like we'll have to kill her. Tell Charlene-"

"Boss?"

"What?" 

Jeremy flinched, swallowing slowly. He was obviously terrified, and the Boss just hoped he didn't soil himself on the new carpet. "Addaline turned Charlene in.. she's going to turn us all in."

The Boss leaned back in his chair, his deep voice reverberating around the room. He laughed for what felt to Jeremy like six years. "She won't get the chance once I'm through with her.. I want you to ask to see your adulterous girlfriend, and I want you to shoot her."

"But.. then I'D be in jail, Sir."

The Boss stood up, screaming over his desk. "Do I look like I care? You'll do this, or so help me God, there will be worse things happening to you than whether or not you go to jail!"

Jeremy cowered in front of the Boss, not daring to argue with him. "Yes, Sir..."

~~~~~

Addaline

She sat in the interrogation room, the cold air touching her bare arms and creating goosebumps. She shivered from the cold, her teeth chattering a little. She knew they did this to make the suspects uncomfortable, but she wondered quietly if this bordered on inhuman.

After all, she may be a suspect, but she was a pregnant suspect. She should get some sort of special treatment, right? She ran her hands up her biceps, trying to create some kind of warmth. 

The door opened with a loud bang, making her jump. Kobe walked into the room carrying two cups of coffee. He sat down at the table, pushing the warm cup towards her. As much as she wanted to down it, she couldn't be sure Charlene, the lady cop the Boss had wrapped around his finger, hadn't spiked it with poison.

She shook her head. 

"What, you don't like coffee," Kobe asked.

Addaline smiled softly. "Quite the opposite, really. I'm obsessed with it.. but I'm pregnant, and I can't have coffee."

Kobe nods. "Oh, well, my apologies. Let me get you some wa-" 

Addaline reaches over and grabs Kobe's arm softly. "I'm fine," she says, retracting her hand quickly. "Really.. I just want to get this over with..."

Kobe nods, sitting back down. He folds his hands in front of him. "Who is the man you called 'The Boss'? Where is he hiding?"

"I don't know the answers to those questions.. We call him the Boss, and he meets us at our homes..."

Scowling, Kobe folded his hands. "Alright.. when does he usually visit you?"

"I don't know the answer to that either.. it's random. Completely and truly random." Addaline worried her bottom lip, sighing. The Boss came whenever the boss needed something or something.. Addaline could never be sure when or where he'd turn up, meaning Addaline had to be on the lookout. He could show up here at any second.. She shivered more from fear than the cold. He could be sending someone down here this very moment.

"Okay," Kobe sighed, obviously annoyed now. "What can you tell me?"

She sighed as well. "He sends a disposable phone in the mail.. he knows everything. He probably knows I'm here right now, and my life's in danger. He's been at this for longer than I've been alive... He made Jeremy take Niamh.. He had Clarice Jones, Rosalie Fischer's mother, killed, and he made her husband do it.."