luckie street

chapter 12 »

Within the next hour, Riley and Randy were exchanging histories and theories and glances and smiles. As time increased, so did compatibility. Randy would laugh or smile and Riley would swoon when he wasn't looking. Riley would make a joke or fix her hair and Randy would find his heart rate rising and falling irregularly.

As she finished telling him about how she met Vicenzo, Randy sighed.

"He's a good guy, he really is--I love him more than myself, he's just tripped up along the way, you know? He does all this to keep his family in Italy afloat. Whenever he has a girlfriend, and that's rarely, he really goes all out for her...I know what you might be thinking. Why would he bring me around this if he supposedly cares? Vin's just really open, not negligent. Sure, he self-medicates, but on this godforsaken planet do you know that doesn't?" Randy finished, keeping his eyes locked on the coffee table his feet were propped up on.

Riley felt bad instantly. Here she was, sending mixed signals to Vincenzo's best friend while he was out there doing the most selfish thing for the most selfless reason. Her eyes never lifted from the ground until Randy's cell phone began to ring.

Speak of the devil. "What's up man?"

Vincenzo's muted voice sounded panicked. Randy's face dropped, and he sprung off the couch and ran to the back of the apartment in seconds. Riley stood.

"Get in here!" Randy shouted with force.

She raced to his side in a bedroom to find him kneeled in front of the closet.

"Fill these bags with every kilo you can fit." He handed her two brown duffel bags that were half as long as she was.

Riley immediately began working on emptying the closet full of cocaine and marijuana as Randy ran into the other bedroom with two more bags. She shook the brown boxes full of tightly wrapped bricks of snow and grass above the bag urgently. There wasn't time to think about how overwhelming the unknown situation was, she had to help.

After she was done, she dragged the heavy bags across the floor and into the living room where three other bags sat. Randy appeared beside her and looked at her purse.

"You mind?" He asked.

Riley shook her head and Randy put the one remaining brick of cocaine in her sling bag. He began leaving with duffel bags and loading them into his truck. Riley followed. After he loaded the last one into his tail bed, he pulled the protective cover over the five sacks carrying over $441,700 worth of drugs to conceal them.

"Get in." He said shortly before putting himself behind the wheel.

Riley did as she was told. Her head spun. Something was very, very wrong. It was then that she remembered Vincenzo's alarmed tone. Her breath caught.

"Is he okay?"

Randy kept silent. He backed out of the parking lot and headed for the main road.

"Wait, what about my car?"

"They won't recognize it. You'll be fine." He quickly spun out onto the road and floored the gas.

"They?"

He began to get annoyed. "We're in trouble. Look, look at me, you're safe with me. Not on your own, not when you've become a target. I know you're confused, I know. Just lay off the interrogation, you'll be fine. We're just leaving for a minute."

Riley sat back and exhaled heavily to hold back her tears of frustration. They wouldn't have moved the whole supply into the truck if they had the intention of coming back any time soon. It was clear he wasn't taking her back to her place. It was clear that she wasn't going to be apart of the regular routine of going to college and work and balancing sociablility. It was clear that everything as she knew it was changing drastically.

They were on the run.