Seventeen minutes early… Not bad for a first day.
After locking my SUV, I adjusted the strap of my bag and started toward the employee entrance. The garage was a little busy, just like I’d expected.
Everything felt... normal.
I hadn’t made it very far before a man’s voice echoed through the concrete structure.
“You think this shit is a game, mothafucka?”
My steps slowed before I even realized they had.
The voice came from somewhere farther inside the parking garage, hidden between rows of parked vehicles. I couldn't see who was talking, but judging by the tone, whoever they were, they weren't having a friendly conversation.
I glanced toward the entrance.
Keep walking, Milan.I told myself. Whatever they had going on wasn't my business.
I took another step before a second voice responded, calmer than the first, but no less dangerous. “Yeah, I do! And I been told ya’ll… fuck ya’ll!”
When he said that, there was a pause.
Against my better judgment, I looked toward the row of SUVs a few spaces over. All I could see were the tops of vehicles and an occasional shadow moving between them.
“Nigga think Vice ain’t gone find out the snake shit he did?” the second man, the calm one said.
Vice?I repeated to myself.
“I’m not covering this shit up for nobody.”
My brows pulled together when he added that.
Covering what up?I wondered.
The first man laughed, but it wasn’t a laugh that came from somebody enjoying themselves. It sounded more like a warning.
"You sure about that? You don’t want to keep this to yourself?"
"Nigga, I ain't scared of none of ya'll."
"You should be..."
The hairs on my arms stood up and every instinct I had told me to keep walking. Whatever was happening over there had absolutely nothing to do with me, and I had no business standing around listening.
I tightened my grip on my bag and turned toward the employee entrance. However, a gunshot ripped through the garage before I could take another step. The sound echoed through the parking garage so loudly my entire body jerked. For half a second, everything stood still.
Then another shot rang out…
Followed by another…
Screams erupted from somewhere behind me as people scattered in every direction. Someone yelled for security while another person dropped to the ground beside their car.
I spun around just in time to see a man stumble from between two black SUVs, one hand pressed tightly against his side as blood oozed through his fingers.
The nurse in me recognized it immediately. There was too much blood pouring to fast… I knew he wasn’t going to make it far.
He looked up and our eyes met. Fear, pain and desperation all wrapped in one flashed across his face before he started toward me, struggling to stay on his feet.
A man dressed in all black stepped out a second later with his gun still raised in his hand.