Joey drummed her fingers on the steering wheel and checked her phone for the twelfth time in five minutes. She had been on time to the pick-up location, but Pearce's men certainly were not.
She had been waiting for almost fifteen minutes and was about to leave when she heard a car door slam somewhere not far off. Joey's phone buzzed and she glanced down to see she had a new text from Pearce: what's the hold up? Suddenly, the passenger and two back doors opened and three men got in her car. All of them were dressed in black and all were wearing masks.
"You're late." Joey said.
The man in the passenger's seat looked at her briefly. Then at lightning speed, he reached out and grabbed Joey's wrist. She grunted as his iron grip closed. She felt a few blood vessels pop. "You work around our schedule. Not the other way around." He shoved Joey's arm back toward her.
She took a breath and grabbed the wheel with both hands. "Where to?"
"The building is at 300 south Main." The man in the passenger's seat responded. He checked how many clips he had for his handgun. Joey watched him through the corner of her eye. "But there's an alley behind it that you'll pull into. Wait for us there. It won't take more than 15 minutes."
"Ay ay, Captain." Joey muttered to herself as she started the car and drove away.
The twenty minutes it took to reach the location passed in almost complete silence. At one point, the two men in the back seat briefly exchanged a few words in what Joey thought was Czech, but they, too, fell silent after a few minutes.
When Joey finally pulled into the poorly-lit alley behind 300 South Main, it had started to sprinkle. The two men in the back exited the car without a word, one hoisting a heavy duffle bag with him. The man in the passenger's seat opened his door.
"Leave the car running." He slammed the door and followed his companions into the back of a large brick building. Joey turned the car's lights off.
She leaned her head back in her seat and rubbed her wrist tenderly. She then unlocked her phone to reply to Pearce's earlier text. Slight hold up. Everything's fine. A car drove past on the main road behind her, and Joey glanced in her rear-view mirror warily.
It began raining in earnest and Joey closed her eyes, allowing the soothing sound of rain hitting the pavement wash over her.
There was something about the early hours of the morning that made time slow down, and what felt like hours later, the three masked men returned to Joey's car. When all the doors had shut, Joey turned the car's lights and wipers on and carefully backed out of the alley.
"Drop us off at the park." The man in the passenger's seat demanded.
Joey carefully maneuvered the slick streets until she reached the usual drop-off spot of a small park a couple blocks from the downtown area. When the car pulled up to the curb away from any street lamps, the three men got out of the car and slammed the doors shut without looking back.
"You're welcome." Joey said quietly to her empty car. She turned and watched the men get consumed by the dark night before shifting her car back into drive and heading home.
Once at her building, Joey wearily climbed the three floors to her apartment. As she unlocked her door, her neighbor across the hall cracked the door open.
"Joey?"
Joey turned to find the warm face of an elderly women blinking out at her. "Hi Mrs. Callister. Sorry if I woke you. I just got home."
"A bit late, isn't it?" Mrs. Callister inquired with a smile.
Joey grinned. "Oh well you know, justice doesn't have a punch card. We come when it calls."
Mrs. Callister chuckled softly. "I'm glad you made it back okay. Have a good night sweetie."
"You, too, Mrs. Callister." Joey replied as her neighbor quietly closed her door.
Joey pushed her way into her apartment and softly shut and locked the door behind her. She dropped her bag at her feet. She could hardly keep her eyes open. Her legs felt like lead as she made her way to the kitchen to grab a piece of leftover pizza from the fridge. Not bothering to heat it up, Joey headed to her bedroom, wondering if she would be able to stay awake long enough to take a much-needed shower.
Deciding against it, Joey pulled off her shoes and opened her drawer to get more comfortable clothes out. Her phone buzzed and Joey read the message from Pearce. Nice work tonight, agent. Joey groaned as her eyes flickered to her alarm clock. It was past three in the morning.
As she brushed her teeth, Joey checked her wrist. There was already slight purpling where Pearce's man had grabbed her. She felt a wave of fury and spat angrily into the sink. She made her way back to her bed. How dare Pearce use her like that? How dare he manipulate her into doing his dirty work?
As Joey leaned over to turn off her lamp, she caught sight of the framed picture of her and her father that sat next to her alarm clock. Her anger instantly subsided and Joey was filled with love mingled with concern.
With a final sight, Joey switched her lamp off and fell back onto her pillows, letting sleep overtake her.