Two days had passed since the heist and other than a few occasional texts here and there I had yet to hear from Michael, and to say I was concerned would be an understatement. Before the heist not an hour went by without some kind of contact from him whether it had to do with business or pleasure he always had something to say in a text or he would randomly show up on my doorstep but for two days now all I got was a text saying the money had been deposited in my account from Lester. I even responded to that message and never got a reply which left me so far down in the dumps I never thought I would get out. So I went to work like normal like nothing had happened, like I didn't currently have six figures in my bank account and slung beers to creepy drunks and hoped that maybe in the morning I would wake up to a text from him.
I left the bar at closing time and drug my tired ass up the stairs to my apartment which I never feared my safety at before until Michael suggested I find a new place to live after the heist, but here I was climbing the stairs alone at six in the morning with nothing more than my purse for protection. I fumbled with my keys to get inside my apartment and finally got the door unlocked after a couple tries of forcing the wrong key into the door. I flopped my purse down on the counter by the door, my usual spot and kicked my shoes off of my tired feet beside the door and headed towards my bedroom.
"I wouldn't move so fast now Lauren." I jumped as I heard the voice come from the other side of the dark room. "I've been waiting for you to get home for a while now." The voice said again as I quickly looked around the room to asses my options for weapons and quickly realizing that maybe the idea of owning a gun in this town wasn't that bad.
"Who are you and how the fuck did you get into my apartment?" I asked flipping the light on so I could see the shadowy figure better. I had never seen the man before in my life and here he was sitting on my couch, in my apartment, that I was sure I locked when I left home that night.
"I am a friend of a friend you could say, and this mutual friend of ours has gotten you involved with in a very bad operation." He said pouring himself a glass of the whiskey I kept on my table, pissing me off even more.
"Look, it is six in the morning, I've been on my feet all night, and in a crappy mood for two days now so if you're here to kill me just get it over with." I said falling back into the chair across from the couch where the man was sitting sipping on my whiskey, now laughing at what he thought was a joke.
"If you cooperate you won't have to die. You see this friend of ours hasn't been very honest with you about his past and now we are going to need him to bring you up to date on this information. So I'm going to need you to call this friend of ours or else I'm going to have to silence you for good."
"And whom may I say is calling?" I said with a smirk, staring death right in its face as I noticed the pistol on the mystery man's hip.
"The name is Dave Norton and I am going to need you to call our good friend Michael up and get him over here to ensure that our secret arrangement is safe, or else I am going to have to ensure our arrangement is safe another way." He said patting the gun on his hip, suddenly the realization that I was flirting with death coming crashing down on me like a ton of bricks.
"Look I don't know anything about any kind of arrangement between the two of you all, I haven't even heard from him in days." I said standing up and backing up from him.
"I wouldn't recommend running, I'm with the FIB and I will find you wherever you go so I suggest you call him now." He said standing up and drawing his gun. I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and dialing Michael's number.
"What do you want me to say?" I whispered to the man as the phone began to ring.
"Just tell him you need to see him now and he needs to get over here. I don't care what you have to say in order to get him over here as long as it gets him over here." He said waving the gun at me.
The phone rang once….
Twice…..
"Hello?" A half asleep Michael said, I could tell I had just woke him up.
"Michael it's me." I said my voice trembling.
"Blondie, do you know what time it is? I mean, I know you can't stop thinking about me but couldn't you wait until a decent hour?" He said, even half asleep and his sarcasm still seeping through.
"I know it's early but I need to see you now. Can you come over?" I said trying not to sound as terrified as I was.
"Lauren. What's wrong?" He said, suddenly getting serious. I could hear him moving around, getting out of bed and what sounded like him throwing on clothes.
"Oh nothing's wrong," I said with a nervous giggle, Dave Norton getting closer to me with the gun, "I just really need to see you that's all, I've missed you." I said, being completely honest for the first time in the conversation, but still sounding scared as hell.
"Lauren I'll be there in twenty minutes and I'll take care of whoever and whatever is there, ok? I know something is wrong I'll be there soon, just be careful blondie." He said hanging up the phone.
"SO?" Norton asked waving the gun around again.
"He will be here in twenty minutes." I said quietly, sitting back down in the chair as he sat back down on the couch still pointing the gun at me.
"Good. Now if only he could have listened to me as well as he listens to whores. We wouldn't be in this mess right now if he would have just listened to me and I wouldn't be here trying to kill you either. Oh, there is so much you don't know about our friend, Michael. In fact I bet you don't know anything about him do you? DO YOU?" He asked getting louder at the end, I jumped as he finished his sentence.
"I know enough about him…" I whispered staring at the floor refusing to make eye contact with the gun wielding mad man.
"I bet you didn't know he's in the witness protection program did you? Or that he sold out his crew about ten years ago in order to cut a deal and get out of crime did you? You didn't know you been fucking around with a dead man did you? A dead man with a wife and two kids that aren't that much younger than you. He hasn't told you much about him has he?" He asked angrily, waving the gun at me as I finally broke down under all of the stress and began to cry, and just as the tears started to fall the door opened.
"Davey, long time no see." Michael said walking in the door, putting his own gun away he had ready to go as he entered the room. "Now can you put that gun away and stop aiming at Blondie in the corner there?" Norton finally put the gun down and stood up to great Michael.
"Good to see you Michael, I was just getting our friend here caught up on all of those lovely stories of your past and the deals we made and the one you broke." Norton said as Michael leaned on the kitchen counter.
"And just what stories did you tell her?" He said.
"Just the one about how she's sleeping with a dead man who sold out his crew in order to enjoy the good life here in Los Santos, thought maybe she should know what she is getting herself into now that you are back in the business with her by your side." Norton said with a smirk as he watched Michael cringe at the thought of me knowing about his past.
"What do you want Dave?" Michael asked angrily.
"You broke the rules Michael and risked everything we had going for us by pulling that heist, and don't try to deny it was you, we all know you were the mastermind behind it. Now you have to pay, you're going to have to help me help you by working for me."
"And what if I don't?" Michael asked cockily.
"Well your friend here dies and your secret is blown and I go down in flames. So I suggest you call me tonight and we discuss business or I will be paying your lady friend here another visit." Norton said heading towards the door, "I expect to hear from you soon. It was nice to meet you Lauren, I hope we don't have to meet again." And with that he was out the door.
"Blondie, I'm sorry." Michael said coming towards, I got up to meet him in an embrace as the tears began to flow again. "I was going to tell you about my past when the time was right, I swear. Things have just been crazy these past two days baby, I should've called you or something." He said stroking my long blonde hair. He sat on the couch and motioned for me to sit next to him, I gladly took a seat and curled up next to him as he continued to try and calm me down.
"I thought he was going to kill me." I said quietly as he continued to stroke my hair.
"No one, and I mean no one, is going to hurt you blondie not while I'm around. I'm not going to fucking sugar coat it baby, things are about to get a little crazy around here and if you stick around me through it all you must be a saint. I haven't been ignoring you I promise baby, things have just been too fucking crazy at my house. A blast from my past in the form of my former best friend and psychopath has come back into my life who thought I was dead for ten years, I had to rescue my daughter from making a fool of herself on national television." He said as I sat up to listen to him, tears finally stopping.
"She didn't go on fame or shame did she?" I asked.
"Yes, how did you know? Don't tell me you watch that shit. Anyways, we got her off of the set and may have roughed up that no good sleaze bag host Lazlo in the process, and to top it all off my bitch of a wife says it is all my fault everything is going to shit, can you believe that?" He said getting heated, I kissed him to try and calm him down, or at least to shut him up, and it worked. "You know I did nothing but think of you nonstop during all the madness of these past few days? I swear, I don't know what you've done to me Lauren."
"I hope you were thinking good things about me Michael."
"You're fucking a' right they were all perfect."