“None of your damn business,” Leon snarls.
“Right back at ya,” I reply, surprising even myself. Leon inhales slowly, clearly fighting to hold in his fury at me. One of his hands releases me to swipe back through his dark hair, as he shuts his eyes momentarily. He’s losing patience, I can tell. I don’t know exactly what that means for me, but it can’t be anything good. That’s for sure.
“Look,” he growls, his voice so low I doubt anyone else can hear him but me, “I don’t want to hurt you. But I ask the questions here. Not you.”
Well, at least he says he doesn’t want to hurt me — unlike Lukas behind him, who is rubbing his knuckles and giving me the coldest glare on planet earth. Still, with Leon’s hands pinning me like this, his words aren’t particularly comforting.
After a long, tense silence, I finally break a little.
“I saw you and that guy behind you,” I sigh, gesturing toward Lukas. “You had some other man chained up on the floor in the warehouse. I couldn’t really hear what you were saying, though,” I lie. It’s only half a lie. After all, I did hear some of what they said, but I can’t really put it into context at the moment, so it’s not especially helpful intel.
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Leon says, easing up ever so slightly.
“But I’m not going to tell you why I was there,” I add, tilting my face upward defiantly.
“Oh, come on! Just shake the information out of her! We don’t have all day!” shouts Lukas, waving his arms angrily. He’s definitely the hothead of the crew, that much I can tell.
“Let the man work,” drawls the cop, surveying his fingernails as though this is the most routine of activities in the world. And who knows — maybe this is everyday fare for him.
“You do realize you’re completely surrounded here, right?” Leon prods, raising an eyebrow at my obstinate refusal. “You know you’re in the very definition of real and present danger, don’t you?”
I nod, still keeping my lips shut tight.
A flicker of something akin to a smile crosses Leon’s face, to my surprise. Surely I imagined that. There’s no way he’s finding any of this amusing.
“Damn, you’re one stubborn devushka, aren’t you?” he murmurs, so softly I barely hear him say it. And there it is: an unmistakable little half-smile. I don’t know if it’s a good sign, though. I don’t know if it means he’s going to let me go or if he’s just really excited about the prospect of torturing me for information.
“You plan on telling anyone what you saw today?” he persists, his smile giving way to a businesslike, flat expression once again.
I toy with the idea of telling him I’m going straight to the papers with this. But the more practical, self-preserving part of my brain prevails, so I simply shake my head.
And with that, both his arms fall to his side, leaving me free to move. I hesitate, blinking at him in confusion and disbelief. Surely he’s not going to just… let me go?
“What are you doing, man?” Lukas exclaims.
Leon rolls his eyes and turns back to him, facing away from me. “Relax, Luke. She doesn’t know anything. No point in interrogating an empty witness, moy brat.”
“You want me to take her in anyway? For trespassing?” asks the cop, barely glancing up.
Leon waves his hand dismissively. “No need.”
“Alright,” the officer replies. Then he stands up straight and starts yelling, “Okay, okay, disperse the troops. You all have to get outta here before somebody sees you talking to me. You’re not the subtlest crowd, you know.”
“Embarrassed to be seen with us?” laughs one of the other bikers.
“That hurts our feelings, sotrudnik,” cackles another one.
“Yeah, yeah,” groans the cop. “Just scram before my chief comes along.”
They all start walking back to their respective motorcycles and the cop shoots me a withering glance as he climbs back into the driver’s seat of the squad car. “You, too!” he grunts.
“Oh — oh yeah, okay, sorry!” I stammer, hurrying away toward my car. I can’t help but feel Leon’s green eyes following me as I go. Piercing me straight through.
“Remember what we talked about here today!” he shouts after me.
He doesn’t have to add the two words implied to follow…
Or else.
3
Leon
I founded the union Club because us dock workers have to stick together. Because the bosses want to bleed us dry, and the cops want to make it easy for them to do just that. We keep each other safe together, ride together, live together. And if I mean to keep the cops off the backs of the hard-working men and women who keep this rusty chunk of New Jersey running, I’ve gotta get all of us to work together.