The store inventory was finished by 6 but the warehouse count did not balance the inventory list and had to be recounted. I dismissed the store person...el and decided to break for dinner. I sent one of the warehousemen to get pizzas and drinks and we restarted the count. If the store personnel couple of women and two men would have stayed if they knew the store was providing super for the warehouse supervisor a Mexican named Marcos and two black men Franklin and Jamal. Jamal was sent to get. ”“That’s good. My friends in the Chicago Fire Department almost never fight fires, and they’re rarely fully involved, though we had a bad one not long ago.”“I heard about that - word gets around pretty quickly in the community. I spoke with your paramedic friend, Tom, at the wedding.”“He’s a good guy. And the guys from their company are taking good care of the widow and kids.”“That always happens, even in smaller departments. We’ve been lucky, knock wood.”He rapped his knuckles on the liquor. They didn’t seem to realize I had earned my PhD in violence at the hands of Marius. I squeezed my eyes shut behind my sunglasses. My mind’s eye still deceives me, when I picture his face. That kind smile, that never seemed to reach his eyes. The cold efficiency of his stance. But laying there, strapped to a hospital bed, my left eye swollen shut. My nose and cheek broken. Unable to breathe properly due to broken ribs. He looked to me like the savior of man, as he leaned over my bed and said. ’ He laughed again before continuing, ‘That will make it much easier to cut the little thing off.’ Gwen bit her tongue before the ‘Bigger than your’s’ made it past her lips. How much longer did she have to play them along? She was running out of ideas, and she needed to buy time for help to arrive. Finally she hit on an idea and asked, ‘Sergei, can I see Ronnie now?’ She could see Pyotr’s head shake, and dread filled her gut. ‘No Pet,’ Sergei answered, ‘Not right now. She is resting, I.