" The old man held out his hand and Richie nervously lifted hisleft foot up to the old man's hand. Elwyn took the straps and buckledthem around Richie...s ankle before taking a small padlock from his pocketand fitting it onto the buckle, effectively locking it in place. Richiegave a small gasp of realisation as he did so, too late to withdraw hisfoot from the bondage."Other one," Elwyn grunted, looking at Richie as if daring him to argue.Trembling, Richie lifted his other foot to the old man's. We waited for three elevators before she suggested we take the seldom used stairs at the end of the building. They were unusual in that there was no exit on the ground floor but only in the basement where the official vehicles parked on a permanent basis.It was only on the ninth floor when Doris asked me to stop for moment as she fixed her loose shoe strap. The only other staircase user was a young boy who practically ran past us to get away for his weekend. None of the floors above us had. Can’t trust nobody up in this bitch, you know what I’m sayin’?” She nodded her head, stifling her sobs. “That mothafucka’s no good for ya. Get rid of his little bitch ass.”“I should,” said Makayla. “In fact, I will. I’ll just wait here for him to get back and I’ll tell him he and I are DONE.”“Hell yeah, that’s what I’m talkin’ about,” said Mike, grinning. “And I can handle him if he wants to start some shit up.”Makayla looked up at him, smiling through her tears. Then suddenly, he moved in. "Ev, why are you doing this? Are you trying to drive her out of the rink?" No, I'm trying to break her. Look, it's all an act, Shawna--and she's sucking you into it. Sooner or later, we're going to have an explosion and the Courtney we all know and loathe is going to start to try to throw her weight around. I want to break her before that happens. She needs to know who's boss." I think you already broke her."Evan snorted, "I highly doubt it."Friday's practice was more of the same. Shawna.