ON AIR by Hadley Quinn Page A

are the same ones Ollie ran with.” She made the sign of the cross for her oldest brother. “They’ve got him running dope.” She looked up at me, the pain in her eyes apparent. “Different boss than Ollie, same game. I don’t care what mistakes Davey’s made or how he got in with these guys…but he doesn’t belong there. I want him out. I can’t lose him too. I can’t.”
    “Whose house were you at?”
    She swallowed. “Derek’s.”
    “Nat, I don’t fucking know anyone named Derek. And if this asshole is someone you’re seeing, then you have a lot of explaining—”
    “His name is Derek Danzig. He’s a dealer.”
    I’d froze mid-sentence until a shock of nerves hit my stomach. I wished I hadn’t heard her correctly. “Zig,” was all I got out.
    Most people knew him as Zig. He was a notorious middleman thug who had once been part of my life years back, before he’d gotten really heavy into the felonies and shit. My dad and I had butted heads about me being friends with Zig in high school. At the time, I didn’t know what the guy was into. And even after I did, I was sort of in a rebellious phase against my father and chose to fight him on it anyway.
    I couldn’t understand why Natalie had been at Zig’s house, but even just the thought of it made my entire body tense up.
    “Tell me why you were at Zig’s house.”
    “You know him?”
    “Tell me why you were at his house.”
    Natalie sighed. “I straight up asked him to leave my brother alone.”
    I tried not to react with disappointment, frustration, or arrogance, but that’s what I was feeling. I didn’t even have to ask in order to know Nat’s attempts were useless. The guy was a selfish piece of shit who made it his life’s work to hold the upper hand.
    “He didn’t hurt you, did he?” I asked, my jaw clenched until I got an answer.
    “No. He, uh, well he told me to stick around for a bit. You know, a cocky ass move to basically spit in my face. He said I could see he was just a regular guy trying to make it in the world like everyone else. He wanted me to ‘kick it with ‘em’.”
    “So how’d you end up in the bathroom, crying, calling me?”
    She huffed out a breath of air. “A few other guys stopped by. They were…eyeing me. One of them said he’d like to stick his dick so far up me until I screamed for him to stop. Derek—I guess for showmanship for my sake—punched him so hard in the face I heard the guy’s nose break. Blood was everywhere. I just…” She made a face that feigned gagging.
    Natalie was a tough little cookie from New York, but the one thing she couldn’t stomach was the sight of blood or anything else physically horrific like broken bones or death. I could only imagine what that had been like for her. I’d actually seen her throw up once, when Chris got cut deep from a fence and needed stitches a couple years ago.
    “I went into the bathroom to compose myself,” she continued. “I gagged a few times but nothing came up, I felt a bit lightheaded, and then when I peeked out the window and realized a couple of those guys were hanging around my car, I called you. I’m sorry I pulled you into this mess, but I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t call the cops. I need Davey to get out of this shit first.”
    “Did Zig know you left?”
    She picked at a piece of lint on her black jeans. “Yeah. I cleaned my face up, and when I came out, Derek said something like, ‘See baby girl, I take care of my people. Your brother be fine.’ I think I just nodded or whatever and walked out the back door to avoid those other guys at my car. I didn’t want them to see you coming for me, so when I saw you…”
    I nodded as all of it came together. “Where’s your car?”
    “Still parked on the side street.”
    I took a minute to process everything. I didn’t like the situation one bit, but I could see where Natalie was coming from. Her courage was admirable, but I didn’t want her around Derek