Deserve [H.S.]

Chapter 39

IMPERILMENT

It seemed as though the rest of the week dragged by and flew by at the same time. The anticipation for Saturday meant that the days seemed longer than they actually were, but the anxiousness for the potential impending doom also meant that it was Saturday before they knew it.

The plan had been thought out and talked through between everyone very intently. It was obvious what was supposed to happen, so now the only hope was that it all happened accordingly.

On Saturday evening, Noah felt her heart pumping strongly in her chest as she sat in her car. She knew what she had to do, but she was beyond nervous to actually carry through with it.

As the streetlight above her flickered softly, Noah glanced down at her message thread with Harry's phone, seeing the message she had sent a few hours earlier.

Noah: hey harry. i really need to talk to you. i'll be at lombard park at 9 tonight by the main fountain. hope to see you there

Noah glanced up at the clock on the screen on her car's dashboard, seeing that the time was 8:48PM. She inhaled sharply and pushed the breath back out through her lips shakily before placing her hand on the door handle and opening it quickly, deciding to just say fuck it and get it over with.

The car door slammed behind her as she pushed it with her hand. The thin jacket she had on did little to warm her from the cool early June evening air, but she simply took another deep breath before making her way into the park.

Her surroundings were surveyed intently as Noah walked on the pathway towards the fountain. There weren't too many people around, but none of them were who she was looking for.

When she finally made it to the fountain, the overall atmosphere was very ominous with the moon and dull park lamps being the only sources of light around her. There was no one near the fountain, so she simply sat down and swallowed nervously as she waited.

Hardly any time passed at all before she heard a sinister voice from behind her carry over the sound of the flowing water.

"What a pleasant surprise to see you here, Noah."

As Noah spun around, she quickly spotted someone walking toward her from the other side of the small fountain. Her heartbeat picked up even more momentum, which she didn't think was possible. She was certain it was going to pump right out of her chest.

The person walked even closer until they were standing right in front of her, staring down at her as she remained sitting on the edge of the fountain.

All that Noah could do in response was expel the shaky breath she was holding, letting a single word pass her lips on the tail end of her breath.

"Anthony."

-

Less than an hour before Noah was supposed to be at the park, Harry was sitting in his car in the parking lot of the ring. The engine was turned off and he had parked in the middle of a couple of other cars to make sure he blended in without looking suspicious to anyone who may have walked by.

Harry had spent the beginning of the day driving the three hours it took to get back to town with Noah and Ray. Now, however, he was following Ray's instructions as per the plan. He was supposed to wait in his car and let Ray know when Anthony had left the ring. All that Ray told Harry was that Anthony would be leaving at some point, so Harry had to keep an eye out and alert Ray when that happened. Then, Ray and his friend in the ring would sneak into Anthony's office to find evidence.

Ray's friend, a demure man by the name of Mateo who worked closely with Anthony, had provided valuable information about Anthony and the shit he got into. Not only did Anthony run an illegal boxing ring, but he also used said boxing ring, unsurprisingly, as a gateway to run a drug dealing operation. That wasn't necessarily new information to Ray and Harry, as there were always talks of drugs being dealt in the ring, but now that it was confirmed and Ray's informant knew exactly where to find proof of it, they finally had the means to use it against him.