Free Subject Seven by James A. Moore

belonged to, and the last thing she could remember was partying with Tony Parmiatto after he offered to give her a lift.
    Tony was the real deal, one of the guys who actually made money in Camden, dealing the sort of stuff no one ever wants to think about and smart enough not to get hooked on it. He was handsome, rich and fun to be around. He had a great smile, and his jokes always made her laugh, and okay, so he was a few years older than she was, but that wasn’t so bad.
    He was also her ticket out of Camden. Maybe she could never be a Mafioso, not in the truest sense because, hello, female, but if she got in good with Tony, she could be connected to the Family in the right way. She could learn from her mom’s mistakes and do things differently. She could get work, could make enough scratch to get the hell out of Camden and never once look back.
    That was the plan, right up until he tried to slip his hand up her shirt.
    It wasn’t that she didn’t like him, because she did. It was that she wanted him to like her, and not in the way that meant he called her when he was horny. She wanted him to like her enough to introduce her to his friends, to his bosses. He’d have to work for it before he got anywhere beyond a little snuggling.
    Tina shivered again. They’d been arguing about something, she remembered that much. She closed her eyes to try to focus on the last discussion they had and she could remember Tony laughing, a nasty, mean sound, and smiling, but it wasn’t a nasty smile, it was just, it was just Tony being Tony. She was angry about something, but she couldn’t make her mind get past the noise that came out of nowhere deep inside her head, a sound loud enough to make her want to scream—
    WAKE UP!
    â€”like an explosion going off, and that was all she could remember. After that there was waking up a few minutes ago.
    â€œWhat if I did something to Tony?” She spoke the words softly, afraid that saying them out loud would make them a reality.
    She had to bite her lip again to stop the panic. Tony was made. He was connected. Throw a hundred other Mafia clichés out there and he was those too. He was second or third in line for the local mob guys and that meant if she’d done something to Tony, his friends would be after her to do something back.
    Now and then a body showed up in the Delaware River. At least twice she watched them get fished out by the cops.
    She stood up from her makeshift seat and looked around. There was a big space of parking lot in front of her, but the entire shopping center she was in looked like it hadn’t seen a person in months. A weathered sign faced the highway a few yards off. It read PENNSAUKEN MART and over that, someone had placed several yellow signs that stated it was marked for demolition.
    Pennsauken? That was miles from Camden! How had she gotten here?
    She shook her head and dug into the duffel bag, hoping for shoes a second time. It was going to be very, very hard to walk back home without a good pair of shoes.
    There was a pair of sandals that looked almost new. They were three sizes too big, but she didn’t much care. Tina fished them out of the bag and dropped them on the ground ready to slide her feet into them. Then she froze and stared back into the bag.
    She stared hard, barely even breathing, and then hastily closed the zipper. Then she opened it again. Closed it, looked around and finally inspected the contents a little better.
    Money. A lot of money. Most of the bundles of bills she could see looked like hundreds and twenties. Her ears were ringing and her heart felt like it was about to break a few ribs.
    She sat down hard on the warm concrete walkway to the interior of the abandoned shopping center.
    â€œOh, damn. What did I do?”
    It was hard to swallow.
    â€œWhat the hell did I do?”
    No one answered her. No one. She was all alone.

Chapter Nine

Hunter Harrison
    HUNTER HARRISON LOOKED AT the