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tried to push by him, but he was a rock.
    “Pam.” Chris came out of his office. He still looked visibly shaken. His face was ashen grey.
    “What have you done?” she said. “You have to stop him. Get those drugs back. He’s going to sell them.”
    “Yes, I know,” he said. “You.” He pointed to Ralphie. “You’re fired. Get out of here.”
    “You can’t do that,” Pam said.
    “I just did. I said get out.”
    “You’re not his boss.”
    “I’ll speak to HR in the morning. This man gave that thug drugs from the pharmacy. In fact, he’s been doing it for a long time.”
    Pam looked at Ralphie, whose face was strangely blank. “I won’t let him do this,” she said to him, touching him lightly on the sleeve.
    “Why don’t you believe him?” Ralphie asked.
    “Because I know you,” she said.
    “Honey, you don’t know a thing about me. He’s a doctor. I’m a janitor who is living on the streets. Who do you think they’re going to believe?”
    “Me,” Pam said. “They’re going to believe me.”
    “I was hoping you wouldn’t make me do this,” Chris said.
    “Don’t do it, man,” Ralphie said. “I’ll take the fall. Don’t hurt the girl. I got no roots. No ties here. I’ll just move on, and you can continue what you’re doing.”
    “What do you mean? He’s not going to hurt me.”
    Chris drew a pistol out of his jacket pocket. “Actually, I am.”
    “Chris, don’t do this,” Pam repeated Ralphie’s words. This couldn’t be happening. He was a jerk, but he wasn’t a criminal—was he? She stared at the gun pointed at her and tried not to shake.
    “You don’t understand, Pam. The vor owns me.”
    Pam cringed. She could hear her father’s desperation in Chris’s tone. The vor v zakone had always been a presence in their neighborhood. They’d pushed out the mafia here in Harding shortly after she went off to college. Not quite the Russian mob that Oksana had ties to, the vor were as old as Stalin’s gulags, but just as dangerous as the modern mafia. “What are they holding over on you? Gambling debts? Whatever it is, we can get it to stop.”
    He laughed humorlessly. “I get a cut from the sales. And I couldn’t stop if I wanted to. They won’t let me.”
    “Do you want to get out?”
    “Yeah, they keep asking for more and more. I’m going to get caught. And now I have to take care of you.”
    “I am not your enemy,” she said.
    “It helps that you were attacked a few days ago. The police will just think those thugs came back and finished the job.”
    “You’re going to shoot us here in cold blood?” Pam asked, still not believing it. Not even when his pistol hand didn’t shake.
    “No other way. Someone will find you two in the morning.”
    “Wait,” Ralphie said. “How about if we make a deal?”
    “She won’t deal,” Chris said.
    “If it means her life, she will, right, Pam?”
    Hell no , but Pam saw the threat in Ralphie’s eyes. “I don’t want to die.”
    “I’m not a murderer,” Chris said.
    “The only way to ensure Pam’s silence is to cut her in.”
    Chris brightened. “Cut her in, nothing. She can take the whole thing over.”
    Pam caught herself before she started to emphatically shake her head. Play along, Ralphie’s eyes seemed to say. “I don’t know what to do.”
    “This is perfect. I’ll train you. It’s a win-win situation. I get out from under the vor’s thumb, and you can start making headway on those student loans you always complain about.”
    “I don’t always complain…” She broke off what she was going to say, because Ralphie sloshed water over her shoe. “Okay fine, but Ralphie here doesn’t get fired.”
    “You’ve got to cut him in on the action so he’s just as culpable as you. It’s your only guarantee.”
    “Fine,” Pam repeated. “Now, will you put that gun away before you kill someone?”
    He eased his finger off the trigger and put on the safety. “Now that we’ve settled that, why don’t