Then: a pounding at the door.

"What is that?" Louis asks. "Who is that?"

"Don't answer the door," Miriam says.

"Don't – what? Why not?" He moves toward the door.

She grabs his hand as he passes. "You don't have to. You can just ignore it. Ignore it. Please."

Then he asks the question. It's telling. It tells what he really thinks about her, or more accurately, what he fears about her.

He asks, "What have you done?"

"I…" The words don't trail off so much as they never manifest to begin with.

Louis goes to the door and opens it.

Ashley shoulders his way into the room as if Louis isn't there. Arms crossed tight in front of him, rocking back and forth like he's some kind of mule-kicked simpleton, Ashley stands in front of Miriam. "I need to know how I die. Tell me how I die. They don't kill me. Tell me they don't kill me. I know they're coming, Miriam. You can help me; I need you to help me–"

"Hey," Louis barks. But then he sees who it is. "Is that your brother?"

Ashley laughs. "I'm not her brother, bro."

"What? Miriam?"

"Don't look at her. Look at me. We're here to rob your ass. This is a scam. A con."

Miriam says nothing.

Louis frowns. "You'd better tell me what's going on, son."

"We know you've got bank. All that money in envelopes. Hand it over. Or else."

"Or else what?"

Ashley pulls a gun – really just his thumb and index finger shaped into a gun. "This, motherfucker. Now stick 'em up." He cocks his thumb back like he's ready to fire.

Louis lays Ashley out with one punch. Bam.

It's like a wrecking ball. Ashley topples backward onto the bed. He starts to get up, dizzy – the punch should have put him down for an hour, but whatever meth is still crawling through his system is happy to animate his body like a puppet on strings.

With his meaty hands, Louis picks Ashley's entire body up and pitches him backward into the bedside table. A lamp spins off and crashes into the ground, casting that corner of the room into darkness. Louis then grabs Ashley by the ankle and drags him back around the bed toward the door, with Ashley's head hitting the table legs on a crummy desk, the corner of the dresser and TV stand, and even the rubber door stopper.

Louis throws Ashley out of the room, then slams the door.

A sense of mad elation fills Miriam's heart. He saved her. He did so without asking any questions. He saw the threat and eliminated it. She feels protected. She feels safe.

Miriam leaps to her feet and throws her arms around Louis's prodigious torso.

He doesn't return the embrace.

Gently, he pushes her back.

"Is it true?" he asks.

Her heart sinks.

"Louis–"

"Just tell me, is it true? He's not your brother? Were you planning on robbing me?"