I knew that. Of course I did, but it was another step toward losing my soul, too.
I frowned. “His come-up?”
He reached for his bag, taking out a sandwich and unwrapping it. “You know.”
I shook my head. “I don’t.”
“That’s how he got in the business. He’s from the cartel.” He kept watching me, and seeing my confusion, his lips pressed together. “You didn’t know?”
Whispers: Interactive StoriesMake your own choices and decide what happens next!
I shook my head. Raize came from the cartel? What did that mean?
I felt like it meant something... Cartels were a whole other level of vicious.
Wow. The cartel. In our business, they were avoided. The Russians were bad, but the cartel was different. They didn’t just kill you. They went after your family. They went after anyone you loved, and they did their research.
I was doubly glad no one knew my real name.
I’d been Brooke when I started down this path. There had been a few other names before Raize started calling me Girl. Now I was Carrie.
“He was the guy they sent in to take someone out. The dude’s good at killing people.”
I suppressed a shiver. “How’d he get out?”
“I don’t know. There were rumors he got out because his boss was indebted to him. Others say he was sold like you were to Carloni. I think the only one who really knows is him.” Jake side-eyed me. “He might tell you. He likes you.”
I jerked in surprise. “What?”
He nodded. “He’s got a soft spot for you. Don’t know why. I don’t think he wants to fuck you. Maybe you remind him of someone?”
That was weirdly unsettling.
We both stopped talking.
Jake ate his food, and I sipped my coffee as we waited for Cavers and Raize to show.
Raize came out first, but waited outside the door. He looked at their truck, then us. I could feel his gaze on me before he went back inside. A couple women were checking him out. That gave me an unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach, too.
“Is Raize good looking?”
I hadn’t meant to ask that out loud. Jake paused mid-bite. He started laughing, peeling the wrapper back. “That’s funny, you asking me that.”
I’d thought it once when I was drunk, but not after. And the women at the airport, now the women here… I just saw the deadness inside of him.
“Is he?” I didn’t know why I was pushing this. I knew he was. But I wanted to hear what Jake would say. And I didn’t know the reason for that either.
He paused, the hot dog in his mouth as he studied me a second. Then he swallowed and lowered his food to his lap. “You serious?”
I nodded.
He tilted his head, as if he could get a better look at me and maybe understand why I was asking. “Yes. I’m a straight male, but I can tell the ladies like him. A lot. Then again, most women are crazy in my opinion.”
I nodded. That settled me.
The world felt right again.
Those women were just crazy.
9
Carrie
We pulled up to a house two hours later. It was near some warehouses, but isolated from other houses. Really isolated. And it had a large chain fence set around it. The grass was brown—what grass there was. The house itself looked like it could fall apart any second, but Raize had parked and was unloading the bags.
When Jake got out, Raize said, “I want you to head out and grab what we’ll need to live here for a while.”
“Like what?”
“Food. Drinks. Whatever we need.” Raize turned to me and added, “Clothes for her. She’s got nothing.”
Jake glanced my way before nodding. “Okay.”
“Girl.”
I thought I’d be Carrie, but no. Habits were hard to break apparently.
He didn’t wait for my response. He indicated the back of the truck. “Help Cavers bring everything in.”
I walked over and grabbed one of the large duffel bags Raize had put in the truck when he and Cavers went on their errands. It was hella heavy, and I recognized the sound of guns inside as I walked toward the house. Assault rifles. Jesus. I gave Raize a look, but he was busy with his phone. He had gotten enough guns that we could wage war, if we needed to. Then it hit me: that was why we were here.
Cavers came outside. His large shoulders almost didn’t fit through the doorway. He gestured behind him. “Kitchen. You can start taking them out. Lay them on the table.”
I dipped my head, moving past him. I stepped inside and took a sharp left turn to go into the kitchen, which was too small for a table except a tiny one only one or two people could sit at. I kept going into the dining room where there was a larger table. Putting the bag down, I glanced around. I needed to piss.
The whole house was small and made up of smaller rooms. The next doorway led into a living room with a couch against one wall and a loveseat against the other. A television sat up on top of a dresser, shoved back against another wall. There was barely enough room for two people to stand in the middle of the room. I kept moving. The other doorway from the living room led to a small hallway, and there was the bathroom. Going in, I shut the door and didn’t move.