I didn’t know why.
Maybe a sixth sense? A forewarning?
Instinct?
Whatever it was, I held firm.
I could hear Cavers’ heavy footsteps going in and out of the house, then moving past the bathroom and into a back room. I heard the squeaks from a bed and a thud as something dropped to the floor.
Whispers: Interactive StoriesMake your own choices and decide what happens next!
Then I heard it—a lighter tread of footsteps coming in. I didn’t know who that was. Jake was gone, and Raize didn’t make any sound when he walked. He never did.
The footsteps went past the bathroom, moving slowly. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Whoever this person was, he wasn’t one of us. When those footsteps stopped outside the bathroom, I silently moved up onto the toilet seat using the sink counter and the tub.
The person moved, and I held my breath.
I hadn’t locked the door.
Closing my eyes, I cursed for a second. I needed to formulate a plan.
Then, the doorknob started to turn. Slowly, making no sound.
I was caught. I couldn’t move from where I was. There was nowhere to go. A flimsy shower curtain was my only coverage, but pulling it back would make a sound. It’d be pointless, so I froze in place and prayed.
And boy, did I pray.
I prayed to baby Jesus. To Mother Gaia. To my sister. To any deities who’d hear. If mermaids were real, I was praying to them. Unicorns. I was willing to throw anything in. Yeti. If leprechauns existed? Why not.
My time would come, but I hoped it wouldn’t be today.
The doorknob kept turning.
The latch unclicked, and the door swung open.
A stranger stared back at me—dark eyes, dark hair that was wavy and fell forward. A curl hung over his tan forehead. He was my height, and he looked a little chunky, but those eyes… They widened, and for a moment we stared at the other. He didn’t seem to have expected to see anyone.
I swallowed.
The moment was over.
A hard look flashed in his eyes, and he stepped back, pushing the door out of the way.
I readied myself to launch at him. I had no other choice.
But as he moved back, bringing up a black-gloved hand with a gun in it, another hand came down on his shoulder. It startled him, and he jerked around.
Raize was there, a 9mm in hand, and before the guy could think about his gun, Raize had thumbed a bullet into his forehead.
I flinched, but none of the blood got me.
The body fell back against the wall, and he slid down, in slow motion, to the floor as his legs crumbled beneath him. Raize lifted a foot, nudging him over.
Loud footsteps thundered in the hallway. “What the—”
Raize looked at me as he spoke to Cavers. “There’s plastic in the truck. Grab it. Wrap his body.”
Cavers came forward, and Raize moved aside so he could get by.
As he went out, I stepped off the toilet, but my knees were shaking. I took a breath, closing my eyes and envisioning it rolling through my whole body, steadying me. When I didn’t think I’d fall over, I stepped out and around the body.
The guy’s eyes were open, staring down into the floor. Blood pooled around him as it seeped out.
“I reached out for a meet,” Raize murmured. “They rejected it.”
I whipped my head up. “He’s from the Estrada Cartel?”
He nodded, moving the guy’s shirt aside to show me a star tattoo with eight points. “That’s their sign.”
Now I knew.
I swallowed over a lump. This was a bad sign, a very bad sign. “What now?”
Raize moved his gaze my way and spoke softly, surprising me. “Now we make them change their mind.”
I swallowed again. That’s what I was scared of. “It’s going to get bloody.”
“Yes. It will.” Raize turned around. “Take everything back to the truck. We need a new spot.”
Cavers came in with the plastic. He didn’t look at me as he knelt and got to work, rolling the body into it. When he carried it outside, I started cleaning. So many dead bodies, so many shootings. I knew there was an effect on me. Damage. Trauma. But I swept all of it under a rug, and everything on top was numb. I went in search of something to clean the blood up as I let my feelings drain away—from my brain to my toes. I felt frozen on the inside, but that’s how you got through this life. It was that or lose your soul. I was freezing my soul.
But back to work.
We didn’t need to leave a record of what happened here, though I had a feeling a blacklight would make every inch of this house glow like a fireworks display.
After I was done, I helped carry all our things back outside. Raize was at the truck, putting everything in its place around the body. It took some packing skill.