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.

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.

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.