I heard a growl as my knees hit the ground.

People were shooting.

I kept my eyes on the floor.

Someone shoved me farther into a corner. I went, gladly, and hid behind a buffet counter.

Raize was in front of me, and I felt body after body hitting the ground.

One after another, and I could see them. Some had their heads turned our way, others had their heads the other way. One guy didn’t have a head.

The room was thick with the smell of sulfur and blood.

When it stopped, I didn’t realize it at first. My ears were ringing, and Raize touched my shoulder. I heard him shouting, “Come up!” But his voice sounded muffled.

There was someone else moving around the room. He and Raize were checking the bodies and yelling at each other. It was the yellow suit guy—both had guns drawn, but pointing at the floor.

“We have two seconds—” He was cut off by a thundering of footsteps down the hallway. He cursed, dropping a gun clip and jamming another in its place.

Raize was at the desk, going through the drawers. He stuffed something in his pocket. “I didn’t ask for your help.”

“You needed it.”

A deep thump slammed into the door. Someone was trying to break it down.

Yellow Suit stepped back, pointing his gun at the door. “We gotta move, Raize. What’s your plan?”

Move.

They were coming.

We needed to go to live.

I needed to live.

I pushed up. My legs were unsteady, but I looked around. The glass room where the girls were. They were gone. A door had been left open, but no one was coming through it. Not yet.

I pointed. “There.”

Both guys looked, and Raize cursed. “Get over here. I need your pockets.”

I shoved away from the buffet counter and went to the desk.

There were more thuds at the door, more shouting.

Raize’s-I-Didn’t-Who was cursing, but he backed up, going into the glass room. “The girls left their door open. We can get out that way. No one’s remembered it yet. That’s a back entrance. They have to go outside the building to circle around. We’re not cut off yet. I bet we have thirty seconds.” He shoved open the door connecting this office to the first glass room. “We gotta go now, Raize.”

Raize kept looking through the door.

“Now, Raize! Right fucking now!”

Raize cursed, shoving things into my sweatshirt, but then he stopped and looked me in the eyes. “Are you okay?”

I lifted my chin up and down, not feeling connected to any other part of my body.

He cursed, but turned me and shoved me forward. “She’s in shock,” he told his friend.

The guy cursed again, but reached for me. Both guys had a hand on my arm, guiding me through the first door, into the glass room, then into the area where the girls had been and out another door. Raize’s friend was right. It opened into what seemed like a different building. There was a thick wall immediately to our right, and we had to pass down a tight hallway with doors every few feet. Those were rooms, and I could hear moaning from inside.

They were still working after a shoot-out just happened feet, yards from their room?

I was going to be sick.

This was a sex building.

Those girls—that could’ve been my sister.

My sister could be in one of those rooms.

The thought raced through me.

I braked to a sudden stop.

I had to look. I had to make sure.

“Carrie!”

Now I was Carrie?

I ignored Raize. Running to the first room, I threw open the door.

A guy was on top of a girl. It wasn’t my sister.

They didn’t stop.

The girl saw me, but she didn’t react.

I moved to the next room.

Different people, not my sister.

And the next.

“What are you doing?” Raize was in front of me.

I reached for the next door.

He blocked me. “We have to go.”

“No!” I ripped away from him, lunging for the door.

I had to know.

I had to make sure.

Was she here?

“We have to go!” He was shouting in my face, grabbing my arms. He lifted me, carried me, but I was struggling.

I needed to look.

I had to.

I was blind to anything but that.

“Fucking hell!” He hoisted me up, ignoring my kicking legs and the way I scrambled, trying to reach for the doors.

Another door opened, and sunlight lit the hallway.

Raize carried me out.

“No!”

“What’s wrong with her?”

I felt Raize’s grunt through my body. “No idea.”

Then we were running. I jostled up and down.

We rounded a corner.

Raize’s arm left my legs. He was pointing a gun, but there were no guys outside the door.

We walked past, to our truck.

I was shoved in the middle of the front seat. Raize went behind the wheel, and his friend sat on my right side.

As Raize gunned the engine, shooting away from the curb, I turned back, as if I could still see her, if she was there.

No one was there.

It looked like nothing happened...

14

Carrie

“Your girl is nuts in the head,” Raize’s guy noted. “You should put her down.”

Raize yanked the wheel to the left, and we careened down another road. No one was chasing us, but he was driving like they were. “You shut the fuck up,” he growled. “Let’s talk about you. What were you thinking?”

The guy’s laugh was a cackle. “Right. I ain’t fucking stupid. You’re Raize. Only reason you’re walking into that place, asking for a meet with Oscar is if you’re going to end him.”

Raize cursed under his breath. “I didn’t go in there planning on killing him.”

“So what changed?”

Raize didn’t answer. He kept driving, taking us to the outskirts of town, rather than back to the house.

I shot him a look, wondering what he was doing. He caught my eye and shook his head, just the slightest motion.

“I needed to know if he was the one who sent Macca or if it was Estrada,” he explained.

This door guy/Raize’s-Something?—I had no clue what to call him. Was he Ally Guy?

Whoever he was, he was quiet a moment, then started laughing. “Bullshit. He threatened whoever this chick is to you, and you went apeshit on him. I could feel you making your decision. You could’ve waited it out. You didn’t need to throw it down, tell him you knew he was the one who sent Macca. But no, in a very un-Raize-like way, you killed first.”

“I got his phone,” Raize murmured.

“What?”

“I got his phone. He unlocked it, and I went for it.”

The guy cursed, scooting low in his seat. He rested his arm on the window, his fingers catching the handle above. “That’s why you killed him? For his goddamn phone?”

I kept quiet.

Raize went quiet, too.

The guy was still muttering to himself. “You killed Oscar, Raize. Oscar! You know who’s going to come after you? After me? I knew if you started shooting, I’d have to choose. You or Oscar, and you damn sure know I ain’t picking Oscar over you. We been through too much for this asshole to divide us. But man, Oscar? You started a war. I hope the fuck you know what you’re doing.”