Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 117494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
I didn’t know what was going on with me, but I was in a daze of sorts. I’m sure. I was only seeing Shane as he went forward. I was only hearing his footsteps. There were yelling and other sounds of gunfire or explosions in the background, but they were barely filtering in.
It was like we were in a bubble. Where we were, nothing could penetrate. As Shane kept going forward, so did I until he got to Marco Estrada’s truck. A man was pulled out, and he was being held up, shoved against the back.
It was not Marco Estrada.
I didn’t know what Marco Estrada looked like, but I could tell by the eyes that this young man wasn’t him. He wasn’t a boy, but he wasn’t quite a man. He was scared, and his mouth was moving fast. He was saying something, and judging from the plea in his eyes, he was pleading for his life.
I hoped, for the first time since the first explosion, that this young man wouldn’t be killed. But it wasn’t him, and I knew that they were expecting Marco Estrada to be in the middle truck. Made sense except to Marco Estrada himself. He would’ve wanted to trick anyone who might set out to attack his convoy. But if he was in the back, he might’ve been taken out.
If he was in the front, he might’ve been taken out.
So where was Marco Estrada?
I knew where he would be.
I turned, and this time the vacuum left me.
All the sounds from around me hit me hard.
I heard all the shouting, all the cursing. But no more gunfire. No more shots were being exchanged. I liked that part, and I ran back up the hill, hearing Shane yelling my name too.
I ignored him.
A part of me didn’t want him to come for this last part, because as soon as I figured it out, I knew it was true. I felt it in my bones. I was supposed to go, but I didn’t know the reason.
I didn’t care.
They had brought a truck. One, among all the Harleys. I ran to it, jumping in, and I turned back to where the house was.
I didn’t go to where we’d left, where I knew bounty hunters were arriving to pick up Estrada’s men. I drove to the first house, the one that had the shed where they kept Katie and the two men I didn’t know captive.
It looked so ragged and abandoned now, but as I drove down the driveway, I saw another truck parked on the backside of the house. It was an old truck, a classic that I might’ve gone crazy for in another life. This time, though, I just knew who that meant had arrived.
A man stepped out from the front door, his gun raised. He was dressed all in black, and he looked military. His gun was pointed at me.
I stopped, my hands going up, but then another man stepped out from behind him.
There.
That was Marco Estrada.
I knew it this time. I could tell from his eyes.
They were old and dead. Like him. It was a weird sensation because I already saw the life leaving his body, though he was fully connected. I still saw it. Parts of him were shedding and flying away. Or maybe I was just seeing his soul wasn’t a part of him. On the outside, he looked almost handsome. Cheekbones that curved high. He had big lips. He was tall, maybe six three. A wiry body. He was in a business suit.
He held up a hand and his lips moved. He was almost smiling as he stepped forward. Then I heard what he said. It took a second to get to me, and no, I didn’t understand the cause for that. “Wait, Manuel. I’d like to hear what she came to say.”
He walked down the stairs and approached, the ends of his mouth curved upwards. He had a hand toward me, and he was waving for me to come to him. “I’ve come to enjoy these moments, when I get a pocket of time to talk with my enemy’s woman. This has happened before. Another woman. Another time and place. Another enemy, but still the same. Though, that time she had a dog with her.” A full smile beckoned to me. “Do you have a dog, Miss Kali Michaels?”
So he knew who I was.
That would make this easier.
I didn’t care to make this a big to-do. There didn’t need to be conversation. There was no point, really. Before a few days ago, I never heard about this man, but as I started to hear yelling again, as my heartbeat began to pick up, I brought out the gun that I snuck.
I watched as they took the weapons out of that house. And I watched as they bagged them up. And I watched where that bag of weapons were put when they brought them to the house. And when Shane was having a ‘meeting’ with his men, when everyone wasn’t paying attention to me, I went and grabbed one of them. And I checked, because my dad once took me to a shooting range because he thought it’d be a good idea if I knew how to defend myself, and I saw there were three bullets still in the chamber.