Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 49215 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 246(@200wpm)___ 197(@250wpm)___ 164(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49215 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 246(@200wpm)___ 197(@250wpm)___ 164(@300wpm)
My ramble hadn’t held a single trace of a lie, and I hoped it inspired Luiz to change his strategy, ’cause the “you don’t know what you’re talking about” shtick wasn’t working on me.
“Who the fuck is Teresa Alvarez?” Luiz asked irritably.
“A nobody to you. Like all drug mules.” Just one of the many women my brother and I had encountered over the years. She’d been pregnant with her fourth child. Her eldest boy had had some kind of brain disorder. Her husband had been killed in a turf war. Easy money offered by the cartel—smuggle drugs over to Europe.
Unfortunately, one of the forty-five balls of coke in her system had broken, and she’d died of an overdose before she’d gotten to the hospital.
“I’ve got dozens of names, Luiz,” I said. “Nothing you say will make me think it’s just blow.” I pulled up my knees a bit and wrapped my arms loosely around them. “You wanna move on to the next tactic now?”
He clenched his jaw. “Why would I talk? You’re gonna kill me. You’re all—you know, emotionally involved.”
Emotionally involved. I snorted softly. Good way of putting it.
“I got kids too, you know,” he said. “Two young boys and a baby girl. What about them?”
Christ, interesting approach.
“What about them?” I chuckled. “May they grow up healthy and far away from you.” I jerked my chin at him. “Keep tryin’. What else you got? I distinctly remember the beginning of an arrogant ‘Do you know who I am?’ speech at your house. Spoken only by people in a nice position. Let’s talk about that. You can’t be someone important and not know shit.”
He averted his glare, suddenly not in the mood to talk at all.
I took another drag from the smoke.
The sky was turning orange and pink over the endless fields.
Still no reply from Emerson. He was probably asleep. I’d texted him about an hour ago, curious about their involvement.
I heard River rummaging around inside the barn, and I waited for him to appear. Once Luiz had pissed himself because I’d denied him use of a bathroom we didn’t have, I’d opted to stand outside.
I was gonna rethink our whole tent situation today. Each stall had an old drain, but even if we placed Luiz in one of them, the place was gonna reek soon. The heat didn’t help.
Back home, we had one of those tents you assembled in the bed of a truck, so maybe we could get another tent like that and sleep out here. ’Cause we weren’t moving. We had the solitude we required.
River trailed out in civilian clothes, boots unlaced, hair messy, faded jeans holey.
He’d gotten two hours of shut-eye. Better than nothing.
I returned the smokes to him.
He didn’t even react to the fact that I’d lit one up too.
“I ain’t sleepin’ in a toilet again,” he grumbled.
“Did he shit himself too?”
“Mm.” He nodded with a dip of his chin and took a drag.
“He better get used to it.” I scratched my jaw. Over on the horizon, the sun had a few more minutes before it would appear. “I’ll prepare the truck later today. We’ll sleep there instead.”
“Sounds good.” He yawned and rolled his shoulders. “I’mma step out for coffee. You want anythin’ else?”
It wasn’t a matter of what I wanted… “We gotta eat better. Buy some food.”
We’d passed a fairly busy gas station on the way, and it was open twenty-four seven. I assumed he’d go there.
“All right. I’ll be back in a bit.” He started walking toward the other car, but he slowed down and gestured at the truck. “Is the bed cleared? You might wanna get some rest before the sun comes up.”
Not a bad idea. It was gonna be blazing hot today.
“I’ll carry out the mattresses,” I replied. “Go to the bathroom while you’re at the gas station.”
“Thanks for the reminder, Daddy.”
I mustered a faint smirk, though it faded quickly. My brother used it as a joke when I got fussy, but it was a term of endearment I usually heard from Shay. Jesus Christ, my heart couldn’t take being away from him for much longer.
Hadn’t he suffered enough? He wasn’t even thirty yet, and he’d already lost most of his family—in a house fire. His ma, his old man, his baby sister. He had two younger brothers left, and they needed Shay to come back home too.
The next few hours fucked with my head. I was in and out of sleep, rousing when I heard River or Luiz, dreaming about Shay, chasing the shadows in the bed of the truck as the sun climbed higher, and then Emerson and Danny invaded my dreams, causing me to wake up with a jolt.
I sat up and squinted, immediately noticing the black canvas ceiling above me—and a small but powerful fan at my feet. What the fuck? I scrubbed my hands over my face, then checked my watch.