Page 54 of When Sinners Rise
“Are you gonna wait for me?” She hesitates too fucking long for my liking, so I snatch the keys from the ignition and start getting out. “Doesn’t matter.” Why would she?
“Shaw!”
“What?”
“You can’t leave me out here with no way of escape.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t trust you to wait here. What if I get out and you’re gone?”
“Gone where? I wouldn’t know where to go.” I stare at her, thinking. Taking her in with me isn’t going to work. “I’ll wait. I will. Give me the keys. If you’re not out in fifteen minutes, I’ll know, and then I’ll go somewhere.” She looks around the area. “Anywhere, right? I’ll wait, though. Kinda need you right now.” I don’t have time for debate.
Neither of us do.
“Fine.” I sling the key at her. “Fifteen minutes. Don’t move the car unless I’m not out.”
I walk straight for the back rooms, cutting through the stench of cigarettes and old guys playing games they can’t afford to lose. I don’t need fifteen minutes. Not in this mood.
The owner – some dude who took over from his dead brother – looks up at me the second I open the door to his office and close it.
“Payment’s due,” I mutter.
He frowns. “No, it isn’t. Not for two weeks.”
I lift my gun, refusing any fucking conversation on the situation, and send a round off somewhere near his head. He shifts back from his desk, tumbling the chair over in the process. “Now.” He scuttles around for balance, then lands a hand near his desk drawer. I send another round off, watching the bullet splinter into the wood by his fingers. The money isn’t in his desk. His gun probably is, though. Or some fucking alarm to call reinforcements. “Safe. I’m not in the mood for games tonight. I’m in a hurry, too.”
After too fucking long, he does the only thing he can do; he uncovers and opens the safe at the back of the room to start loading up the twenty grand he regularly pays Knox into a bag. I take it and start backing out of the room, gun still aimed. He’ll know this isn’t right, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he puts a call into Knox pretty fucking quick after I’ve left. Let’s hope trusting Miri was the right call because if she’s not there, I’m screwed.
Quickly tracking back through the bar and tables, I turn out into the night and head for where the car was. It isn’t there. “Fucking bitch.” An engine revs from the other end of the parking lot. It’s mine. I watch it crawl over quietly, lights on, and look into the interior as the window slides down. “I told you not to move it.”
“There was a guy. Big. Creepy.” And I’m not? The corners of my mouth lift. She smiles lightly. “I told you I wouldn’t leave.”
I open the door and climb into the passenger side. “You sure you can drive this?”
“Is it where it was?”
“No.”
“Question answered then. You’ve got the money?”
I hold the bag up. “Question answered. Let’s go. Drive.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know, Miri. Just drive until I do.”
~
We end up at some motel on the outskirts of Memphis. She drove for a few hours, and then we swapped, and she slept, and I just kept driving through the rest of the night into the next day. The sun rose on me like some fire filling the sky, burning it alive. I felt that in the pit of my stomach because that’s what I’ve done – set my world on fire. And what for? Her? I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe those eyes of hers got to me. Or it could have been the years before her. Don’t know. I’m lost about now.
I filled up at a gas station a couple of times, got some food, drank coffee like it was gonna deal with some sins, and then we kept moving again. I wasn’t aiming for shit. I was running. Still am. But damn, I need some sleep now.
The guy shows us to the only room he’s got. Single bed and probably rat-infested.
Don’t care.
I sling the bag of money on the side and head for the shower. No point hiding it. We’re both neck deep in this, even if she doesn’t know how far I just went for her. She wants to steal it and run now; what does it matter? I’m far enough away, untraceable as far as I know, and, in this dog-tired state, uncaring.
By the time I’m out of the shower, drying my hair off with a towel, and pulling my jeans back on, she’s sliding past me and shutting the door behind her. I snort and collapse on the bed. She’s shy, now? Cute. A long ass sigh drains out of me, and I close my eyes. Stupid ass thing is, the second I do, all I cansee is Abel with blood all over him. I flick them open again and stare at the ceiling, pissed with the imagery. It’s like fire eating me up inside, scraping and grating at my bones to tell me I did something wrong. Didn’t, not by Miri, anyway. She’s free now. Away. She can get back to her own life, and maybe I can live with myself a little better because of that. Live with myself? That’ll be right. I’ll be on my own, that’s for damn sure.
