Outlaw

Chapter 2

There was even a line for the vending machines out front when I stepped out, a couple arguing in Spanish, some spoiled-ass kid begging his mom for more quarters…craziness on top of craziness. As bad as it was for my stomach, though, I knew it was real good for whatever trouble was going on in the back. If people were distracted with their own problems, then odds were low that they’d ever notice what looked like a simple cargo switch from a broken-down truck.

I kept my head low, walking to the side along with the rest of the pedestrians ’til I had the opportunity to break off and head to the bus parking lot. From there, it wasn’t hard to find where we were at, and right away I was glad I had brought my smoke with me.

The driver was on the pavement, blood spilling out in so many directions it was hard to tell where the original spot was. The second thing I saw was Yuri pushing Wallace against the truck bed while on the phone at the same time—I only assumed to Ben—and Polo mumbling to himself, trying to get the last of the cargo tied up on the SUV’s trailer by himself.

“What the hell is this?”

I was loud and I knew it, but it didn’t matter if we were as screwed as I thought. Almost all of the fluorescent lights overhead in the parking lot were functioning enough to show the blood pooling around the driver. It would only be a matter of time before someone saw something—if they hadn’t already.

“What happened?”

Wallace pushed Yuri away, and we kept ’nough distance when he drew his piece. Waving it around like some lunatic, he shouted at us:

“I’ll explain in the car! I gotta make sure nobody saw nothing—”

“No.” I gritted my teeth and reached for my own piece. “I’ll do it. You’ve done enough goddamn damage for one night!”

The driver moved a little, and Wallace lifted his gun one more time.

Yuri shook his head. “Hurry it the hell up.”

That’s when I heard it, like the coo of a bird or something, and I knew it even before I made a run for the back of the truck.

Somebody was there. Somebody saw something.

I edged along the truck that no longer had a driver, walking as slow and quiet as I could—something that I had never been real good at anyways. I could hear Yuri and Wallace going back to loading the truck, arguing back and forth, so hopefully whoever was there was focusing on that and not me sneaking up behind them. I took a few steps closer, cringing at the sound of my boots. There was a body lingering in the shadows there, though I only saw it from the lit up buttons of the cell phone it carried. If I didn’t hurry up, there would be cops there in a quick minute.

Raising my gun, I didn’t have any problem doing what I had to do next. Whoever it was was standing far from the overhead parking lot lights, so I was grateful for that. Even in the dark, though, I could tell it was a woman—with a shorter body and the silhouette of longer hair showing, it made me uneasy. I would never say I was a good guy or nothin’, but there wasn’t no dignity in an unfair fight, and guys hurting girls seemed nothing but unfair.

I stopped moving when I realized who it was.

Oh crap. How was I supposed to do this? I watched while she bit her lip and dug the end of her sandal into the ground. I didn’t like this to begin with, but how could I hurt somebody like her? How could anybody with half a brain or a decent bone in their body hurt somebody like her? At the same time, though, she had seen something, and I couldn’t forget that. Any hesitation I had was forgot when she started backing up and typing on her phone.