43. Kali
43
KALI
S omething was wrong.
Felt it thirty minutes into driving, and knew it in my gut hours later. The problem, though, was that I didn’t know who or what was actually dangerous. If I turned my phone on, who could tap into my GPS? We stopped at a gas station and I wanted to call Shane, but Shelly came around the corner at that moment. Could I call Shane? Would that alert someone that I didn’t want being alerted? I had no idea, and I tried again in the bathroom, but she came into the next stall.
When I left, she was right behind me.
It happened at the next gas station.
I was starting to think she was scared to leave me alone, which added to my gut feeling that something was seriously wrong here.
I wished I had Aly to bounce ideas off, or Harper? Or even Justin, though Justin was always way more calm than the rest of us.
We were entering Arizona when I broached the topic, “Where in Amarillo are we going?”
“Huh?” There was an edge to her tone.
My stomach dropped.
How to explain when the unspoken very much moves into the realm where it’s very obvious and you need to act on it? Because we were there. Or I was there. We needed to ‘head off’ the Red Demons so it wouldn’t make sense to stop at a hotel, but I was getting this feeling more and more that I needed to stall.
I needed more time.
I was so out of my depth here. Dealing with Claudia, handling Foley, approaching my mom with caution, those were familiar terrain for me. This, whatever this was, I had no clue, but I wanted a gun and why would I want a gun? Though, anyone knowingly going to stop a bunch of Red Demons against the Cartel… guess that made sense.
I felt like I was going crazy, but in my gut, I didn’t think I was nuts at all.
Shelly was flat out lying to me, and I was starting to feel like I was the kidnapped hostage.
“Where are we going? Can we go over the plan?”
She dropped her cigarette, ground it out, and got into the car.
I didn’t. My door was open, but holy God. Could I run now? Was that what I should do? I had no idea.
“What are you doing?” she barked.
I jumped, but frowned. “Okay. Lay off the attitude with me.”
“Come on! If we want to get there in time to figure out where the Reds are coming from, we gotta go now. They don’t stop and chill. When they ride, they go hard. They party after their job is done. We gotta go.”
I was still hesitating.
“Now, Kali!”
I jumped again, but got in, shut my door, and immediately I was cursing myself. Why did I do that?
Oh, screw it. “I have to go back.”
“What?”
“I forgot to get water. We’re going to need more water. Turn back for the gas station.”
“Are you shitting me?”
“No. Water. Come on.”
She kept going, her face hard, but letting out a dramatic sigh and a curse, she swung the car around. As soon as we got to the station, I jumped out and went to the water aisle. Knowing her, if something actually was wrong, she’d be watching me. As I moved, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and turned it on.
A guy was lingering in front of the water, so I got right behind him. Perfect. He had no idea I was there. I had time.
None of this could be obvious.
He picked out one. No, two. No, he put them both back. Then he saw me. “Oh, sorry! I can’t decide. You go ahead.”
“It’s okay.”
He was still moving aside.
And I was panicking. “Uh, are you getting the water for yourself?”
“My girlfriend, but she always has to have a certain brand. I can never remember what the bottle looks like. You go ahead.”
“No. I’m good. You remember the lettering of the brand?”
Suspicion started to creep into his gaze, but he only moved away a step.
My phone started buzzing and ringing.
His eyes went down, saw I was holding the phone and staring at him as I was unlocking my phone, and then moving to silence it. No buzzes. No alerts. Nothing could get through.
“Uh–”
“You remember seeing pink from her bottle?”
“Huh?” He was still distracted, watching me working my phone.
“The bottle. Sometimes when the water is drunk, there’s a flamingo on the inside of the bottle. Guys remember the pink, but don’t remember the flamingo.”
His eyes lit up. “You’re right! It’s that water.” He frowned. “What brand is that, do you know? Also–” His head went down and he was going to ask about my phone, or worse, he was going to make it obvious I was doing something.
I stepped forward, grabbing the bottle his girlfriend probably liked and I grabbed two for myself.
Anything else?
I handed it off and moved past him, my finger moving over the texts and trying to remember Shane’s number. I had no idea. Dammit. But, man. I bet he’d been calling, texting me. I put the phone in my pocket, remembering there was a mirror above that could see down all the aisles.
In my pocket, I moved to the texts and hoping against hope that the last text sent my way was his. Not my dad’s because oh my God, I had no idea what would happen if he got involved. He’d call the National Guard on us, but first he’d probably call Ruby and see if she knew what was going on.
Please, please, please.
I grabbed some snacks, going the long way to the counter.
There was a line of people so I waited, finishing my text and hoping it wasn’t too jumbled. I hit send as soon as the last person moved and put my items on the counter. She rang me up. I had to make a show of pulling my wallet out, paying for the items.
As I did, I hit call on my phone, still hoping it would go to Shane.
Shelly made me promise not to use a card, use cash. And I could feel her eyes on me. She was watching, so I counted out the cash and handed it over. The front desk worker gave me change back, and I put everything in my pocket. Grabbing the water and bag of chips, I headed back outside.
“Hey, Shelly.”
She glared at me, but that turned to a frown when she saw the chips. Snatching it, she opened it and put it between us. “I’m starving. Ready?”
Not on your life. I smiled. “Yep.”
I had to do something. I needed to stall.