“Do you really think you’ll get away with this?”
Don’t provoke him, Lothair.
“Harbinger, roll down the passenger window. That’s enough. Throw it out, Lothair. Now.”
Carlos’s arm moved, and he must have pressed the gun to Lothair’s neck harder.
Lothair slid his phone through the gap.
“Now Harbinger’s. It’s by the console. C’mon.”
He threw my phone out as well, and I closed the window with the button.
“That’s better. Now, I only need a ride. Don’t mess with me, and you’ll walk away from this unscathed. More or less.”
The tension in Lothair’s body told me just how much he ached to rip Carlos’s head off, but it would have to wait.
Carlos instructed me to take a small country road out of the suburbs. A tall fence with rusty signs sayingPrivate Propertyat regular intervals ran along the right side of the road. On the left, the desert spread out.
“Take the first gate to the right. Stop by the booth, roll down the window, and keep your mouth shut.”
Carlos lowered the gun, but in my peripheral vision, I could see Lothair grimace as the barrel must have poked his ribs. Fuming on the inside, I did as I was told. Carlos would be lucky if he survived the night.
A lone guard exited the dilapidated booth.
“Good evening, George,” Carlos called cheerfully. “My friends are just giving me a ride.”
“Ah. Hello, Mr. Sorensen. Your plane’s ready.”
A private runway.Fuck.
The guard went to open the old gate.
“Close the window and drive,” Carlos hissed from behind me. “To the right.”
The small plane waited at the end of the runway—one of the single-pilot models with a range of over a thousand miles. There wasn’t anybody around, but I could see lights in the control tower about half a mile away.
I stopped the car at Carlos’s instruction, facing the aircraft.
“Bend over and put your arms behind your back.”
One-handedly, he tightened a couple of heavy-duty zip ties around my wrists. Then he did the same to Lothair and took the car keys.
“Bye, and thanks for the tip,” he said.
Then he closed the door and jogged to the plane.
I felt my lips stretch into a smile. This would be way too easy. Lothair’s zip ties made a snapping noise as soon as Carlos turned his back to the car.
“You could have waited until he got inside,” I muttered quietly.
“No, I couldn’t.” He grinned at me, his eyes glowing. “Can I smash the plane into the ground after he takes off? Nobody will ever find out how it happened.”
I sighed. “Do you really want to kill a man?”
Lothair scoffed. “Carlos? Yes.”
“Be serious.”
