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I hear the crack of a gunshot echo through the street, and then screaming. People flee in every direction. I don’t have time to see who shot at whom, but by the sound of it, Jasha has our backs.
“We’re picking up Jasha at the rendezvous point,” I say to Dream as we round the corner and disappear into the alley where the car is parked. “Get in the back with Eddy.”
She shakes her head in agreement, circling around the car and getting into the other side as I lay Eddy in the back with her. He’s been quiet this whole time, but he doesn’t look permanently injured. With some food and antibiotics, I’m sure he’ll be back to his old self in no time.
I can still hear shots piercing the air as I jump into the driver’s seat of the car and pull through the alley to the next street over. I spot the back of the Cartel bar as we race past it, but there’s no one there to stop us.
We made it.
We actually pulled this off.
I laugh a bit as the stress drops off my shoulders like a heavy fur blanket. “Dream, are you alright?” I ask, turning back to look at her.
She’s leaning over Eddy, examining his swollen face. “I’m fine. I just want to get Eddy to a doctor.”
“It won’t happen in Cartel territory,” I shout over the increasingly loud sound of the road rushing beneath us. “We should take him back toward the border, closer to where my territory is. That’ll ensure we have protection until we can strike them down for good.”
“You still want to go back there?” she asks in disbelief.
“Of course,” I reply, pulling onto the highway. “That’s why I put a tracking device in the bag. Diego will lead us right to their headquarters.”
I can see Dream’s pupils double in size through the rearview mirror. “You did what?!”
I’m not sure why she’s so angry. She knows I wanted to follow them back to their headquarters. This just allows us to do that without the risk of physical proximity.
Dream groans. “Nikolai, you almost got us killed. Diego knows about the tracking device. We would’ve just walked out of there if he hadn’t discovered it when he opened the bag. That’s why we ended up running out.”
“I put it…” My stomach drops when I realize my mistake. “Oh, shit. Yeah, I put it in one of the plastic-wrapped packets of P50, but I didn’t tape it shut. It must’ve fallen out on the way there.”
“I hate you,” she says, shaking her head. “I really do.”
I look back at her and smile. “Don’t say that. We got your cousin back. That has to count for something.”
“Whatever,” she grumbles, turning back to Eddy. “He’s in bad shape. I just want to get him fed and cleaned up.”
Eddy perks up at the mention of food, and I feel a pang of sympathy for him. Whatever he went through as a Cartel prisoner can’t have been pleasant. PTSD isn’t out of the question, but everyone takes stuff like that differently. We’ll just have to wait and see.
“We’ll get him something to drink in a minute,” I say. “Some electrolytes or something. We just have to meet Jasha at the park a few miles from here. He should call me when he’s –”
My phone rings in my pocket, cutting me off mid-sentence. I pick it up, and Jasha answers. “A little rowdy today, huh?”
“Nothing I can’t handle.”
“You would’ve been toast if it weren’t for me. I picked off like six different guys while you were running for your life.”
“I had to get Eddy and Dream to the car,” I reply, wondering why I even bother trying to reason with him. I know he’s just going to mess with me, anyway.
“Still on for the park? I’m heading there on a local bus. Should be about ten minutes.”
“Unless you want me to leave you in Dimalona while we head back to the border,” I reply with a grin.
He laughs. “Hey, some of the women I saw here were cute.”
“Oh, so now you want a woman?” I ask. “I thought you swore off dating after… what was her name?”
“We don’t need to bring that bitch up. Just meet me at the park. I’ll be there.”
“You sure?”
