Page 20 of The Devil You Don't Know

I licked my lips, stretching backward on the futon. Liam nursed a water bottle next to me.

The room filled with an awkward silence.

“Soooo,” I dragged out.

All eyes snapped to me, the tint of violence glimmering in each one.

“So, we’re fucked,” Logan grumbled, readjusting his position.

Carson slapped him on the shoulder lightly.

“Notfucked,” I said, trying to remain positive. “Merely in asituation.”

“Situation?” Liam cocked his eyebrow, tilting his head toward me.

“Exactly, situation!”

“How is this asituation?” he asked.

Logan peeked an eye open as he knocked his head back into the wall.

“There’s a way out of this. We just need to think creatively, that’s all,” I murmured.

The room groaned at the positive outlook. Nothing new there. I was surrounded with Negative Nancy’s—each one with their own flavor. Liam was the grief-stricken one, beholden to none other than a higher power’s design. Logan was the one that losttheone, but refused to admit it. And Carson, she was soaked in pain and torment. Instead of getting herself out of it, she continued to simmer.

While I—well, I tried, and that was all anyone could ask of me.

“Did you get hit in the head or something?” Liam asked me, leaning forward with his head hung downward. “We cannot handle this right now. With the shipment Laila lost, we still have more payments to make. We still have jobs we need to organize without the assistance of the crew. We cannot afford to be under Samuel’s radar right now. Getting any more involved isn’t an option.”

I bit my tongue, catching the words before they left my mouth.‘We’ wasn’t the descriptor I would use.Throwing that in his face would only make matters worse.

“We can come up with a plan,” I said, trying to keep pushing forward. I had to, because if I could help Audry, then maybe I could get her screams out of my head.

“And if we get caught?” Logan opened both his eyes, hitting his head on the wall again, this time harder. “Cause we got caught last time.”

“Wewon’t get caught,” I stated with all the certainty in the world. “This is us, only us. There is no Laila.”

“But, there is a Laila—except she goes by Audry,” Carson jabbed, her stare narrowing.

“It isn’t the same.” I sighed, frustration rising.

“Audry isn’t one of us,” Carson started. “Lailawasn’tone of us.”

“Audry killed a Red Widow Crew member…” Logan added.

Liam lifted his head and tensed as the conversation continued down a path he’d rather forget. Except there was no forgetting—all of us paid for Laila’s mistake without so much as a choice.

“And Laila only killed herself, and got us fucked to hell,” I started, rising to my feet. I made distance between Liam and me, not wanting the explosion of his inevitable anger. “Laila knew what she was getting into. She made her choice—an informed choice. She found her escape, and her way through it all, at the bottom of a bottle, in those small little bags, andwillinglyunderneath you, Liam.”

He narrowed his eyes at me; the hurt covered by hatred.

“She made the choice to get into that car and now we’re paying for it. But Audry—Audry didn’t have a fucking choice. She doesn’t have an option. She can’t escape this without help. Nate,hetook that from her?—”

“No one is denying what he did was wrong, Kai.” Logan rose to his feet, moving closer. He glanced between us, clearly uncertain when or if he would need to step in.

“Then help her,” I muttered.

The room was silent, the pressure of it weighing on my shoulders. There was no way for me to do this on my own—no way for me to hide a body, create alibis, and help Audry recover. No, we all had a part to play in this.

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