Page 138 of Frisco

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.

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