Page 48 of Carter's #Undoing

I didn’t want to leave his side, but I also wasn’t too keen on seeing what he meant by handling the body. “Okay,” I told him.

He suddenly glanced up. “Head behind those containers instead,” he directed.

I noticed the hair on his arms stand to attention as he pulled his gun back out. Carter always had a weird set of rules when he was trying to teach me something. I’d learned that at the cabin. So I followed his directions precisely, standing behind the containers instead of going back to the car.

I almost threw up my breakfast when another car pulled up and two men stepped out. I didn’t have a good vantage point, however, I could see that both men had their guns pointed at Carter. And I knew that voice. It belonged to the man who’d made my childhood a living nightmare. The man whose shifty eyes used to watch me when I slept until I started barricading my bedroom door to keep him out.

“Little early for you to be out before the sun rises, isn’t it, Rodney?” Carter taunted.

“Must be my lucky day,” he said. “I knew there had to be a reason Vince had driven out this way, but looks to me like I can’t even ask him.” Rodney kicked the dead body.

“I was actually surprised to see him,” Carter said, his pistol trained on Rodney. “I didn't think you let him off your dick long enough for him to be left alone.”

“My balls needed a break.” He gripped his pants as if the mental picture hadn’t been bad enough, his gun still aimed at Carter.

“When were you gonna tell me you were the one I hired to get rid of that bitch who tried to kill me?” he spat.

I swallowed, unable to imagine how I ever lived in a house with him and my mother.

“Took you long enough to find out you’d hired me.”

Rodney laughed. “You know, it’s always funny to me when young boys want to play a grown man’s game.”

“Only when a grown man decides to play like a boy.”

“Just reckless at the mouth, ain’t he?” Rodney asked the other guy, both of them taking a step toward Carter.

“You don’t want the hell I’ll bring down on you if you keep hunting for prey you’ve already lost,” Carter retorted.

“Tell me, Carter did you hide the bitch somewhere in the city?” His eyes scanned the area before nodding for the other man to search the car. “Or is she in that car?”

“I brought her here with me,” Carter announced, causing me to panic. “Figured it would be nice for her to watch me kill some people.”

He’s trying to deflect.And I wouldn’t have known if it was working until Rodney started looking impatient when the other guy had checked our rental.

“It’s good, boss,” he said. “She ain’t here.”

Rodney glanced around once more as if he wanted to make sure. “Here’s how this is gonna play out. You’re gonna come with me and tell me where Serenity is. Or, I’m going to make a phone call to my contact in that lowlife town I wasted way too much of my fucking life in and give the okay for them to shoot your parents.”

“If you touch my parents, you’ll regret the day you were born.”

“You’re not at a liberty to make threats. What’s it gonna be? You come with me willingly, or we end this right here?”

The irresponsible part of me wanted to help Carter any way I could, but the logical part of my brain realized that I could only recount what happened to Scotch and the others if I was alive to tell them. Especially if Mr. and Mrs. Madden were at risk, too.

When they knocked him out, I felt the heat rise in my neck and my head felt as if it was on fire. I was seeing nothing but red and although I was confident in Carter’s skills, this situation didn’t look good.

I waited for the vehicle to leave before I had the good sense to write down the license plate number of Rodney’s car. And since I didn’t have the keys to the rental that had brought me here, I ran as fast as I could, until I was able to get to an area where I could borrow someone’s phone and tell Carter’s friends that Rodney had taken him.

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