Page 44 of His to Burn
She handed me the sheets of paper. “I even added an extra one, and I’ve placed these in order from most to least viable. Take a look. Tell me if anything seems confusing or out of place.”
I studied her papers, appreciating the level of detail, especially side streets, alleys—places where things could hide and gang up. And no, she wasn’t an artist, but she was clearly a great communicator.
I nodded my approval. “These make sense. I think we’re ready,” I said.
“Do you want to wait, or should we go now?” Asia asked.
I considered the question and shared my response.
“I think we should get out of here as soon aswe can. I’m less worried about getting trapped than before, but it’s a real possibility, and we don’t want to get caught. Plus, I’m hungry,” I said.
She smiled. “Judge Hanlon has a five-year supply of MREs in his attic,” she said.
I huffed and then nodded toward the door.
“Then what are we waiting for?”
Asia
“I hope this is easy,” I said, glancing at Jack.
He said we should travel light, so we ate a breakfast of crackers and instant coffee, and other than a bottle of water each, we were going to leave everything else behind.
Now, less than twenty minutes later, he stood in front of the door, and we were allegedly ready to go.
Except I didn’t feel ready.
I was happy that Jack agreed with my plan, and I was still sure it was the right call.
But being sure…and actually stepping outside of this room were two entirely different stories.
“Don’t worry about whether it’s easy or not. Just focus on the plan. Everything else will fall into place,” he said.
Jack’s expression was damn near carved out of granite. Weirdly, that hardness helped relax me. I found myself smiling.
“That’s it? That’s the prep talk?” I said, tilting my head as I stared at him.
“Yeah,” he said.
His expression didn’t change, but there was a little glimmer of amusement in his eyes. Seeing that pressed down the last bit of nerves.
He saw that, and I might have been imagining things, but I swore I saw a glint of approval.
“Noware you ready, Counselor?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be, Jackson.”
But he didn’t move. Instead, he stared at me, clearly weighing something.
Finally, he spoke. “Asia.”
My gaze flew to his, something about his tone drawing my attention. I couldn’t remember him addressing me by name before, but the way he said it now demanded my attention.
When he was sure I was listening, hecontinued. “We have no idea what we’re about to step into, so you need to be ready for anything. Like what happened to that janitor.”
“His name was Jorge,” I whispered.
Jack nodded. “Jorge. He was a friend of yours, right?”
