Please. Please don’t let them have seen.
They apologize to the woman again, charming her with easy smiles, but as soon as she walks away, Lucas is dragging me back to the car, moving at a fast clip. I can practically feel the tension radiating from him, mixing with the nerves in my own body and adding to the frantic beat of my heart.
That could have gone horribly wrong.
When the car is in sight, I almost let out a sigh of relief, picking up my pace even more. If I can just get to the next safe house, or wherever we’re going, then I can call Brian and get help. If I can keep the phone a secret and find a safe place to use it.
Just as we’re climbing into the car, Hale and Ciro step out of the diner with bags of food in their hands. By the look on his face when he catches sight of us, Hale clearly isn’t happy about Zaid and Lucas’s decision to let me stretch my legs.
He stalks toward us with Ciro right behind him, and the second we’re all inside the vehicle, he cranks the key in the ignition, pulling away from the curb. The gentle hum of heat coming through the vents is drowned out by his angry voice as he glances over his shoulder at his two men.
“What the fuck were you thinking?”
“Everything’s fine, okay?” Zaid holds up a hand, keeping his tone low. “Nothing happened. We just walked up the street and back.”
For some reason, Zaid avoids saying anything about the cops who passed by us or the fact that I plowed into some poor woman—probably to save his own ass more than to protect me.
The phone buzzes gently against my skin and my heart drops into my stomach.
Please don’t ring, I plead silently in my head, pulse racing.
Hale’s eyes flicker toward mine in the rearview as if he can read my thoughts, and a fresh wave of terror washes through me. But his gaze doesn’t linger, transferring instead to Lucas.
“I don’t want that kind of shit to happen again.” His voice is hard. “Remember what I said last night. Things have fucking changed.”
I have no idea what he’s referencing, but it’s clear that for once, he’s more pissed at his two friends than he is at me.
Lucas nods, and Hale grunts, turning back onto the highway. I shift in my seat a little, buckling myself in and subtly adjusting the phone in my waistband. It’s stopped vibrating, thank fuck.
When I look up, I catch Ciro watching me. He’s turned halfway around in the front seat to pass out the food he and Hale got from the diner, and his brows twitch slightly as he takes in my expression.
Can he see the secrets written on my face?
Does he know?
Does he suspect?
I meet his gaze, affixing a wobbly smile to my face. “Thank god. I’m starving. Can we eat now?”
He nods slowly, and I don’t know if his gaze flickers to the phone hidden beneath my waistband and sweater or if I’m just imagining it.
The sun has just set as the city skyline comes into view ahead of us.
Chicago. Just like I guessed.
It looms on the horizon like it’s rising straight out of my memory—high-rise buildings with specks of lights flickering on, the rush of cars and traffic nearly manic in the gathering twilight. The city comes alive in the darkness, all the ugliness and violence hidden under a smudge of shadow.
A small feeling of nostalgia blooms in my stomach as we drive deeper and deeper into the heart of the city, and I can’t help but stare out the window, soaking in all the familiar sights and places I used to know so well, lost in memories of my life before.
When I was so far away from all of this in Washington, it was easy to forget how big a part this city played in my early life. I spent all of my childhood and more than half of my teenage years here, going to school here, hanging out with friends and becoming a young woman. It was foolish of me to think I could just leave it behind—that I could pretend the first sixteen years of my life never happened.
I catch Hale and Ciro watching me as I stare out the window at the city. I suddenly feel strange, like I’ve been caught doing something I shouldn’t, and turn my gaze to the floor, trying to ignore the buildings and street corners that pass by outside.
Chicago is big, and with several slowdowns from heavy traffic, it’s fully dark by the time Zaid holds up the blindfold, gesturing for me to turn toward him. I knew this was coming, so I don’t even resist as he ties the cover over my eyes, plunging my vision into darkness.
Time passes differently when you can’t see, the small moments and milestones blending into each other to create a mass of empty space.
By the time the car comes to a halt, I know that we’ve been through a burner route, something to disguise our true location. Whether we drove for ten minutes or thirty, I can’t really tell.