She climbs to the top of her closet, pulling out cash from up there and rolls it into a bundle, before she puts it into her first backpack.
For a solid hour, she pulls out hidden things. She doesn’t speak or call anyone, almost as though she thinks I’ll be clueless so long as she’s quiet.
I guess she’s been out of the game just long enough to miss out on the fact discreet video feed is more frequently used than simple audio.
Her eyes flick to the angel as though she senses me there, and she tilts her head.
“Don’t do it, Kara,” I say like she can hear me.
She starts to go toward it, when her phone rings. Distracted, she turns around and picks it up, reads whatever the text says, and starts packing again.
I immediately pick up my secondary phone, since I cloned her phone a while back. Her texts are usually boring as hell.
JULIA: Those guys haven’t been seen anywhere in town since this morning. Warren called.
I watch Kara peer out her living room window like she’s making sure they’re not sitting right outside on her front lawn.
I watch as she moves through the hallway and her room without ever passing in front of another window. In fact, she ducks beneath one window and crawls as she makes a pit stop by the garage and tosses the bags into the car.
I can’t wait to tell her I have cameras all over her house so I can watch her feel stupid for the first time ever. In the past, she was always the one pissing me off so much because of how stupid I felt when she unraveled a scheme in front of me.
Either she’s gotten terrible at this, or she thinks I’m an idiot.
After an hour or so, she climbs into the guest bed on the other side of the house where I don’t have a viewing window, not using her purple vibrator for once.
A small grin turns up at the corners of my lips as I grab a bag of zip-ties, eyeing them.
“This will be the worst road trip ever,” I say to myself as I grab what essentials I need.
Propping up, I sit down on my chair, since it looks like it’s going to be a long night.
Her phone rings, and I pick up my earbud, putting it in so I can listen to both sides of the conversation.
“You weren’t in bed yet, were you?” Julia asks.
“No,” Kara immediately tells her. “Something wrong?”
“I forgot to get your paycheck out of the office, and I also forgot the deposit drops for the day. Can you meet me at the diner?”
“Right now?” Kara groans.
Clicking the mouse, I flip to the diner’s feed, seeing all is quiet in the parking lot. Warren is actually sitting out there in his usual spot, watching for speeders near the one red light. He’s there most nights.
“I’m on my way there right now. I can drop your check off if you’re going to be up a while,” Julia goes on.
“I’ll meet you,” Kara says around a yawn.
Her things are in the car, so I can hazard a guess that she somehow set this up when she walked Julia out to the car, using one of the locations where I can’t hear her.
She dresses quickly and puts the phone in her pocket before walking out to her car. She looks through the garage window like she’s waiting to see if I’m going to immediately follow.
I doubt she’s going to the damn diner.
And I really doubt she’s going to let me follow her.
She’s up to something.
“I’m not the same dumb guy I used to be, babe,” I tell her, even though she can’t hear me.
Lifting my phone, I dial Drex.
“What’s going on?” he asks me.
“She’s up to something,” I state warily.
“What’s going on?” he asks again as Kara leaves the garage door open and jogs back in, grabbing a bottle of water and her purse.
“I’m not sure yet. But something,” I tell him as I tug my jeans into place.
My eyes stay fixed on the screen, and I watch as she leans into the fridge like she’s searching for something to eat too.
In the next instant, my stomach roils, because suddenly five figures clad in black burst into the kitchen from out of nowhere.
She doesn’t even see them, and I curse as I leap up from the chair when the first one grabs her by her hair and slings her against the wall.
Racing through my house, I burst out of the back door, sprinting toward hers. My gun is drawn as I slam into the back door. It creaks but doesn’t break.
Silence is on the other side, and my throat bobs as panic tries to claw its way into every piece of me. With kick after kick, I manage to knock the door down, and stumble into…nothing.