That wouldn’t be well received. Carl could be terrifying when he was mad. Why hadn’t she seen that before she’d gotten involved with him? He’d gotten to her when she was down and vulnerable.
“Do you think the Iron Shadows guys are close?” she asked.
Why had she let Carl talk her into any of this? Into helping him steal an envelope of cash from Reyes’ office at Reaper’s Bar.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
Carl had made it sound like he was doing it to help her.
She’d fallen for those words like a complete idiot. She’d forgotten the most important lesson.
Trust no one.
Look at where trusting Carl had gotten her. Now they were on the run. People were after them because of the money they’d stolen. She wished she’d been stronger, that she’d told him no.
She’d liked working at Reaper’s. No one hurt or abused her. She got paid on time. She even got fed a meal every shift.
Now she was moving from shitty motel room to shitty motel room, scared out of her mind.
Yeah. This was great fun.
Oh, and she was stuck with a guy she was starting to think was a ticking time bomb.
Keira really didn’t want to be close by when he detonated.
Carl paced back and forth across the tiny motel room. Keira was sitting at the table, which had a cracked linoleum top and one wonky leg. Carl drew out his pocketknife and flicked it up and down as he thought. She hated when he did that. “We need to keep moving. We need to get out of here, maybe go to Mexico.”
“Mexico?” Keira sat up straight. “That wasn’t part of the plan.”
“It is now. I’ll call a friend, see if he can help us. Hopefully, he can meet us close to the border or we might need to go to him.”
No. No way. Caution fled her as she stood. “Carl, I’m not going to fucking Mexico!”
Carl stared back at her. Something in his eyes made her still.
Run, Keira.
The crazy was strong in him today. It seemed to be growing every day.
There had been signs, if only she’d taken note of them. She rubbed at her arm, remembering the time he’d grabbed her and shook her when she’d gotten home late one night and hadn’t called him. She’d told herself he was just worried.
Seemed like she’d told herself a lot of shit. Unfortunately, it all was all a made-up bunch of lies to make herself feel better.
She was good at that.
“You’re coming to Mexico, Keira.”
She shook her head.
“Are you arguing with me?” he asked in a low, dark voice. The look on his face was chilling.
Caution.
“You know I can’t go to Mexico, Carl. My sister—”
“Doesn’t give a shit about you,” he said harshly.
It was a blow to her gut. If her sister didn’t care about her, then who did?