Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 76539 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76539 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
“I told her about that,” I say.
“Did you notice anything strange? Anything off about the room? Anything in the parking lot?”
“Nothing aside from the bodies,” Nicolas says looking despondent. “I had no clue what was in that room until I went inside.”
“Wait a second,” I say and glance at Sara. “Who let you in?”
Nicolas blinks at me. “The door was open already. Someone left the bolt out so the door didn’t shut all the way. I figured that was on purpose so I could go right in.”
“Really?” Sara asks, looking interested. “That means someone left it like that on purpose. But I don’t see anything about the bolt being open in the police report.”
“Does that mean anything?” Nicolas asks, craning his neck to look at Sara’s notes.
“We don’t know,” she says, “but we’ll look into every angle.”
The meeting winds down from there. She makes Nicolas go over his story another couple times and keeps taking notes until time is up and we have to go. I shake the kid’s hand and squeeze his elbow before they lead him out. “You’ll be all right,” I say quietly. “We’re here.”
He nods and looks beaten and dejected as they take him back to his cell.
We leave together. Sara doesn’t talk on the way back to the parking lot. She clutches her briefcase against her chest, and I’m not in the mood to try drawing her out. I keep thinking about Nicolas and that black eye, and the fucking cops dragging him into here. It all stinks to me, it all reeks like lies and shit.
This is our life. It’s always like this for guys like me and Nicolas. We’re born with nothing and we’re given nothing, and even if we fight to get some slice of goodness in this world, it’s always ripped away from our broken fingers by someone that doesn’t want us to have it. That’s how the world’s always been and how it’ll always be, and I can’t pretend like I think Nicolas has a shot in hell at beating these charges.
And it messes me up. It breaks my heart. It makes me so mad I could go back into that jail and kill every single one of those guards and drag Nicolas out myself.
Instead, I’ll see this to the end, no matter what.
“I think you’re right,” Sara says back in the car as I start the engine. I turn to her, surprised to hear those words come out of her mouth. “Don’t give me that look. I think he really was set up.”
“Based on what?”
“The open door. Nobody would leave the door open like that, not even by mistake. Someone wanted Nicolas to stumble in there.”
I lean back in my seat and run my hands over the wheel. “Cartel guys would know better than that. The kid’s new to all this shit, otherwise, he would’ve been paranoid about that open door from the start.”
“Why’d you send a kid like him, anyway?”
“He speaks Spanish and we thought it was a simple job.” He shakes his head. “We didn’t know.”
“Right.” She takes a long breath and lets it out. “Assuming it was one person, how the hell do you kill five people without anyone hearing a thing?”
I glance at her. “You think someone’s lying.”
“I think a lot of people are lying. We just have to figure out who and why.” She leans her head back and closes her eyes. “I only hope the real killers aren’t paying any attention to all this and are long gone by now.”
“You don’t have to worry about that,” I say and turn toward her. She glances at me, face still serious, but I can see the glimmer of fear in her eyes. “I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
“I appreciate that, but I don’t need a knight in shining armor. I need a gun and a good night’s sleep.”
“It’s Texas, I thought everyone carried out here.”
“Not everyone.” She sighs and rubs her face. “It’ll be fine, let’s just get back so I can do some work, okay?”
I put the car into gear and start driving.
The world might be shit, but I’m not going to let it hurt this girl. I’ve done bad things, let people down, gotten fucked up in my day, but I won’t let that get in the way of keeping Sara safe.
Chapter 5
Sara
I sit in my apartment surrounded by files and law books and feel like I’m starting to get dizzy.
It’s early in the morning, barely past eight, and I’m already overwhelmed.
After visiting Nicolas, I got together everything the prosecution sent over and borrowed as many books on homicide as I could and got to studying. As it turns out, living like a saint for my whole life prepared me for lots of cramming, and I stayed up half the night reading case law and trying to get myself up to speed. But all that did was give me a headache and make me exhausted because there’s no way I’m going to learn everything I need to know in time.