I hung back a bit, nervous.
He knocked and waited. Nothing happened. He knocked again, louder, and we waited. He glanced back at me.
“Nobody’s home,” he said.
“Try the knob.”
He frowned and turned it. The door opened with ease.
“Shit,” he muttered. He reached back and took out his gun. “Stay here,” he said to me.
“Nope,” I answered, staying close to him. “We’re in this together.”
He didn’t argue. He was too busy sweeping the room as we stepped into the building.
The living room was completely empty. It was clean, though maybe a little musty-smelling, but there wasn’t a bit of furniture anywhere. We moved through and I glanced down a hallway. There were more rooms back there, and they looked equally empty.
Rafa headed into the kitchen. I followed, staying close, my heart beating fast. I was terrified, though I wasn’t sure why. Something felt wrong.
In the kitchen, there was a single table. On the table was a black plastic rectangle.
Rafa got closer. “VHS tape,” he said. “Probably from a security camera.”
“This is what they wanted us to have.”
“Looks like it.”
I smiled at him, suddenly elated. “This is amazing.”
“Come on. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
I turned and started heading back toward the front door. I felt good, floating on air. I felt like I had finally done something right, finally made a good decision.
Then suddenly pain blossomed in my side, hot and sharp. Something shoved me up against the wall violently, and blackness descended.
24
Rafa
It felt like a fucking trap.
I’d set up a lot of traps just like it. You lure someone into a sense of security by bringing them to a location and delivering, but once they get to that second location, bam. You nail them there.
This was exactly what I would’ve done if I’d wanted to trap the Spiders. Cassidy didn’t understand that, of course. How the fuck could she? Finding the VHS tape wasn’t proof of anything, and I was still on high alert as we turned to leave.
That was probably the only thing that saved her. As she stepped back into the living room, a person wearing all black slammed into her, shoving her against the far wall, and threw a bag over her head.
I squeezed off two rounds. They hit the person right in their body armor and knocked them over, but I knew they weren’t dead.
I moved fast, but there were more people spilling into the room. I grabbed Cassidy by the arm and yanked her behind me as the shots began to ring out. She screamed, but I threw her back behind the wall and into the kitchen, getting us into cover.
I counted three more people, plus the one on the floor. There was a back door, but I couldn’t be sure that was unguarded.
We were fucking trapped.
I grabbed the hood and tore it from Cassidy’s head. She looked terrified, her eyes wide. “Stay down,” I yelled. I checked the room and bullets rained down on me, forcing me back.
Fuck. I had to think. I quickly replayed what had happened as I heard the people in the other room shifting their positions.
And then it hit me. I grabbed Cassidy by the shoulders. “Run for the back door.”
“What? Are you crazy?”
“No. You have to go.”
“They’re shooting at us.”
“They’re shooting at me. They tried to grab you, but I stopped them. They don’t want you dead.”
“Rafa, no. I can’t leave you.”
“You have to go.” I pushed her toward the door. “Go, god damn it.”
“Rafa.”
“Go,” I yelled, and then fired off a few shots.
She stared at me and then ran toward the back door.
I covered her escape, firing shots back into the room, but they weren’t aiming for her. She got to the back door, pulled it open, and escaped into the backyard.
I smiled to myself. At least she was going to get out of this. Cassidy and the baby were more important than me. If I died, so be it. At least my kid would survive in her.
I looked back into the room. The person on the ground was gone, and only two people remained. I cursed and fired off some shots, hitting one person in the shoulder. I heard a scream and she backed off.
The other two must have gone after Cassidy. I yelled a curse and fired off some wild shots as I made a run for the back door.
Bullets hissed through the air around me. As I got through, I felt a burning pain lance up my calf. I stumbled and fell, rolling forward.
I got to my feet, whirling around and squeezing off some shots. That saved my life, because the Spider had followed me. My shots caught her in the body armor, knocking her to the ground.
I was shot in the calf, but I was okay. I looked around wildly and saw that the back gate was open. I limped through it as fast as I could. I looked left and then right, and I saw Cassidy slowly backing away from two people wearing black.