Slow Burn(5)

    I put fingers to my lips.

    “Look, we have to get out of here,” he said. “The police are going to show up. Or worse. Operation Wraith will figure out they’ve got an agent down. Where’s your car?”

    I shook my head. “I don’t believe you.”

    “Don’t believe me about what? Don’t believe he’s dead? Don’t believe I know him?”

    “Don’t believe any of it.” My voice cracked. I was going to start crying.

    He rubbed the top of his head. “Okay, okay. Uh, he told me to tell you something. It was, um...”

    I took a step back from Muscles and the bloody body. This wasn’t happening to me. This couldn’t be happening.

    “When you were five your dad got you a pony for your birthday, but you were afraid of it. And you wouldn’t touch it until he showed you it was safe.” Muscles spread his hands. “Would anyone else know that?”

    I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Fine, you talked to him.”

    “Where’s your car, doll?”

    I pointed. “Two blocks that way.” My dad made me promise never to park my car in the bank parking lot. I’d seriously considered doing it today because I was so late. But now I was glad that I hadn’t. I understood why he’d made that rule. If my car had been close, then the guy from Dewhurst-McFarland might have seen it. They’d have been able to use it to track me down.

* * *

    “My name’s Griffin Fawkes,” said Muscles. He was behind the wheel of my car. I couldn’t begin to even think about driving right now. He said it was better to take my car, because he was driving a stolen car, and it was best to ditch it. I was trapped inside a confined space with a car thief. “How do we get out of here? We get on I-68? East or West?”

    “I don’t know,” I said, buckling my seatbelt. I was feeling numb. I knew my dad had been in danger, but it had never seemed real before. It had all been away from me. There hadn’t been guns and knives and dead men in suits. “Where are we going?”

    “Back to wherever your dad has you hidden,” said Griffin.

    “Back there?” I said. “But don’t they know where I am now?”

    “No,” he said. “You called one of Frank’s old phones. They tracked that call. I did too. I didn’t know where you were. I only knew that Frank was gone. And he made it clear to me that if anything happened to him, he wanted me to keep an eye on you. But he never got around to telling me where you were. So, I tracked the phone. I assume Op Wraith did too. So, they only know you’re somewhere near Cumberland. You should still be safe wherever he’s got you settled.”

    I had called one of the old numbers, hadn’t I? So this was my fault? My head hurt. And he’d used the word ‘wraith’? What was he talking about?

    “So,” said Griffin. “Where to, doll?”

    “Thomas, West Virginia,” I said. “We need to get on 220 South.”

    “I saw signs for that on I-68,” he said.

    “Well, you don’t have to get on the interstate,” I said. “You could...” I thought about how to explain it.

    “What?”

    I shook my head. “Never mind. Cumberland’s confusing. Just get on the interstate.”

    “Okay.” He started the car. “You doing okay?”

    “No,” I said. “Not really.” I leaned my head against the window. “What’s Op Wraith?”

    “You don’t know about that? Really?”

    “Should I?”

    “Well, you know about the serum,” he said. “Op Wraith is a group of assassins-for-hire. They all have the serum.”

    “Oh,” I said. “Actually, I did know about that. I just didn’t know the name.”

    “I used to be Op Wraith,” said Griffin. “But I happened to be breaking out the same night your dad was stealing the serum. We helped each other out that night, and we’ve been helping each other since.”

    “You were an assassin?” This was the guy that my dad sent to look out for me? I guessed he was scary enough. As long as he only messed with other people, not me.