The Girl Who Would Be King(20)
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I can tell from the second I come into the room that something is going to happen tonight, probably something bad. There’s a tension that I haven’t felt since I killed Delia. It feels like an ancient warning system. But since I can’t tell what is going to go bad, or when, I decide to just ride it out and try to be extra careful. I wrap my arms around Adrian’s waist, burying my face in the crook of his neck, smelling him wrapped up in his old leather jacket. He smiles down at me and kisses my hair.
“Mi niña,” he says.
“Hi,” I say. At least everything with Adrian seems fine. I catch Melvin watching us and shoot him a nasty look, which he laughs at. I don’t know what I’m going to have to do to make that dude shut up and stop laughing, but it isn’t going to be pretty. Maybe, when Adrian and I finally get out of here and head for L.A. I’ll leave Melvin a parting gift.
I get in the car with the rest of the gang, minus Melvin. Enrico is there, and Felice’s boyfriend Jorge of course, and the new guy, Albert. I’m not too wild about Albert being included since I don’t know him too well, but I actually trust him more than Melvin, so I guess it doesn’t matter much one way or the other. In the SUV Adrian and I sit in the back as usual, making out as we drive to the site. Felice yells at us to ‘cut it out’ at least three times, which is two times less than she usually does, but we never pay attention anyway. When we get there I hop out and take off my jeans and sweatshirt to reveal my black cat suit, which I have officially begun to call my ‘working clothes’. I pull the hood over my hair and adjust it on my face. Adrian steps out after me, all in black, a ski mask rolled up on his head, revealing his face, and a crowbar in his hand. He looks back at Felice, who’s driving, as per usual, and Enrico who’s looking intently at a glowing laptop perched on his knee. Albert and Jorge lace up their boots, gearing up for their ‘decoy bit’. Felice is on the phone with Melvin waiting for a ‘go ahead order’. She’s holding her finger up, telling us to wait a minute. I look in the distance at the low concrete building and the high surrounding fence. Something still feels off. Felice snaps her phone shut and looks at Adrian.
“We’re a go,” she says curtly.
Adrian looks at me. “You ready, baby?”
“Actually,” I pause, looking around. I still have the creeps; something’s wrong. “I don’t know.”
“What?” he asks, looking around, trying to see what I am seeing, which is of course impossible.
“Something’s wrong. I’ve had a bad feeling all night, and now, well, I’ve still got it. I think we should bail.”
“Seriously?”
“What the hell is going on?” Felice calls from inside the SUV.
“Lola’s got a bad feeling. She thinks we should call it off,” Adrian says into the darkness of the SUV.
“Oh really? So now Lola’s got super-instincts?” Albert laughs. I kinda want to shove Adrian’s crowbar up his nose, but Adrian puts a hand on my arm to keep me still.
“I don’t know Albert, her judgment has been pretty good so far,” he starts.
“Yeah, I’m sure you’re not compromised in any way considering you’re fucking her.” At that I kind of lose it and jump forward into the car, intent on clawing his damn eyes out, but Adrian grabs me by the waist and pulls me back outside with him. I don’t really fight it. I hate showing these people what I can do and regardless of my anger, this moment is no exception. Adrian puts his hand up as if to calm me and gets back in the SUV to discuss it with the rest of the group. I hear ‘cabron’ a couple times and ‘cagar’ at least once, both of which mean Adrian is pissed. But we lose anyway. We’re going ahead with the plan. Of course we are. It’s really only Adrian and I with our asses on the line, so, of course they want the score regardless of any thoughts we may have on the subject.
Twenty minutes later we’re running for our lives.
We’d gotten what we came for (some stupid box Melvin wanted) and Adrian or I (but it’s totally Adrian) tripped an alarm. We’re halfway to escaping but Adrian can’t keep up with me so I slow my pace and take the heavy box from him in mid-stride to lighten his load, he lost the crowbar ages ago. He still can’t keep up and so I slow down even more so that we’re at least together.
And then there are dogs.
I hate when there’re dogs.
But we’re close to the fence, and I’m all ‘we’re gonna be fine’ in my head. Since tripping the alarm though, we’re off course, and so where we’re coming out the fence is higher than where we originally came over. And since we’re not in the right position, the SUV is nowhere to be seen either. I’m looking at the fence and there is just no way Adrian is getting over it, especially not with the dogs on us. So when we hit the fence I send the box flying up over it. It lands in the dust on the other side with a satisfying thud. When Adrian catches up with me he’s out of breath and horrified and he tears off his mask, his eyes wide and panicked. I take his face in my hands for just a second.