Page 88 of Rune
Maybe at some point in the future, there would be kids there with us…
Christ.
I needed to get a grip.
“Why are we parking across the street?” she asked as I cut the engine from where we were parked in the lot of an abandoned restaurant. Illegal, likely, but the cops were probably busy with all the tourists and teens creating chaos a little deeper in town. Besides, there was no chain across the opening to prevent it. I was shocked the bennies hadn’t found it and loaded in already.
“The main lots usually fill up by ten. You can sometimes get lucky to find a spot, but I don’t feel like fighting to find one when we could be out enjoying the day.”
“I can’t fault that logic,” she said, as I climbed out and moved around the hood to grab her door.
And thank fucking God my father raised me with manners.
Because if I hadn’t moved to the passenger side of the car, there would have been no cover when the tan car came out of nowhere, window down, something metal flashing in the sunlight.
Heart seizing, I grabbed Carmen, yanked her out, and pulled her forward toward the front wheel, hiding us behind the engine block just as the bullets started to fly, making metallic tings as they lodged in the body of the car.
A cry escaped Carmen as I turned us, pressing my own body against the tire and putting her in front of me, using my body as an extra barrier in case a bullet got through everything inside the car.
“You’re okay. It’s okay.” I was talking out of my ass. Nothing about this was okay. But letting her know I was panicked wasn’tgoing to help either. Though, to be fair, the source of that panic was her as well.
Because what the fuck? How many times could a woman be targeted and traumatized like this?
“Okay. It’s okay. It stopped.” I stroked her hair as she buried her face in my neck, her body shaking violently.
I didn’t dare pop up. Not yet.
It would be stupid for them to pause for any length of time on a busy street by the beach during tourist season. But they were clearly determined to hurt Carmen. If they saw this as their last chance, they might risk being seen if it meant they could lure us out and gun us down.
I could hardly hear anything over the hammering of my heartbeat, Carmen’s frantic breathing, and the wind that had picked up from over the water.
“You guys okay?” someone asked, making Carmen violently jerk as I wrapped her tighter, about to reach for a rock near my feet just in case, when I saw a shirtless blonde surfer type standing near the front of the car. “That shit was crazy.”
“Was anyone hit?” I asked, moving up just high enough to look over the car, checking the road for any suspicious tan cars.
“No, man. I checked. You guys good?”
“You’re good, right?” I asked, forcing Carmen back far enough to frame her neck, waiting for her to nod her answer.
“Yeah, we’re alright. Did someone—” But even as I was about to ask, the sirens of the cop cars wailed, moving closer. “Did you see anything?” I asked before the cops could get to us. “The driver? Passenger?”
“Two guys,” he said with a shrug. “But they had bandanas across their lower faces.” Of course they did.
“License plates?”
The surfer’s brows pinched. “You know, I don’t think they had ‘em. Or maybe they were from out-of-state.”
Which might excuse not having front ones, but if the backs were missing, that was a surefire sign of an experienced criminal.
I didn’t get a chance to ask anything else, though, as the cops swarmed the lot, hands on guns, faces tight, some of them seemingly relieved to have missed the action, others disappointed.
I couldn’t pry the shaken Carmen from me, so I tucked her at my side and tried to answer the questions for both of us, but nudged her to answer when it was clear the cop was frustrated with not getting her side.
“Really, we didn’t see much. As soon as I saw the gun muzzle, I got us down.”
“Smart to hide behind the front wheel,” the cop said. “In the movies they always crouch down in the body of the car. Like some flimsy modern car door is gonna stop a bullet.”
These guys weren’t from Navesink Bank. And I also didn’t have my cut on. So no one was putting together the pieces about who I was and what this crime could possibly be about.
