Page 67 of Hiding In the Dark (The Righteous 4)
“So you tripped and fell into a fist? That’s a new one.” She crossed her arms and gave him a glare before she looked away again. “I mean it, Kid. You tell me who did this.”
“No, ‘cause you’ll hurt them.”
“And what the fuck do you care if—,” he stopped as the lightbulb clicked on. “Your mother. She did this, didn’t she? Why did she hit you, Zumi?” She sucked on her bottom lip and tried hard to delay the inevitable, but he wasn’t having any of the silent treatment. “Okay, fine, don’t tell me. I have other ways to find out, and I’ll start by going straight to the source.” He didn’t get two strides before Zumi was yanking on his arm.
“No, please don’t hurt her.”
“Why do you fucking care so much about her? All she does is hurt you and leave you alone. She forces you to take care of her ass when it should be the other way around. I don’t get it.”
“Because she’s still my mother, and she’s all I have,” Zumi said, letting go of his arm. “She’s all I got, and I’m all she has.”
“That’s not true. You have me.”
Zumi’s eyes lifted to his, and the pain in them was like a stab to the gut. “No, I don’t. Not really. You could leave at any time, and don’t lie and tell me you can’t. You have this whole new world with Ashley, who I really like for a Dweller, but it’s not my life. This is my life.” She pointed to her tiny tarp home and the others like it. “You’ll choose to leave, and I get it. I’d leave, too, if I could. But when you go, my mother is all that will be here, and besides, she needs me.”
“There are so many things wrong with that sentence, but we’ll have to talk about it later. I have a job I’ve got to go do, and I need to get going. Stay in my tent. Keep hidden. If she comes home high again, we’ll figure something out.” Zumi shuffled her feet back and forth, and he knew she was trying to be tough, which would mean she’d take the beating on principle alone. “I mean it, Kid.”
Taking an exaggerated breath, she sighed and nodded. It was as good as he was going to get. The kid was as stubborn as an ox.
“Oh, and there’s a knife under the pillow—use it if you have to.” He marched out of the tent alley and passed Momma G, who was humming a tune he didn’t recognize. Now he just had to convince himself not to kill Chelsea when he saw her again. Regardless of what Zumi said, he was fucking tempted.
There was one thing he hated more than traffickers: a parent who hurt their kid.
Kes blended in with the darkening sky, his mask and black fatigues helping him become one with the shadows. Not that he had much to worry about in his current location. It was a part of town that people just didn’t seem to go to—he’d often wondered if there were ghosts or something that scared everyone off because people avoided the area. But during the day, it was a lovely spot.
He stuffed the little earpiece into his ear and waited for Arek to say that things were a go. Pulling out his phone, he saw he didn’t have any waiting messages. He was tempted to text Ashley, but he had promised to give her space.
“Fuck,” he mumbled as he stuffed the phone back in his pants. He hated waiting—he hated a lot of things, but waiting was near the top.
“Alpha One, checking in,” Arek said a few moments later.
“Why do you get to be Alpha One?”
“‘Cause I’m better looking,” came back Arek’s reply, making him smirk. Still the arrogant prick, but there were few he’d trust more out there.
“We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one. I’m in position.” Kes looked up at the old bridge and then along the road as he pictured what was soon to come play out.
“Package is loaded, and party favors are in place. Following now.”
“Ten-four.”
The idea was simple, not much different than the smash-and-grabs the guys had done a thousand times. This would be his first. Being the exfil point, he always got them the fuck out of Dodge at the end of the line, but this required more than one person, and Trev would have to remain at the courthouse. He was right. He and Cody needed to be on camera front and center, pleading to the hearts of America so that no one could say they might be involved.
“Cargo has been diverted past the second blockade to your direction,” Arek relayed. The truck’s normal route would bring it near the bridge, but with a few carefully-created diversions, they would have to be rerouted into their trap.
Nothing quite like purposely busting the water mains to flood a street or setting a few cars on fire to make it a productive Thursday. He smirked and shook his head as he pictured Ashley’s face. If she only knew what he was up to tonight. Most women worried about their men cheating. She had to worry about whose throat he was slitting. He scratched his chin as he wondered how that would do in a poll of ‘worst boyfriends.’ He knew he would at least rank a rung about the asshole that hit her. One of these nights, that man was going to find himself strapped to a chair while he had a little chat with him.
He checked the fancy new toy that Trev had given him to make sure the dual chambers were loaded and pulled his hood into place.
“Five minutes out,” Arek said into his ear, and he tapped the button on his phone to get Baby Doll to do her part and make sure the light stayed red for cars coming this way. There were no cameras in this area, which made for an added bonus—one less thing to worry about. It always drew attention when they had to black out blocks at a time, not that Arek ever cared about that. He leaned against a column decorated with an assortment of graffiti and stared across the way at a life-like multicolored tongue that had more miniature rainbows than he could count, but it was the equally life-like group of faces that had been mixed into the artwork that made it so unusual and unique. Every time he looked at it, he saw a new face, a new emotion. The large support columns gave him the perfect hiding spot, with dark corners and the poor lighting casting long shadows.
He glanced up and down the road, which had remained dark and empty. This part of the bridge didn’t have an access ramp to get on or off, which meant if they stopped the meager amount of traffic that happened to wander in their direction, they wouldn’t have to worry about any unsuspecting witnesses.
“Two minutes.”
Kes cracked his neck and rolled out his shoulders. A flash of light began to illuminate the far side of the underpass, and he peeked around the edge to see the armored prisoner transport. He was surprised it wasn’t a bus. Usually, they reserved those trucks for the guys that would like to eat your face off while you were still breathing.
“Blowing wheels now,” Kes said. He hit the button for armed, and then the red button on his phone connected to the small charges Arek had managed to slip into the wheel wells of the truck. The first bang was followed closely by a second one as the charges blew out two of the tires. Kes could make out the driver of the truck frantically trying to keep the armoured vehicle from flipping or hitting the center median as sparks flew in every direction from the bare rims. The loud screeching of metal on the pavement echoed along under the bridge, making a sound like a train was breaking down instead of just a truck.
