Page 46 of Shadow Man
“What the hell happened to your arm?” I catch him staring at me—more specifically the blood-soaked towel wrapped around my wound. He may have distracted me from the pain for a while, but it’s back to full-force now, radiating up into my shoulder and neck.
“None of your business,” snaps Vi, ramping up her fierce tigress woman persona. “Anna,move it.”
“She’s not going anywhere!” he thunders. “She needs medical attention. And neither are you, for that matter.”
“Why do you care so much about her goddamn arm when you’re itching to carve up the rest of her? Did he hurt you, Anna?” she calls out to me.
“No, I—”
“Thank fuck… You deserve more than a bullet,El Asesino, for all the things you’ve done to the people of this country,” she says, switching on the hate for Joseph again. “You and yourjefe.”
But she’s throwing stones at concrete. The threats are just ricocheting off him and dropping to the floor.
I can't stop glancing between them—to the woman who is just as much of a storm as I am to the man who’s a raging Shakespearean tempest inside.
He’s right about one thing. I’m not whole yet. This night has been revelatory, but I’m not done filling in my empty spaces.
“Anna?” Her eyes are pleading with me now. “He’s cartel, Anna.Santiago cartel,” she hisses, trying to convey a million things to me in the shortest sentence ever. “He’s been hired to track us down and bring us to Alejandro Fernandez, I’m sure of it.”
“Anna,” growls Joseph.
He’s growing tired of my silence, but I can't bring myself to confess why he’s really here. Vi would end up hating me. I’d be back in rehab by the weekend.
I just can’t.
So, I make a split-decision, then and there.
“Oh my God! Are you serious?” I spring away from him in mock shock. “How can you tell?”
“Look at his tattoo,” she cries triumphantly. “It’s Santiago ink. Get your ass in gear, girl! He may have alerted more men to our location already.”
“Okay, okay, the rest of my things are in the bathroom!”
Joseph’s not moving. He’s just staring at me with his eyebrows raised, my lie as thin to him as the motel curtains. He knows what I’m doing, and why I’m doing it. The question is: will he allow it?
All of a sudden, he lets out a dirty-ass chuckle, which jacks up my pulse rate even more. “As you wish,Luna. You keep running and I’ll keep chasing. Let’s keep this wheel spinning for another turn, shall we? The next time we meet, maybe you’ll be a quarter moon and not a crescent.”
“You’re never meeting her again, you bastard,” says Vi, tightening her finger on the trigger. “And quit with the enigmatic stuff. Shall we kill him, Anna?”
Joseph cocks an eyebrow at me. He knows we’re bound tighter than ever now. He fastened another knot by making me come all over my own fingers. I made it a double reefer by accepting him into my mouth. I can still taste the flavor of his whiskey kiss, and it makes me want to take up hard liquor drinking all over again.
“Too messy,” I say, ignoring another of his dirty-ass chuckles. “Have you got any rope? Tape? We can tie him up and leave him here.”
“Think that’ll stop me, sweetheart?”
Vi looks as if an alien just burst out of my stomach. “Did you hear what I said? He’sSantiago. If he catches us again, he’ll do way worse than Fernandez would.”
“I can’t do it, Vi,” I say wearily. “I’m done killing tonight.”
“Then let me—”
“No!”
“Fine.” I can tell she thinks I’m insane though, which I probably am.“It’s your call. I think I saw some gaffer tape in the car. Here, take this.” She motions to me with the spare gun. “Easy, now.”
I grab my skirt from the bathroom floor and brace myself as I pass by Joseph. I’m half-expecting him to grab me and shake some sense into me. Instead, he gives me a hit of that leather and musk that lodges our dirty little secret even deeper inside my wet panties.
Tugging on my skirt with one hand, I take the gun and adopt her position.