Canary by Tijan
Ash
Something was wrong.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and when Raize stepped inside, I knew I was right. He was locked down. Completely. His face was blank, and that was not good.
Seeing him now, as he looked at me, we both knew.
It was done.
I gave him a small nod, because it was time. I had no clue what was going to happen, but we all knew our time here was a momentary break.
Jake was on the floor with Gus, who was tearing apart a couple of squeaky toys as if his life depended on it. Cavers was in the kitchen, cooking dinner, but it was like everyone felt Raize’s chill. All heads lifted and all eyes went to him. He stood just inside the door, his phone in hand, and he looked right at Jake.
“You have two options.”
A chill went down my spine. He was using his ‘motherfucker’ tone, and it was directed at Jake, and Jake knew what that meant. Raize was not messing around here.
Jake stood, slowly, and his eyes got guarded. “You want to watch how you talk to me?”
Raize wasn’t deterred. He shot right back, “You want to watch how you’ve been lying to our group here?”
Jake straightened, his head shooting up and his shoulders falling back. “Excuse me?”
“You’re not just fucking her.”
Wait—what?
Cavers came into the room, a slow step until he was beside me.
A whole new level of tension filled the room, and Jake’s head fell a little. So did his voice. “You want to say that again?”
“You’re not just fucking the hair stylist in town. You’re having a relationship with her.”
Oh… No.
That was bad.
We’d kept to ourselves, or tried. I never left the property except for a walk with Cavers and even that, we kept to the woods. Ultimate privacy. Jake was sent to pick up food. He wasn’t even supposed to go in and get it. He was supposed to order it since the local grocery store had that option, pull up and they’d bring it out to the car.
A relationship?
“You’re doing that?”
Jake swung his head Cavers’ way, a bit jerky. He glared at both of us, his jaw tightening, before he lifted up a shoulder. “Yeah, man. I did that.”
“She talks to her sister about you.”
Jake’s head whipped back to Raize. “You got her phone tapped?”
I held my breath.
Raize’s voice came out cold. “Of course I tapped her phone. She knows you. She knows how you feel, taste. She’s got feelings involved and she’s going to remember you.”
“So—what? What do you want me to do about it? I ain’t killing her.”
“We’re leaving.”
That was the ball I was waiting to get dropped. I knew it now, knew why Raize was bringing up Jake’s girl. If we left, she’d remember. She might start looking, talking more, and what then? Where would that lead to?
“Damn,” a quiet word from Cavers.
Jake didn’t say a word. His jaw clamped shut and a vein stuck out from the side.
Raize’s eyes were back to being hooded. No. That wasn’t right. He was back to looking dead.
A second shiver passed through me because I’d started to hate that look. It went away at times, mostly with me, mostly in bed, but it’d been less and less the last two weeks.
I detested that it was back.
He said, staring at Jake, “You leave her behind and what’s she going to start saying to that sister of hers? Her sister is married to a probation officer.”
Jake winced. He ran a hand over his face. “I didn’t know that.”
“Because you didn’t vet who you wanted to stick your dick into.”
I closed my eyes.
Cavers grunted at hearing Raize’s words, but he didn’t say anything.
“I thought, I don’t know. She’s pretty. She’s nice. She’s kinda funny.”
“She’s in love with you, hoping you’re going to ask her to move in with you.”
Cavers murmured, “She doesn’t seem the smartest bulb.”
I opened my eyes and Jake was shaking his head, his eyes downcast, and his shoulders slumped in a whole defeated way. “I can’t kill her.”
“Then what are you going to do? You can’t bring her along.”
I knew where Raize was going because Jake couldn’t kill her and in Raize’s mind, in this world, that meant he’d have to kill her. But damn. No. She was innocent. She didn’t—I stepped forward. All eyes came to me, but I was looking at my man.
I raised my eyebrows. “Does she know his name?”
“No,” Jake answered, and swiftly. “I’m not that stupid.”
I kept on, staring only at Raize, “Relationships end for all different reasons. He can tell her his mom fell ill and he’s gotta go see her. He can wait, break up with her in a week. Two weeks even.”
“She’s going to ask questions.”
I shook my head, hard.
Jake and Cavers had fallen silent. This was between Raize and me, and I was bargaining for this woman’s life.
“No,” from me.
“He ends it now, she’s going to start remembering all their past times and their past conversations. She’s going to realize she knows nothing about him and she’s going to start getting angry. She’s going to feel duped by him and that’s when she’ll start searching for him. It’ll be one internet search. She ain’t going to find a ‘Brian’ and it’s a matter of time before she’s going to pull on the string she’s got hanging in front of her.” Raize glanced at Jake. “I can’t use threats this time.”
“You kill her and that’ll set off the questions.” My chest was tight and getting tighter.
Raize already had his mind made up, but no, no, no.
I was wrong again. I thought I didn’t have any more lines left not to cross. This was it. Innocents. This was my stand.
I whispered, “She’s an innocent, Raize. No.”
He barely blinked. “She’s a loose end. The sister knows a first name and that’s it. The connection ends there.”
“No.” Jake stepped forward, his head swinging from left to right. “I go to the grocery store. The liquor store. Those have cameras. You kill her and the brother-in-law will make calls, get that footage pulled. They’ll get a face. Ash is right. We go and I tell her my mom’s got cancer. A week later, it’s real bad. I can’t get back. I’ll string her along until I’m just gone. She’ll hurt, but not in the way where she’s going to get curious and start doing google searches for me. It’ll be fine.”
“I can destroy security footage. I can’t stop a woman’s curiosity.”
He was right, but no.
Just, no.
“No, Raize.”
His jaw clenched, and he stared right at me, his eyes dropping the dead affect. They were burning, and I almost winced because it was me. I was standing in his way, and in his mind, it was his way of making me safe.
“I just got a call. We need to go back. Roman’s orders.” His gaze swept the room. “Pack up and wipe the house. We leave in an hour.” He turned to Jake. “You make that all about your mother, but do it from the road.”
I almost sagged from the relief.
He was trying my way.
Jake clipped his head in a nod and he was off to start packing.
Cavers went to do the same.
Raize came over to me, standing so close, he was touching me. His eyes were on mine. And his finger reached out, stroking my stomach through my shirt. “Your way this time.”
My throat got all full. I dropped my voice, barely a whisper, “Thank you.”
His eyes were still burning, and I knew he didn’t like it.
