Canary by Tijan
Raize
Verónica either slept or sobbed.
We stopped to fill up with gas, but she remained inside the car. Abram tried to get her out. She wouldn’t go, kept saying in Spanish that she didn’t need to go to the bathroom. We left her alone, and when she realized Abram was going to spot me, let me try to sleep, she scooted as close to him as possible. A bag was wedged between her and myself.
At that point, I started wondering why I got her out, and then Ash’s face flashed in my mind right away. She did more than this for her sister, and she hadn’t even seen her sister once Brooke was pulled out. Then again, there was no newsflash there. Ash was ten times the person I was.
Abram caught my look and said under his breath, “Mantén el calmo mi compadre.”
I grunted. “Si, si. Solo estoy cansado.”
Verónica settled after that, and I caught her sneaking a look at me a couple times.
I did what Abram told me to do. I calmed down, and what I said was true. I was tired enough where I was able to ignore my sister’s constant tension and get some sleep. I needed it from the drive to Nogales, then to Guaymas, and we’d been on the run since.
When I woke, it was an hour later.
Verónica was passed out, her head resting against Abram’s shoulder, and I took care when I stretched my legs. I studied her a bit, seeing traces of my sister in her face.
“I don’t want to alarm you, but we’re following a car.”
“What?” I straightened.
There were two vehicles between us and Ash’s truck. A small green compact and another truck, one that looked beat up. Two males were inside, both wearing cowboy hats.
Abram was speaking softly, and indicated ahead. “The green compact. It was behind us for a while, then when I fell behind, it went around. It’s following your girl.”
I took out my phone.
“I thought it was just local authorities looking for her.”
He grunted. “Thinking it’s not so local anymore. She’s pretty. She still sticks out.”
I knew what he meant, but I was dialing Ash’s number.
“Did you get some sleep?”
“A bit, but listen. Put me on speaker.”
I heard a button get pressed. Her voice sounded louder, “You’re on.”
“Who’s driving?”
“Me.” Cavers.
I frowned, looking at the back of their truck. “Where’s Gus?”
Ash started laughing. “We brought him in. He’s half on Jake’s lap and mostly on mine.”
“You’re by the door?”
She was quiet.
Jake came on, more serious. “What’s going on, boss?”
“You’re being followed.”
“I thought we were,” Cavers added. “They came up on us thirty minutes ago, but haven’t been moving anywhere. Just looks like a single guy. Can’t tell if he’s talking to someone else or not.”
“What do you want us to do?”
Verónica was stirring, and I prepared myself for her horror at realizing I was beside her. She didn’t do that this time, only blinking her eyes at me, bags under her eyes and her eyes took in the phone in my hand.
I asked Abram, “What are you thinking?”
“I can’t see that being one of Marco’s. It’d be a whole team or he’d go ahead, call it in and then a slew of vehicles would swarm in.”
“They’re behind our vehicle, not yours.” That was from Jake.
Ash said, “I was on that hill.”
That’s what I was thinking, too. “Fall behind us. Let’s see what that car does.”
“And if he keeps going?” Jake.
“We take the next exit and haul ass. Stick to county roads.”
“Got it.”
“Leave the line open, just in case.”
“Will do. I’m falling back now.”
We hit the passing lane.
The green kept on them.
As we passed, the truck fell in behind us and then went ahead of us.
The green car, it stayed.
“They’re sticking to us.”
I said to Abram, “I want to drive.”
“What? I got skills.”
“Now.”
He growled, but then nodded to Verónica. “Move over, V.”
She didn’t say anything, but then I opened the back window and crawled out.
Abram and I had done this before, a long time ago so he knew the procedure.
Opening his window, he moved over as much as possible, but still held the wheel.
I poised on the edge of the truck, grabbed under the door and then flipped around and back inside. My feet went first and went down immediately, touching the ground as I grabbed the wheel from Abram.
The truck had started to slow, so I hit the accelerator.
After that, I went back to the passing lane and hit the brakes.
I wanted to see who was in that green car.
“Raize!” Ash was yelling from the phone. “You’re fucking insane!”
I smothered a chuckle. That’d really piss her off.
Abram chuckled. “Your blonde’s still loca. I like that.”
I flipped him my middle finger, and I was shocked to hear my sister let out a small giggle. Looking over, she had her head pressed into Abram’s arm. She was holding the phone up as he had his gun pulled out, laying on his lap.
From the phone, I could hear Jake. “How’d he know your hair used to be blonde?”
“Shut up. One crisis at a time here. Did you not just see that Raize crawled out of their truck and crawled back in through the window?!” Ash’s voice was rising.
“Yeah.” Jake laughed. “That was awesome.”
Cavers snorted, but must’ve taken the phone. His voice was more clear, closer. “What do you want us to do, boss?”
“I’m going to ram him, see what he’ll do. If you see an exit, take it.”
“You serious?”
I got behind the green car, hit the turn signal, and said, “Yes.”
Then I hit the accelerator.
ASH
I did not like this.Not one bit.
Panic was rising up in me, clawing over my throat.
I’d just watched Raize go out of their truck and slide back inside, from the outside. Which meant he’d been on the outside of a moving vehicle. And we weren’t taking a Sunday drive here. Speeds were interstate speeds. That meant hella-freaking-fast!
It was insane.
Crazy! Abram was right.
I wanted to murder Raize myself.
And then we proceeded to watch as he hit the back of the green car.
A bump, then he fell back and I knew he was waiting.
My heart was trying to pump out of me. “Oh my gawd, Raize. I’m going to kill you.”
I couldn’t handle this.
The green car swerved, ran onto the shoulder, then over-corrected and went into the passing lane. All the while, Raize’s truck held back, waiting, being so controlled.
Once the green car was back on the highway, Raize was right behind it. Another bump, not as gentle as the first one. And again, he fell back to see the reaction.
He didn’t wait long.
A gunshot sounded from the green car, and after that, it was over for him.
Raize rammed the car sideways, herding it off the highway and into the ditch. He kept pushing it. More gunshots came out and Raize’s front window shattered.
Someone was screaming.
Probably me.
I could just make out the tops of Abram and Raize’s sister’s heads. They were crouched down, but Abram had a gun pointing over the dashboard, aimed out. I could see Raize directing him where to shoot, and I saw him say, “Now!”
A shot went out.
I couldn’t watch this.
No way.
My hands were over my face, my fingers spread wide.
Oh my gawd.
Oh my God!
The green car jerked to the side, then Raize backed off and let it ram to a stop at the bottom of the ditch. There were giant rocks on the side. The car scraped against them. Once the car stopped, Raize braked abruptly behind it, the truck half blocking the car from any onlookers, and he was out and running to check on the driver.
His gun was drawn, pointing.
Abram ran out from the other side. As Raize approached from the far side, Abram moved in from the south.
Cavers was cursing, wheeling our own truck over and we all piled out.
“Clear!” Raize yelled at the same time as Abram and both went into the car.
The door was yanked open.
Raize was checking on the guy, but as I started to stop and see what I could do, Cavers grabbed my elbow. He pulled me with him.
Jake was ahead of us.
Gus—GUS! Where was Gus? But he was right beside me. Then he was darting forward, barking by Jake’s heels.
That’s when I got what Jake and Cavers were doing. They were grabbing anything that was in Raize’s truck. His sister started screaming at the sight of both of them, but they ignored her, grabbing the bags and sprinting back to the truck.
Raize had pulled the guy out, laying him on the side of the road by now.
Abram was inside the car.
But then I was at the opened side door and Raize’s sister was staring at me, tears streaked over her face. She was trembling.
Two hands reached inside my chest, took hold of my heart, and began squishing it together.
I was almost crying for her.
She was muttering something in Spanish. I couldn’t make it out, but I edged closer and held up a hand. “I’m a friend of Raize’s. Abram’s, too.”
At Abram’s name, she quieted and looked at the car.
She blinked a few more times and straightened with each one. I knew what she was seeing. She was seeing her brother, but she was seeing Jake and Cavers running behind him and her brother not being alarmed by them. And he’d had us on speaker so she knew they were traveling with another vehicle.
I edged closer, my hand steady. “Come with me? Por favor?”
Jake darted in, grabbed a bag around me, and sprinted right back.
Cavers did the same from the other side of her, and by the time they were back for another trip, her hand was in mine and I had her out of the truck. We ran to the other one and climbed in.
After that, Cavers grabbed some gasoline. He went back and doused the other.
Raize and Abram were carrying the other guy with them, putting him into the back of ours and Cavers was dousing the car, too.
Blankets were pulled out, and spread out in the back. The guy was hoisted up.
Jake yelled at Raize, “Who do you want to drive?”
Raize was still bent over the guy, but looked up, checking out where we were.
He grimaced, then motioned for me. “You need to be on the outside. V on the inside.” He hopped off the truck and grabbed the keys Jake was holding out for him.
I motioned for her to step out. She did, barely reacting. As soon as my feet touched gravel, she was going around me and into the middle. I hopped up, shutting the door.
He came in, starting the engine. “Lock your door, Ash.”
I did.
V blinked again, looking between him and me.
I had no idea what was going on in her head.
Jake and Abram both hopped into the back, and Raize started edging forward.
Cavers had been waiting, but he lit a spark and tossed it into one car, then another.
Both were steadily smoking when he jumped in the back.
Raize hit the acceleration and we gunned forward.
We’d gone half a mile when the first car exploded.
A second one followed almost right after.
Then we were off, because who knew who that would attract.
