Canary by Tijan
Carrie
We were parked outside a gas station. Me and Jake. I was in the front with the door open, my feet up on the dashboard. We were waiting for Raize and Cavers to return from inside.
It was almost eleven in the morning.
We only had another hour to go. The drive hadn’t been long, but Raize said we needed to stop, so we did.
Jake climbed back behind the wheel with his food. He handed me a bag and put his coffee in the drink holder. He handed over the second for me.
“I added some of the sugary shit for you.”
I took it, surprised at the gesture. “Thank you.”
I hadn’t thought about getting anything. I went in, went to the bathroom, washed up, and came back out. I hadn’t needed to get the keys from Jake. Raize had sent Jake to make extra copies while I was sleeping. We each got a set of keys to both vehicles, and once Jake had slept enough to drive, we were off.
“So?” he asked as he looked my way.
I sipped my coffee, grimacing at its heat and his question. “I haven’t asked.”
His eyes shifted to my bag, where he knew my gun was. When we’d taken everything out to the vehicles, Raize had added a gun to my bag. “That is yours now,” he’d told me. “You will need it.”
Jake shook his head. “Girl.”
I grinned. I’d grown attached to being called Girl. “It’s Carrie now.”
He huffed, rolling his eyes. “I don’t get this, whatever you’re doing.”
“What am I doing?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I don’t get it. What are you doing? He gave you a gun. Does he know you don’t know how to use it?”
I took another sip. It was still hot. “He knows.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“I still can’t teach you unless you ask him or he gives me the order. You know that. What’s this weird resistance from you?”
I sighed, putting my feet down and sitting up in my seat. I rested my head against the backrest. “It’s just another milestone I don’t want to cross yet.”
“Milestone?”
“Yeah. You know, in this world, it’s all a slippery slope. Me learning how to shoot a gun is the milestone before I actually use the gun.” My stomach clenched, knowing what was on the other side of that milestone.
Understanding flared in his eyes. “Look, you’re never gonna be the girl he sends out to kill someone. When it comes to it, the boss is going to do his own dirty work. That's how he got his come-up anyway, but you need to learn. When it’s you or the guy who’s trying to kill you, the other guy has to go. And you ain’t dumb. You know that.”
I knew that. Of course I did, but it was another step toward losing my soul, too.
I frowned. “His come-up?”
He reached for his bag, taking out a sandwich and unwrapping it. “You know.”
I shook my head. “I don’t.”
“That’s how he got in the business. He’s from the cartel.” He kept watching me, and seeing my confusion, his lips pressed together. “You didn’t know?”
I shook my head. Raize came from the cartel? What did that mean?
I felt like it meant something... Cartels were a whole other level of vicious.
Wow. The cartel. In our business, they were avoided. The Russians were bad, but the cartel was different. They didn’t just kill you. They went after your family. They went after anyone you loved, and they did their research.
I was doubly glad no one knew my real name.
I’d been Brooke when I started down this path. There had been a few other names before Raize started calling me Girl. Now I was Carrie.
“He was the guy they sent in to take someone out. The dude’s good at killing people.”
I suppressed a shiver. “How’d he get out?”
“I don’t know. There were rumors he got out because his boss was indebted to him. Others say he was sold like you were to Carloni. I think the only one who really knows is him.” Jake side-eyed me. “He might tell you. He likes you.”
I jerked in surprise. “What?”
He nodded. “He’s got a soft spot for you. Don’t know why. I don’t think he wants to fuck you. Maybe you remind him of someone?”
That was weirdly unsettling.
We both stopped talking.
Jake ate his food, and I sipped my coffee as we waited for Cavers and Raize to show.
Raize came out first, but waited outside the door. He looked at their truck, then us. I could feel his gaze on me before he went back inside. A couple women were checking him out. That gave me an unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach, too.
“Is Raize good looking?”
I hadn’t meant to ask that out loud. Jake paused mid-bite. He started laughing, peeling the wrapper back. “That’s funny, you asking me that.”
I’d thought it once when I was drunk, but not after. And the women at the airport, now the women here… I just saw the deadness inside of him.
“Is he?” I didn’t know why I was pushing this. I knew he was. But I wanted to hear what Jake would say. And I didn’t know the reason for that either.
He paused, the hot dog in his mouth as he studied me a second. Then he swallowed and lowered his food to his lap. “You serious?”
I nodded.
He tilted his head, as if he could get a better look at me and maybe understand why I was asking. “Yes. I’m a straight male, but I can tell the ladies like him. A lot. Then again, most women are crazy in my opinion.”
I nodded. That settled me.
The world felt right again.
Those women were just crazy.
