by Lisa Daniels
Almost as soon as the words were out of her mouth, a noise behind them let her know they weren’t quite as bad off as they could be. Not yet.
Chapter 8
Around and About
“Taylor, is that you?”
Cora and Emery were both relieved that they hadn’t been noticed, but that didn’t mean they were safe. Emery placed an arm around Cora and his other hand over her mouth. Then he made a bizarre noise. He released her, then she heard something bounce off the rock face a ways away.
The man had shouted at the noise Emery had made, and a couple of seconds later, he started firing his gun in the direction of the second noise. “Damn raccoons!” he shouted.
“What they hell are you doing, Conner?” Someone else came running into the area.
“Fucking raccoons,” the man named Conner said. “Startled me shitless.”
Cora and Emery could see the newcomer yank the gun out of Conner’s hand. “Don’t be a fucking moron. You can’t go shooting that off here. Don’t you know about ricochets? And what if you do something to set off the method?” He smacked the back of Conner’s head with the gun. “Use your damn brain.”
He stalked back the way he had come. Now that there was a little more light, Cora could see Emery’s face, and he was wearing a wicked little grin. She turned to look at the other man who was holding the back of his head and cursing the man who had just left. Without a sound, Emery snuck up and wrapped an arm around the man’s neck while he was in a steady string of curse words. Suddenly, Conner stopped swearing and a vague gurgling came from the man. A few seconds later, Emery put the man on the ground. He then picked up the guy’s phone and pushed a few buttons. Cora watched with interest. There was no way a guy like that would make it easy to access; surely the phone was locked. It didn’t take long before he finished, tossed the phone face down on the man, and moved back to Cora.
“What the hell do you think you are doing?” Cora looked from Emery to the still body on the ground. Her voice was alarmed, and just barely contained.
“Knocked him out. Since the other guy struck him with the butt of a gun, it’s going to look like Conner was knocked unconscious.” Emery was smiling as he looked toward the other room. “One less guy to worry about. By the time he comes to, we will be long gone.”
“How do you know that?”
“The cave isn’t that big.”
“How can you know that?”
Emery’s black eyes shone in the darkness. “From the echoes of his gun. Although I think that my ears are bleeding from that downright asinine act. What kind of a moron…” the man sighed. “Well, we just need to be extra careful. It’s a small space, and these are senseless simpletons we’re dealing with. It would be such an embarrassment to be caught or killed by them. Come on.” He began to move but stopped suddenly. “Oh, and change of plans. Please stay close. With so little room and such a great likelihood of mindless behavior, I think it best that we stay together.”
Cora nodded at him, intrigued by the way he looked so alive. Up until this point, Emery had seemed levelheaded and nearly unemotional. Now he appeared to be like a cat let into a room full of mice. She leaned over toward him. “Alright, but I dare say you are enjoying this far too much.”
He looked down at her. “What do you mean?”
“You keep smiling and your vocabulary has changed.”
“Ah, yeah, sorry. When I get excited, I forget to try to blend in.”
“Wait, what?” Cora looked at Emery like he was speaking another language.
“I’ll tell you about it later. Right now, we need to get out of here. Remember, I'm hurt.” He gripped his side, but the smile on his face suggested that it was no longer bothering him.
“Sure, use that as an excuse when it is clear you are excited about the upcoming action. Just keep in mind this isn’t an action movie.”
Emery gave her an exasperated look. “Do you really think you need to tell me that?”
“Yeah, I do, otherwise I wouldn’t have said it.” She smiled at him. “Welcome to my world. Enjoy being told to not act like an idiot.” Cora moved a hand in front of her to indicate he should be moving. “After you.”
“I’ll remember this.” He gave her a meaningful look, then moved in front of her. “Remember, stay close.”
She gave him a light slap on the back in response. He gave a little chuckle, then a slight cough before continuing forward. When they reached the edge where the operation was going on, they could see about a dozen people moving around. Several were working over a vat, a small group was talking to the side near a small pile of cash and product. Two men stood near the entrance.
Emery was smiling and shaking his head. Cora could tell he wanted to say something, but with the drug runners so close that was obviously a bad idea. He wrapped his hand around hers and led her toward the vat. Cora pulled a face. She had heard about how unstable the stuff was and the idea of being close to it was unappealing. The only thing she could do about it was to try to stop him by pulling on his hand. That did not seem like a good idea either. Allowing him to lead her into the room, she stayed close to him, her eyes constantly looking around them. The cave was pretty small, and the mouth to the cave wasn't more than 200 feet from them. Wondering why they would set up here, she tried to stay quiet as the smell of the place hit her. It was very unpleasant. Fighting the urge to gag, Cora held her breath for a bit, taking a little air in through her mouth periodically.
Emery stopped and looked at the vat for a while. There was no way to tell what he was thinking, but he did look around for a moment before finally beginning to move again. Cora looked at each of the people in the room, as if to memorize their faces. If there was a way to bust them, it would be an improvement, and Cora had been raised never to ignore an opportunity to make the world a better place. This was just a bit out of her normal experiences.
Suddenly, Emery pressed up against the rock face and placed a hand on her stomach to push her against the rock, too. He took a step in front of her as if to hide her. Looking around, she could see that there wasn’t much hiding them from sight, something she had failed to notice as she took in everything else. The small group of people talking suddenly grew louder. Emery leaned over and pulled her quickly behind him. They darted behind a stack of boxes and pressed their backs against the rock again. Emery stood up a little and peeked over them. Cora leaned a little and watched as people all around the cave began to move around in a bit of a tizzy.
Cora wanted to ask what was going on, but talking wasn’t an option. Emery had another wicked grin on his face, and she had a feeling that the reaction was part of what he had done when he knocked out Conner. His voice was right next to Cora’s ear. “Now’s our chance.” He stood up again and moved to the mouth of the cave where only one of the two guys was left. Emery released Cora’s hand and grabbed the guard. The man’s eyes widened with shock as a hand slid over his mouth and another one pulled him off into the shadows. Cora slipped around the mouth behind Emery. For the first time, she looked around and it registered that it was late. Suddenly, her phone started to buzz. Horrified that someone might hear it, Cora pulled out the phone and quickly shut it off.
A hand reached out and pulled her away from where she was standing. Emery’s voice was in her ear. “What are you doing?”
“My phone was buzzing. I didn’t want anyone to hear it.”
“You need to learn to do that from the shadows. Standing right at the entrance while they are moving around like an agitated hive is only going to cause problems.”
“Yeah, sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”
“It’s alright. There’s a vehicle over here that we can take.”
“What happened to the guard?”
“Knocked out over there.”
“Why are they running around?”
“I’ll tell you in a bit. Right now I want to get you out of here while they are distracted. The sound of a vehicle starting up is going to get attention, so let�
�s do it while the fewest number of people are watching.”
Emery grabbed her hand as he looked around before running out into the open. He pulled open the door of a large truck, boosted Cora up into it, and quickly hopped up after her. She sat down and looked at him. “How are we going to get out of here?”
He gave her a grin as his hand held up a set of keys. “Courtesy of the guard.”
“How did you know which was his? That doesn’t have one of those locks.”
“From the smell.”
“Oh. Of course.” At a bit of a loss, she decided not to question him further.
As soon as he turned the key in the ignition the truck roared into life, and immediately they knew that people had heard. Emery reached out a hand and pushed Cora’s head down. “Stay down in case we encounter anyone on the road.”
“What about you?”
“I have to be able to see where we are going. Slamming into a tree now would not help us at all.”
Unable to drive fast through the wooded area, Cora let Emery focus on the road for a bit. At one point she thought she heard sirens, but that wouldn’t make any sense where they were. Still, it bothered her.
“How can there be cops out here?”
“Because I called them.”
“What? When?”
“Using Conner’s phone. Sent a message to them, then made sure that his phone called the others. That got them moving, giving us a chance to slip out.”
“You couldn’t have told me about that earlier?”
“Well, it wasn’t like we had a lot of time. We had to get a move on so that we were away by the time the cops got there.”
“Are they going to be alright?”
It was Emery’s turn to be confused. “Are you worried about the idiots making drugs?”
“No,” she looked over at him like he was being intentionally daft. “The police.” When Emery didn’t seem to understand what she meant, Cora pointed out, “They had guns. I doubt they will hesitate to use them.”
“Oh, I hadn’t thought about that.” Emery looked over at her. “But I did say they would need a large force to take down a drug ring of about 20 people. Overestimated so they would send more people.”
Cora pushed her hands into her lap. “I hope they will be alright.”
“Are you really that worried?”
“Of course. You hear about that stuff all the time. And while I know that TV makes these things out to be far worse than they actually are, I would hate to think that anyone got killed tonight. I mean, if I hadn’t run away, everyone would have been safe.”
“Not the people buying the meth.”
“You know what I mean,” she gave him a wry look. “If anyone dies, then it’s my fault.”
“Are you serious?” Emery looked over at her. “You can’t possibly believe that.”
“If we hadn’t been there tonight, the cops wouldn’t have been called, and there would be no risk to anyone of death.”
“I think you have an overdeveloped sense of yourself.”
“And you are still an ass.”
Emery sighed, “I am not trying to insult you, but you keep blaming yourself for things that you clearly couldn’t have caused.”
“It’s the Butterfly Effect.”
“By that logic, if your brother had gone up instead of me, then you wouldn’t have been there. So that makes it his fault if someone dies?”
“No.”
“I am the one who called the police, so it’s my fault if someone dies?”
“No, you were trying to do the right thing, so it isn’t your fault.”
“Then how is it your fault when you literally didn’t have anything to do with the call or the actions of the people in the drug ring?”
“It was my fault we were down there.”
Emery shook his head, “You didn’t choose our route out of there. You didn’t make the plan. I think you really need to stop making everything your fault. That is giving yourself far too much credit for what other people are doing.”
“Are you trying to say that I am being self-centered?”
Emery paused, then looked over at her. “There is a road up ahead. I think we should head that way now. At this point, there is very little chance that we are going to run into the drug ring.”
“Are you avoiding the question?”
“I just don’t think that right now is the best time to discuss your self-serving view of the world. You have a bad habit of rash decisions and I don’t want you to jump out of the truck.”
“Do you think you can accuse me of something like that and…” Cora suddenly lost all interest in arguing with him. “You know, think whatever you like. I don’t care.” She pulled out her phone and turned it on. There were a lot of missed texts and calls, each progressively more alarmed. “It looks like they are alright and worried about us.”
“I doubt they are worried about me.”
Cora ignored him. She had mostly been saying her thoughts aloud, not for his benefit. Tapping on the phone icon, she was about to call her brother. Then the phone was yanked out of her hand.
“I want to talk to you first. Please just text him for now, let him know you are fine.”
“I don’t want to spend any more time with you.”
“Because you don’t want – No, I am not trying to pick a fight with you. I am trying to help you.”
“By making me feel worse? Stick with the things you do well.”
A strange smile spread across his lips and he turned to look at her for a second. “This is what I do well. Like you are avoiding going into the medical field because you don’t want to be responsible for others, I refuse to go into mental health because I can’t deal with failing to save people. Originally, I agreed to this trip because of Ryland.”
Cora slumped down in her seat. “Oh good, someone else who is only in my life because of the concern of others. Goodie.”
“It’s not like I knew anything about you, beyond the extensive information I learned from Silas every time I saw him. When Ryland started talking about you, I admit that I became curious, and that played a large role in my deciding to come. To be honest, there was more reason to turn down Ryland’s request than to go along with it.”
“Why is that? You prefer to be contradictory?”
“No, I don’t like working with people I don’t know well. It was only because I have been hearing about you for the better part of two decades that I decided to do it. And I'm very glad that I did.”
Cora turned her head and looked out of the window. “You should be angry. You got seriously injured because of me. You could have died.”
“And you should be mad at me because I pushed you too far, forcing your instinct of fight or flight to kick in. Your being endangered was because of me.”
Cora found she couldn’t argue with that. Taking a deep breath, she began typing out a message to Silas. “I’m texting Silas.”
“Not your brother?”
“Silas will let him know. Since Jason seems to listen to Silas more than me, he can get his news that way.”
“That’s a little petty, don’t you think?”
“Maybe, but it makes me feel better.”
Emery shook his head but didn’t say anything else. Once she hit send, they drove for a while in silence.
Finally, Emery asked, “They don’t have anything to say to your message?”
“No.”
“That’s surprising.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Deciding not to push for an answer, he changed the subject. “Hungry?”
Her stomach growled in response.
“Alright, there is a nice little place nearby that is still open.” They didn’t speak again until they got to the restaurant.
Chapter 9
The Analysis
The pair sat down at the booth. Cora opened the menu and began to look over it as Emery headed to the bathroom. When he returned, she told him what she wanted to eat, the
n headed to the bathroom, too.
When she slid into her seat a few minutes later, Emery spoke to her, “Placed your order. It should only take about 15 minutes.”
“Alright,” she muttered to her hands.
“So shall we talk now, or do you want to eat first?”
“I would rather not talk.”
“Okay, then you can sit there and listen. I told you that you remind me of my brother. How he and one of my sisters were close growing up. He was a bit like you, although not as much as I had originally thought. Eventually, my sister got herself in so much trouble that some guys came to make her pay for her mistakes.”
“You mean like police?”
“No. She played a couple of local gang leaders, and one of them was smart enough to figure it out. My brother got caught up in it and ended up getting shot. Even if he had been a shifter, the wound was too severe, and he died the next day.”
“I'm sorry,” Cora continued to look at her hands.
“I was the only one there when he passed, and he begged me to look after our sister. She was the reason he was killed, and yet he still only thought of her. I tried to do what I promised, to help her get better, but I failed. She ended up in prison, and I haven’t heard anything from her since then. No one in my family has. She blames herself for his death, and doesn’t want anything to do with the family. Even though I’m the only one who knows what happened, so she wouldn’t have to worry about anyone making her feel guilty. I failed her, but worse, I failed my brother. If I could have just understood him better, have seen that he wasn’t alright, that he was hiding the fact that she was being hunted. I failed him, and he died.”
“I can understand the impulse, but I don’t think that you can blame yourself for not being able to stop your brother. He chose to help your sister.”
Emery shook his head, his eyes on the table. He rose them slowly and looked Cora in the face. “I knew enough that I should have said something to my parents. I should have done something, but I didn’t. I failed to act.”