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It all happened so fast. Matias took advantage of Mia’s worry about me, punched her one last time in her eye, making her fall back, and ran away. I stared at the kid holding the gun, waiting for the bullet to find my chest. But once again, it never did.
A shot was indeed fired, but instead of hitting me, it hit the guy’s chest, making him fall on the ground.
I looked around and saw the girl who had run from Ben with a gun in her hand, her sister coiled behind her.
“I killed a man,” the little shooter freaked out. “I shot a man. I can’t believe it. I killed him.” She sobbed and her whole body trembled as she let go of the gun and went down on her knees, hugging herself. The sister Mia rescued last was shaking as well, sitting on the floor, her body going back and forth.
I approached them softly. “You saved our lives. Now we can run to somewhere safe.”
“I can’t have killed him. I wanted to, he’d hurt us so much, I heard him hurt my sister, but I’m not a murderer. I can’t have killed him,” she chanted, turning hysterical. “You need to save him. Do something.” It was getting harder to resonate with her, and we didn’t have much time.
I was considering alternatives when Mia stood up, limping closer. “You know what you’re feeling right now? That’s guilt. It’s understandable. Even if he was the spawn of a demon, you don’t want that on your conscience. Believe me, I could relate to that in the past.” She slapped the dust off her clothes. “But you know what? That guilt can’t screw us up right now. We need to leave. If you don’t want that death on your head, that’s fine.” She fished another gun from her waistband. “I’m screwed up already and have enough deaths in my wake not to care about that.” She took in a deep, resigned breath. “This is going to be messy, so turn around and cover your ears.” She pointed the gun at the guy on the ground. “I’ll finish this.”
“For God’s sake.” I jumped up, holding her hand. “Pull it together.”
“I am. I’m putting an end to this so we can leave, and she doesn’t feel guilty about this. She already has a lot to deal with. I can handle it.” She was so past the point of handling anything.
“We’re not killing him. Especially not in front of them.” I thought about our options. “We’re taking him with us.”
She stared at me, horrified, her mouth agape. “I don’t know who your supplier is, but that’s one fine weed you must be smoking. Are you really suggesting we bring him and put him in the truck with the girls? The same girls he hurt?”
“We’ll tie him and leave him in the front with Ben. But he can be useful. He’s young, hurt, and probably scared. He might talk.”
She shook her head, and I noticed the moment she caved. “Fine,” she spat. “You tie him. And make sure it hurts. I’ll guide them. Let’s hurry.”
She convinced the girls to keep moving and placed the younger one once again around her shoulders for the remainder of our path. Ben was pacing by the back of the truck, where the other girls were already settled inside. It wasn’t ideal, but it was the best way to bring them all at once, in one space where we could converge our energy and protection into, without raising too much suspicion.
I carried the piece of shit that almost killed me, and I had to admit, I wanted to follow Mia’s idea. Ben stared at us with a mixture of rage, worry, and—when he saw thealacránguest—astoundment.
“We’ve got a little company.” I threw him on the ground and covered his wound as best I could to keep him alive until he got medical help—so he could talk—but not caring too much if it hurt him. I was enjoying his hissing of pain.
Mia helped the last two girls up into the back of the truck, jumped inside, and came out with an empty bag where we kept some supplies for our assignment. Approaching the guy with uncontained disgust, she put the bag over his head with little finesse and closed it as best she could without suffocating him—much. “Time to sleep, buddy.”
As he struggled against his increasing panic, I felt the need to ask—not that I’d fight her on it. “Are you sure the bag is necessary? He’s already tightly tied.”
She kneeled beside him and pulled the ropes I used on him, making the guy recoil in pain. “I don’t want him to get any stupid ideas about running away or fighting back. And if we’re being honest,” she scrunched the base of the bag, keeping him from breathing, leaned closer to his covered face, and whispered, “I’m losing the ability to care.”
Eyeing a stunned Ben, I repressed a shudder, picked up the guy, and threw him on the truck cabin floor, away from the girls and next to where Ben would be as our driver.
Mia and I jumped into the back of the truck with the girls, and I closed the doors, slapping the side wall twice to inform Ben we could go.
She grabbed the first aid kits she brought with us and some other apparel, but she didn’t tend to the girls at first, choosing to clean the blood on her hands. At my questioning expression, Mia explained, “I need to collect this before anything else. It’s dirty already, but it has Matias’s DNA. It could be helpful with unsolved cases. And this one.”
That was only one of the reasons we needed her. Even when she wasn’t at her best, she was ahead of most—Ben and I included.
The rest of the route was made mostly in silence. She tried to make the girls as comfortable as possible given our situation, and she tried to help with their bruises without cleaning them, also considering the genetic material we could gather from there.
She explained to them about the rape kits and made sure they understood it was their decision to go through with it. It was the first time they had any power after living through hell.
The next few hours were more of the same. Aaron met us at the hospital a town over from Holy Water. The same one where Izzie was rushed to after Mia and I helped her give birth to Teddy. The same one Mia and Zach were transported to after the explosion. To say it was gut-wrenching going back was the euphemism of the year.
Mia hesitated at the door, taking deep, rapid breaths. After a while, she closed her eyes and stepped inside with her hands fisted. Her sign of distress also wasn’t lost on Aaron, who was walking toward us with a grimace coloring his features.
“What a mighty stunt you pulled.” His voice was clipped. “Very nice of you to let me know right before going in, guns blazing, without our support, into the lion’s den.”
“If you want to spend more time with us, just tell us. We have space for you.” We all had a good relationship with Aaron, but Mia was the one who normally challenged him. No surprises there.
He sighed but let go of his sharpness. “Do you have any idea of the risks you took today?”
