guy drawled out disdainfully. “Why don’t we ask ’im?”
“Why’re you here, kid?” the second guy asked.
The boy remained silent.
“Start kickin’ the doors in,” the first guy said. “It’s supposed to be in a bag on the dresser.” He motioned to the guy next to him. “Go with him.”
The second and third guys moved to the unit a couple of doors down from mine, and the sound of splintering wood filled my ears. A couple of seconds later, I heard one of their muffled voices. “Nothin’.”
“If you don’t tell me right now,” the second guy said, whipping out a gun as he strode from the unit and pointing it at the boy’s forehead. “I’m gonna blow yer brains out.”
“I don’t know!” the boy cried out. “I didn’t take it!”
“Keep searchin’,” the first guy said.
My hand tightened on the gun in my own hand. Unless they found what they were looking for, they would eventually bust into my room, and from the look of it, it would be sooner rather than later. Would I shoot them? Could I shoot them?
I felt like a coward hiding in my room, leaving that boy defenseless.
I had to do something. Something that might save us both.
What if I created a distraction?
I had a spare key fob in my purse. I could press the panic button on my keychain and hope I was close enough to Wyatt’s garage it would set off the car alarm. But if I did it, they’d likely know I was the person who’d set it off. They would know I’d seen something.
I had to take the chance.
My hands were shaking, so it took me a couple of seconds longer than usual to grab the key out of my bag and press the button. Sweet relief rushed through me when the horn started blaring.
“Fuck!” the second man said. “What the hell is that?”
“Car alarm,” I heard the third guy say.
“We gotta get out of here,” the first guy said.
“We haven’t found it yet!” the third guy protested, then kicked in the door to the room next to mine.
“Where the fuck is the stash, boy?” the second guy demanded, his tightly controlled voice more alarming than if he’d sounded mad.
“Go to hell,” the boy spat out.
“How about you go first, you little pissant!”
The unmistakable sound of muffled gunfire rang out twice and the boy fell onto his back.
I covered my mouth to stifle a scream.
“What the fuck did you do that for?” the third guy said in disgust. “Now we’ll never find it.”
“It wasn’t in any of the rooms we checked or the one where he was hidin’. He moved it and planted that camera to implicate us,” the first man said. “I suggest we keep lookin’.”
The second guy turned directly toward my unit, but a streetlamp was behind him, and a dark shadow crossed over his face.
“Goddammit!” he cursed, then stomped across the street toward a red truck parked on the opposite side of the road. A long scratch ran along the back panel. I could see a figure sitting behind the steering wheel. The second guy climbed into the passenger side as the other two followed, jumping into the pickup bed before the truck drove away.
I stared after them in shock. I’d tried to save that boy and all I’d done was hasten his assassination.
Bolting for the door, I fumbled for the latch. Once I got it open, I clicked the button to turn off the car alarm as I ran to the boy, only second-guessing my decision when it occurred to me that he was still alive and might be armed himself.
“Help,” he said. Between the dark and the bruising and swelling, it was hard to make out his features, but he looked young. Barely driving age.
I fell to my knees next to him, dropping the gun and the key fob onto the concrete as I searched for his wounds. The parking lot lights didn’t illuminate much, but it wasn’t hard to see the spreading stains on the shirt over his chest.
“Oh, God…” I briefly considered running into my room to get a towel but didn’t want to leave him. In desperation, I stripped off my long-sleeved thermal shirt, leaving me in a cami in the cold, but I barely noticed. My focus was on pressing the shirt to his chest to stop the bleeding.
He whimpered in pain.
“You’re her, ain’t you? Are you gonna finish me off?” he asked in a reedy voice, his eyes wide with fear.
Why would he think