Page 4

CHAPTER 4

Camila

G lass breaking jerked me awake. My heart was trying to climb out of my chest via my throat as my body went into panic mode. I wanted so badly to lay there in the dark, straining to listen for any footsteps. But I couldn’t. My mom and sister were counting on me.

I’d never been this girl. As a kid I was outgoing and confident. It was still there, I was just suppressing it half the time, and the other half, during situations like this, past traumas kept her contained.

Forcing myself to get out of bed, I walked down the hall. I was still listening hard for who might have broken our downstairs window. I clasped my hands together to keep them from shaking.

Mom met me in the hallway. Her eyes were wide and she looked terrified. I knew if I looked into a mirror my expression would match hers.

“What’s going on?” Carmen asked from her doorway. She was clutching the wood as hard as she could.

“I’ll go check,” I said, keeping my voice soothing.

“Mija-”

“Stay with Carmen, Mama,” I told her. There was no way I’d ever let either of them go check on what was waiting downstairs. That was my job. Walking to the lower level of our new house was like going toward a firing squad. I could hardly contain my shaking, but I had to make sure no one was in our home. Grabbing the broom from the closet next to the stairs, I held it aloft as I walked.

By the time I got to the dining room I was close to throwing up because of the anxiety and fear. It was only a small relief to see the tree branch that the storm had tossed through our window. My nervous system was still up in arms, warning me that there was danger.

I surveyed the damage, then put the broom back and went upstairs. We’d have to clean up in the morning. I wasn’t going to do it while the storm was still raging outside.

I found my family in my Mom’s bed, clinging to one another. A wave of anger and sadness washed over me. We shouldn’t have to live like this. None of this was our fault, yet we were paying the price. Climbing in with them, I smiled when Carmen held the covers up so I could get underneath.

“It was a tree branch,” I told them, snuggling close. “I’ll take care of it in the morning.” My hand stroked over Carmen’s hair and I met my mother’s gaze over her head. There was guilt and sadness in her eyes. This wasn’t her fault any more than it was mine. I reached out and squeezed her hand. Maybe one day we wouldn’t react to every loud noise this way.

Hesitating, I stared at the security door before I took a deep breath and opened it. I hadn’t made it more than a few steps inside when I stopped in shock.

“Well hey there, neighbor,” Kilo said, a blindingly bright smile forming on his face.

Why was he so handsome? This would be so much easier if he wasn’t so ridiculously good looking.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

He cocked his head. “This is my business. Well, mine and Overdrive’s. You met him the other night. Besides,” there was that smile again, “I’m pretty sure that should be my question for you.”

“Oh,” I replied, feeling stupid. It wasn’t really my place to question where he went or what he did. What were the odds I’d walk into his store? “I- Um-” My eyes flashed up to the wall of guns behind him. “Need one of those.”

His brows shot up. “You want to buy a gun?”

I nodded and walked up to the glass case that was separating the two of us.

“What kind?”

“Um-” My eyes darted all around. Ugh. Not that one. I wasn’t sure I could lift it even. The thing was massive. Next I looked at what I was sure was a shotgun.

“How about this,” Kilo said, sensing my unease. “What do you want it for?”

I swallowed as shame, fear, and guilt all vied for top position inside my chest.

“Shooting skeet?” he continued when I didn’t say anything. “You want a shotgun, for example. But it’s got a heavy kick and your shoulder isn’t going to thank you afterward. Rifles,” he pointed to the massive gun, “are good for shooting long distances.” His eyes twinkled when he saw the disdain on my face. “Home protection, the shotgun or a nice handgun are going to be good options.”

“Does a handgun…hurt to shoot?” I asked. I’d never in my life handled a gun. Though I’d seen Dad load his plenty of times over the years.

“It’s got a little kick, but nothing like the shotgun, and no, it doesn’t hurt to shoot it. Well, not you anyway.” He started pulling small weapons out of the glass case and setting them on top. He was rattling off information that was making my eyes want to cross.

“Which would you recommend?” I asked, interrupting his spiel.

“Well, it depends on what you want it for.”

I couldn’t just tell him. Not here. Not…ever maybe. I settled for an easy, half-truth. “Last night a branch fell and banged on the window. It…scared me. More than it should have. I think I would feel safer if…” I let the words hang.

He studied me for a minute, I could feel him evaluating my words, deciding if they were true. But after a minute he smiled and kept talking. He leaned against the counter, and I couldn’t help but admire the tattoos on his arms. “I’d go with this little beauty,” he told me, pointing at a small gun to the left. “It’s a Glock, but made to easily fit inside your purse. Or we can get you a holster and you can wear it on your belt. But, it still shoots nine millimeter so it’ll make an impression.”

“I don’t know what that means,” I told him.

He laughed. “A nine millimeter is the size of the bullet,” he explained. “There are bigger rounds, but they don’t actually have more stopping power. Plus, a nine millimeter won’t hurt your hand or cause too much recoil.”

“Okay,” I told him. “I’ll take it.”

“Just like that. Okay.” He slid a paper and pen over to me. “Fill that out so I can get the background check going for you first. Typically takes about thirty minutes or so.”

My breath caught in my throat as I stared down at the form. “You have to do…a background check?”

He must have caught the slight tremor in my voice, because he looked up at me. He was studying me again in a way that made me want to shift from foot to foot. “That’s right. Laws.” He rolled his eyes. Then pinned me with another intense stare. “That a problem?”

God I hope not.

I shook my head and willed my hand not to shake as I neatly filled out the form he’d given me. I watched with a sinking feeling as he got the process started.

No more than two minutes had passed since he’d entered my information and my cell rang. Pulling it out of my purse, I groaned when I saw Dustin’s name on the screen. “Excuse me,” I told Kilo and stepped a couple feet away.

His gaze was burning into my back as I answered. “Hey.”

“Hi, Camila…” There was silence for a moment, then he continued. “Just had an alert pop up. You’re buying a gun?”

“I am. Is…is that okay?”

“Of course. I wish you’d have listened to me sooner and gotten one a while ago. What made you change your mind?”

I looked over my shoulder and found Kilo staring at me. He didn’t even try to make it look like he wasn’t. “Um…nothing. It’s stupid, but a branch went through our window and…” I trailed off, not wanting to tell him that none of us had slept for the rest of the night as we cocooned ourselves in the relative safety of Mom’s bedroom. He’d think I was dumb. Maybe I was. Then again, maybe he’d understand. He’d been there for us since the beginning. Knew what we’d been going through.

“Do you need us to come fix that for you?”

“No. Thank you though. Really. We appreciate everything you’ve done.”

“I’m just a phone call away,” he told me. “Even if it’s midnight during a monsoon,” he joked. “My house is twenty minutes from yours.”

“Thanks, Dustin. Really.”

“Alright, well, I took care of the alert and you’re all set.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

I hung up and turned around, letting out a little squeak because Kilo was right behind me now. I hadn’t even heard him move. His massive arms were crossed over an equally muscular chest. The fabric of his t-shirt strained against his muscles.

“A branch went through your window last night? I thought it banged on the window?”

That answered whether or not he’d been listening in. “Yeah. It’s in our backyard and-”

“You have someone coming to fix it?” he asked, his eyes dropping down to the cell phone in my hand.

“Oh. No. Um, I was going to try to call someone later today.”

He nodded and motioned for me to come back to the case that acted as a counter. “Background check went through just fine. Faster than usual,” he told me as he ran the credit card I handed over.

I wasn’t sure what to say to that. Thank God? No, that would make him suspicious. So I settled for staying quiet.

“Case comes with the purchase,” he told me, placing my new gun inside the black plastic gun case and handing me a key.

“Thank you.”

He’d already set aside things I would need, like bullets, and packed those into a brown bag.

“Is…is that it?” I asked. Seemed like this should be a harder process or something.

He shot me another grin. “That’s it. I recommend you practice with it. Won’t do you any good if you’re rusty and miss.”

That would imply I knew what the hell I was doing with it in the first place. Dad had never bothered to show me how to shoot. He probably never thought I’d need to know. That he’d be there to protect us. I didn’t tell Kilo I didn’t know what I was doing, though. I just nodded and held onto my new purchases. “Okay.”

“This is an indoor shooting range, too,” he told me. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “It’s back there. We have eyes and ears that you can use if you don’t want to buy them. But you’ll have to purchase the inner ears. No one wants to reuse those.” He laughed at his own joke.

Eyes? Ears? He may as well be speaking another language. I gave him a weak smile and started backing up. “Thank you so much,” I stammered as I beat a hasty retreat.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his eyes narrowing.

“Um, yeah. I just have to get home. Thank you again.” It was cowardly, but I rushed out of there as fast as my legs would carry me. It wasn’t even him I was running from this time. Not really. It was just that buying a gun made this all too real.

The next time they came for us, I was going to fight back, or die trying. And it scared the hell out of me. My first order of business was to go home and look up videos on how to use my new gun.