Oops by CinderScoria (electric book reader TXT) 📕

that a stunt they practiced when they weren’t kidnapping rock stars or something?—spun on her heel, and disappeared out the door.

The unmistakable crack of a gunshot tore the question I wanted to ask right out of my mouth. Crazy appeared in the doorway and tossed the gun back to Nani. “We need to move,” she said shortly. “Now.”

That was it. I was out of there. Before I even knew what I was doing I took off towards the door, not stopping to think about how stupid I was being with Crazy still standing in the doorway. She lunged at me as I went past, grabbing onto my jacket. I felt the fabric rip and slipped out of it, leaving her with my jacket. Man, that’s one of my favorites…

Scrambling for leverage I pulled out of the doorframe. The street was ahead, so close, completely absent of cars, as usual. It was later in the evening and raining— storming, actually. The waves thundered against the wall to my right as I ran.

Both girls were shouting now, but I couldn’t understand them with the wind rushing through my ears. I ran. I ran harder than I had ever run before, which is probably why it hurt so much more when I tripped. Ouch.

Immediately they were on me again. I winced as the older girl yanked my arms back so hard I was sure she dislocated them both at the shoulder, but froze when I started to protest. The thing I’d tripped on was a body. A boy. He looked even younger than Nani. He was sprawled out unceremoniously on the pavement, head rolled to the side, eyes closed. I couldn’t see if he was breathing or not, but that bullet to the chest didn’t look promising.

“You killed him,” I whispered, feeling the click of handcuffs around my wrists again. “You actually killed him.”

Crazy hauled me up, but Nani stared back at her in concern. Obviously this came as a shock to her as well. “Maya—” she started to say.

“He’s fine,” Maya snapped. Good to put a name to the face. Maya looked back at the boy as she pushed me to the van. “He’s better than fine, actually,” she muttered. “He’ll… he’ll be better now.”

I was devastated. He looked like a kid. And she shot him. Shot him. Just like she said she’d do me. Maya grabbed the van handle and slid it open, and then shoved me inside so hard I hit the other side with my head. I ignored the bells, though, because Maya climbed into the back with me, and there was that nasty gun again. She leaned in close, so close I could see the fury in her chilling chocolate crystal eyes.

“Look,” she said, her voice low, in a seething sort of way. “I don’t care who you are. I don’t give a damn if you were the president of the United States, do you hear me? I will

shoot your ass if you try to run again. Do we understand each other?”

My brain was numb. I was still reeling from the shock of seeing someone die, dead. So, instead of a snippy comment or an eyeroll, I simply nodded, unwilling to get into it with this girl. Not now, anyways.

“Good.” Maya reached back to slide the van door closed, and paused for a second, locking gazes with me. “You’re much better off with us, anyways.”

The van door shut in my face.

I could hear the two having an argument in Spanish outside. As far as I could tell, Nani was trying to figure out why her sister shot some kid. I wanted to know, too, but I doubted they were going to tell me. I sat, still half-leaning against the wall awkwardly propped up on my elbow with my hands cuffed behind my back, and stared at the door of the van. I was in shock, I knew. My knees throbbed dully and I barely noticed them until I looked down and recognized the dark red stain of blood on my pant legs.

I shuddered.

Maya and Nani got into the van a second later and the doors slammed closed. Nani appeared by my side with a cloth. She saw my drained look and I could see her eyes grow sad. “Sorry,” she mouthed.

She pressed the cloth to my face. I wasn’t about to have a repeat of the ear splitting headache I got when I woke from that, so I let my eyes flutter and my body go limp, playing dead. Nani pulled the cloth away and climbed back into the front seat.

Maya started the car and we drove off. I was careful to keep my eyes closed and I thought my rag doll impersonation was pretty impressive, considering I’d never done it before.

“Nani,” Maya said after a while.

Nani didn’t answer. I guess she was still mad at her sister, because Maya sighed and said, “He’s not dead.”

My heart leapt into my throat. That was good, right? She must’ve been talking about the boy she shot. But why shoot him? And how did she know?

“I know,” Nani said finally. “I saw the wound. Nowhere near fatal.”

“Then why—?”

“Because you shot him in front of Rocky,” she snapped.

I tried not to feel like I was eavesdropping. Despite them being dangerous kidnappers, it went against my nature to eavesdrop— although this conversation was getting good. I prayed that they wouldn’t switch to Spanish anytime soon.

“The kid was hitting on me,” Maya grumbled. “And he wouldn’t stop. He rubbed up against me, Nani, and then he followed me. And then, when I wouldn’t give him what he wanted, he tried to kill me. What was I supposed to do?”

“Knock him out?” Nani suggested.

“He had a knife. And then he got my gun. Although he didn’t really know how to use it, I can tell you that.”

I suddenly realized how sexy her voice was, and hated myself for thinking that. Seriously, I could listen to Maya’s voice all day long… so long as she wasn’t threatening me with imminent death.

Maya abruptly swore in Spanish. That was one thing I did understand— that and everything I learned from Dora the Explorer.

“What’s wrong?” Nani asked.

“He took it,” Maya growled.

“Took what?”

They both turned to me. Good grief. Why didn’t they just tape my mouth shut while they’re at it? At least then I wouldn’t blurt things out.

Maya turned back to the road, deciding she was going to ignore me faking unconsciousness. “Your necklace,” she said simply. “Sorry. That kid grabbed it off me when he attacked me.”

Nice. She swiftly pleaded innocent and shifted blame at the same time. I wasn’t concerned about that, though. I stared at her eyes in the rear view mirror and narrowed my own. “You lost my necklace?”

Nani turned in her seat, face set in peace-keeping mode. “More likely than not someone will find that boy before he wakes up and finds your necklace. It’ll still get to your family, don’t worry.”

“So he’s not dead.” Oops, my relief was shining through there.

Maya shook her head emphatically. “I’ve been shooting my entire life. I know when I hit anything vital.”

“Wait a minute,” I said, frowning, “I must’ve ran, like, twenty yards before I tripped. Are you telling me you shot him from twenty yards away knowing where to shoot so you won’t kill him? While it was storming?”

She shrugged again. “I’m a good shot.”

Good grief. Crazy, crack shot, modest.

Of course, that did beg the question: if she could shoot so well from back there, why didn’t she shoot me like she keeps telling me she will?

“There,” Nani said suddenly. I sat up to see that she had a map in her hands, and she was pointing to a spot on the map. Unfortunately for me, I had no clue how to read maps, but I did recognize that we were still in California.

“Good,” Maya said, nodding. “Hopefully we won’t get any uninvited company again.”

Oh great. Now where were we going? Obviously the warehouse had been compromised, but what’s more secluded than a run-down building in the middle of nowhere? A tree house?

I really didn’t want to spend any time with these crazy people in a tree house.

Finally I couldn’t take it anymore. “Where are we going?” I demanded.

“Nonya,” Maya said.

I made a face. Was that Spanish or something?

Nani smiled at me in the rear view mirror. “None of your business,” she translated.

Ah. None-ya

. Funny.

The drive was short, and none of us talked. I was too on edge, despite the knowledge that the boy was alive and probably put up in a hospital by now. They had no reason to lie to me. They were crazy, not cruel. What Maya said puzzled me though. The boy hit on her but when she refused he tried to kill her? What kind of person did that? Not to mention, Maya said it nonchalantly, like something like that happened every day.

Try as I might, I couldn’t figure out who these girls were, and it was giving me another headache.

The van slowed to a stop. Maya nodded to Nani and the girl immediately hopped out. That puzzled me too. Nani had disappeared earlier with the warehouse right before we went in it. Maya turned around and climbed into the back with me, opening the van door.

All of a sudden I was mad. “Wow,” I told Maya, “you must be so proud of her.” For doing everything you say without a fight.

When she didn’t answer, I continued, “I mean, following her big sister’s footsteps and all. Shooting people without thinking about it, kidnapping rock stars—”

“That was her idea, you know,” she pointed out.