Caleb holds the door open for me, gesturing for me to get in the car.
“Tell me again why I have to come to the shop with you?”
He flashes me his easy smile. “Apparently you’re no longer a prisoner and Jude thinks you need to get out of the house. I knew you’d win him over in the end.” He winks at me. I dip my face as I feel my cheeks heat. Little does he know.
He slams the door and moves to the driver’s side, sliding behind the steering wheel. “I like the hair, by the way.”
I pinch a piece of hair between my fingers, staring at the mahogany strands. “Thanks.” I hate it. It’s just one more part of Ria that is now lost, replaced by Tor, the damaged girl that Jude has turned me into. Yet I willingly bask in his corruption, like some desperate junkie embracing my own destruction.
We drive to the supermarket in silence. I’ll admit that although it may be mundane, this small slice of freedom feels liberating.
Caleb doesn’t linger, he runs around the shop like it’s a bloody hit and run. I have to double check we’re not robbing the place.
I glance at the trolley full of beer, pizza, hotdogs, and crisps. Seriously? How are these guys still alive? I wrestle the trolley from Caleb and walk off in the opposite direction.
“Ria!” he yells. “What are you doing?”
I glance over my shoulder at him as he huffs after me. “Buying food, obviously, and before you say anything, this is not food.”
He flashes me a disgusted look as I head for the vegetable section. “Are you for real? I’m not eating that shit.”
“You are not five, Caleb,” I sigh.
I move around the shop, ignoring his over dramatic huffing behind me. We pass a small home section, and I spot some picture frames sitting on a shelf. I pick one up and pop it in the trolley.
“Why the hell are we buying picture frames, woman?” he groans. “You’re not fucking redecorating!”
“Maybe I’m going to take a picture of you, as a keepsake.” I smirk.
He frowns, but says nothing. He’s so damn cute sometimes.
“Two hundred dollars!” Caleb shouts, snatching the receipt from me. “This was meant to be a quick trip to the store. Fucking hell.”
“Well, if you didn’t have five hundred litres of beer, then it wouldn’t be two hundred dollars. Now load this shit.” I gesture to the shopping cart and laugh at the expression on his face.
He loads the bags and gets into the car next to me. “Never again,” he says, shaking his head.
He pulls out of the car park and heads home. I roll my eyes. “You would think I had just tried to wax your nut sack, the way you carry on.”
He scowls at me. “You’re sick.” Says the guy who helps kill people.
We’re about halfway home, and the buildings are starting to give way to woodland and farmland when I notice Caleb looking agitated. His eyes flick to the rearview mirror and back to the road repeatedly. I turn to look behind us.
“Don’t look,” he snaps. “They’ve been following us since we left the store.”
I glance in the wing mirror and see a black SUV behind us. I can’t make out the passengers. “What are you going to do?” I ask quietly.
“Not lead them back to the house.” His face is deadly serious, cold, like his brother’s.
“Get the gun outta the glove box,” he says, his eyes trained on the rearview mirror.
“I’m not—”
He cuts me off. “I’m not fucking around, Ria. Get it!”
I open the glove box, my hand trembling as I reach for the black pistol. I don’t want to touch the damn thing.
“Under the seat, there’s a box, get it out,” he instructs. I hesitantly reach under the seat and pull out a black box. I open it and several silver bullets fall onto my lap. Bloody Hell! I catch Caleb pulling his gun from the waist of his jeans. His finger slowly loops through the trigger. “You need to load that one,” he says, his voice too calm.
“I don’t know how to load a gun!” I shriek, panic gripping me.
“The button on the side there...push it.”
My fingers fumble and I close my eyes as I push the little button. The magazine falls out and I jump.
“Get about ten of the bullets, just push them down in there.”
I nervously do as instructed. “Now what?” I ask, staring at the weapon in my lap.
“Slam the magazine in the gun, with your palm.”
I attempt to do it, but it won’t stay in.
“No, Ria. Fucking hard, like this.” He bangs his palm against the end of his gun and I flinch, expecting it to go off. You’d think from all the shit I’ve endured over the last couple of weeks guns wouldn’t still terrify me, but they do.
I manage to snap the magazine in place, my hands shaking so violently, I’m sure I’m going to shoot myself.
“Pull back on the top to put a bullet in the chamber.”
I stare at him. “I can’t shoot a gun!”
“Well, you’re gonna learn because they aren’t following us to tell us hello. We’re as good as fucked.”
He hands me his phone. “Call Jude,” he barks, stress marring his features.
I lay the gun in my lap, eyeing it as I fumble with the phone. Caleb pulls off the main road and slams his foot on the accelerator, sending the car bumping down what looks like a farm track. The SUV follows suit, matching our pace. I hear the front bumper smash against a dip as the car gets air.
The phone rings a few times before Jude picks up. “What? I’m busy.”
“Jude.” I can’t hide the panic in my voice. “We’re being followed.”
“What?” he shouts, the immediate anger in his voice making me tense. The back end of the car slides across the loose gravel, slamming me against the door. “Fuck!” I hiss as pain ricochets up my arm and I drop the phone. The car continues to skid across the road until it bottoms out on the verge, the nose buried in a ditch. Caleb pulls his gun and starts firing through the window at the black truck.
“Ria, move!” he yells. “Get out and get down!” I swing the door open and throw myself on the grass. My eyes fall level with the foot well, where I spot Caleb’s phone. I scramble to pick it up as shots ring out around me.
“Jude!” I scream as I press the phone to my ear.
“Where are you?” His voice is low and measured.
“I don’t know. We were halfway home, and we passed a farm, and then we took a left onto a gravel track," I ramble. A gunshot pings off the door frame above my head and I scream.
Caleb is hunched down in the seat, but he’s going to get himself killed. “Caleb!” I shout at him, but he ignores me.
“Tor,” Jude snaps. “You stay down, you hear me?” I can hear a door slamming in the background.
“Okay.”
“You got a gun?”
“Yeah.”
“Just point and shoot. I’m coming for you.” I nod and drop the phone.
“Fuck!” Caleb curses. I glance up and he’s gripping his right arm. Blood spreads across the sleeve of his shirt.
“Caleb,” I cry out, tears threatening.
“I’m okay, Ria.” He hands me the gun and drags himself awkwardly across the centre console. He holds his arm to his chest as he lowers himself to the ground, leaning his back against the car.
“Jude’s coming,” I tell him.
“Well, by the time he gets here we might be dead. You’re gonna have to shoot. Never could shoot worth a shit with my left hand,” he laughs.
“What?!” I squeak as bullets continue to rain down on the car. It sounds like really big hail stones and the middle of a firework show.
“Just keep shooting at them. We only have to hold them off until he gets here.” I nod and raise the gun Caleb gave me, pointing in the general direction of the shooters. My hand shakes and my breath hitches in my lungs.
Caleb’s somehow calm. “Breathe, even breaths. Grip the handle with both hands.” I do as he says. “Now squeeze the trigger.”
I pull the trigger and the gun explodes in my hand, jarring my elbows. I release a heavy breath.
“Good,” Caleb grins. “That’s good.”
I take steady breaths as the gunfire continues to rain down on us. Caleb hands me another gun and reloads the old one. My nerves are shot and on edge. There’s a second of silence and Caleb nudges me, directing my attention to the back of the car. I listen intently, struggling to hear anything over the chaos of gunfire and the hammering of my own heart. Suddenly a guy bursts around the back of the car, gun pointed at me. Everything moves in slow motion. He pulls the trigger at the same time as I do. I hear the whistle of the bullet and the sharp crack as it breaks the air next to my ear. I watch as my bullet hits his chest, and he jerks backwards before hitting the ground. I scramble over to him and take his gun before retreating to my spot behind Caleb once more.
He touches my shoulder and I jump. “You did good, girl.” He flashes me a small smile.
I just killed somebody. I should feel something. I feel nothing.