I hum and watch as Rosalie leaves Sing Note.
CHAPTER THREE
Our hotel is close to the karaoke place. I estimate a ten-minute walk. This entire town of Saddleback is smaller that I could have imagined. To me, Maxwell is small, but comparing it to Saddleback, it feels like a giant town. Maggie and Vivi are walking ahead, arms interlock with each other. Ginny is in the middle, walking close to our youngest. I stay at the back because I join them a few minutes later after my chat with Cooper.
This is our usual formation when we sneak out and there is no manager puppeteering our every move or any cameras we needed to perform for. Ginny stays close to Maggie and Vivi in case anything happens at the front and I stay at the back and cover us. Tonight, I wasn’t paying attention as I should be until I bump into Ginny’s back. My mind is still sitting in front of Cooper, taking in his attractive face and fighting between giving into his charisma or ignoring it. My body is still there, letting the deep notes of his voice tingle my nerves and awaken something I’m not sure I’m ready to deal with.
Bumping into Ginny wakes me up and brings me back to reality. In front of us were four men. Two of them were the same ones sitting and watching us at the Sing Note. The other two I’ve never seen and judging by their clothes, they weren’t bodyguards, or at least not the one the company employs for us.
We were one building away from the hotel entrance. Sadly, this is a cheap chained hotel with no security standing outside of the front doors. I look around and the streets were empty. Thelack of people around late at night doesn’t surprise me, since it’s a small town in the middle of nowhere. Everyone is inside the few places that are still open or are long gone into their houses.
We can’t fight these men. Maybe one or two, but four? Never. I don’t see any visible weapons, but that doesn’t mean they are not carrying one. Is this our company’s doing? Is it someone else that we don’t know? Out of the two men we recognize, I think, I’m almost certain he is stalking our youngest.
They take a step forward. Ginny pulls Maggie and Vivi behind her, and I stand beside Ginny. I feel my brain going a hundred miles per second. Trying desperately to come up with a solution to get away from them. The men I don’t recognize grab the other two by their shoulders and pull them back. One hands them an envelope I’m sure is full of cash.
“We had a deal,” one of the man says.
“The deal was to find them. Now get the money and move out of our way.” I couldn’t recognize the which Spanish-speaking country the accent comes from. If I talk to them in Spanish, I wonder if I can talk us out of this situation?
“The deal was to find her.” He points at me. “That means you don’t need the other three.”
“We said to find them. Get lost before we decide to take our money back and dispose of you two.”
We all hear the threat. Since they were closer, I guess they saw it too in their eyes before running towards a dark SUV and driving away.
I take a step forward, ready to talk ourselves out of this, when a man all dress in black and wearing a helmet appears out of thin air. I’m not someone who watches a lot of movies or series. I started pursuing music since young and I’ve investedthousands of hours in lessons and practices. What transpires before us, I can only describe it as a fighting scene pulls straight out of an action movie.
As they take a step forward and we a step back, a street light hits them and I can see them. Both have short hair. One has a short sleeve showing all the tattoos on his arms. On his inner right arm before the elbow there’s a black crow perch on a stack of coins. I see the same tattoo on the right side of the other man’s neck.
The man with the helmet block and evades every punch and kick they try. He lands a couple of jabs and hits one of them right in the middle of their chest. The man he hits takes a couple of steps back, hunching over, trying to regulate his breath through the pain. I see the knife when the man with the helmet leans back, grabs the assailant’s wrist, bends the arm from their elbow and stabs him with his own knife on the shoulder.
I keep looking around and racking my brain to come up with a way out. Like a lightening bolt, I grab Ginny’s wrist who grabs Maggie’s who grabs Vivi and I pull all to cross the street. From the other side, we can run to get close to the hotel, cross the street again and getting inside. If they follow us inside, the front desk staff can call the police and help us. Staying alive is more important than staying anonymous. The gunshot sound muffles the cries of pain. A gun is now pointing at us.
“Damn it,” I whisper. Just when I have a doable plan to get us away.
“If you want to live, leave. If you insist on meddling in a business that isn’t yours, I’ll kill you and if they get injured during it,” the man shrugs. “That’s too bad for them. We want them alive. We don’t care if they come with a few bumps and scratch.”
Vivi is trying hard not to make it obvious that she is crying, but she can’t hold back the sobs wracking her body. I can feel Ginny’s body trembling. I’m trying to find a sliver of courage to do something. Should I give myself up? Would I be enough, or does he really want us all? Could I negotiate? More and more questions keep running around my head when the sound of a body hitting the floor takes me out of my head.
The man that had a gun is now on the floor, a bullet hole right between his eyebrows. Blood is already pooling from under him. The man beside him still has the knife bury on his shoulder and also has a bullet hole in his head. I can’t see both of the helmet man’s hands. Is he the one who shot them? Why didn’t I hear the gunshots? I look at my members and they are as shock as I am.
He moves further away from us and tips his head towards the hotel. I don’t need him to tell me twice. I pull Ginny and cause a chain or reaction. Ginny pulls Maggie and Maggie pulls a sobbing Vivi. We make it inside the hotel lobby in two minutes. A single woman is behind the front desk. I know I need to report it. I also know we are tired and scared and getting involved in something as serious as this will chain us in Saddleback and will in no time reach the media’s ears.
“Let’s get to our room. Hurry.” I push them forward and smile at the front desk lady.
We break down inside our room and I promise to head to the mechanic to check on the van. I hesitate calling my uncle to come pick us up now. What if he comes and more of those men show up and he gets injured in the crossfire?
“Let’s try to get some sleep,” I say.
I send a silent thank you to the man wearing a helmet.
First thing we do in the morning is to walk under the summer sun to Leroy’s Auto. When we arrive, his son is the only one there.
“I need to talk to Leroy,” I say.
“Whatever you need to talk to him, you can talk to me, too.”
“I don’t wanna be like this, but I will. The owner is your dad, Calvin, and I need to talk to him directly. The timeline we initially talked about doesn’t work anymore.”
