I look again and notice it’s not that far from the street I grew up in. I point to Kloof street and say, “That’s where I lived. It’s not that far from there, maybe ten minutes.”
Damian frowns and then looks at me. “I wonder what happened to your house. Surely your parents had a will?”
I never even thought of that. “I don’t know,” I whisper, stunned. “Maybe my uncle took it all? I really don’t know.”
He gets up and then looks around the room. “We need to clean every inch of this room. Make sure we leave nothing behind. We have to steal a car. Please tell me you can drive.” I see a glimmer of worry for the first time, and it makes me scared.
“I don’t have a license. I had just turned eighteen when the accident happened. I did drive, though. Dad taught me on weekends. But I haven’t driven in a really long time.”
“Fuck,” Damian hisses. He starts to stalk up and down in front of the bed, and it’s making me nervous.
“Let’s just go home,” I almost beg.
“We’ll get the car, and then you’ll have about ten minutes to get used to it before we go to the strip club. I’ll kill him there, and we’ll have to run from there. I’m thinking we could find our way to the nearest gas station and call a cab from there to take us back to the airport. We can sleep at the airport and then we leave tomorrow.”
“Damian.” I crawl to the edge of the bed and get up. I go to stand in front of him so he’ll stop the maddening pacing. “We can still go home. We don’t need to do any of that. Just … let’s just go.”
His eyes search my face and then he shakes his head. “It’s the only way we’ll be safe. We need to finish it.”
Damian~
I stole the ugliest piece of shit I could find. Cara kept shrieking every time a car came down the road, almost succeeding in giving me a fucking heart attack. Note to self: never steal a car with Cara again.
Oh, and finding an automatic around here is impossible, so that made things a lot harder. It takes Cara about fifteen minutes to drive okay-ish. The car jerks every time she pulls away and she lets it die once at a traffic light. But, she got us to the strip club in one piece. I tell her to park in the far corner, near the dumpsters. We quickly wipe the car down, making sure we don’t leave any fingerprints.
“Don’t lock it and leave the keys,” she whispers. “With a little luck someone else will come along and steal it.”
“Really?” I ask like a dumbass. “You think so?”
“This is South Africa,” she shrugs.
As we walk to the entrance an African man waves at us and yells something I don’t understand. Cara waves at him and pushes me forward. “He’s offering to watch the car.”
“How will someone steal it then?” I start to worry, thinking we should get a place to park it where I can cover it up. It will give us more time then.
“Damian, he’s going to go sit on his ass and get drunk. He won’t stop a thief. It’s fine there.”
Cara pays the cover charge and we go in. I’m instantly on guard as I start to search the place for Tom. Tonight is going to turn out shit for me, one way or another. I did lie to Cara, and tonight she might just find out.
I glance at her. She’s just as tense as me. I spot Tom at a table in the back. He’s not alone. I take a deep breath and take Cara’s hand. “Just play along.”
“What?” she whispers, and then her eyes grow huge as I start to walk towards Tom. “You’re just going to walk up to him and kill him in front of all these people?”
“No,” I hiss. “Just look scared as fuck and do what I tell you.”
“No problem there,” she snips at me. “I’m about to piss myself, I’m so scared.”
Tom looks over the floor and to the half-naked women dancing before his eyes finally settle on us. Shock registers on his face and then he waves at the people around them. They get up in a hurry and scatter in all directions, leaving Tom alone at the table.
When we’re close to the table he slams a fist down on it, making the glasses rattle. “Why the fuck did you bring her here?”
“Is there somewhere private we can do this?” I growl, jerking Cara closer. She stumbles over her feet and almost loses her balance, which makes for a good show.
“Yes … yes.” He jumps up. “This way!” He hurries down a dimly lit passage and I check behind us to make sure no one is following us.
Once we’re in the office, I close the door behind us.
I can’t even look at Cara as the words leave my mouth. “Seeing as you want her dead, I thought I’d deliver an up, close and personal service.”
“I thought the deal was off,” he snaps at me.
“Only because she got away from me. But I have her now so it’s your choice - dead or alive?”
“Damian?” she whispers and I just can’t face her. It will totally throw me if I see hurt on her face. Tom has to believe me.