But Anna didn’t want to stay there. In a panic she grabbed her coat and ran into the bathroom slamming the door shut. She sat on the floor and doubted her minimal weight would be able to keep the door closed if an intruder attempted to open it.
She tried to hear what was happening but all she heard were the muffled footsteps of Carl as he edged his way to the window. Then silence… It seemed to last forever. A thousand scenarios ran through her head as she worried about what could possibly be happening. Was it just Carl’s paranoia? Or was someone actually there? Someone dangerous… But her questions were answered when she heard two popping sounds that could have only been bullet’s travelling through a silencer, then the sound of a body falling onto the venetian blinds… and then the floor.
She felt incapacitated with fear. She never was any good in a crisis. Creaking the door open gently she looked for signs of a body but all she could see was the back of Carl as he stood cautiously next to the window. As she got up she finally saw it. Obscured by the bed and lying lifeless in a heap was a body. She screamed and reeled back, jumping on the bed.
“Be quiet!” Carl barked.
She instantly shut up and sat shaking in her coat.
“Who is that?” she whispered ever so quietly as if talking to herself.
“This,” Carl pointed his gun to the ground. “This is trouble….”
She could see the redness in his cheeks and hear the panic in his voice. His eyes were wide with worry and he was losing his calm demeanour. He began to pace nervously with his gun still in his hand. Every minute or so he’d look through the blinds into the parking lot as if he thought someone would arrive any second.
“Are there more of them comin?” Anna asked innocently.
“Fuck I don’t know. Fuck. FUCK!” he paced even quicker and in a frenzy of panic began to kick frantically at the dresser. The TV toppled and fell to the ground. Smashed pieces of screen glittered all over the carpet.
Anna wanted to run straight back to the bathroom but couldn’t move. She just sat there huddled and shaking with tears in her eyes. Carl looked to her and saw the fear in her eyes. He could smell her sweat, feel her fragility
“Right. Quick. Move. Into the car,” he ordered.
Carl grabbed his backpack then his dog tags and hurried out the room while dragging Anna by her coat sleeves. As they climbed in the SUV Anna hadn’t even closed her door properly before Carl had begun to drive away. He pulled out quickly onto the freeway and sped as fast as he could out of Chicago.
CHAPTER 6
“Shit! You’re supposed to be dead, shit!” Carl was so angry as he drove that Anna was petrified he’d start head butting the steering wheel.
“What are you saying?” she whimpered.
“You were supposed to die! You were meant to die too…. I wasn’t supposed to leave a witness!”
“Is that why they came to the motel?”
“I think so….I mean yeah! Of course! Why else would Lucas be there? I knew there was something weird about that kid…knew he couldn’t be trusted,”
“Who’s Lucas?”
“Just one of the Don’s boys, a foot soldier,”
“What are we gonna do?”
“Be quiet….just let me think….” and they drove in silence for a few miles until Carl could regain his breath.
“Thank you…” a timid little whisper suddenly came from the passenger seat.
Carl looked over to see if he’d heard right. “What?”
“Thank you,” it came again.
“What the fuck for?” he was confused, stressed.
“For keeping me alive,”
“Oh….” he didn’t think of himself as a good person to be thanked. “You’re welcome…”
“But why? I mean why didn’t you kill me like you were paid to. It was your job after all,”
“I had my reasons,” and he didn’t elaborate.
Anna took the hint to not ask more questions and instead lay her head against the window and looked out to the country. They were far out of the city now and speeding headlong into obscurity. She’d never been out of Chicago before and she guessed that he knew where they were heading as much as she did. She wondered how long it would take for Carl’s boss to find them. She knew nothing about him but she could guess that he was incredibly rich and insanely dangerous. She thought of all the gangster movies she saw with her Dad as a kid and knew people like her and Carl didn’t live long. She closed her eyes and began to pray.
Carl looked over to her and guessed she had fallen asleep. Poor kid, he thought. She’d been through so much recently. She looked so beautiful lying there against the window and he felt the compulsion to lean over and stroke her hair, to tell her everything would be ok.
~