Chapter 4 (part 2)

The cab picked him up and the ride back to the motel was made in silence. Evan had simply stared out of the windows, wondering if life in Shinoe was always as hectic as today had been. Max Young had spoken about today as if it had possibly been the worst day of his life, so Evan assumed that the town was usually pretty quiet. He then thought about what the desk clerk had told him about how the heat could put people a bit on edge. Evan guessed that this was possible; the sweltering heat of the desert sure as hell irritated him most of the time.

But when the cab dropped him off at the motel, Evan found the air to be a bit cooler, almost pleasant. While Shinoe wasn’t really in the desert per se, it was damned close. It was close enough that Evan considered the warm breeze that swirled around him to be a desert wind.

Evan watched the cab drive away as he took a seat on the hood of his car. He supposed he could just rent the room for another night and then find a garage tomorrow to replace his tires. After that, there was still the decision of what to do about the drugs and his boss. But he’d cross that bridge when he got there.

He stood up and headed for the motel office. He didn’t make it three feet before someone jumped him from behind.

The weight of the attacker was light and Evan nearly saved himself from falling to the ground. But he soon felt the additional weight of a second body on top of him and he knew right away that fighting might only make the situation worse. Besides, whoever was on him was not punching or kicking him. He was simply being pushed to the ground and pinned there. There was a slight yet sharp pain as the right side of his face smacked the pavement.

“Don’t move and don’t speak,” one of his attackers said. This was followed by a familiar clicking sound as a hard cumbersome object was pressed against the back of his head. “You do anything stupid and we’ll kill you. Got it?”

Evan had had his life threatened several times before, but never with a gun to the back of his head. But he knew that it would be best to respond to any comments that were made to him. Staying silent might only infuriate his attackers and from the sounds of it, they were already plenty pissed.

“Yeah, I got it,” Evan said. He realized that his assailants had taken the effort to push him down so that they were on the ground on the passenger side of his car, hidden away from the road. To anyone passing by, they could not be seen.

“Good,” a second voice said. “Not such a stupid white man after all.”

Evan noticed the voice and the cheesy reference and although he knew it might be stupid to do so, his sarcastic side took over. It was something he had always had trouble keeping in check.

“Hey, Sam. What can I do for you?”

“The money was marked. Every single bill.”

“Did you discover that before or after you broke into my room and stole the shit?”

This question prompted a hard elbow to be driven into his back. Evan coughed weakly as the right side of his face was pushed harder into the ground. He could feel pebbles and grime scratching and stinging at his cheeks but that sensation was not nearly as dominant as the insistent weight of the gun pressed to his skull.

“What’s the matter?” Sam asked. “Did we screw you over before you had the chance to screw us? Did you know the bills were marked?”

“No, actually,” Evan answered honestly. And he was suddenly not so mad at Sam; all of his anger was in that moment directed towards his boss, Emile Gorrengo. “I just picked the briefcase up and followed instructions. That’s all I ever do.”

Again, another elbow crunched into his lower back. This time the force of it caused Evan to bite into his bottom lip.

“Don’t lie to us,” the other attacker said. This second voice sounded almost the same as Sam’s, only with a stern edge to it.

“I’m not,” Evan said. “I swear. Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”

There was a brief silence as the two men pressing him down took a while to sort out their thoughts. Finally, Sam said, “Come with us.”