She didn’t get a good look at the man. What she saw next did not even give her time to duck out of sight.

The fall followed after the sound. The pain came next. And then survival kicked in.

Hope scrambled on the floor and across the room to the door. Her eyes welled up with tears when she tried to use her right hand. The cry of pain came out of her lips and her breath became ragged.

But she had to reach the door.

“Hope!” Devin’s voice called from somewhere.

She used all of her strength to get out of the door and that was when she Devin reached the top of the staircase. His eyes were wide when he saw her blooded shirt.

“We have to leave now!” she gritted through her teeth as she tried to stand up. “Someone’s in your old room!”

The pain ebbed away as the eminent danger of getting unlucky and be dead came to her.

Things must have happened within seconds, but it felt like minutes. Whoever shot her could be waiting outside with more shots for her and Devin. She stumbled on her feet, holding her shoulder with her good hand. Blood was starting to trickle through the gaps of her fingers.

Before she knew it, she was running behind Devin toward the stairs. The pain was completely gone. Almost all of her senses stopped working except her sight and hearing. Her blood was rushing through her ears in panic.

She knew she left her left slipper inside her old room. But that was the least of her problem. They’d worry about the things they would leave behind later.

Devin held out his arm before her when they reached the top of the staircase.

She wanted to push him. They had no time.

And that was when she heard them. The gentle closing of the door and the slow footsteps.

Her eyes widened as she looked at Devin’s grim face.

What should they do?

The footsteps were getting more distinct.

She was suddenly aware of her heart pumping hard against her chest. She was almost drowning at its sound ringing through her ears.

Devin turned and pushed her back to her old room.

She tried to fight him.

There was no way out from there. They were good as dead if they went there.

But there was no other option. She turned and they both ran back to the room. Devin silently closed the door and he ran to the opposite wall.

“Stay inside the bathroom,” Devin ordered, his hand going to his back. When it reappeared, he was holding a gun. “Go!” he hissed at her as he stood beside the door, back flat against the wall, his chest heaving. She heard the ticking sound as he unlocked his gun. “Go!” he repeated as he raised the gun, ready for battle.

The footsteps had followed them upstairs and whoever it belonged to was certainly not worried about making any noise.

Hope turned and ran to the bathroom.

*****

Devin knew he was a good shot, but he had never taken his shots outside of a shooting range. He could shoot targets without flinching, but he never got to test his skills in actual encounters.

He swallowed and urged his hands to remain calm as the footsteps outside Hope’s old bedroom slowed down and eventually stopped.

Devin slowly slid down to the floor and aimed the gun at the door. He knew that the man might be trained to know that danger is not limited to his own line of sight. Any trained gunman would know how to look straight, down and above in a matter of seconds.

But down was Devin’s best shot. He would only have a second to make his lucky shot or he’d be dead before he could have a good look at the man.

The doorknob slowly turned. Devin ran his tongue over his lips, made sure his stance was sturdy. It would be terrible to trip at the last second and never get the chance to get back up.

As the knob turned all the way and stopped, the door flew open.

*****

Hope heard the shots from inside the bathroom and she jumped to her feet. But she did not dare take a step to the door. A thud followed the shots. A body dropped on the floor.

But who was it?

Her eyes were closed as she backed closer in the corner of the tiled room. Her sleeve was drenched with blood now and she started to feel the pain again. Her hands were shaking. Hell, she was shaking!

Blood dripped down on the tiled floor and she held her breath.

For the first time, she prayed for death to come fast if it was Devin dead on the floor.

She heard the footsteps coming near.

And she felt a presence inside with her.

Slowly, she opened her eyes and she slumped on the floor, her knees giving out on her, when she saw him.

“Let’s go,” Devin said above her, bending down to help her up.

“Did you kill him?”

He did not answer. Instead, he pulled her out of the bathroom and back out in the room. A body was lying face down on the floor, one arm over his head which was facing them, eyes wide open. She gulped. “Do you know him?”

Devin shook his head. “No. But he’s a cop.”

She frowned. “I don’t know him. Does he work with Carl? Is he the one who killed him?”

“As you might have noticed, I did not bother to interrogate,” Devin answered with sarcasm. He showed her the man’s badge. “This was in one of his pockets.”

Hope stared at the dead man’s face. A typical man in his forties. Well-built and tall.

“If you know him and you are not telling me—”

“I don’t,” Devin snapped more to himself than at her. “We better go.”

“What do we do with him?”

“Nothing. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

*****

They drove away as fast as they could. Devin made sure to avoid streets with high numbers of street cams. He had been through a lot of trials that went bad in the past because of security cameras.

And Hope was bleeding fast. “You know getting you to a hospital will prove to be very challenging,” he said, throwing her a look. She looked paler. She was losing a lot of blood.

“Then don’t take me to a hospital.” Her voice was stronger than he expected.

Devin nodded.

They dropped by a drug store and he bought everything he thought they would need.

Once they were back on the road, they decided against going back to the shack. Every now and then he would check if they were being followed. But it seemed that the dead guy who shot Hope was confident enough he could do the job alone.

“Let’s find a place to stay. Then we’ll take care of your wounds.”

*****

Hope bit on a rolled spare shirt as Devin disinfected and stitched her wound without anesthetic. Her eyes watered in pain, but she endured it like all others she had been through in the past.

As Devin wrapped her shoulder, her arm was almost numb. Her fingers shook as she the cloth away from her mouth.

“You never told me you have a gun,” she said quietly.

“I thought it would only freak you out.”

“You should have told me.”

“So you could make a big deal out of it?”

She did not answer but met his eyes. “Don’t ever hide anything from me again.”

He held her gaze and nodded. “I won’t.”

“Did you find anything during your search?” she asked testily.

He stepped away from her and turned around. “Get dressed and we’ll talk.”

She only had a towel around her and she almost flushed at the reminder. She grabbed the shirt and disappeared into the bathroom.

Finally alone, she stared at herself in the mirror. She looked pale, almost dead. I’ll be the best model for a coffin, she thought.

With pain, she put on the shirt slowly and went stepped out of the bathroom. Devin was ready with a glass of water and a pill for her. “Take this. It’s antibiotic. We don’t want you to have any sort of infection now.”

Hope popped the pill into her mouth and emptied the glass. Devin took it from her and replaced it on the small coffee table at the corner of the motel room.

She went to the bed and sat down. “Talk.”

Devin looked at her and sighed. “I guess you don’t want to sleep yet.”

She gave him a warning look and he shook his head. “I found something under his floor,” he finally said and he picked up the box he hid under the pillow. She never noticed him carrying it before. He must have taken it with him on their way out of the house.

“What’s in it?” she asked.

He opened the tin box and showed her the contents. “Fake passports.”

“I don’t see why you think they are important.”

“They may give light to some of our questions later. But for now, this is more important,” he said, picking up the small notebook underneath the passports.

“What is it?” she asked, grabbing the notebook from him with her left hand.

“It’s probably his personal secret phonebook. It has a list of names, all fake of course, and their contact numbers.”

Her eyes widened. “You think they can lead us somewhere?”

“It’s worth a try.”

“You’re thinking of calling them?”

He looked at the page she had opened. “There are only about twenty names there so yes, what else is there to do? This is our biggest find so far and I am not throwing it away.”

“What will you tell these people? What are you going to ask them?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t we try one?”

Her eyes went to the phone beside the bed. “Using that?”

“Are you crazy? Of course, not.” He walked to the duffel bag he carried from the car and took out the phone he had been hiding for years. “Always have an unused phone around,” he said with a smile.

She moved to his side and watched as he turned on his phone. “Are you sure it’s going to work?”

He looked at her dryly as they waited. When the sound came and the phone was ready to us, he said, “Give me the list.”

She showed him the first number on the page. The name was Sleepy. Under it was Grumpy. “Carl sure did love his fairy tales,” he noted as he punched Sleepy’s number.

He placed the phone on speaker mode and they both almost jumped when it started ringing. Three rings and someone, or Sleepy, picked up. “What do you need now?” an irritated voice asked. “I told you I will not lift a finger after what I just did for you, you bastard.”

Devin did not say a word and Hope held her breath.

“Hello? Hey, moron, don’t call me if you don’t have anything to say! Live your freaking sick life in peace!”

And the light went dead.

“That’s your plan? Just listen?” Hope asked in disbelief.

“Well, what do you suggest I do? Ask them a question? These people probably know Carl not because they are his friends. They do something for each other. They will start talking and get down to business. And when they do that, we’ll be there to listen.”

“Why don’t we do this tomorrow?” she suggested.

“Why?”

“Because right now, we need to rest. And we can’t just call these people in the middle of the day, out of nowhere and—”

“Okay, you rest. I’ll think of something to—”

“You’re not calling them without me,” she insisted.

“I won’t.”

She gauged his reaction and slowly nodded. She really felt tired. She wanted to sleep.

*****

Devin was thinking of things to say to the people on the list once Hope woke up.

And then it occurred to him.

Carl. The dead gunman. The shooting.

Someone was bound to hear what happened. Someone must have reported what happened by now and everything would be out in the open. Or at least Carl’s death would be.

And the people on the list would hear about it.

There was no time to waste. He had to call them now or none of them would dare pick up.

He watched Hope’s sleeping form.

He decided against waking her.

He’d just tell her everything he found out later.