“Fuck!” Arturo growled.
Hard slams against the door suggested the cops were already in the process of trying to break their way in, and though Ashton had the door of the safe house reinforced, it really only bought us a few extra seconds. I leaped off the bed, bolted over to where I’d dropped my purse on the couch on the way in, and then scurried over to the window and jumped through it onto the fire escape. Footsteps on my heels let me know that the twins were right behind me, but I didn’t stop. I made my way down the fire escape level by level until I was on the bottom level and could jump down to the street.
“Shit,” I hissed as I looked around.
There were squad cars lined down the block. No matter which way I tried to run out of the alleyway, I’d be seen. Suddenly, a car came screeching up, blocking the alleyway. I was terrified that it might be one of the detectives, but the window rolled down, and Callista’s face appeared.
“Get in!” she screamed.
“How?” I yelled.
“Who cares! Go!” Ashton was behind me, pushing against my back. He opened the driver’s side door and pushed me in.
“Stop!” I looked up the fire escape just as the detectives were making their way down, and it was no surprise to see that Detective Alcina was leading a pack of police down. “Police!”
Ashton shut the driver’s side door, and then he and Arturo threw themselves into the back seat, and Callista burned rubber pulling away from the alley.
“Shit, Calli,” Arturo huffed. “Fantastic timing.”
“What? Do you have a fucking sixth sense or something?” Ashton added.
Neither twin knew she’d be there? Then how the hell did she show up exactly when the cops did? Just like that, it all clicked into place—the police only keeping an eye on the safe house once Ashton and I started using it, and Detective Alcina randomly questioning my cover at his house the other day.
My eyes shifted to the left at Callista, and her head turned, very subtly, back in my direction. Our eyes locked, and she gave as shallow and unnoticeable a shake to her head as possible.
“Fuck, they’re following us!” Arturo yelled.
Sure enough, sirens were starting to blare, and squad cars were filling the street from all angles. “Up there,” I pointed out to Callista. “There’s a back entrance to the freeway.” Callista followed the direction, turning down a frontage road and taking a lesser-known entrance onto the freeway. “In two exits, there’s an off-ramp that cloverleafs right into an on-ramp. You can ditch ‘em, but you’re gonna have to put some distance between us.”
“I didn’t buy a fast car for nothing.” The car slowly started to gain speed. Fifty miles per hour. Sixty miles per hour. Seventy miles per hour. Eighty miles per hour. Every time I thought the car might max out on speed, it got faster. “Hang on!”
Callista weaved in and out of the lines of traffic on the highway like a stunt driver. She situated herself in the middle lane, even though the exit I’d mentioned was coming up. “Calli, it’s this exit,” I said.
Callista shook her head. “I got it.”
“The whole right lane is packed,” Ashton said.
“I got it,” Callista repeated.
“Cal!” Arturo yelled.
“Will everyone please shut the fuck up! I’ve got it!”
She blew right past the exit, making me think that she was more confident in her skills than she should have been, but all of a sudden, at the last possible moment that she had to cross onto the exit ramp before doing so would slam us into the cement pillar holding up the bridge, she cut over. Several cars honked as she took a damn-near sharp right turn, but she expertly slid her car around the pillar and onto the off-ramp, cutting off a car in the process. Both twins started to laugh.
“Hell yeah! They didn’t make it!” Arturo screamed.
“I said I had it,” Callista growled.
Callista drifted her car to the left, taking the off-ramp directly back onto the on-ramp, but she pulled over to the shoulder just before re-entering traffic, and we sat in the shadow of the pillar on the other side while the rest of the police barrelled past. Some of them took the exit we’d taken. At normal speed, Callista pulled away from the shoulder and merged into traffic. She kept an even speed as we took the two exits back toward the safe house.
“Ashton. Where’d you park?” she asked.
“Two blocks down,” Ashton replied. Callista made her way back toward the safe house, being careful not to do anything out of the ordinary. We were parked behind Ashton’s car. Ashton got out of the car first, then opened my door. “Get out.”
Arturo started to get out of the car, but Callista slapped the child locks, keeping him from opening the door. “Don’t,” she said, looking into the rearview mirror to look at him. “You have a record. I need to get you out of here.”
I looked back at Arturo, who looked about ready to spit nails, and then I looked back at Callista. There was pure panic in her eyes. “You okay?”
