Sins & Needles (The Artists Trilogy #1)

by Halle, Karina

  I quickly rapped at the door. “Uncle Jim?”

  Camden stepped back and to the side, his hand on the gun handle now, like he was playing cops and robbers.

  I waited with bated breath, listening hard, until the door opened a crack, the chain lock on.

  “Ellie,” Uncle Jim said, giving me an odd smile. “Come on in. I’m so glad you came.”

  He undid the chain lock and opened the door. He looked like he wanted to hug me—he was being quite emotional for my stoic uncle—but first I needed to be sure he was alone. I brushed past him and did a quick sweep of the room. Camden followed, going even further by checking the bathroom and closets.

  “Looking for someone?” Uncle Jim asked, his voice shaking a bit. He must have been stressed out of his gourd.

  I quickly gave him a hug while Camden locked the front door. “Sorry, you know me, Miss Paranoid.”

  “I know,” he said softly. “Now I can see why you are.”

  He went and sat on the sagging bed with the tacky green floral duvet and started tugging at his flannel shirt. He let out a sigh. “I don’t know what to do, Ellie.”

  I exchanged a look with Camden. Mine was sympathetic. His was hard. He looked at Uncle Jim with all the warmth of a hawk scouring a field for its next dinner.

  I mouthed What? to him but Camden ignored me.

  “Tell us what happened?” Camden asked in a steely voice.

  Uncle Jim glanced at him, surprised. “I already told Ellie everything.”

  “You never told me,” Camden pointed out. “So tell me.”

  My uncle pursed his lips, looking Camden up and down. “How on earth did the both of you get on the run together?”

  Ah shit, I thought. Camden was going to tell him about my robbery attempt. Another thing my uncle really didn’t need to know.

  “I was in trouble with some people and Ellie agreed to help me,” Camden said, keeping his eyes on him. My lungs expanded gratefully.

  “You’re both in trouble with different people?” he asked incredulously. “Jesus, kids, what the hell is wrong with you both?”

  “You tell us,” Camden said. He took a step closer to him, his right hand looking anxious and poised. “And while you’re at it, tell us what happened.”

  He frowned but said, “Like I already told Ellie, I went out earlier today, I came home. There was a fire truck there putting out the last of the flames. It was only a row of trees but it had burned right through them. The workers were upset—one, Jorge, was bleeding from his nose, says some people roughed him up. They wanted to talk to me, and when they told them that I had gone out for a bit, they hit him. Then they left.”

  “What did they look like?”

  “They said there were three of them. All Hispanic, although Jorge thought one sounded Puerto Rican or something. But wherever they were from, their English was impeccable. Especially the guy with the longer hair. He had some vivid eyes and they thought he was the one in charge, and maybe a little loco. He didn’t say much but he had some sort of authority. Anyhow, I guess that could be your Javier, couldn’t it Ellie?”

  I nodded. Vivid eyes, a little loco, and oozing power? Yes, that sounded just like Javier.

  “So then what?’ Camden asked. The impatience in his voice was rising and I wondered just what the hell he was thinking. The story sounded tight to me and made sense. Javier had a dramatic flair for lighting things on fire.

  Uncle Jim sighed and continued to fidget with his shirt. “Obviously they were gone when I came. I talked to the cops, didn’t see your father unfortunately, Camden, and they said they’d keep a lookout. They’ve at least got arson and assault charges on them. But I know those kind of men. I’ve been dealing with Ellie and her mother for way too long. They can’t be tracked or traced. You won’t find them but they’ll find you, you know? So I had to run. I came here. Figured it was a good place to lay low.”

  I eyed the water stain on the ceiling. “You could have picked a better place.”

  “I’m poor, Ellie,” he said. “And now I’m in more of a hole. Losing some of the crop, you know.”

  My heart stung and I found myself biting my lip hard. He looked so conflicted and sad. I bet he wasn’t sure whether to feel grateful that I had showed up or if he hated me for ruining everything he had worked so hard for.

  “When did all of this happen?” Camden asked.

  Uncle Jim looked up in thought. “Uh, maybe around one or two in the afternoon.”

  “And you came straight here.”

  “That’s right,” he said. His voice was shaking again. The man needed a hug and a drink. “Then I called Ellie. I didn’t know who else to…”

  I waited for him to say “trust” but he didn’t. He just trailed off and looked at the floor.

  “What kind of car were the men driving? Did you ask?” Camden took another step closer.

  Uncle Jim nodded. “Of course I asked, I had to know who to look out for. They said it was a white Ford Mustang. Looked brand new. Probably stolen.”

  The room began to spin as my chest pinched. What?

  “Are you sure?” Camden asked, finally sounding calm and patient as hell. “Are you sure that was the car your workers saw them driving this afternoon?”

  My uncle looked him square in the eye. “That’s what they said.”

  Before I could feel anything else, before I could even let my brain tussle with the conflicting information we were just given, the fact that there was no way it could have been the white Mustang since we totalled the white Mustang last night, Camden acted. As quick as anything, he whipped out the gun from his waist and pressed it up against Jim’s forehead, finger on the trigger.

  “Why the fuck are you lying to us?!” he screamed, his face turning red, his eyes sharp like blue blocks of ice.

  “Camden!” I yelled, going to him. “Put the gun down!”

  Camden only pressed the gun harder into Uncle Jim’s forehead. He shrank back in shock, eyes wide and terrified.

  “Why are you lying to us!? Tell us the truth, Jim, or so help me God I will blow your fucking brains out right here!”

  “I’m not...I….I…” he stuttered, shooting me a look to help him.

  “If I find out that you’ve put Ellie in danger by luring her here, I will kill. I will.” Camden’s voice was shaking now, the anger flowing through him and toward the barrel of the gun.

  “Camden, please!” I screamed, trying to grab his arms. But he wouldn’t budge. He was going to lose his shit and I was going to lose my uncle.

  “Tell Ellie the truth!” he commanded. “Tell her the truth, you owe her that!”

  My uncle’s eyes fell to the floor and silence overtook him. Then, after a few beats, he burst out into a sob.

  “He promised me he wouldn’t hurt her!” he wailed.

  No. No, this couldn’t be. I found my head shaking back and forth, showing my disbelief. Even Camden looked shocked for a few moments before he tightened his grip on the gun, grinding his teeth.

  “I’m so sorry, Ellie,” my dear Uncle Jim apologized through his tears. “It was so much money. I needed the money. You know I do. Fifty thousand dollars—I could save everything with that amount. I had no choice, I didn’t. I need it.”

  I felt like I was being ripped apart inside, my heart a single sheet of brittle paper splitting down the middle.

  “I think you always have a choice,” Camden whispered violently, pressing the gun harder, his eyes boring holes into his head. “You were like a father to her.”

  “I know,” he sobbed, eyes tearing and locked on the gun above. “I know. But Ellie, Jesus, Ellie, how you’ve made my life so hard. I wouldn’t be in this position if it wasn’t for you. He promised he wouldn’t hurt you, Ellie, he did.”

  Camden’s finger was about to pull back the trigger. Through all my pain, I tightened my grip on his arm and said, “Please, Camden.”

  His nostrils flared as he tried to regain control of himself.

  “Camden
, he’s still my uncle,” I told him quietly, working the pain through my words. “He’s still the only family I’ve got.”

  With great reluctance he ripped the gun away from his head. “Well now what? How much time do we have?”

  Suddenly the room lit up with headlights from outside the gauzy window blinds. We had no time. They were here.

  “I’m sorry,” Uncle Jim whimpered again. “I wish I could take it back.”

  Camden shoved him hard. “Well you can start by helping us now.”

  He ran to the bathroom and I heard him struggle with the window for a few minutes. “It won’t open and it’s too small. I can’t fit through it.”

  Meanwhile I just stood there at the foot of the bed, feeling like my life was crashing down on me, reeling from the impossible betrayal by the man I had always trusted.

  “Go under the bed, Ellie,” my uncle said to me. “I won’t break your trust again. Go under the bed.”

  I looked around the room, thinking there had to be a way out. The car doors slammed from outside. Footsteps.

  Camden came back in the room and put his finger to his mouth, motioning for us all to be quiet. Then he pointed at the bed and nodded.

  I didn’t think I could move my legs. The terror was too great. I heard a knock at the door. Someone tried to turn the knob. I was going to die.

  But somehow I did it. I got on my knees on one side of the bed while Camden did the same on the other. We both flattened out and then squeezed in sideways, barely making it. The broken coils of the mattress pulled at my hair but I ignored the pain.

  We were both under the bed, side by side. We wiggled as far back as we could go until our feet touched the wall. We tucked our limbs up against us just as Javier called out, “Housekeeping” from outside the door.

  I held my breath and waited. Uncle Jim got off the bed, the mattress rising in front of us by a bit. I could see his legs, mid-calf to his dusty Timberland boots as he walked over to the door and opened it.

  “What the hell is this?” Javier asked, his voice collected but with a sliver of annoyance poking through. His sleek leather shoes entered the room followed by Raul’s and Alex’s. I could. Not. Breathe.

  “I don’t know what happened,” Uncle Jim said. He was trying to stay calm but his words trembled. “They came and then they left right away. I think they were suspicious, I don’t know why.”

  “They what?” Javier seethed quietly. “They were here? And you let them go?”

  Though I couldn’t see above his shins, I could tell he was coiling up like a snake. Seeking the right moment to strike.

  “I…I don’t know what happened,” Uncle Jim went on. “I’ll try again. It was that McQueen kid; he didn’t want Ellie to be here.”

  “Mmhmm,” Javier mused. It looked like he turned around to look at the others. His shoes came forward and walked, step by step, over to the bed. Over to us.

  Camden’s fingers wrapped around mine as we held our arms as close to each other as possible. We were worse than sitting ducks. There was nothing to prevent Javier from dropping to the floor and peering under the bed. He could fire the gun underneath. He could shoot the mattress. We had no way of escape. Even with Camden’s gun, it didn’t look like we’d make it out of here alive.

  He stopped right in front of us. I could see the grains in the leather of his brown shoes, see a speck of grey lint on his black cashmere socks. His feet turned as if he was looking around. Now his heels were facing us, inches away. I didn’t dare breathe and I couldn’t if I wanted to.

  “Do you still want the money?” Javier asked delicately.

  “Of course I do,” Uncle Jim said. “But I don’t know what happened. I don’t know why they left. I’ll try better next time. I need the money, you know I do.”

  “You say they believed your story?”

  “Ellie believes everything I tell her,” he said with a hint of sadness. Another kick to my gut.

  “You know you’re not a very good uncle, leading her on like this,” Javier mused softly. “The poor girl put all her trust in you and you’re breaking it. Believe me, I’ve done it to her before. She can’t seem to catch a break.”

  I could hear my uncle swallow hard. “Ellie made my life very difficult.”

  “Oh, she made my life difficult too,” he agreed. “But I enjoyed every minute of it.”

  I knew he was smiling. I could feel it.

  “You promised me you wouldn’t hurt her,” Uncle Jim said. “When I bring her to you, you’ll promise, right?”

  Javier chuckled. “I don’t break my promises.” He slowly started walking toward the door. With each step my heart rate slowed. He stopped and turned slightly. “Unfortunately, I once promised to kill any man who’d hurt her. You’re here, aren’t you? The damage is done.”

  Javier moved. A gun with a silencer went off. There was a wealth of tension as my world slowed down. My eyes were glued to the legs in front of the bed. Uncle Jim’s staggered to the right a step.

  Then he fell down to the floor hard, right in front of us. A bullet wound in his head.

  I opened my mouth to scream but Camden’s hand was suddenly over my mouth, holding it in. I bit down on his fingers, I couldn’t help it. I had to bite or I’d reveal us in seconds. He kept his fingers there, letting me, until the scream was swallowed up inside.

  “Such a shame,” Javier said to Raul and Alex. They left the room and closed the door behind them. I remained frozen in place, unable to look away from my uncle’s dead face, the tiny droplet of blood that was slowly making its way down his forehead, the way his eyes stayed open, caught in utter remorse. They stared at me, burning their way into my brain, an image that promised to never go away.

  After we heard the car start and drive off, Camden got out from under the bed. He tore the bedspread off and quickly covered my uncle up with it. It didn’t matter. I could still feel his dead eyes on me.

  Camden’s legs went over to the window. “Ellie, we have to go now. They’ll be back. Ellie?”

  He came down beside the bed in a push-up position. “Please? We have to leave now.”

  I’d never been in medical shock before but I knew this was it. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t do anything.

  Suddenly Camden reached in and grabbed me by my arm and the belt loop of my jeans. He pulled, dragging me on the stiff, hard carpet until I found enough sense to get out from under the bed with my own strength.

  He brought me up to my feet and wrapped me in a tight hug, his hand at the back of my head, cradling me. “I’m sorry. We have to go. I can’t lose you now.”

  I tried to nod but nothing came out. Camden brought out his gun and kept a firm grip around my arm as he led me across the room. I kept staring at the blanket on the ground, knowing what it was hiding.

  He opened the door and looked around to make sure the coast was clear. When it was, we hurried down the corridor and back the way we came in. I don’t know how I got over the fence but I did. I don’t know how I walked over to the car but I did. I don’t know how we got in the car and drove away down the country lane with our headlights off, searching for a hidden way out of town, but we did.

  I don’t know how we got onto the side roads that took us to Temecula.

  All I did know was that my uncle had betrayed me for fifty thousand dollars. And now my uncle was dead.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  When I woke up the next morning I had that beautiful split second of peace and warmth where your brain hasn’t caught up yet to the events from the night before. You think everything is fine, everything is normal, until that realization hits you like a sledgehammer, shattering your insides, shattering your world. Nothing is normal. Everything is forever changed. It wasn’t a dream. You’re alive and awake and now you have to deal with putting the pieces back together.

  It was a shitty fucking job.

  We were staying in a basic cabin just outside the city of Temecula. Camden wanted something that was off
the beaten path, some place Javier wouldn’t think of checking. The cabins were part of a campground and nestled in hills of ponderosa pine. It was beautiful and quiet, the kind of place where you’d stay for a few days while you tried to make sense of life all over again.

  But I wasn’t coming up with anything. My life was rendered senseless. I’d spent the whole night crying, rocking back and forth on the bed. Camden. I don’t know what I would have done without him. He held me in his arms, staying awake with me. He never said a single word, he just held onto me like he was afraid of letting me go. His heartbeat, steady against my back, kept me sane and allowed my grief to flow without consequence.

  “Hey,” Camden’s mouth was at my ear. “It’s a beautiful day outside.”

  I rolled over under the covers and looked around the room, at the stream of golden sunshine that was coming through the windows of the A-frame. It was a lot nicer than a motel room that’s for sure. But all the sunshine in the world couldn’t clear up the blackness I felt in my heart.

  I leaned back on the down pillow, relieved that no tears were coming. I must have cried them all out. “I can’t believe it,” I whispered, staring blankly at the wood beams in the ceiling.

  “I know,” he said, wrapping his arm across my chest. He kissed my temple, letting his lips linger there.

  “But you knew.”

  He shook his head and kissed my ear lobe. “I didn’t want to believe it. I was just trying to protect us. I didn’t actually think he’d do that to you.”

  “But he did…”

  “Some men are weak, and when they’re desperate, they grow weaker. I know your uncle wouldn’t have let anything happen to you.”

  I stared at him from the corner of my eye. “He tried to hand me over to Javier. For fifty thousand dollars.”

  Camden’s smile was tight-lipped. “I know. But I think Jim really believed that Javier wouldn’t hurt you. You’re such a tough cookie, Ellie. He probably thought you’d be fine in the end.”