I Never Thought I'd See You Again: A Novelists Inc. Anthology Read Online Free PDF Page A

couldn’t sleep.
    It was sometime between two and three in the morning — she was guessing — and the rain beat down on the tin roof of the abandoned warehouse. It smelled like burnt metal and wet dog. The wet dog smell probably came from the other homeless and runaway teens who were sleeping under the roof.
    Kai had been surprisingly hospitable. He’d remembered her from Owen, and didn’t seem to hold any grudges that she’d been friendly with his enemy. While Angel understood street kid hierarchy on one level, she didn’t always understand the political bullshit. All she’d said to Kai was that she had no place to go and asked if she could crash until dawn. She admitted she had nothing to give, but she’d be willing to go out on a scavenger hunt with his crew tomorrow. (Read: shoplifting.)
    He said she could stay, no strings, that he wasn’t going to let anyone sleep out on the street in the rain. He’d asked who she was running from, and she’d said, “It’s complicated.”
    He wouldn’t like a rat anymore than the guys trying to kill her. The cops were anathema to the street kids, and that she was helping the system would make her part of the problem.
    But even with Kai’s hospitality, Angel was suspicious. It had been too easy. But she was tired and underage prostitutiony voin pain and just needed a couple hours rest. She’d sneak out early.
    She might have dozed off, she didn’t know, but it was an odd half-existence, hearing everything around her while being completely still. And maybe because of that weirdness she heard the footsteps crossing the long, narrow building. Several footsteps. The flash of a light, casting shadows on walls better left dark.
    It might just be Kai or Kai’s people. But Angel couldn’t take the chance. She’d been here for a few hours — plenty of time for the Garcias to track her down. How had they done it?
    Don’t think, run!
    She crawled across the grimy floor as fast as she dared. Past two kids having sex. Past a group huddled for warmth. Past bodies that might have been dead, they were so motionless.
    Because she’d spent time here in the past, she knew the building well. She knew that Kai would have a crew on the two main doors, front and back. But there was another door, accessible only through what had been Owen’s private room and Angel had to assume it was Kai’s now. It would just be Kai and whatever girl — or guy (she couldn’t figure out if he was gay or straight or bi) he chose for the night.
    She crawled most of the way there. No one paid any attention to her. Unless they were Kai’s inner circle, they wouldn’t know or care who she was. She made it to Kai’s room, and pushed open the door.
    He was alone. The tall, gaunt kid with black hair and white skin was sitting at his desk in a semi-dark glow. “Sorry,” he said simply.
    The truth hit her hard. He’d sold her out. “They’re going to kill me,” she said.
    “They pay well.”
    She ran for the door. He jumped up, lithe and fast.
    The door opened from the outside. Both she and Kai stared, surprised.
    I’m dead.
    She hesitated, just a moment, thinking that perhaps death was better than this , than a life that no one wanted her to live. Not her mother, not the deadbeat father who had walked away and ended up in prison, not the gang bangers or her so-called friends.
    Except, she wanted to live.
    She turned to run the other way, but the lone man in a black hoodie said in a low, rough voice, “Iliana!”
    No one knew her real name. She hated it, never used it, no one knew it.
    He grabbed her arm and half-dragged her out. She followed, partly because he had an iron grip and partly because he hadn’t shot her on sight, so he might not be with the Garcias.
    And he knew her name.
    Kai rushed them. “They’ll kill me, you fucker!”
    Hoodie Guy hit Kai in his face. Kai went down holding his nose.
    “Now, Angel,” he said and pulled her out the door. They ran along the back of the warehouse,