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My heart started to beat a thousand miles an hour, and my palms began to sweat.
“Wow,” Jennie said in surprise. “Did you hear that?”
It was then that I realized that despite turning the volume up, I hadn’t heard a word that the news reporter was saying.
“No, what?” I croaked.
“That’s the owner of our business!” Jennie said. “I mean the big, big owner.”
I nodded hard, feeling my hands start to go numb, as I listened closer to what the reporter was now saying.
“…entered the location while the Ampere Electric owner was still asleep. The owner’s dog, a beautiful Standard Poodle, alerted the gentleman of his intruder.” The screen panned over to where Castiel was standing, holding Monster’s leash while he gestured for the dog to get inside the back of his police cruiser. “The woman had a gun and shot the owner once.”
That was all I was able to hear before I was reaching for my phone.
“I’ll be right back.” I placed the remote on the desk in front of me, trying to appear calm. “I have to use the restroom.”
With my phone in my hand, I walked as sedately as I could toward the door. Once it was closed behind me, I practically sprinted out of the office and straight outside, my phone already to my ear.
***
I was a quivering mess as I waited for somebody to call me back.
The only number I’d been given by Hoax in case I needed to contact them was an emergency line. One that went through a series of operators to ‘get to the right person’ according to the woman that I had on the line.
So there I waited, working but not really putting my all into my work, for what felt like days but only ended up being a couple of hours.
Eventually, it turned three-fifteen, and I started gathering my things. I clocked out at three-twenty every single day so I could make it to school pick-up by three-thirty to get Linnie from school.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Jennie,” I said softly to the woman at my side.
Jennie looked over with a tired smile. “I love your hours.”
I smiled back. I did have good hours. I needed to thank Liner for that.
There was no doubt about that.
Liner, who might very well be dead, and I was still here, twiddling my thumbs.
God, I wanted to leave so badly that my foot was twitching on the gas pedal twenty minutes later as I waited in the school pick-up line for Linnie.
And when Linnie finally made it into my car, I had to remind myself of Liner’s words as I’d left him.
Of his certainty that I should forget about him and keep myself safe.
I just hated that he was right.
“Mommy, can we go straight home?” Linnie asked softly. “I’m tired.”
I looked at my daughter in the back seat, strapping herself into her car seat, and nodded my head.
“Yeah, baby. We can go straight home.”
My eyes closed, and I told myself that if I didn’t hear from them by tomorrow morning, I’d go.
I couldn’t help myself.
I’d go, and God help us all then.Chapter 20Welcome to the South where ‘who made this tea?’ means the tea is nasty.
-Liner’s secret thoughts
Liner
“You have a minute and a half.” Hoax tossed me the phone. “Call her, make sure she’s going to stay where she is, and then hang up. No longer than a minute and a half or it can be traced.”
I nodded my head and immediately flipped open the phone—and yes, you heard that right. Flipped open.
The phone was one of the oldest phones I’d ever seen, and honestly, I wasn’t even sure that they made the likes of these anymore.
Regardless, I dialed the one number that was saved in the phone, then pressed it to my ear, not bothering to leave the room where I had at least six of my club members now crowded around me.
Slate—the newest member—was leaning against the wall next to the door, glaring down the hallway at where I suspected Tara sat still handcuffed to her hospital gurney.
When I’d arrived eight hours ago, Tara had been hot on my heels, via police escort, because she’d been ‘freaking out.’ Meaning they feared for her psychiatric health and stashed her in a goddamn psych room a few doors down from my own.
She hadn’t been freaking out. She’d been putting on a show.
Regardless of what it was, there was now a psych evaluation being run on her, and if we were lucky she’d be taken to jail shortly after the test was administered. Or hell, I’d even be happy with her going straight to a psych ward—one that wasn’t going to be influenced by Daddy’s money.
The phone rang once if you could even call it once since it rang for half of one, and a frantic Theo was on the other end of the line.
