Chapter 25
Thwarted plans
Everything seems to happen in slow motion, but I guess that’s always how it plays out.
The doorknob slowly turns. Rachel is practically shaking where she’s standing behind the door. My girl is trying so hard to be brave, and I’m so very proud of her. I would tell her so, but there’s a ringing in my ears.
“Shh,” I whisper, and she nods.
But the person who steps into the room shocks the absolute shit out of me. Although I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Rick told me to be careful around him.
“Come on,” Captain Black says quietly. “We have to go now.”
I watch him warily. Rick said not to trust him, but if we don’t get out of this house, Rachel won’t have a chance to run. I guess it all comes down to the devil you know and the devil you don’t. And I know I don’t want to be held in this house with the psychotic Ashley Jeffries any longer.
“What are you waiting for?” he snaps. “Come on.”
“Okay,” I say. “Come on, Rachel. We have to go now.”
“Come on. We gotta move,” he says in his slow southern drawl.
It’s the gunshot that I didn’t see coming.
One minute, I was setting down the chair and Rachel and I were going to have to trust Captain Black to get us out of here, and the next, Ashley is standing there with a smoking gun.
Black clutches his chest where the bullet must have left his body, because she shot him from behind. The look on his face is one of surprise. Me too. I did not see that shit coming, and I should have.
“Oh fuck!” she screams, and I have no idea what she has to scream at me about. I’m not the one who just shot a man.
Captain Black crumples forward, his face on the plain utilitarian gray carpet. His breathing is shaky. He doesn’t look so good. But for now, he’s alive.
“Look what you made me do!” She’s panicking. Panic never helps in a situation like this. I should know; I watched a lot ofHart to Hartreruns late at night when I couldn’t sleep because I was thinking about how much I missed Rick.
“This is okay,” I say, trying to reassure a fucking murderer. How is this even my life right now? Oh fuck, nowI’mpanicking a little. “It’ll be okay. Just let us go.”
“No!” she hollers. “Fuck. You ruined everything. They’re going to kill me now.” I’m not going to feel bad for her, because she’s involved with some pretty heavy stuff and is probably going to die. I’m pretty sure she just killed the president’s aide-de-camp. That’s not going to go over well. Not to mention, she is going to kill me and my daughter if I can’t come up with another plan. Still, I’m not going to tell her any of this.
“Who’s going to kill you?” I ask her, giving her my best impression of being sympathetic. Maybe if she feels like we’re a team here, she will cave and let us go. “We can still fix this.”
“It can’t be fixed, you dumb cow!” she yells, waving the gun around while she screams. “I have to figure out what to do!” Ashley whirls out the door, slamming it behind her. I wait a second and test the handle, but it won’t turn. Of course, in her wild mental state, she would manage to have the wherewithal to lock the goddamn door.
I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know what her solution to this “problem” is going to be, because I think it ends with me in a body bag, and I’d really like to not help facilitate that. But the fact remains.
I have no other plan.
