“Why don’t you just leave before the rain starts? You won’t be able to get out tonight, the roads are going to flood. They’re already saturated, and the creeks are running high. It’s going to be a mess out there. You’ll be trapped.”
“I have a plan, and you don’t need to worry about it.”
“But—”
“Shut up, kid,” he snapped. Avery closed her mouth.
The woman who had been in the guest room since Avery got there, the one helping the man named Sam, who was bleeding in the bed, came into the kitchen. She looked angry and held up a prescription medicine bottle.
“You’ve been holding out on us!” she said to Carl and Rose. “You said the strongest pills you had were Tylenol. This is hydrocodone.” She looked like she wanted to hit something. Instead, she grabbed a glass from the cabinet and filled it with water.
“Our daughter—”
“I don’t care. My brother needs these. He’s in a lot of pain. I asked, you lied.”
She stormed out. Avery glanced at the man as he watched herwalk out. Maybe… She had an idea. Her mom was a nurse, she would know what to do with that man. But if they brought her mom over, would they hurt her? Hurt all of them? And if her mom came and didn’t go home before dark, Jake would come looking for her and then they would all be in trouble.
Avery felt stuck, so she kept her mouth shut—for now. She needed to figure this out.
“Can I sit with Gianna?” she asked quietly.
“Go ahead,” he said. “I nailed her window shut. But if you try a stunt like that again, you’ll be staying here with them.” He gestured to Carl and Rose.
When Avery got up, she glanced down and that’s when she saw that the Mendoza’s ankles were zip-tied to the chairs.
She ran down the hall to Gianna’s room and slammed the door shut. “We’re going to find a way out of this,” Avery said with a lot more confidence than she felt. She hugged Gianna tightly as her friend cried. “I promise, Gianna, we’ll find a way.”
At least Bobby was safe.
For now.
With narrowed eyes, Brock watched the teenager bolt down the hall. He didn’t trust that girl. He admired the fact that she’d snuck out the window, that was bold, brave,andstupid, but he couldn’t let anything like that happen again.
His phone rang. He stepped outside to answer it. The air was wet and warm; the wind was light, but it would get worse. The dark skies promised to drop buckets on them today. He wished he’d never taken this damn job.
He glanced at the window. What was he going to do with all these people? They would certainly give his description to the cops, but the truth was, he had no record and didn’t live in the area. He,Sam, and Rena would go back to Louisiana and disappear for a while. Keep a very low profile.
It wasn’t ideal, but while he had committed a lot of crimes, he wasn’t a killer. Baldwin was an exception. He had shot at them first, so Brock didn’t feel guilty about it.
Though he wished the dog hadn’t been hit. He was only doing what dogs were trained to do.
“Yep,” he answered his phone.
“I’m going to say this once, Mr. Jones,” his boss said. “Last night was a grave error. Do not make another one.”
Brock scowled. Who was he to threaten him?
“You told me no one would be home.”
The man ignored him. “Do you have all the documents?”
“Three. You need to get those people out of the house tonight. You promised.”
“There’s a storm brewing, Mr. Jones. The roads will be impassable tonight.”
“I don’t control the fucking weather and neither do you.”
Silence. Brock tensed, but he wasn’t going to back down. Last night was on his boss, not on him.
