Page 59 of Hard Rain

“Do I look like I know where anybody is?”

Axel studied her for a second.

She looked exhausted, strung out, and angry at the world and everybody in it.

Not scared.

“Who else has been asking?”

Before she could answer, Whip appeared in the kitchen doorway looking like he’d already seen everything the place had to offer.

“Clear,” Whip said.

Axel returned his attention to the occupants.

Another voice came from deeper in the house.

“Clear back here,” Knox called.

The woman pointed toward the open front door.

“You assholes broke my damn door.”

“That door was one good breeze away from falling over,” Axel snorted.

The man beside her actually looked offended.

“That door was solid, man.”

The guy stared at him.

Axel stared right back.

Neither of them believed that.

“Bill me,” Axel said.

A moment later Knox emerged from one of the bedrooms.

“Nobody.”

“Shocking,” Axel muttered.

Knox rolled his eyes.

The woman spotted him, twisting her lips. She reached for the cigarette burning in the overflowing ashtray and took a drag. Smoke curled through her tangled hair.

“Oh good. They sent the Boy Scouts.”

Knox looked delighted. The kid worried him sometimes.

“That’s the nicest thing anybody’s said to me all week.”

The woman blinked.

Boots sounded on the porch and a second later Sheriff Tomas Mercer stepped inside. Rain darkened his black hair. He held a paper cup of coffee from the Gas & Go down the street like this was a casual Tuesday.

Grady was close behind, shaking water from his hair as he stepped around Tomas.