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There was no way to go but onward.
I snuck out the back door I’d noted in my survey of the first floor and headed to the garage. Inside, a thick, oily scent laced the air that set off my inner alarm bells. I opened the hoods of each car in the row and found the engines’ cables snapped, the compartments cracked by swift blows.
Of course. The killers had probably come through here before they’d entered the house so no one who managed to flee would have a vehicle to escape in. I couldn’t repress a flicker of respect for their thoroughness, even if it made my jaw clench at the same time.
I’d just have to find transportation outside the property.
As I slunk across the expansive treed yard, the night’s darkness cloaked my movements. Thick clouds blotted out the stars. A damp breeze licked over my face and my bare arms. It tasted like incoming rain.
The stone wall that surrounded the property stood a foot higher than me, but with a running leap, I clambered onto and over it. I dropped to the sidewalk outside with only the faintest rasp of my shoes on the pavement.
The whole rest of the city—the whole rest of the big, bad world—stretched out before me.
Clutching the tote bag close to my side, I touched the wall in silent farewell and set off through the shadows. Resolve hardened inside me.
The killers who’d descended on the household might be good, but they were going to pay the price anyway. They couldn’t have counted on tangling with me.
