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CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Aurelio
After it was all over, I guess we had the silence of the safe house to thank for our lives.
There was no street traffic here, no neighbors opening and closing doors, no dogs barking. Hell, the internet and cable was so shitty that we didn’t even bother trying to have TV or music on as background noise at night.
The only sounds we heard were the occasional hoot of an owl, the wind in the trees, and the low static of the baby monitor we probably didn’t even need with the house being so small and Judah being only a few feet away.
So when a door slammed, I was knifing up in bed, taking Claire—who’d been asleep on my chest—with me.
“What?” Claire asked, sleepy, confused. “Is it Judah?” she asked, slow blinking in the dark room.
“No,” I said, already moving away from her, getting to my feet, and yanking on a pair of pants, then tucking my phone in my pocket before making my way into the closet, reaching onto the shelf, and pulling down my gun.
Normally, I wouldn’t feel comfortable keeping a gun around in the house that wasn’t locked up.
But Judah was still a toddler.
And no amount of brainstorming and troublemaking would make it possible for him to get to the shelf in the closet.
“Don’t,” I hissed when Claire reached toward the light.
I could feel bad about my shortness with her later. When I was sure it was just the guard switching out or some shit like that. And not our worst fears realized.
“What is it?” she answered in a whisper, climbing silently out of bed, and yanking on her discarded panties and t-shirt.
“Probably nothing,” I said, creeping toward the window to peek out.
It was too dark to see anything at all.
So with my pulse thrumming, some sick sensation starting to slosh around in my stomach, I made my way toward the door to the hallway.
Judah’s room was toward the front of the house.
And while I knew the windows were locked, it suddenly felt incredibly reckless to have him closer to the driveway, to a threat that might be approaching.
It was supposed to be safe here.
No.
I needed to not get ahead of myself.
A door didn’t mean an ambush.
“Stay here,” I whispered to Claire who’d moved halfway across the room toward me.
I waited for her nod before opening the door, moving into the hallway, and reaching for Judah’s door.
I moved inside, feeling a rush of relief at seeing him still fast asleep in his bed.
Inching across the room, I reached for the locks on each of his windows, making sure they were still engaged, then pulling the curtain back ever so slightly, peeking out front.
To keep the place as inconspicuous and hard to find as possible, we didn’t keep the front light on at night.
I was suddenly cursing that fact as I glanced out and saw nothing but inky blackness.
I could just about make out the car parked on the street, but that was all dark as well.
