Chapter 24
24
C ody parked his car near the end of the long driveway, out of sight behind a gigantic azalea bush. He walked quickly, ducking around trees as he made his way toward the beachy green house.
The silver car he’d been following was parked just in front of the steps leading up to a porch that had seen better days. Cody decided against climbing those steps, fearing that one wrong floorboard would alert the man to Cody’s presence outside.
Instead, he crept along the side of the house, standing on his toes to peer into the bottom of the first window he came to. Thankfully, there were no curtains or blinds, so he could see clearly into what looked like an empty living room.
No Geena. No Gary.
Nothing.
The next window gave a view of what appeared to be a bedroom. A very empty bedroom.
Where the heck were they?
He walked to the back of the house, rounded a corner, and found another large window. He stood on his toes, barely able to see inside another mostly empty bedroom.
Mostly empty except for the man, Geena, and a birdcage.
But no Gary. Not that he could see, anyway.
The man stood with his back to the window. Unlike the last time Cody had seen him in the accounting firm’s parking lot, the man was now armed. And he was aiming the gun directly at Geena.
An expression of terror blanketed her face while she held her hands in the air, and Cody wanted to run around to the front of the house and burst through so he could tackle the man. It had been a long time since he’d played Peewee League football, but he figured he could still get the job done.
At what cost, though?
The man didn’t look super confident with that gun, and Cody couldn’t risk it going off and hitting Geena. That would defeat the purpose of trying to save her.
Geena’s gaze shifted toward the window where Cody was standing on his toes. Her eyes widened when she saw a person staring back at her. Cody wasn’t sure whether or not she recognized him, but she quickly returned her line of sight to the man threatening her.
Then, without looking Cody’s way again, she said something to the man and aimed a finger up and across the room, at what Cody guessed was the direction of the room’s door.
Gary.
Was she trying to show him where Gary was? There didn’t seem to be any furniture in the room, so he might have perched on the door frame as best he could if they had let him out of the cage.
But why let him out?
Cody decided it didn’t matter. He needed to help without making things worse.
He had no idea how to do that yet, but there was one thing he could do in the meantime.
He dropped from his toes to stand flat on the ground, then he silenced his phone and sent a text.
G eena stared at Gary, who was bobbing his head up and down from his perch on the bedroom door frame. She wasn’t sure how the big parrot was balancing on that tiny ledge, but he seemed to be fairly sure-footed up there.
“Hey, buddy,” she said in a soft voice. She tried to make herself sound reassuring, but she was pretty sure Gary wasn’t buying it. Maybe James was. That was the hope. “How are you doing?”
She didn’t expect an answer. Not right away, at least. Gary was less puffed up, but he still seemed stressed. Not that she could blame him. She had just entered this situation and was stressed beyond belief. Gary had been stuck in that small cage for days, probably with James barking orders at him.
Gary let out a tiny squawk, then a muffled, “Shit stain.”
Geena smiled up at him and nodded in agreement. “Good to see you again.”
After a few soft clucks, Gary said, “Sorry.”
“Not your fault. It’s mine.” Geena had spent the entire week beating herself up about letting Gary get stolen. She still felt guilty, but she’d let go of the shame. And she was beginning to forgive herself, thanks to her sister and Cody and their assurance that she couldn’t have known this would happen, and that she’d done the best she could. “But I’m here now.”
“Are we done with the reunion?” James sounded annoyed with both of them. “Get him to make the sound, so I can record it and match it later.”
“I’m not making him do anything,” Geena said. “Not when I don’t know if you’re gonna kill us both once you get what you want.”
James rolled his eyes while keeping the gun aimed at her. “Seriously, stop being so dramatic.”
“Sorry, I would be a lot less dramatic if there wasn’t a gun pointed at me.”
Geena still didn’t know how to escape this mess. Her plan at the moment involved keeping James talking while she figured something out.
Or until Cody did.
At least, she assumed that was the top of Cody’s head at the bottom of that window.
She had felt such a sense of relief when she saw he had somehow followed them there. Even if she still couldn’t think of a way out of this for all of them.
She’d tried not to alert James that someone was outside. And she hoped if it was Cody that he caught on that she was pointing at Gary and that he was loose.
If Cody was in an impulsive or protective state of mind, she didn’t want him rushing into the room. Gary might get startled and escape. And as stressed as that parrot was and in unfamiliar territory, they might not get him back.
“I don’t want to kill either of you,” James said. “But I won’t have much of a choice if I don’t get those sounds recorded. I can’t have you going to the cops before I’m out of the country. And I can’t get out of the country until I have that money.”
Geena really didn’t care whether or not James escaped with the PIN or whatever Gary’s beeps and boops were mimicking. She only cared about getting them all out alive.
The big problem? She didn’t actually know how to get Gary to make those sounds on command.
“He’s still stressed. This might take a while.”
James held up his phone in the hand not holding the gun. “I’ve got all afternoon and plenty of storage for recording. Now get him talking.”
“How do I know you won’t kill us once he does talk? I mean, aren’t you afraid I’ll tell the police about this? Not that I would. I don’t care about someone else’s money, and you’re probably right about Anthony cheating you out of what you were owed.”
She didn’t believe that for a second, but the part about not caring if he got away was true.
“I’ll be long gone before the cops come looking for me. You know firsthand how slow they are. What makes you think they’ll care about that bird this time?”
Geena bit her lip to keep quiet. Because it wasn’t just Gary he was threatening now. He’d kidnapped her and was holding her hostage. The police might have some interest in that.
But she really would let James go free if she knew she and Gary were safe. As things stood, she wasn’t convinced.
She looked around the room, searching for something, anything to help them both get out of this alive. But the room was bare except for the cage.
The cage.
Geena pointed at it. “I’m going to get something out of there. If I can get him down, I think I can get him to talk. He’ll feel safer with me, and you need him more relaxed.”
James narrowed his eyes at her. “Fine. But can we hurry this up? I said I have all afternoon, but I need to book a flight tonight for me and Chelsea.”
Geena still didn’t think Chelsea would be down for fleeing the country with him, but that wasn’t Geena’s bubble to burst.
As she walked toward the cage, a loud creak echoed from the other end of the house.
James aimed the gun at the closed bedroom door. “What was that?”
“Probably just the wind.” Geena pointed out the window. “Looks like another storm is rolling in.”
James didn’t look convinced, but he returned his attention to Geena near the cage. “Hurry up.”
She detached the single wooden perch and held it in the air. “I’m going to see if I can get him to climb onto this and put him on top of the cage. If he’s closer to me, he’ll be more likely to talk.”
It was a plausible lie. Now she just had to squash her fear and sell it.
She held the perch casually, while James considered her explanation. “Fine. Get on with it.”
Geena crept toward the door, hoping if that creak was what she thought it was, that Cody would wait long enough for her to get Gary safely on the other side of the room and away from the door.
She also hoped that if Cody did impulsively rush in, James wouldn’t shoot any of them. But that felt like too much of an ask.
Geena held the perch in front of Gary, gently tapping his feet to encourage him to step onto it. He tilted his head as he looked between her and the perch.
“Come on. It’s okay.”
Gary tapped at the wooden perch with one foot. Then, to her relief, he stepped onto it.
His weight was almost more than she could handle at that angle, but she used her second hand to help steady Gary and slowly carry him across the room.
She whispered, giving him praise and reassurance as they walked. She could only hope Gary trusted her as much as she needed him to.
She lifted the perch to place it in line with the top of the cage. Gary looked at her curiously.
“We’re all fucked!”
Geena hoped not.
“Look, he’s talking,” James said. “Keep him like that.”
“I can’t. He’s too heavy.” Then, to Gary, she said, “Go on. It’s safe.”
She stopped short of promising. He probably wouldn’t understand a word of what she was saying anyway, but Geena still couldn’t make a promise she wasn’t sure she could keep.
Thankfully, Gary took one step, then another, onto the top of the cage. He was at eye level now, so she smiled at him and told him what a good boy he was.
More importantly, he was away from the door.
She hadn’t seen Cody’s head in the window again, so she had to assume that creak was him on the porch. Getting Gary away from the doorway had been her first priority.
Now it was time for the next one.
With Gary’s weight gone, Geena grasped the wooden perch tightly in both hands and counted backwards from five, steadying herself. She’d considered stabbing James in the eye with the screw on one end, but she didn’t think she could follow through on something like that. And whatever she did, she’d have to fully commit to it. So it was time for plan B.
Another creak sounded from closer inside the house. This time, James wasn’t fooled.
“That’s not the wind,” he said, spinning slightly sideways to look at the door.
That was her break.
Geena swirled around with the perch above her head. Then, with all of her strength, she brought it down, crashing into his wrists.