Chapter Nine
Bobby’s voice crackled through the radio, making Avery jump.
“Avery, it’s me, I couldn’t find Cleo. Did you? Over.”
She froze. The man stepped back into the kitchen, trailing cigarette smoke, closing the door behind him.
“Who’s that kid?” he asked, squinting at the radio. “Who’s Cleo?”
Avery forced a calm expression, though her insides twisted like a knot. “My brother, Bobby. He’s looking for our cat.”
The man narrowed his eyes at her, thinking. What was he thinking? What did he plan to do?
The radio beeped, then Bobby said, “Avery, what are you doing? Are you still at the Mendozas? I’ll meet you there, okay? Over.”
She reached out for the radio and almost had it before the man clamped a hand around her wrist and squeezed. She winced.
“How old is your brother?” he demanded.
“T-ten,” she stammered.
“Shit. Fuck.” He slammed a fist on the table, causing a water glass to fall over. Rose Mendoza caught it before it rolled to the floor.
“Where do you live?” he asked her. When she didn’t immediately answer, he tightened his grip until she yelped. “I asked you a question, Avery.”
“About a mile down the road.”
“Who’s at your house?”
“My m-mom.” She blinked back tears.
“Okay, this is what you’re going to do. You are going to tell your brother that you are spending the night here with your friend Gianna.
Tell him to go home without you. If you say or do anything different, I’ll first shoot your cute girlfriend, then I’ll find your brother and break his neck. Do you understand me?”
Rose groaned and stifled a cry, and Carl said, “There’s no reason to threaten anyone. We’re cooperating. Please.”
The man wasn’t looking at Carl. He stared at Avery and repeated, “Do you understand me, Avery?”
She nodded. Cleared her throat.
He let go of her wrist and pushed the radio toward her. “You blow this, people will die.”
She believed him.
Avery took a deep breath. Let it out slowly. Picked up the radio. Pressed the button. “Bobby? Um, I’m going to spend the night here. Go home. I’ll see you in the morning. Over.”
Half a minute later Bobby said, “Mom isn’t going to like that. We have chores. And you promised to help me find Cleo. Over.”
The man stared at her darkly, nodded once and motioned for her to respond.
“Mom will understand. I tried calling, but she’s probably in the barn. The Mendozas need help with their sheep and, um, Mr. Mendoza’s arthritis is really bad today and—”
The man pulled the radio from her grip and said to her, “Stop with the details because I don’t know if you’re trying to alert your brother or being truthful.”
“If Bobby goes home and tells Mom that I said I talked to her, she’ll get mad and call, maybe come over and—”
“I’ll take care of that. But if I see your little brother, I’m bringing him here, and you’ll have to deal with it.”
“Okay, okay.” She nodded frantically. “I understand!”
He handed her back the radio but with a warning. “Careful.”
She pressed the button. “Sorry, I dropped the radio. Just tell Mom I’m helping and I won’t be done before the rain starts, okay? I’ll see you tomorrow. And if Cleo doesn’t show up, we’ll go look for her again first thing in the morning. Over.”
A few seconds passed, then Bobby said, “Okay, if you promise you’ll help me. Over.”
“I promise,” she said. “Over.”
The man took the radio. “That wasn’t so bad now, was it?”
“My mom’s going to call,” Avery said. “She’s not going to be happy.”
“And Carl and Rose are going to thank her profusely for letting you stay because they appreciate your help,” he said smugly.
“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 her walk 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, and stupid, 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.
He almost told him that Sam had been shot, that they were out of this, going home right now, but then he knew he wouldn’t get paid the rest of what was owed him.
Half up front, half when the job was done.
He needed the second half, another hundred thousand.
He’d need it all so they could get Sam help and lie low for a while.
“I’ll get them out of the house,” he said. “I will call you when it’s clear. Don’t screw this up, Jones.”
Before Brock could say another word, the line went dead.