Love Me (WITSEC #3)(77)

As I spoke, his eyes got wider.

I put my hand on his chest. “He could be in the house.”

“I need to warn my brothers,” he said and pulled out his phone. I didn’t know which brother he called, but all he said when they picked up was, “He’s here. It’s time to run.” Then he hung up.

“I need to get to my panic room,” I told him. “To do that, we have to pass the bathroom and the spare bedroom. There is a possibility he could be in either. So I’m going to give you the code to open the door so I can cover our backs.”

He nodded. “All right, what is it?” He sounded calm, ready, and determined and that helped me be the same.

I whispered the code, and before I unlocked the door, I said to him, “Stay behind me until we get there.”

He agreed and I opened the door. The hall was empty, and the house was quiet. As we stepped into the hall, the floor creaked and I knew then, without a doubt, Mr. X had been standing in my house that day and I had truly heard him.

Approaching the spare bathroom, I pointed my gun into the dark room as we passed. I did the same with the spare bedroom. Once at the panic-room door, Creed quickly entered the code and made me go in first before he slammed the door closed behind us.

I beelined for my large safe. I entered the code, and it clicked as it unlocked. Inside, I had larger guns—rifles—that I couldn’t easily hide throughout the house. In the bottom was a black duffel bag. I grabbed that, two rifles, and another handgun. I shut the safe and rushed over to the closet and pulled out two leather carrying cases for the rifles.

Creed watched as I put a rifle in each of the cases and hooked the straps of the cases over my shoulder. I held out the handgun I’d grabbed from the safe to him. “I don’t have time to teach you how to use it. Just point and squeeze the trigger, but only if you’re certain it’s Mr. X.”

“I know how to shoot it,” he said, taking it. “Knox took us to the gun range the day you went costume-shopping with Isabelle.”

A sad smile pulled at the corner of my mouth. I wished he’d never had to learn to use a gun.

I picked up the duffel with a grunt and went to hang the strap on my other shoulder.

“Let me take it,” Creed said, taking the bag and hanging it on his shoulder.

We went to the door. With my gun aimed, I opened the door and slowly leaned out, checking both ends of the hall.

It was clear.

Creed was right behind me as we made it out of the hall and into the living room. We were almost to the front door when the porch squeaked outside.

Then the knob began to turn.

Creed put his hand on my shoulder and pulled me back from the door slowly. As the door opened, he put himself in front of me. A gun came into view first, followed by hands gripping it. A tennis shoe was next, and I recognized it.

“Knox?” I said.

The door pushed open, revealing both him and Keelan.

I sighed frustratedly. “You should have stayed home.”

“Like we’d let you be here alone with a possible serial killer inside,” Keelan said as he stepped aside for Creed and me to come out.

I locked the door out of habit. I noticed Knox and Keelan each had a backpack on.

“Do you have ours?” Creed asked them.

“Right here,” Keelan said, walking over to the porch steps where two other backpacks and my purse were. Keelan handed my purse to me, a backpack to Creed, and carried the other, which I assumed was for Colt.

“You guys really did prepare,” I said as I trotted down the steps to my car. I opened up the trunk and set the rifles inside.

Creed set my duffel and his backpack in there next. Knox and Keelan tossed their and Colt’s bags in last and we all climbed into my car.

“Call Colt,” I said as I drove down the road.

Knox, who was sitting shotgun, pulled out his phone. The rest of us were quiet as we waited for Colt to pick up.

Knox cursed, pulling the phone away from his ear. “He didn’t answer.”

“I’ll try,” Creed said from the backseat.

Again, we waited and there was no answer. Creed kept calling up until we were pulling up to Ethan’s big house. The party was in full swing.

“His car is here,” Keelan said, pointing it out in Ethan’s long driveway.

All four of us got out and made our way inside. The music was blaring, and the house was full of students from our school.

Ethan spotted Creed and me from where he was playing beer pong. He raised his hands in the air. “Hey, guys! You’re finally here.” His gaze drifted behind us where Knox and Keelan followed. “You all came. Awesome.”

I forced a smile. “Happy birthday.”

“Have you seen Colt?” Creed asked, getting right to the point.

Ethan frowned. “Uh…yeah. He said he had missed a call from you and went off somewhere quiet to call you back. That was a while ago, though.”

“Do you know where?” Knox asked, pushing between Creed and me.

“I was in the middle of playing a game. So I didn’t see,” he said, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb at the beer pong table. “The only places he could have gone that are quiet are outside or upstairs.”

Knox turned to look at me. “You and Keelan search upstairs, and Creed and I will look outside.”