Dylan (Bowen Boys, #3)(2)

The door where she’d been headed moved, and a light nearly blinded her. She watched Kirby’s shiny shoes as he moved around the bedroom until he was near where she was. Reaching down to her waist, she took out the knife and waited. It didn’t take him long to rip the mattress off the bed and expose her.

“Got you.” She heard the sound of a close gunshot and moved quickly. New pain in her arm made her breath catch, but it was going to be the least of her problems if he caught her. When she was jerked from the floor, she rammed the knife into his face and moved to the large patio door, firing her gun at them as she burst through it.

The pool was right below her, and she didn’t hesitate to drop into it. She had a fleeting thought as to whether the cover was going to tangle over her when several shots were fired at her. Three hit the plastic below her, and two more caught her. As she landed, she heard screams and then more gunfire. As soon as the water went over her head, she blacked out.

Knowing that she’d only been out a few seconds, she waited, knowing that it would take them longer to come out of the house the normal way. She reached for the tiny air tank she’d shoved in her pocket at the last minute when she’d found out there was a pool. Preparedness was her middle name, and she was glad now that she’d found it in one of the little out of the way shops she’d visited in town. Lying as still as she could and using only her feet, she moved to what she hoped was away from the house.

She stopped when she touched the wall and heard someone speak. She waited, knowing that she was as dead as Casey if she tried to move now. When Kirby spoke, she knew that she’d hurt him but not killed him, more’s the pity.

“I want you to get her out of that f*cking pool. And when you do, you’ll have to change her f*cking clothes and drag her f*cking ass back into the house. Mother f*ck, this is a cluster f*ck.”

“Yes, sir, right away, sir,” said a voice she didn’t know. “I’ve talked to the hospital. They said for you to come in, and they’ll…you’re going to have to go in for them to remove the knife, sir. They said if it’s that close to the eye, if you try taking it out yourself you might lose your whole eye.”

Kirby screamed something she couldn’t make out, and told the man that she’d f*cking stabbed him in the eye, so he was pretty f*cking sure it was gone. “And I’m going to make sure she pays for that, too.”

The man who answered “yes, sir” sounded farther away. When Kirby spoke again, she realized that he, too, had moved. Touching the wall again, she slowly reached up to the side of the pool and lifted her head to look. No one was looking her way, and the one man who might pose a problem for her was currently looking in the pool house. Moving now for the sake of speed rather than stealth, she pulled herself up and out of the water, and took off running.

She was just getting to the fence, a large wooden structure, when she was hit again. Her head felt as if they’d hit her with a steel bat, and she tumbled over into the lawn next door. Turning toward the house rather than away, she slipped into the doghouse she’d staked out earlier. Grabbing up the things she had left there, she tore off her wet things and put on dry clothes. Still dressed in the same fashion but with considerably dryer clothing, she slipped out of the makeshift changing room and got going.

Her head was pounding when she stepped in front of the target house again. Blending into the crowd of people that were gathering from the other houses, she moved across the street. She took off the chip and dropped it to the sidewalk, where it shattered. She picked up the pieces and put them into one of the many pockets on her clothing.

Jack moved up the street and toward her car. She was sick with pain, and dizziness was making her lose her way. Twice she’d had to back track until she realized at some point she was not anywhere that she knew. Walking because she knew they’d find her if she didn’t, Jack moved along houses until they thinned out, then farther out until she came to a wooded area.

By the time the sun was coming up she wasn’t sure of much of anything. That’s when she saw the house. It had a light on in the back and one on the front deck. She made her way there and sat down on the swing, not really sure how she’d managed it, having blacked out again. She laid her gun across her lap and closed her eyes. She was going to die; she only hoped that she lived long enough to be able to convince the person that lived here to bury her in the backyard and not call for help.

Closing her eyes, she let the blackness finally take her.

~~~

“I’m leaving now. I don’t know how long it will take me to clean out my classroom, but once I get it done I’ll come over.” Dylan looked at his watch. “The longer you keep me on the phone, the later I’m going to be to dinner.”

“All right, but you’re going to be there, right?” He told his sister-in-law he would, for the tenth time. “I know you hate blind dates, but I didn’t know until after Monica told me. I’m so sorry, Dylan, I won’t do it again.”

He knew she would, and so did she. He hung up the phone and made his way to the front door. He had had plans to clean out his classroom for the summer months, to get on his bike, and tour around for a while. He took a deep breath when he thought of the date he had tonight. He f*cking didn’t want a date. He wanted his vacation. Picking up the two boxes he had left to throw in his truck, he stepped out into the beautiful June afternoon. The first thing that hit his nostrils was the scent of blood, and a great deal of it. He turned slowly to his left when he heard someone clear their throat.