Marc (Bowen Boys, #4)
Kathi S. Barton
Chapter 1
Jonny tried to control her breathing, but terror and running were taking their toll on her. She slid into an opening after slipping into a darkened alley and pressed her body as close to the wall as she could without becoming a part of it. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see if they found her until she heard their footsteps coming closer. She held her breath and let it out slowly, hoping that they wouldn’t be able to hear her.
“Jonny, you know that we’re going to find you. It’s only a matter of time. We both know that.” He walked past where she was, and she could almost touch him. “There are things we can do to make this better for you, but running away isn’t going to make me want to help you out.”
He moved deeper into the alley where she was and then out again. She could see the man he’d had with him when she’d left the house and knew that he would hurt her if given half the chance. She could see them whispering to each other but couldn’t hear what they were saying with all the street traffic.
“I’m giving you one more chance before I have to kill that little friend of yours. You know the one I mean, the little girl that comes to visit you sometimes.” She didn’t move, because she knew that he’d killed her, or had had Anita killed, yesterday. “What will you do about that? Having her death on your conscience is going to eat at you.”
As soon as they moved out, she let out her held breath. She wiped at the tears but didn’t move from where she was. She knew that as soon as she did they could catch her. And she’d rather die than go back there.
Anita was dead. When she’d been trying to escape yesterday, she’d been going through one of the offices when she heard her friend talking. It wasn’t until Jonny was nearly ready to come into the room that she realized that Anita was being tied to a chair.
“You do this and people are going to know about it. I want you to let me see Jonny right f*cking now.” Jonny had started into the room, but backed off when she saw the other man in the room too. She backed away to shift when she heard the soft pop pop of a gun, then the sound of someone cursing. Jonny looked back into the room. Anita was slumped over in the chair and a second man was being helped to a chair. He appeared to be laughing, but that couldn’t be right.
And now here she was in a dark alley without shoes, without money, and with nowhere to go. She wondered if this could get any worse. Probably. It hadn’t been an easy life for her thus far, but she hadn’t done anything wrong but been born. Closing her eyes, she wanted to call her mom and dad but knew that their phones were tapped and she didn’t want them to be hurt again.
The alley was lit when she woke. Still being careful, she listened for any sound that would alert her that Roy and his henchman, Harris Manning, were around. As soon as she stepped out of the alley, she realized that she had no idea where she was.
Two buildings across from her were typical stores, a Walgreens and a video store. She looked at the two buildings she had been hiding near, and one was an empty storefront, the other a business of some sort. She moved along the empty one, looking for a way to get in. In the back she found a basement window and broke it.
She waited over an hour before she slipped inside. She’d learned before that even empty buildings could have alarm systems that would bring the police, and then Roy and his gang. She bent a large piece of metal around the opening she created so that no one else would come in as well. Jonny moved up the stairs and into the main part of the building.
It had been a long while since anyone had been in the place. There were no footprints in the dust on the floor, and cobwebs were in abundance. She avoided this room in favor of finding another set of stairs that led to the upper floors. She found it in a hall far from the front.
The stairs had mouse droppings. She wasn’t worried about rodents. Once they realized she was in the building, they’d scatter. She found the second level of the building had a great deal of old office equipment and furniture, and the third one had been used as a sort of storage room for paperwork. Large file cabinets were lined up in neat and sometimes not so neat rows.
The fourth floor had a semi apartment. There was a stove that ran off gas, a refrigerator that was still plugged in but there was no power, and a cabinet filled with more mouse droppings. She found a bucket and some rags under the counter, along with a few outdated cleaning supplies. Moving among the rooms, she found a bathroom with running water, a shower, and toilet. The last room she found empty save the large dresser, which was also empty. Smiling for the first time in months, she thought she could live here for a little while at least.
Without money she couldn’t buy food, but she wasn’t stupid either. She went to the front of the upper windows and watched the street below her. She hated to steal, but if she could get a pair of shoes and some toiletries, she could find a job and repay whomever she had to “borrow” from; because that’s what it was going to be, borrowing not stealing.
By nightfall she’d cleaned up as best she could. She’d found a few more supplies, such as a broom and dust pan, on the second floor, and had even unearthed a chair that wasn’t in too bad of shape among the furniture. On the third floor she’d found a brand new yet very old shower curtain, which she hung with twisty ties she’d found in one of the cabinet drawers.
By the time she decided to go to bed that night, the kitchen was spotless and the room she was in was cleared off all cobwebs and dirt, and she’d even polished the old dresser to a nice shine. Closing her eyes, she felt safer here than she had in a very long time.