"I'm not sure," she said honestly.
Dante scowled and looked away. He grabbed his T-shirt and pulled it on. "You should stop dangling us both on a string and make up your mind, then."
Clara scowled back at him. As if he had any room to talk. He still had a wife, he had kids—he couldn’t see them because he had the bright idea to start an affair because his marriage was so unsatisfying, and he was still interested in going at it instead of trying to win back his way into his house so he could get back to his children. Dante had no right to criticize her when he had done so much wrong himself.
"I have about you—I'm not interested. I told you before I wanted to end whatever there was between us, and I meant it. I thought we were in agreement the last time we talked about it. You have more important things to think about besides sex, Dante. The moment was a weakness for both of us. It ends here, or we'll both be doing more harm to ourselves."
He stood with his jacket in hand, staring out the window and breathing harshly. Clara crossed her arms over her chest, refusing to budge on this. If he wanted to be angry, that was his problem. Getting involved with him was a bad idea, it was an even worse idea doing it again.
"Then I'll get out of your hair and leave."
Clara held onto her anger for a moment longer and then released her breath in a gust. "You're welcome to stay since you have nowhere to go—we're still friends. We just have to figure this out without… this, or the times before, getting in the way. We've done it before, and honestly, I like you more as a friend than as anything else. Just keep your hands to yourself and we'll be fine, okay?"
He sighed and sat down on the bed, hands clenching his jacket in his hands. "I don’t have much of a choice."
He did. He could have gone back to living in the streets and risk getting hurt and going hungry. He just didn’t want to make that decision. But Clara didn’t tell him that, instead she left him to brood.
Clara realized two of her friendships were in jeopardy because of unwanted feelings. Feelings weren’t her forte, and she had no idea what to do about it.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Clara was woken by Tessa screaming in the night. She was still for a second when she heard it, and then she was throwing herself out of bed.
She rushed to her sister to try and calm her down. There was nothing to see with, and she bumped into something and hit herself more than once, but she barely felt it in her urgency. When she got into her sister's room, she headed right for the bed. She knocked her knee against it in her rush, but she sat on the bed and reached for Tessa.
"Tess! Come on, you have to stop, there's nothing wrong! It was just a nightmare!"
Her sister fought her when she tried to touch her, but Clara ignored it. It would have been a problem if Tessa was asleep. Clara had come to realize waking someone suddenly from a nightmare was a bad and sometimes dangerous idea. But even without seeing, Clara knew Tessa was awake. She smacked at Clara and scratched her with her blunt nails as Clara tried to wrap her arms around her. Clara could feel the damage her sister was doing, and she persisted. But Tessa was inconsolable.
"Clara, listen to me! Something's wrong—"
"Tess?" She was talking through her tears, and Clara could barely understand, but she thought Tessa was trying to warn her. "Try to calm down, please."
"No, Clara, stop! Something terrible is about to happen! You have to listen to me, I saw it all in a vision!"
But Clara wasn’t listening. She heard 'vision' and was already moving away. She fumbled for Tessa's table, knocking things around in her haste, but hardly caring. She didn’t even care that they were making too much noise and would wake up everyone else in the house. When her hand finally closed on the bottle that was always left on Tessa's table, she felt relief. But then the bottle shook as she picked it up, and she froze.
Clara shook it again, experimentally. Tessa should have been taking more than a pill a day, and some time had passed since Clara got the prescription for her. And yet, Tessa still had a full bottle. When Clara shook it, she realized there was more than she would have expected to find. She realized, though she assumed Tessa took the pills when she wasn’t looking, aside from the first time and the other time Clara made her take them, Clara had never actually seen her taking the meds.
She had assumed, when her sister hadn't had nightmares since that time that the medicine was working. But she was having one now.
"Why haven't you been taking your tablets!"
Tessa was silent for about a second, and then she screamed. "I may as well be dead with those tablets in my system!"
Clara sighed, and it almost came out as a sob. She moved carefully over to the bed. "Just take a pill, Tess," she pled. "You need sleep, and so do I."
"Forget that," Tessa said with surprising urgency. "Something bad, Clara, right now. We have to prepare to run."
Clara didn’t listen. Clara heard a strange noise, and it was coming from outside. Tessa had gone silent again, so she could hear it clearly. She realized it was the sound of a car—something she hadn't heard in a long time, let alone in the middle of the night.
There had to be some explanation for it. But Clara couldn’t help her heart and breathing speeding up. Why would there be a car outside, at this time? And why would it be anywhere in her neighborhood? She hadn't heard it before, but then, her attention was caught by Tessa's scream, or she wouldn’t have been awake to hear it.
Unnerved by the car and Tessa's prediction, Clara left the room. She had to wake the guys up. Both Cooper and Dante were downstairs, and she made her way down as quietly and quickly as possible, trying not to knock into things. Of course, then she almost fell over one of them, stepping on something too fleshy to be the floor, and stumbled back with a squeak until she hit against the wall. There was a groan and some cursing, and Clara spared a second to hope she hadn't hurt whoever it was she stepped on.
"Dante, Cooper, both of you wake up!" she whispered harshly.
She stepped forward and shook the body she had stepped on, and then stumbled over to the couch where another body slept. Thankfully, it didn’t take them long to wake.
"What is it?"
The voice was so hoarse, she couldn’t tell if it was Cooper or Dante, but it didn’t matter.
"There's someone outside. I heard a car. Would you guys come check it out with me?"
She didn’t get an immediate response. They were reluctant, and she had a feeling it had to do with their arguments with her, and she growled under her breath. They needed to get over it, and themselves. They didn’t say anything, but she did hear them both get up and go to the front doorstep together, Clara following behind them.
Once the door was open, there was just enough light that she confirmed it really was a car. She hadn't heard that a working car had been found. But why was one even out this late at night and in her neighborhood? She didn’t think it belonged to someone that lived around there, it wasn’t a car she recognized.
As they left the house together, a woman got out of the car with a gun. She aimed it right at them.
Clara felt her breath catch in her throat. Tessa's words repeated in her mind, and she wondered when she would come to listen. After everything she'd come to learn of human nature in the past weeks, why had she thought coming outside and being so obvious was a good idea? They could have at least gone through the back door and gotten around to see what was going on.
Would she keep making such stupid decisions for the rest of her life? Even though the rest of her life was looking short at the moment.
She wanted to curse herself for her idiocy. Of course, people outside with a car at night wouldn’t be up to anything good. And Tessa had somehow been right again, but Clara ignored her advice and did the opposite of what she'd said. Now she, Dante, and Cooper would likely pay for it.
And then the woman spoke.
"All three of you, put your hand in the air and surrender."
They didn’t have much of a choice. The only
weapon they had, a gun, she had already given up to the police. Clara was terrified but did as she was told. Dante and Cooper did the same thing, but since they were both sort of in front of her, Clara couldn’t see the looks on their faces. She wondered if they hated her in that moment as much as she hated herself. All she was good at doing was creating a mess.
A group of other women got out of the car holding weapons. The woman in front of them smiled viciously, and smugly announced, "Your houses are about to be raided."
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Clara was shaking.
She didn’t know what to do in this situation. She had been in danger before, and she even had both the guys with her, but the last time they faced down gun-wielding crazies, she got hurt, and their things were taken. They were lucky to get away with their lives.
There was a big chance they wouldn’t be walking away from this one.
But this was so much different. This was in their town, at her home. With her sister and grandmother in the house, unable to protect themselves. There was no real difference, yet this was so much worse. And she felt the acute loss of easy communication she had taken for granted more than before, knowing there was no way to alert the police. Even if there had been, it would have taken too long for help to arrive.
"We don’t have much to offer," Cooper told the group, and Clara started. "What is it that you're looking for?"
The woman leading the raid rolled her eyes. "You know exactly what we want, it's what everyone currently wants—food. I want the three of you to step aside so we can take what we want. And maybe, you'll all get to live."
Of course, food was currently more useful than money. What else could they possibly have come for? Their house was in the middle of the block. Clara wondered how many houses they had robbed before making it to theirs.
"We don’t have anything to give you," Cooper spoke again, insisting.
Clara wished he would keep quiet. Usually, it was her talking that got them into trouble. Cooper must have been frustrated to be talking back, and she wondered if that was her fault.
It was expected when it came. After all, it had happened to her before. But still, when one of the women came forward and whacked Cooper around the face with her gun, it hurt. He was the one in pain, but Clara could almost feel it. Of course, the person hitting him was smaller and weaker than him, and Cooper was so much bigger and stronger than herself. But the woman hadn't held back and he fell to the floor on impact.
"Shut up," she hissed at him.
Clara made a noise in the back of her throat. Even unconsciously, though, she knew the danger. The noise wasn’t loud. But it wasn’t as quiet as she hoped because one of the women pointed a finger at her. That or she made some movement that had been noticed.
"Don’t help him up, unless you want the same treatment."
Clara would have moved to help him anyway. Her injury was healed, though Clara hadn't looked at herself in the mirror since. There were times when Cooper looked at her and his eyes drifted to where she'd gotten hit, and she had the feeling her face looked all wrong and he couldn’t help but notice it. Her defiance died away as she thought that.
Tessa and Viola turned up on the stairs, and Clara turned a little so she could see them. They weren’t being quiet, or Clara could say Viola wasn’t trying to, but they both looked scared and confused. Tessa not as much as Viola because she already knew something bad was about to happen. She didn’t even look at Clara, or the guys just stared straight at the women with guns.
"Stay where you are until we finish collecting what we want," they were warned.
None of them needed to be told that their lives depended on it.
They went inside the house, and Clara was glad to see Viola and Tessa keeping still and quiet. Her sister had a hand on Viola's arm, holding her too tightly, but Clara was just glad Tessa had thought of their grandmother at all if escaping had still been her plan.
They looked through the cupboards, taking whatever they found, and Clara prayed silently that they wouldn’t find the food in the shed out back. They still had quite a bit in the house, and Clara could only hope that it would be enough for them, that they would take it all and leave.
It was too much to hope for.
One of the women came back to where they were standing and had them moved into the house. They left Cooper behind because he was still on the floor, unmoving, and she was worried he was badly hurt. But she had to worry more about herself and Dante now, and hope Tessa and Viola didn’t do anything to get themselves hurt because one woman stayed behind to look after the three of them.
Clara could feel her heart sink as they walked to the back. She knew where they were being taken, even as she vainly hoped that she was wrong.
"There's a shed in the garden with a padlock out back," the woman said. "What's in the shed?"
They were looking right at Clara, and she felt something in her chest quiver.
"I don’t know," she lied. "It was my mom's, and it hasn’t been opened since her death."
It was a lost cause, though.
"I commend you for your 'touching' story," one of the women said, and broke down the door, jamming a crowbar between the door and the doorjamb, and giving it a hard kick. The lock was as old as the wooden door; it broke apart easily.
She looked inside, having to squint to let her eyes adjust to the darkness in the room, but then her eyes widened.
"Hey, ladies! I found a treasure trove!" she exclaimed, drawing more of the women from her group with her excitement.
The excitement transferred to the rest of the group, and they didn’t even bother to be quiet as they greedily took from the shed. Someone stayed with a gun held to them as the rest transferred the food to their van. Clara could do nothing but watch as they took away the only good thing her family had.
When their van was full, they stopped taking. Clara felt relieved, but it only lasted for a moment.
"There's too much stuff in here to fit it all," one of the women says, sounding awed. "I have no idea where the hell they got all this, but damn. We can't carry everything right now."
"So, we don’t," another said. "The van's full, unless we want to leave someone behind we can't take more right away."
They laughed to themselves as they left. The one still holding a gun to them dropped it as she followed the rest of her group.
"We'll be back in a few days to collect the rest. You shouldn’t resist our force if you want to live."
There was some more laughter as they left. Clara listened until the front door was closed behind them and she rushed inside the house to Cooper. It was still dark, darker now with the door closed so there wasn’t even light from the moon, but her eyes adjusted to the dark. She knelt beside Cooper, ignoring her stinging eyes, and pulled him in for a hug. The vise in her chest loosened slightly when he didn’t move away from her.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Cooper and Clara stared out of the window at where the van was.
Cooper was, thankfully, not as hurt as she had thought. He must have let himself fall to the floor instead of standing his ground to appease them. Why had he said anything at all, knowing the situation? Usually, it was her saying something stupid and getting herself hurt, and there was no way he wouldn’t have learned from her experience. She wasn’t sure why he had done it at all, but she couldn’t ask, just then. There was just relief that he wasn’t as badly hurt, but he must have felt the hit, and her own cheek gave a phantom ache of sympathy.
The woman might have been smaller and weaker than Cooper, but she had given all she had into the swing, Clara had heard how loud the impact of it on Cooper's cheek was. He wasn’t unconscious, and he probably wasn’t concussed, but he would still be in pain. They didn’t have any pain meds in the house, but Cooper didn’t ask for any.
The women hadn't even left yet. The van idled outside, and Clara wondered if it was because there were other women that had gone to other houses already before Clara, Cooper, and
Dante left theirs and made themselves a target.
She also thought, ridiculously, that it might have been deliberate like they were taunting them. That thought made Clara clench her hands into fists until she discarded it because it sounded stupid. If they were still there, it was to serve their own purposes. But Clara couldn’t help thinking it, because they must have been out there long enough that, had someone managed to run off and get the police, they might have gotten caught still idling there.
Still, there was no guarantee that there were any cops at the station at night. It might have ended up being a lost cause. Which meant that those women could stay out there for as long as they wanted, and Clara could watch them the entire time, and they would still be getting away with it.
All the food they had stolen was right there and there was no safe way to get it back. She was itching to go out there and do something, even knowing it was foolish. She didn’t move, though. Even if she had a death wish, that was no excuse to include her family in her idiocy. They had to stand and wait, and watch as those women did whatever they wanted and left because they were the ones with the weapons and the power. Clara and her family, and plenty of others she was sure had been caught off guard by the attack.
There was nothing anyone could do if they wanted to live through the ordeal.
The shed was relatively big, and Tessa had fit it almost full of food. They would have taken about half of everything they had, but likely less. The van was big itself, but considering how many women she had seen, if there were others, along with their weapons, they couldn’t have taken a lot before it was too much for the space they had. And they would be coming back for the rest of it.
Clara and her family wouldn’t be left starving. But it was only for the time being.
Zero Power (Book 2): Trying To Survive Page 20
