That still didn’t make me feel better, though.
I walked into my silent house, remembering that night when Chase was over. When we’d stood somewhat awkwardly in the living room while Chase told me he had to go somewhere and do something.
He had to go to Kentucky and meet with his ex. I was sure there was more to it, but those two facts remained. As much as I might want to drop this, my actions had tied me to a crime, and now killers were tracking me.
This wasn’t only Chase’s life in jeopardy now. Jamie and I were also in the line of fire.
* * *
At 3:00 a.m., I got out of bed. I couldn’t sleep. My thoughts were too tumultuous. Every time I closed my eyes, scenes from my life haunted me.
Jamie slept in the guest room across the hall. And she was sleeping. I could hear her snoring even with the door closed, though she’d be horrified if I ever told anyone. Apparently, divas shouldn’t snore.
Quietly, I crept downstairs. Maybe a cup of chamomile tea would help me get some shut-eye. Or baking some cakes, cookies, brownies, and maybe a pie or two. Baking always made me feel better.
After I put the kettle on, I plodded into the formal living room, pulling my robe closer around me. I ran my hand across the coffee table. A thin layer of dust was there, but only because my mom had been away visiting relatives in West Virginia for almost a week.
Mom prided herself in keeping a clean house with everything in place. That was my family for you. When they did something, they did it well. That was about all I had in common with them—that’s how it felt most of the time, at least.
I really just wanted a simple life. I wanted to be able to go to sleep at night knowing I’d done my best. That I’d tried to help people. That I’d lived for a purpose higher than my own desires.
I tried to put others before myself, to love my neighbor as myself, to store up my treasure in heaven instead of earthly rewards. My family, although Christians, didn’t quite understand that.
I lowered myself onto the couch and replayed my last face-to-face conversation with Chase. My heart panged at the memory. My gut, at the time, had been correct. Something big had been wrong.
Not that long ago, I’d pictured my future with Chase. I’d determined that we’d have one boy and one girl by birth, and at least two that we adopted, probably from the foster-care system. While we all ate peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches around the lunch table, I’d tell them stories about Chase and me—about how we met in high school, how I’d had a crush on him but was certain I was invisible, how he’d reappeared in my life a decade later. I’d tell them how Chase was the only man I’d ever kissed, and how he’d saved my life.
All those potential conversations were on the line.
I stood and paced to the window. Out of curiosity, I nudged the curtain aside. My eyes widened.
It couldn’t be . . .
It was.
The panel van.
It was parked outside my house.
I released the curtain before anyone spotted me and slowly stepped back. My heart stammered into my rib cage. They’d found us. Again. The thought was disturbing on so many levels.
Where were those men now? Were they inside the van still? Or were they plotting ways to get into the house and murder Jamie and me?
My thoughts might seem dramatic, but my fear was real.
The kettle began screeching in the background, tightening my nerves even more.
I quickly ran into the kitchen and pulled the boiling water from the burner. So much for my tea. I had bigger issues right now than getting to sleep.
I rushed up the steps and barged into Jamie’s room. I didn’t bother to try and be polite. I grabbed her shoulders and shook her until sleep was a distant dream.
“Jamie, you’ve got to get up. Now!” I kept my voice low but urgent.
She startled awake, sitting up with wide, crazy eyes that clearly stated she wanted to slap me. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”
“Jamie, they’re here.” My words sounded haunting and still, like a catchphrase from a horror movie.
Jamie became eerily quiet, her crazy eyes looking even crazier when combined with her flaring nostrils. “The men are here? The killer men?”
I nodded, the blood draining from my face at her reminder. “The van is outside the house. I don’t know where the men are, though. I just know we’ve got to get dressed and get out of here. Now.” My words collided with each other, each sentence coming faster than the previous one.
She didn’t argue. She threw her legs out of bed and grabbed her clothes.
I hurried across the hall. My hands trembled uncontrollably as I pulled my own clothes on. I grabbed some extra outfits and tossed them into a bag, along with some toiletries. I slung the bag over my shoulder and met Jamie in the hallway.
“What now?” Jamie said.
“We’ve got to figure out where those men are. I haven’t heard them downstairs, but maybe they’re just really good at being sneaky and evil.”
“Sneaky, evil people are bad. Very bad.”
I had to do a double take to see if she was being funny. She looked dead serious.
We tiptoed downstairs. Every creak made my muscles feel wound up tighter than a jack-in-the-box. My heart beat so fast by the time we reached the living room that I thought I might pass out. Jamie went for the window, and I didn’t try to stop her.
“They’re still there,” she whispered. “I think they’re still in the van.”
“How do you know?”
She peered through a slit between the curtain and the window frame, squinting against the darkness. “I think I see a silhouette in the driver’s seat.”
“Let’s check the backyard. We have to make sure we’re not ambushed.”
We stayed close as we ventured to the other side of the house. We might have even held hands like two schoolgirls confronting the boogeyman.
We kept the lights off, which only squeezed my nerves. The shadows seemed like such obvious places for people to hide. Darkness and criminals were natural conspirators.
I cautiously approached the back window. I could hardly breathe as I moved closer. I imagined that jack-in-the-box again, the one that had been winding up inside me. At any minute, I expected to startle when something popped out.
I leaned closer to the glass. Nothing jumping out. Not yet.
My dark backyard came into view. Nothing looked out of place. All the patio furniture was there. No figures lurked behind the maple tree or near the deck. Thank goodness.
But that still left Jamie and me stuck inside. That wasn’t going to work. We couldn’t just stay here and wait for these guys to attack.
“Any brilliant ideas?” Jamie whispered, stepping back and taking refuge against the wall.
I thought a moment, hoping for a flash of “eureka.” Praying for wisdom and brilliance. Settling on anything other than staying here and waiting to be a victim. Finally, I had an idea.
“We can take my mom’s car,” I said. “It’s parked in the garage, which leads out—”
“To the side street.” Jamie slowly bobbed her head up and down, as if my plan impressed her. “If we idle out of the driveway, there’s a chance they wouldn’t see us, based on where their van is situated.”
“Exactly!”
“I say it’s worth a try. We’ve got to ditch my van anyway. It’s obviously way too recognizable.”
“Let me grab my mom’s extra set of keys.” Mom always liked to rent cars when she went away on trips. That worked to my advantage right now. I couldn’t take my own car. The ’64½ Mustang drew attention wherever I went.
Thankfully, the extra set of keys was close—in a table by the back door. With a plan in place, I turned to Jamie. “Let’s do this.”
“Traveling mercies,” she muttered.
I hesitated a minute as my hand connected with the back door handle. This could either be clever or blow up in our faces. Best we could tell, those men weren’t in m
y backyard. They most likely assumed we were sleeping inside the house and totally unaware of their presence.
Their plan perplexed me. Were they going to tail us again in the morning? Break inside while we slept and kill us? I had no idea, and I didn’t want to find out.
Slowly, I twisted the handle and pulled the door open. The sound of crickets wafted to my ears, and I took the first step onto the patio.
My skin crawled as I glanced around. Everything appeared normal. My senses were heightened with anticipation and adrenaline.
Jamie stepped out behind me and carefully shut the door, making sure it locked. Like secret agents, we moved along the wall, behind the tree, along the edges of the pergola. Finally, we darted toward the detached garage.
Jamie was right—some Navy SEAL training could come in handy.
My hands trembled as I tried to insert the key into the garage lock. I finally managed to get it in and twist it to get the side door open. We wasted no time slipping inside and shut the door. Obstacle one: completed.
Darkness surrounded us. I sucked in another breath, praying that we were in here alone. That the men hadn’t spotted us. That they’d perhaps fallen asleep.
“We can’t risk turning on the light,” I whispered. “We’re going to have to feel our way to the car.”
I took my first step forward and banged my knee on something hard and sharp. Pain shot through me. “Owie!”
“Shhh,” Jamie said.
“It hurt,” I mumbled as my hand hit cool metal. “Here’s the car.”
I skirted around the trunk, past the back door, and found the driver’s side door. I manually unlocked the door, fearing the beep beep of the key fob would alert those men to our presence. The dome light inside offered just enough light for me to slip inside and unlock Jamie’s door.
I had to raise the garage door by hand. The electric opener would be too loud. My anxiety ratcheted to a whole new level at the thought of how many things could go wrong.
This was the point where I would figure out whether or not our plan would work.
Our lives depended on it working.
I gripped the handle, turned it, and slowly raised the floodgate.
Chapter Nine
The garage door slowly rolled open. The scene on the other side revealed itself inch by inch, like the opening act of a play. I held my breath, waiting to see if this particular production would be a serene drama or an intense action thriller.
Please, not a thriller. Please.
An empty street stared back. An apartment building backed up to the right side of my house, and an abundance of cars were always parked along the street. There were also a couple of trash cans—tomorrow was trash pickup day, I remembered. Too late to do anything about that now.
Everything was silent.
I let out the breath I held and started to run back to the car. I didn’t want to press my luck.
Just then something darted in front of me. My hand went over my heart as fear pulsed through me.
I nearly screamed, but by God’s grace I didn’t.
It was a cat. A cat.
I nearly laughed, except I didn’t want to draw attention to myself.
The critter scampered off, looking just as frightened as I’d felt.
With labored breaths, I ran back to the car and carefully closed the door. I put the car in neutral, and Jamie and I slowly pushed it out of the garage.
“I’ll close the door,” Jamie whispered once we cleared the building.
I nodded, my apprehension still getting the best of me. I craned my neck toward the front of my house. From where I was, I couldn’t see the van. But if they had men on the ground, then we’d be toast.
The garage door closed, and Jamie ran back to the car. We pushed it into the street and all the way to the corner—in the opposite direction of the van.
I didn’t dare crank the engine until we were a block away. I kept my eyes on the rearview mirror, waiting to see the van reappear. The street remained vacant.
I relaxed my shoulders and glanced at Jamie. “That was close.”
“More than close.”
I scanned the street as we crept farther and farther from my neighborhood, headed toward downtown. There were plenty of hotels in the area, but hotels required money, and money wasn’t something either Jamie or I had much of.
“I can call a friend from work or even Ralph or Alex.” Alex was my older sister who’d just gotten married. I really had no desire to spend time with the honeymooners, but I would if desperate. “Either of them would let us stay there.”
“We should keep other people out of this, as much as possible. Besides, Ralph and Alex would ask way too many questions. I have another idea.”
“What’s that?”
“We’re going to do what every person on the run has done at one time or another in their life in order to flee from danger. We’re going to take refuge at a church.”
* * *
The next morning, with a major kink in my neck, I managed to get myself cleaned up in the ladies’ restroom of Jamie’s church. Her dad was the interim music minister for the congregation, which met in an old strip mall in lower Price Hill, only minutes from the downtown area.
The church was small and poor, but it was full of life. I loved it there. However, the pews weren’t ideal when used as beds. That worked in favor of the preacher, but not in favor of a girl on the run.
After I dressed, I sat down on the end of the pew and waited for Jamie to wake up. I stared at the cross at the front of the building. It was a great reminder of what my perspective should be. Not myself. Not my own happiness. But loving Jesus. Loving others.
A year ago I would never have done any of this. I liked my peaceful little life. I’d been given an inaccurate diagnosis of a year to live, and my perspective had changed. I had no idea how much time I had left on this earth, and I wanted to make the most of each opportunity I was given. Since then, I’d started jumping in with both feet. I’d taken more risks. I loved harder. Made more mistakes. Danced in the rain.
In essence, I’d tried to seize each moment and live out all the pithy sayings that decorated people’s walls.
Jamie groaned on the other end of the bench, stirring from her sleep. As she sat up, she did a double take at me. “What an awful night,” she muttered, rubbing her eyes.
I sighed. “I know. Now it’s a new day and a new set of problems.”
“Hey, you’re the optimistic one here. None of that negative talk.”
I shook my head and smoothed the edges of my black shirt. “I thought about it all night, Jamie. I couldn’t sleep. I don’t think resuming normal life is an option right now. I think these guys are going to keep tracking us until they get what they want.”
She rubbed her eyes and paused midway through her yawn. “What do they want?”
“To silence us? I’m not sure. But I don’t really want to find out.”
“So we don’t resume normal life. What do we do?”
I sighed again. “I wish I could tell you. I suppose we need to find answers. We need to figure out who these guys are before they find us again.”
“Somehow Chase is connected with all of this. You do realize that. Right?”
“If only I could deny it.”
“But before you write him off completely, remember what happened to you not so long ago when that crazy man threatened you.”
I frowned at the memory. A man bent on revenge had threatened me, saying that I had to break up with Chase or he’d kill him. Also per his instructions, I couldn’t tell Chase what was going on. In the end, when the truth finally came out, Chase was upset, but thankfully we’d resolved things.
Jamie was right. I did need to give him the benefit of the doubt. Crazy things happened in life.
“I’m going to keep searching for answers,” I told my friend. “You don’t have to do this with me, Jamie. But I’m going to take the rest of the week off from work. I’m going back to Louisville, and
I’m going to figure this out.”
“Of course I’m with you, Holly. Friends through thick and thin, right?”
I smiled, thankful for Jamie. “Through thick and thin.”
“Through fat and skinny.”
“Through fat and skinny,” I agreed.
“Through black and white.”
“Through black and—how long are we going to do this?” I asked.
“I was going to see how long you’d last.” She sighed and stood. “First, I’ve got to stop by my house and get some clothes. And you’re making me want a sausage biscuit. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had a sausage biscuit?”
“How am I making you want a sausage biscuit?”
“Because my family used to always go through the drive-through and get a sausage biscuit when we left early in the morning for a trip. That’s why.”
“If I had more time, I’d try to whip up one made from almond flour and oat fiber just for you. But I don’t have any time.”
“You’d do that for me?”
“You know I would.”
“You see, that’s why we’re such a good team. I risk my life for you, and you would make me gluten-free goodies.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Sounds like an even trade.”
* * *
Three hours later, Jamie and I were back at the racetrack. I’d checked on the entire drive here for the Creeper Van, but I hadn’t seen it. Maybe we’d finally lost them. Thank goodness.
Jamie and I had already arranged to stay with one of Jamie’s friends who lived in the area—not far from the apartment complex where we’d seen Chase, for that matter. Jamie’s friend Magnolia apparently worked for the local paper, and since she was single, she had a lot of flexibility and two extra bedrooms. We might not have had any other plan, but at least we had a place to sleep.
I sighed and stared at the huge arena in front of me.
Truth was, my Friend Finder app didn’t show that Chase was here now. It showed he was in the middle of nowhere. Seriously. There was absolutely nothing around the area marked on the map where Chase was located, not even a street. It looked like he was wandering through the woods.
Random Acts of Malice (Holly Anna Paladin Mysteries Book 3) Page 6
