by Connor Mccoy
Well something is indeed wrong with a door, but I didn’t expect it to be a rusted latch.
He pulled out one of his lock picks. “Doms, do you have any oil on you? A liquid spray, anything?”
“Give me a moment.”
Jacob waited as Domino searched herself, which in this tight space could not have been easy.
Doms, I hope you can pull off a miracle. I might be able to scrape some of this rust loose, but without lubricant I can’t say for sure.
“Found something!” Domino passed the small bottle to Jacob. “It’s some bug spray.”
“I think it can work.” Jacob grabbed the rusted latch and mentally calculated where to aim and spray. “Okay, here goes.”
He sprayed the latch. Jacob coughed. The smell was pungent this close up. He fished the pick between the rod and the latch and started scraping.
This is one crazy night. I’m under my own house trying to pick a rusted lock with a bottle of bug spray.
He almost laughed if he didn’t remember that the sun was approaching, and the more time he spent down here was less time inside his house plotting his next move to take it back.
Chapter Ten
Jacob squirted the bottle’s contents again. He worried about emptying it, but time was growing short and he had no time to be too cautious with his work. After his latest squeeze on the trigger, he fished the pick back into the latch and continued prying at it.
“Damn this thing. I know I felt it move. Don’t you dare play tricks on me, you bitch. You moved. You’re going to move the rest of the way,” he muttered at the uncooperative lock.
Behind him, Domino gasped.
Jacob stopped. “What’s wrong?”
“Something in here tickled me.” Domino kicked up her leg. “It’s probably a cockroach or a spider.”
Exhaling loudly, Jacob resumed his work. The thought of insects and arachnids did not bother him, though he hoped they didn’t run across something that was poisonous. To come all this way just to get poisoned by a spider. What an ill-fated way to go.
His latest spray had done the trick. The latch budged another few inches. “Almost there.” Gritting his teeth, he pushed on the latch with all of his strength. It slid a little more. “Come on…”
The latch progressed almost fully out of the hole, but it stopped before it could slide all the way through. Unfortunately, there was no more latch to push on. Jacob had to pull on it from the other side to get it all the way through.
He gave it a shot, but he simply couldn’t exert the strength by pushing. If he could push it, he could give it the needed burst to clear the hole.
“I come this far.” Jacob fingered the pick in his hand. “Okay, I can’t push on it, but maybe I could hit it.” He fitted the end of the pick against the latch. “Yeah, I can use the pick like a punch. But I need something to hit it with. Doms, do you have anything heavy I can use to hit this?”
“You do. Your gun, Silly. Use that.”
Jacob reached down for his belt. “You’re right, although I might damage it. Even if I take the magazine out, striking it that hard might foul up something, maybe the chamber…” He suddenly groaned.
“What is it?” Domino asked.
“I just thought of something. I could have blown off the lock with my gun all along.”
Domino laughed. “That’s true. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.”
“You didn’t think of that? I’m supposed to be the fearless leader and I can’t think of something so basic?” He raised his gun to the latch, but stopped. “Although, I don’t like the idea of shooting at this thing so close. The bullet could ricochet, or a piece of the lock could blow off and hit us.”
“We can’t avoid risk, Jay. The sun’s coming up soon. Can we make this idea work?”
Jacob quickly ran through several ideas to make shooting the latch safer. Yes, they could do this.
“Back up a little and put your hands over your head,” Jacob said, “I’ll duck down as far away as I can.”
Jacob waited until Domino gave the okay. From there, Jacob flattened himself onto the ground while keeping his gun aimed at the latch. He mentally calculated the likelihood that his shot would dislodge the latch and blast the debris outward, so it would not hit him or Domino.
He was ready.
He put his head down and covered it with his free arm while keeping his gun aimed at the latch. After sucking in a deep breath, he pulled the trigger.
The bang was loud, though Jacob took care to cover his ears with his arm, so the jolt wasn’t too bad. Still, he wondered if the shot would awaken anyone in the house. He had forgotten about that possibility. Even so, perhaps the noise would be muffled by the layer of concrete above their heads, or Wickers and Boss might think the noise was the house settling, nothing that would alarm them.
With the shot fired, Jacob raised his head and reached up to the latch. He felt the metal lock now separated from the metal sheet. He ran his finger up the gap between the panel and the rest of the metal.
The latch wasn’t there.
His shot had blown the latch clear of the metal. With the latch unlocked, Jacob was free to slide the metal loose.
“It worked!” Jacob pushed up on the metal. “Okay, it’s coming open.”
With a little more shifting, Jacob worked the metal sheet loose from the overall frame. He allowed the metal to drop down and expose the secret door. Now it was just a matter of unlocking it with one of his keys.
“Thank God,” Domino said, “For a moment, I thought we might be in a real jam.”
Jacob finished unlocking the door. “Remind me to get one hell of a lubricant for this door latch when we’ve finished taking back our house.”
“And a whole new latch,” Domino added as Jacob pushed up the door, exposing the den’s storage closet above.
Jacob reached up into the space. “Alright. Wait until I get all the way up. I’ll pull you in.”
Domino held onto Jacob’s arms tightly as he fished her through the passageway into the closet. “Thanks.” She fell back against the wall. “Now I know what a canned sardine feels like.”
Jacob raised the door back up. “I swear the roaches down there were laughing at us.”
Domino chuckled. “You’re sounding like Brandon. It’s something he would say.”
Jacob put a finger to his lips. Domino quieted. The two of them were back in their home, but it wasn’t truly their home yet. They still had to evict the four intruders sleeping in their beds.
They successfully had climbed up into the den’s storage closet, which only afforded several inches of room, with the two of them and some cardboard boxes and a trunk occupying the rest of the space.
Jacob shut the secret door as quietly as he could. After fastening it back in place, he put his ear to the closet door. He detected no sounds.
“They’re probably still out for the night.” The den, if its door remained open, was a pretty good place to hear the sounds of the house. If Wickers or Boss or anyone else was up, the two Averys in the closet could hear them.
“You still want to wait in here?” Domino asked.
“For the moment. The sun’s got to be rising. If they want to get in a good day’s work, they have to be rising about now.”
Courtney’s eyes opened. To her great surprise, she had slept like a log. Maybe because for the first time since the electricity had gone out, she had slumbered in a soft bed.
She pulled off the light sheet. The circulating air flowing through the open window kept the room’s temperature tolerable. She wondered if she was getting used to the lack of air conditioning. The first few nights spent in stagnant air had been unbearable.
Rolling to the edge of the bed, Courtney pushed her hair out of her face. The sun was still mostly below the horizon, but the sky clearly was lighting up. Courtney knew she would have to start some kind of chores very soon. Boss and Wickers would give her the lowdown.
Work. God, I don’t want to we
ar my normal clothes. This farm’s got to have some working clothes.
Unfortunately, a search of Jubilee’s closet and dresser yielded the same result—all the clothes were too small for her.
Now what was she going to do? The couple who owned this house did not have any other girls. What did that leave her?
She grimaced. It seemed like her only option, but she had to go along with it.
Boss and Wickers looked her over. Rubbing his chin, Wickers tried to force a smile. “I think it…it works. Terri, you think so, right?”
Boss just smiled with even less sincerity than her partner.
Courtney had come in a short time ago asking for clothes from the Averys’ closet, believing some of them might be big enough for her. One of the button-up shirts belonging to the Avery wife fit Courtney, if a little bunched up at the wrists. But none of Domino Avery’s pants fit the bill.
So, Courtney had to don a pair of Mister Avery’s overalls instead. At least Courtney could get them on. However, they were also loose enough that Wickers had to tie a belt around Courtney and tie it the tightest it could go. The long pant legs were also a major pain. Wickers and Boss had to cuff them high just to expose Courtney’s feet so she could put on some work boots.
“I look like shit,” Courtney said flatly.
Wickers cast a look at the closet behind them. “I’m sure we’ll find some better clothes for you soon enough. There might be some in the attic.” Boss added another smile as Wicker spoke.
Courtney looked down at herself, her expression remaining as dour as it had been.
Wickers quickly looked at Boss. “How about we start breakfast? I think we’ll all do better once we get something in our systems.”
Courtney turned toward the bedroom door. However, as she took her first step, her boot caught in the floor and she fell down.
“Ow!” Courtney cried.
Boss shook her head. “Dear Lord.” She reached down and hoisted Courtney to her feet. “Are you sure these are the best boots we could find?”
Wickers shrugged. He didn’t want to think about spending time looking for better footwear. Courtney was in adequate shape to handle the day’s tasks. “We’ll just have Courtney tend to canning duties for the morning. She won’t have to walk around a lot.”
“Great. I get to fall onto my ass, what, just four or five more times?” Courtney asked as she took another, slower step. This time she completed the step successfully. The boot made a loud clomping sound as it hit the floor.
Courtney was walking, though not very fast. Boss, her pleasant façade trying to keep from busting out laughing, circled around Courtney and fled into the hall ahead of her.
Jacob and Domino kept perfectly still as they listened to the conversation coming down the hall and into the den. It was hard to make it out fully. It sounded as though that couple was trying to find clothes for Courtney from the Averys’ closet. The results sounded mixed. Then, Jacob and Domino overheard Courtney say, “Great. I get to fall onto my ass, what, just four or five more times?”
From there, there was nothing but the sound of clomps in the hallway. Courtney must be leaving their room, though not very easily.
“What do you think?” Domino asked in a whisper, “They’re in our room. We could catch them there, hold them. That just leaves Arnie.”
“They might have weapons in there. Hell, they may have found ours by now,” Jacob replied no less quietly, “No, let’s wait until they go outside.”
Voices picked up again. It was that couple. “I tell you, it’s hard to not go out of my mind around her,” Boss said. “And for crying out loud, if Sykes had to give us a girl, couldn’t he have given us one that was a little, you know, fit? Not so chunky around the hips?”
“I know, I know,” Wickers replied. “Just bear with it a little longer. Remember, we’re not putting up with this arrangement for too much longer.”
“Right. Just deal with it.” Boss inhaled deeply.
Their conversation ceased. Jacob and Domino looked at each other. “Well, those two sound pleasant,” Jacob said.
“God, that woman sounds horrible.” Domino widened her eyes. “Did she call Courtney chunky? I never would say that about a child. And what’s this about not putting up with their arrangement?”
Jacob made a fist. He couldn’t say, but it didn’t sound pleasant. What did these two have planned for Courtney and Arnie?
Before Jacob could ponder it any further, the voices picked up again. “Hey, you should get Arnie up and to the table,” Boss said.
Jacob and Domino returned their attention to the door. Now Arnie Lerner was about to emerge. That meant all four of them would be in the kitchen.
“That might not be a bad idea,” Jacob whispered. “If they’re all in there, we could show up, take them by surprise, pin them in there.” He chuckled. “You think they’d be expecting an ambush while they’re having scrambled eggs and toast?”
Domino laughed softly. “Probably not.”
The floor creaked through the door. “He’s awake,” Jacob said.
“Pancakes?” Arnie asked.
“Sorry, not today,” Wickers said. “But Terri does make fantastic grits. I’m sure you’re going to love them.”
“Oh.” Arnie’s disappointment was so childlike that it seemed strange to come from the mouth of that tall lumbering man. Sykes and Courtney had mentioned that he was mentally challenged.
If he’s no better than a child, how’s he going to react when Doms and I have to pull guns on his so-called parents? Jacob’s frown deepened. This situation seemed messier than ever. Maybe they should confront Arnie alone? But wouldn’t the man just scream for help upon being confronted by strangers?
And what if Arnie attacked them? A fully-grown man with big muscles could do a lot of damage, and if he didn’t understand not to challenge an adult holding a gun on him, he or Domino might have to take action to stop him.
Action that could kill him.
Terri Boss threw her head back with a sigh. “Coffee.” She put the cup to her lips and sipped the precious liquid. This was her bright spot to the morning, no doubt about it.
In the dining room, Courtney was busy chomping away at her meal. At least the food kept her quiet. Perhaps if Boss could start her off canning, Boss might be rid of her for most of the day.
Guy, how the hell did we end up in this fix? She loved Guy Wickers. Hell, after the plug was pulled on everything, Guy was the only thing worth loving. He was a smart man, but sometimes he ended up in over his head. Hooking up with Jimmy Sykes seemed like the right move at the time. They had no other options.
She drank some more coffee. Boss had no ambitions for a family, not since she had been forced to take care of her twelve-year-old niece when her sister went bankrupt. She detested her niece. The feeling was mutual. The two couldn’t stand each other. Somehow, Boss made it through three more years before she finally ditched her niece and ran off with Guy.
Almost two months ago. I wonder how she’s doing without her phone to bury herself in. She smiled.
As she raised the cup to her lips, Arnie Lerner passed by the open door to the kitchen from the hallway.
He stopped, his eyes suddenly widening.
Boss put the cup down. Arnie looked frightened for a moment, but then a blaze of fire lit up in his eyes. It was like something had set him off.
Then he screamed.
“Coffee!”
Chapter Eleven
Boss backed up a step as Arnie’s voice grew louder, his body quivering with each shout. “Coffee! Coffee! Coffee!”
“What’s wrong? What are you yelling for?” Boss shouted.
“No! No shout! No shout at me!” Arnie screamed, suddenly crossing the threshold from the hall and running toward her.
Boss was so startled that she dropped the coffee cup. It shattered on the floor, spilling its contents.
The coffee spill seemed to freak out Arnie even more. Screaming, he stomped on the liquid as
if it was a hated insect. His boots kicked up some of the cup’s shards. One of them nearly struck Boss in the leg, instead bouncing off a nearby cupboard door.
“Stop it!” Boss ran through the door to the dining room, to the table where Courtney was seated. “What the hell is wrong with you, Arnie? Are you crazy?”
Arnie, who was still in the kitchen, raised his arms high and let out a roar.
Courtney, still seated, eyed Arnie in the kitchen. For a change, she wasn’t wearing a snarky expression and seemed a little uneasy. Even Arnie’s rampage was concerning her.
She’s been around this guy, Boss thought. “Courtney, what’s his deal? What the hell is wrong with him?”
“Your coffee,” the teen said, “he hates it. Don’t you remember what Sykes said?”
Boss struggled to remember. She hated to think about Sykes any more than she had to. Did he say something about coffee? Damn, what did Sykes say?
Arnie kept stomping the floor, accompanied by shouts. He wasn’t stopping. Boss looked to the hall doorway. It was just a few steps away. Could she flee through the hall? But the corridor also opened up into the kitchen. What would Arnie do when she passed by? Would the hulking brute pursue her?
“Unreal,” she whispered, “I can’t believe this is happening.”
Arnie then took things up a notch by sticking his head out the doorway and into the dining room. His eyes were bugging out. Boss shivered. There was darkness in his eyes, maybe even murder.
Courtney rose from her seat. “Yeah, you might want to get him to take a chill pill.” She slipped around behind Boss.
Panic flowed through Boss’s veins. “Guy! Guy! Get your ass out here, right now!”
Jacob tilted his head up to look at Domino. The pair had been listening through the door. “What’s going on?” Domino asked. “All I heard was ‘coffee’ over and over and some shouting.”
