Page 95 of Talk Birdie to Me

“Look, he’s talking,” James said. “Keep him like that.”

“I can’t. He’s too heavy.” Then, to Gary, she said, “Go on. It’s safe.”

She stopped short of promising. He probably wouldn’t understand a word of what she was saying anyway, but Geena still couldn’t make a promise she wasn’t sure she could keep.

Thankfully, Gary took one step, then another, onto the top of the cage. He was at eye level now, so she smiled at him and told him what a good boy he was.

More importantly, he was away from the door.

She hadn’t seen Cody’s head in the window again, so she had to assume that creak was him on the porch. Getting Gary away from the doorway had been her first priority.

Now it was time for the next one.

With Gary’s weight gone, Geena grasped the wooden perch tightly in both hands and counted backwards from five, steadying herself. She’d considered stabbing James in the eye with the screw on one end, but she didn’t think she could follow through on something like that. And whatever she did, she’d have to fully commit to it. So it was time for plan B.

Another creak sounded from closer inside the house. This time, James wasn’t fooled.

“That’s not the wind,” he said, spinning slightly sideways to look at the door.

That was her break.

Geena swirled around with the perch above her head. Then, with all of her strength, she brought it down, crashing into his wrists.

25

Aman’s voice shouted at the same time a gunshot rang out from the bedroom.

Cody cleared the hallway in two giant steps. He hadn’t wanted to barge in without seeing what was going on or if Gary was still above the door, but he wasn’t waiting any longer.

He swung open the door to see the man from the parking lot cradling one arm against his body. Geena stood over him, holding what looked like a birdcage perch menacingly in front of her, daring the man to move.

The gun was on the floor, a few feet from both of them, so Cody rushed in and grabbed it. He then aimed it at Geena and Gary’s captor, before turning his head to Geena. “You okay?”

She nodded, still holding the perch with both hands.

“And Gary?”

“Rat bastard!”

Gary bobbed his head up and down from his position on top of the small cage.

“That’s right,” Geena told him.

“The gunshot?”

Geena aimed the perch like a pointer behind him, and Cody spared a glance to see a bullet-sized hole in the wall.

His shoulders lowered in relief, but he quickly returned his full attention to the man in front of them. It was definitely the guy who had dropped off Gary at the zoo. He looked simultaneously pained and panicked as he held his arm—the one Geena must have hit with that perch—against his body.

“Nice move,” Cody said to her.

“Thanks.” She glared at the man. “I wasn’t about to let him hurt Gary.”

Cody aimed the gun at the man’s feet. He didn’t want him to have any leverage to lunge at either of them.

“Down,” he said. “On your knees.”

The man did as ordered, still groaning in pain and holding the wrist Geena must have whacked. Cody hoped she broke it. It was the least this man deserved.