Page 49 of Walker

I snatched the paper from her and all the blood immediately drained from my face as I read it.

Pay up or your precious family dies. We’ll call with details on where to drop the money.

It didn’t say how much money. It didn’t give any pertinent details at all. That was it, but it was enough to not only gain my attention, but to freak me and my daughter out.

“Go pack a bag for you and your brother,” I said and then got on the phone and called my sister.

“I know you don’t have work tonight, so I’m not babysitting.” That was how my sister answered the phone.

“The kids and I need to come stay with you for a few days.”

“Why? Did you get kicked out of your house?”

“No, we didn’t. Someone left a note on my car.”

“And now you need to stay with me? Again, why?”

“The note threatened my family if I didn’t pay up.”

“Who the hell do you owe money?”

“No one, but Josh…”

“It’s been two freaking years. Don’t you think someone would have come after you before now, if it had to do with him?”

“What else could it be, Tillie?”

“Maybe that new, no-good biker boyfriend you got yourself.”

“It’s not him.”

“How the hell do you know that?” She shouted at me. “Look, I don’t want your trouble landing on my doorstep. I have enough problems with my husband, and he would flip his shit if he knew you came to stay because your lives were in danger.”

“Yeah, you got yourself a great man, Tillie. He’d rather let your sister, niece, and nephew die than to lift a finger to help out.”

“That’s not fair. I help you with babysitting. You’re asking us to take you in when someone wants to kill you. Anyone in their right mind would turn you away.”

“You know what, thanks for letting me know how you really feel. I won’t ever ask for another thing from you. In fact, I’ll lose your damn number altogether.”

“Maybe that’s for the best,” my sister mumbled into the line before she hung up on me. I couldn’t believe it.

“Maybe you should call Walker,” Ariel suggested, and I glanced back through watery eyes to see that she hadn’t gone upstairs to pack a bag yet.

“I told you to go pack a bag.”

“I came to ask where we were going.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I heard Aunt Tillie. She sucks.”

“Yeah, well, we can’t expect people to stick their necks out for us.”

“You’re supposed to be able to count on family. Her and her husband are cowards. Call Walker. I bet he takes us in.”

I had thought of him first and nixed the idea because he only had one room at the clubhouse with one bed in it. He didn’t even have a couch in his room that could be used as a second bed. Besides, the clubhouse sometimes had wild parties that were not a good environment for children to be around, especially not 15-year-old daughters who had already started to blossom into their womanly figures.

“Walker lives at the clubhouse. He can’t take us in either.”

“Oh. Well, I still think you should call him. Maybe he can come stay here with us.”

“Go keep an eye on your brother for me while I make this call.”

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