Page 50 of Out of Sight

“Claire! Can you hear me?” I snapped my attention back to Will. He looked so scared.

“I’m okay,” I tried to say, but my voice was raw, my ears ringing. I cleared my throat and tried again. “I’m fine. Are you-”

“Will! Claire!” Jim’s voice sounded far away, but it was a miracle to hear it at all.

“Kitchen!” Will called back, flinching as he took my arm to help me stand. Was he hurt?

Jim staggered through what used to be a doorway, clutching an open wound on his forehead. Even more worrying, blood was leaking out of his left ear. I gasped in horror, then again at the pain I felt when I reached out to him. Was something broken?

“Let’s go!” Jim shouted, shoving half of a kitchen chair out of his way as he headed for the back door. I only noticed the smoke as it escaped out the back along with us. The house was on fire.

Will pushed me out of the door in front of him, then kept an arm around my back as Jim rushed us to the driveway on the side of the house where his car waited.

He threw open the back door on his way to the front, letting us pile in as he fell into the front seat. Jim took a three second breather while Will hauled the back door closed behind us, then revved the engine, peeling out of the driveway much like Will had earlier, gravel flying behind us.

“Someone wanna tell me what the hell is going on?” he demanded a second time.

“Antonio Conti is in Darling Cascades,” Will explained. “He just attacked us in the town bookshop.”

“A bookshop, Will? You got us found to go to a fucking bookstore?!”

I’d never heard Jim that angry before and I couldn’t blame him. As the fog cleared from my head I remembered exactly how enraged I was at Will myself.

But then Jim took a deep breath. “Sorry. It’s not entirely your fault.”

“It isn’t?” I asked incredulously. How the hell was it not?

“No. I never should have been leaving you guys so often and for so long. Besides… How the hell did they know we were all the way up here? It’s not your fault he found you, but I am still pissed that you gave him an opportunity to hurt you.” He sounded like a parent:I’m not angry, just disappointed.“But we have to figure out how they keep finding us.”

“You’ve got a mole,” I realized, a headache beginning to form. I could feel my head pulsating. “Someone in the US Marshalls office must be feeding information to the Morellis.”

“Then why did they wait so long to get to us in Darling Cascades?” Will pondered aloud. “And how did they know to wait for us to be without Jim in that exact bookshop and for everyone to be out of the house long enough to plant the bomb?”

“Hmm.” Jim had something to say, but clearly didn’t want to voice it. “All very good points. Open up that center console back there. There should be a first aid kit within reach in the trunk.”

I pulled the little tab on the backrest of the middle seat and it pulled the whole backing forward. In theory it created a little console with cupholders resting between Will and I, but I ignored that part of it and slipped my uninjured arm through the opening into trunk space until I felt a small plastic case.Bringing it back into the cab with me, I confirmed it was the first aid kit Jim wanted.

I passed him a square of gauze with some tape attached to put on his forehead, covering up with open wound. Will had already pulled out a couple butterfly bandages, telling me to hold still while he cleaned my wound and applied the closures to keep the cut on my forehead from opening up again.

So much for everything being so perfect today. I thought things were finally going right for me, but then reality just had to hit. Again.

After a few minutes of awkwardness, Jim spoke again. “Nice car you all had there. Practicing your grand theft auto skills?”

His words reminded me that Will wasn’t some dream gentleman. He wasn’t a reformed criminal, but an active one. We weren’t safe, and the Morellis would just keep finding us no matter how far we ran.

“I’m sorry,” I murmured. “It was Will’s idea.”

Will whipped his head around to look at me, mouth dropping open.

“It was a damn good idea,” Jim grunted out. “You did what was needed to make it out. Were you followed?”

“I don’t think so,” Will answered, “but I can’t be sure. I didn’t see anybody, not even Antonio after we got out.”

“Good. I already had emergency kits ready in the trunk, so we should be good to go off grid for a bit while we figure out how they keep finding you.”

“Off grid?” I didn’t like the sound of that.

“Camping,” Jim confirmed. “There’s a campground not far from here that’s usually pretty empty this time of year.”

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