Page 10 of Caged Bird

I could practically hear the darkening of Eddie’s mood. “I asked you nicely.”

My temper got the better of me. “And I told you to go to hell. Rot there, Eddie. I hope it fucking hurts.” I slid my finger to the end call button, already mentally planning everything that would need to happen now. New phone. New IDs. Another move to another state. I cursed my brother mentally. I was happy here.I had a job I liked with men who were good people. Who had families and kids and normal lives I envied with every beat of my broken fucking heart.

“Check the little surveillance cameras on your house.”

I froze, my finger grazing the button but not pressing down on it. My hand shook. “Why?”

Except I already knew. I scrambled for my phone, sitting on the passenger seat, and frantically stabbed at the app I’d installed, along with cameras that covered every inch of my mother’s house.

It took too long to connect. But when it did, I scanned the feed quickly, searching for my mother. I found her on the footage from the kitchen. She sat at the table, eating a meal prepared for one. She cut dainty bites of whatever it was, putting each one into her mouth slowly, chewing thoroughly and then taking a sip of water to wash it all down.

Relief flooded me.

Until I noticed movement on another of the feeds.

“You see him yet?” Eddie asked. “My friend with the knife at the door?”

My blood ran cold as the masked man looked up into the camera, grinned, and brandished a long, steel knife that gleamed in the weak glow cast from the streetlights.

Another stood at the back door, holding an identical weapon.

Both mere feet from where my mother sat with her dinner, no idea of the danger she was in.

Blind fury mixed with fear coursed through my body. My heart beat too fast, my fingers ached from the punishing grip I held the phone with.

“They’ll stay outside, and Mommy will never even know they’re there. As long as you turn your pretty blue truck around and come pick me up.”

I swallowed down bile, knowing he had me exactly where he wanted me. He knew where we lived. What sort of truck I drove.

He knew everything.

I forced myself to speak. “Let me organize a caregiver for her first. She can’t be left alone too long.”

“You always were a Mommy’s boy, weren’t you? The old bitch is fine. And she’ll continue to be fine as long as you do as you’re fucking told.” He laughed again, the sound as evil as snakes slithering across my skin. “You don’t get to say no to me, Zane. You never did.”

3

ZANE

Idrove all night, following the directions Eddie had supplied, stopping only once for coffee at a truck stop in a town I’d never heard of. I grabbed my phone from the dashboard, the security camera surveillance playing in real time through the app. I’d kept one eye on the road and one eye on my mother, sleeping in her bed, the entire night.

Eddie had held up his part of the bargain, and his goons had stayed at a distance, lingering outside with their knives.

But they hadn’t left.

And so I’d driven until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer.

The truck stop had a café with cracked leather booths, and I sank into one wearily, my eyes so glued to the screen I didn’t even notice the waitress arrive to take my order until she cleared her throat. I finally looked up, shifting the phone beneath the table and away from the waitress’s prying eyes.

Her expression said she’d already noticed what was on my screen, though, and she gave me a leery look, which I couldn’t even blame her for, because in any other situation, watching a woman sleep through a surveillance camera was creepy as fuck.

Something Eddie would have done for fun.

I felt compelled to explain I wasn’t some sort of creeper or stalker, but what was the point?

“Coffee. Strong. Please. To go.” After working all day, and driving all night, I was too tired to contemplate putting words into full sentences.

“No problem. Sugar?”

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