Page 29 of Forced Proximity
When he still didn’t stop screaming, I popped the bottle into his mouth, and he instantly quieted.
“That’ll work for a couple of hours,” he said. “But eventually, we’re going to need more than that.”
I knew that.
It was fucking scary to think about, too.
“Do you think they have a hard-wired phone line?” I asked as I walked around downstairs, checking everything.
“Check the kitchen,” he murmured as he did something on the iPad. “I’m in. Gonna search for a Wi-Fi signal.”
I didn’t bother to ask him how he’d gotten into a locked iPad so fast. I was just happy as fuck that he did.
I went into the kitchen and turned on the light, gasping when I saw water pouring in through a shattered window. “Whoa.”
“What is it?” he called.
“Lots of water in their kitchen,” I said. “No phone, though.”
“They have a Wi-Fi signal,” he said. “I’m contacting some people now.”
“Can you call 911 from an iPad?” I wondered.
“No,” he said. “But I’ll message someone who can.”
I got to the next room, what looked like an office of some kind, and gasped. “A phone!”
He showed up, heading straight for it. “Good. This’ll be faster.”
He picked it up, listened for a dial tone, and dialed 911.
He cursed and hung up. “It has a busy signal.”
I blinked. “Is that even possible?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Phone signal is likely to be out when you have a natural disaster like this. It could’ve easily taken out transmission lines across the area.”
“Plan B?” I asked.
“That friend that I was talking about earlier.” He paused. “My club president is already writing back.”
I let out a sigh of relief. “Can you tell where we are?”
He paused and did a couple of things on the iPad before saying, “Arkansas.”
“Kind of close to home,” I admitted.
The baby spit the bottle out and started to squirm.
“Burp him,” my male companion ordered.
I did as he suggested, but apparently didn’t do it good enough because the child was taken from my arms. “He won’t break.”
I watched as he transferred the baby to his shoulder and burped him expertly.
Just like he’d done everything else that pertained to the little boy.
Yeah, the man had definitely been a father once upon a time.
